Every time i think about logging in ...

[Cmdr Esteban]

Every time I think about logging in... I think of my one single only ship kitted out just the way I want it with the engineering I need, and thank my lucky stars that I’m not one of those obsessive “must-have-everything-now” fleet owners/micro-managers. And I continue logging in and just get out there and do what I do best

 

[S~P]

I found what made the engineer grind easier was to cut it into small parts, don't try to engineer everything in one go. I've just got a T9 and boy does it need some engineer love. First step was the FSD and thrusters, next I did the turret burst lasers and Power Distributor and the next step is the shield and SBs. I will then do the seeker missile launchers and hull etc. But it's important to take a break in between the engineer grind otherwise you will go crazy.

 

[WinterKing2112]

How about making the slog through naval ranks actually fun? What about the self imposed torture that is Power Play and its attached weapons? Why not make that fun? How about the CQC permit for Atilla Hub? Why not make CQC fun?

Grind is when you repeatedly do an activity because you have to. Not because it is fun, but because it is necessary to achieve a set goal.

I actually enjoy running missions, though I also do some mining to make obscene amounts of credits, and the occasional bounty hunting foray just to shoot at npc's. Just taken up exploring too, that's fun. Mix it up a bit, seems to work for me

 

[zarrazee]

In the meantime, i havent played any stellaris or galciv 2 in a while.

I've got into X4 whilst I wait for Elite: DLC About 250 hours in now and loving it now I'm over that vertical learning curve.

 

[Schmack]

OP - Too bad you didn't get that same feeling before logging in here eh?

 

[DDastardly00]

Thanks Op, I needed my daily fill of those quitting the game or those not playing because of 'X' reason, I was even starting to suffer from withdrawals, but you are right about the engineering grind, it's no joke.

I resurrected my poor neglected Anaconda and took it to Jameson where I sold off most of my legacy modules, stripped it down and started the rebuild. Then did some remote engineering, DD grade 5, Plasma Accelerators also grade 5, then the FSD, Shield generator and some of the other weapons. Then I sadly realized that I'm still out of Improvised Components, Polymer Capacities and now I'm also out of Configurable components too. I sense a weekend of Mat grinding ahead.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

My tactic was unlock one or two at a time (no more), bookmark what is most useful and do something else that relied on naturally picking up materials. Fair to say I've done some bad things at anarchy nav beacons. Raws were a pain though, no way round that. A beer for whoever thought of needle crystals.

Really though, even with just the first tier engineers you've got a pretty effective ship against NPCs.

 

[Enderby]

Everything in moderation.

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

I'm sure Frontier will eliminate all effort (and gameplay) to hand you everything on a plate right from the start...

Give us a few ideas how you'd eliminate the 'grind'... I'm all ears.

I'll hardly describe googling for finding stuff and getting a fetch list from Inara "gameplay". Even the flavour text is completely uninspired.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Pretty much. When your equipment turns out overnight to be mere peashooters it just isn't fun anymore.

 

[Jukelo]

How about making the slog through naval ranks actually fun? What about the self imposed torture that is Power Play and its attached weapons? Why not make that fun? How about the CQC permit for Atilla Hub? Why not make CQC fun?

Grind is when you repeatedly do an activity because you have to. Not because it is fun, but because it is necessary to achieve a set goal.

It's a video game, YOU set your own goals according to what you find fun. If you don't find something fun, don't do it. You don't need the reward you would unlock at the end anyway, especially not in a game like ED where everything is meant to be so hopelessly optional.
And since everybody has a different idea of what is fun, it's best to try and be exhaustive in describing what it is you would want the devs to change.

 

[CoyoteXStarrk]

When people refer to the engineer "grind" what are they talking about specifically?

Is it the materials? Or is it unlocking the engineers?

 

[Brrokk]

I thought of the engineer unlocking as NPCs offering missions, like the "epic quest line" in other MMOs, and did those things when I felt like it. I guess that that's where FD got the idea so my way was probably the intended one. As for materials, I still maintain that if you pick things up whenever you come across them and make use of traders, you won't be able to stop your storage filling up.

