Fdev, can we lessen the engineering grind just a tad?

[Threeofseven]

Right now the Odyssey engineering grind is unreal. It would take a casual gamer months to years to upgrade all their suits and weapons. Grind isn’t gameplay, we don’t like it, we don’t want it and it’s a negative aspect of the game that has lead many to flat out stop playingand potential players to not buy the game.

A good way to lessen the grind would be to make data, and even items, collected count x3 like it does in Horizons. An even better fix would be to allow us to simply purchase most upgrades, such as weapon attachments.

 

[Frop]

A delightfully novel idea. You'll be getting a thumbs up as soon as they add emotes.

 

[MacIntoc]

An even better fix would be to allow us to simply purchase most upgrades, such as weapon attachments.

The ship upgrade model is very good and could easily have been adapted to the equipment and weapons.

 

[CMDR Bausell]

The ship upgrade model is very good and could easily have been adapted to the equipment and weapons.

Scanning the beacons at the Jameson Crash Site, relogging, and doing it over and over again before making two jumps to the nearest data trader so you can swap out for a few G5’s of another data tree then come back and do it AGAIN is… less than engaging gameplay.

 

[Ingram]

Shhhh, actually in 1 month I can max all of them : P

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-great-grind-of-odyssey-gears.588202

I think at least dev put some idea that allowing fast grinding. As soon as you figure them out, building relationship with the station power, find the POIs then can grind really fast. The regular time to max out a weapon from G3 to G5 and 4 mod slots usually around 3 days of casual playing (<=5hrs).

 

[ImmerseMe]

Grinding IS gameplay. WE do like it. We DO want it. It is a positive aspect which has retained large portions of the sim crowd.

 

[here_it_comes]

Fdev, can we lessen the engineering grind just a tad?

That would expose the lack of content. If you didn't have suits/weapons to upgrade, what would you be doing in EDO? Scanning a few plants?

 

[VR Golgot]

That would expose the lack of content. If you didn't have suits/weapons to upgrade, what would you be doing in EDO? Scanning a few plants?

The thing is, the ship outfitting & engineering became gameplay in their own right in the end. If weapons & suits:

• Allowed module swapping to encourage noob thriftiness & then veteran experimentation
• Had a broader spread of base models & engineering tweaks
• And had their grind walls significantly lowered, as happened with ships

Messing around with different load outs, even amongst familiar scenarios, could be fun in its own right…

 

[ꝁestrel]

The thing is, the ship outfitting & engineering became gameplay in their own right in the end. If weapons & suits:

• Allowed module swapping to encourage noob thriftiness & then veteran experimentation
• Had a broader spread of base models & engineering tweaks
• And had their grind walls significantly lowered, as happened with ships

Messing around with different load outs, even amongst familiar scenarios, could be fun in its own right…

I think that's the point though. There isn't enough content to play around with loadouts. If you're not into pew-pew inside of stations, there's not much else to do than to scan plants. And if you are into pew-pew, adding more combat mechanics isn't going to be that interesting unless the ground combat missions get far far far more interesting.

 

[DøømHåmstër]

I think what annoys me the most is that activities like exobiology and on foot combat zones don't reward you any of the materials needed to upgrade weapons and gear. You actually have to stop doing those activities to get better items for doing those activities. This isn't such a big deal for exobiology since there really isn't much of an advantage to be had in upgrading your gear for that (a bit more mobility and QoL but that's it) but on foot CZs really benefit from upgraded gear.

I think I posted something along this line before but I'd love to see a material reward system where you are rewarded at the end of each CZ, based upon your participation, with mats and data that are specifically useful to combat gear upgrades. So maybe, each time you kill someone (or assist), you are awarded a certain number of goods/assets at the end of the CZ and maybe for each x number of seconds you are involved in capturing a control point you are awarded a data material at the end of the CZ. Items would be delivered directly to ship storage so you don't have to worry about not having space. This would also prevent disruption in the flow of combat by having to pick up drops. And maybe these rewards are multiplied for participating in CZs in open; maybe a multiplier for each actual human that is on the opposing side. I think that would encourage more on foot CZ play if the best source of materials to upgrade your gear was the CZs.

I'd also love to see material rewards for exobiology. Maybe, when you turn your samples in, you have the option to choose from a selection of goods/assets/data instead of cash.

Just some thoughts.

 

[VR Golgot]

I think that's the point though. There isn't enough content to play around with loadouts. If you're not into pew-pew inside of stations, there's not much else to do than to scan plants. And if you are into pew-pew, adding more combat mechanics isn't going to be that interesting unless the ground combat missions get far far far more interesting.

Why my good Cmdr, just imagine explorers keeping each other warm on ice planets with damage-nerfed heat-cascade beams

The point is, even with limited gameplay scenarios (which I don’t agree is particularly the case for pew & stealth - I’d say they’re already more detailed/varied than the ship variants) FDev could have leveraged the ship system’s better aspects. To get more out of less on the content front.