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

So here is the "epic" quest line for Qwent, the mysterious engineer in the Syrius system.

After being a corporate biatch and working as a salary man and errant boy for Sirius corp, taking your classic boom mission fetch quest to the ad nauseam level and working nearly for free to get your rep up, you finally have the licence key for the permit restricted Syrius authentification app you cant uninstall from your FSD.

You jump for the first time in the system of the morning star, and scan left and right, but there is no Qwent. It's still kept secret. You have first to board on any station to find one of his many cousins, who will tell you automatically where the secret base is.

Once at the base, Qwent's automated systems receive you as the true friend of the corporation you are, having waged war, supplied obscure remote stations and donated so much to the cause. But the guy himself wont talk to you unless you brought 25 modular terminals. Those are rare and obsolete CRT screens from the future you may eventually find on aged ships still relying to VGA and audio jacks for data display.

Turns out, after getting information from a fourth wall breaking google search, they're just worth 2000 Cr each, and have a chance to be obtained from hipster retrogamer collectors, but they wont depart from them unless their station is on fire.

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

Seriously. What a ing disgrace of grind design.

 

[MoonRacer]

When people refer to the engineer "grind" what are they talking about specifically?

Is it the materials? Or is it unlocking the engineers?

Both. See above, unlocking (I hate this word) Marco Gwent. Getting friendly with Sirius - no problem, and not a grind IMHO. Just playing the game. But the Modular Terminals...

Also - I did not really 'grind' for materials, I just entered USS as I found them, drove around on planets, and so on. I have now 4233 materials (raw, manufactured) and 825 data. Sounds good? Not really...
There is no real variation in the materials you can find, which results in 'Common', 'Very Common' and 'Standard' materials I never have seen once! I am nearly full (96/100) in Core Dynamics Composites and other 'Rare' materials. And still lack a lot of 'Common' and 'Very Common', which I never have seen in the game. Normally in a game one would speak of a 'loaded dice'.

So - even if I want to do grade 1-3 engineering only, I still often find, that I never even saw a certain material. The choice is, to look for it, using a lot of external sources, and then grinding for the stuff. Because looking into USS, landing on planets and so on is fun and part of the game. But looking for something special, which despite the 'Common' qualifier cannot be found (think of Arsenic, for example), that is grind. And more often than not I either loose motivation completely or I just think of impolite ways what Frontier can do with the feature I cannot have...

The grind walls in this game are intentionally erected by Frontier, and instead of adding real game content they bother us with random spawning materials, where the random methods are not even balanced and for long stretches of time give skewed results, with 'Very Rares' coming plentiful and 'Very Common' not obtainable.

Take the Guardian modules/weapons/Fighters. I only have all the modules and do not need the other things. But flying out to the planet with the Guardian structure was fun, and playing the game. Solving the puzzle - well it could have done better, but after 3 failures (nothing fatal, timeouts) the next 6 runs went without problems and in the end were gaming fun. Guardian Data materials are not problem too, there are Ancient Ruins sites on the same planet. And now I can buy the modules in Outfitting. This is clearly no grind, it cost me a week or so, but it was playing the game.

I already mentioned it: I tend to avoid most of the engineering. This has severe disadvantages in the long run. But I will not jump through hoops or squander my hard earned 'Rares' with the material traders just to get things, which being 'Very Common' should be found easily.

The grind in this game is intentional and - sorry to say that - a sign of missing creativity and ideas...

 

[DNA-Decay]

Too grindy as well? I feel for you bro'

Anyway, having engineered two new ships today (Stealth Mamba and Beef DBX) I think I'll do something else - lots to be getting on with

What’s a Beef DBX?

Is it like a Henway?

 

[Jack Schitt]

Every time I think about logging into Dangerous Discussion...

...I do, and the front page is full of threads like this that I have to grind through to find the meaningful discussion. I guess we all have our cross to bear.

 

[EUS]

Did someone say Magnum?

 

[Vardaugas]

Every time I think about logging into Dangerous Discussion...

...I do, and the front page is full of threads like this that I have to grind through to find the meaningful discussion. I guess we all have our cross to bear.

Better to bear a cross than to cross a bear.