But instead they fixed modules to the host item, started with a narrow-ish spread of modifications, and set their phasers to 'uber grind' once more. Making experimental approaches to the existing content an uphill struggle rather than a natural flow. We could be having a lot more fun with existing content if they’d leaned the other way. So meh to that I say

 

[MacIntoc]

Scanning the beacons at the Jameson Crash Site, relogging, and doing it over and over again before making two jumps to the nearest data trader so you can swap out for a few G5’s of another data tree then come back and do it AGAIN is… less than engaging gameplay.

Except that enginers is far to be the only way to upgrade your ship and weapons. It's not even the main way.
But i'm talking about the upgrade mechanism. Not the grind to acquire components.

 

[ꝁestrel]

The point is, even with limited gameplay scenarios (which I don’t agree is particularly the case for pew & stealth - I’d say they’re already more detailed/varied than the ship variants) FDev could have leveraged the ship system’s better aspects. To get more out of less on the content front.

I mean you're not wrong but it's pretty evident that they just ran out of time and shipped what they had. The current system is extremely bare bones. Historically FDev adds a big grind wall when this happens so it's not surprising.

 

[metatheurgist]

Is there actually something wrong with taking months to upgrade everything though? It's not like you need everything. Nothing wrong with having long term goals. And you can just buy G3 gear which is more than adequate.

The vast majority of stuff is actually very common and doing a x3 would make getting most of the mats trivial. Graphene for example is common as crap and is the highest trade value in the chemical range.

tbh, the only things I have issues with are:

SDPs - but that's one and done at least
Weapon Components - 60 of each to upgrade each Kinetic weapon from G3, rare as rocking horse poop, high trade value, also used in mods
Suit Schematics - unless you find the right settlement hard to get
Ionised Gas - required by 2 sets of weapons (would be nice if those intertia cans got used by something else, wth is an inertia can?)
Manufacturing Instructions - stupid amounts required, uncommon and low reward numbers
Power Regulators - if you're not prepared to rob settlements - uncommon, stupid amounts required if you want more than 1 armor of each type, less stupid than MI because you don't have to share with weapons
Weapon Test Data - rare, low numbers
Ballistics Data - rare but at least you don't need much

 

[Straker]

The real issue for me is not the method or path to Odyssey engineering (although I agree this can be debated) - the REAL issue is the inability to re-engineer slots in suits and weapons. This hyper-accentuates the grind, turning it from something that you can casually do into something of a real road-block as it disincentives experimentation with engineering due to the lock-in nature of Odyssey engineering.

People will come back with the argument that you can easily find pre-engineered or upgraded suits or weapons but this argument is flawed as it then becomes about how much money and time searching you invest rather than the actual gameplay of engineering.

Further to this, the simple fact of being able to overwrite engineering slots with additional engineering still does not remove the actual path to and process of engineering, meaning you still need to gather mats etc to engineer the new blueprint. The current lock-in system for Odyssey engineering is completely frustrating in my opinion.

I have only engineered an enhanced backpack capacity for my one Maverick suit and will not engage in any further Odyssey engineering until I have the option to easily experiment by overwriting engineering slots. More power to the player!

 

[ferus]

A very simple and effective improvement would be to ditch RNG and remove all useless data/mats that are really only there to lower your chances of the right item to spawn.

If you finally manage to find the correct system state with the appropriate settlement type with the right building type with the exact room type and the right dataport/locker/container type then you should get a 100% chance of spawning what should be there.

This would help immensely.

 

[Sighman]

Is there actually something wrong with taking months to upgrade everything though? It's not like you need everything. Nothing wrong with having long term goals. And you can just buy G3 gear which is more than adequate.

This is the point. The off-the-shelf stuff you can find is good enough. (If you really need it in a hurry, take a few Apex rides to small stations and ground ports, especially after the thursday reboot.)

There is absolutely no need to grind the on-foot equipment. Instead, buy what you need when you see it, do missions for the enjoyment of doing missions and gather materials as you get the chance. Over time you learn which are rares and which are common as mud.

To be honest, the last thing I want is G5 invulnerability and one-shot weapons. I only have two G4 weapons and one G4 suit, and I have over 2500 hours in Odyssey alone. Combat is already too easy and I have zero incentive to turn myself into the Terminator.

 

[Markoz]

I love Odyssey, but I have to admit that the grind for engineers has led me to not playing much over the last month. I still need to unlock 3, or 4, Engineers, and finding the mats is like a dribble. Months after starting playing EDO, I'm still 6 Financial Projections short of unlocking Oden Geiger.
So lessening the grind would be great.

 

[CMDR HungerArt1st]

After first attempt to unlock all Odyssey engineers I stopped playing for few months out of frustration. Few weeks ago I started space grind for triple elite, now its done and I had fun.

Now I am back with Odyssey grind for killing thousands of settlers for they cat videos and I dont want to play ever again.

1 Make engineers easier to unlock.
2 material trader for all odysey materials (so that we dont hit brick wall and can go do something we enjoy even if it would take more time)

 

[Ninjitsu]

Right now the Odyssey engineering grind is unreal. It would take a casual gamer months to years to upgrade all their suits and weapons. Grind isn’t gameplay, we don’t like it, we don’t want it and it’s a negative aspect of the game that has lead many to flat out stop playingand potential players to not buy the game.

A good way to lessen the grind would be to make data, and even items, collected count x3 like it does in Horizons. An even better fix would be to allow us to simply purchase most upgrades, such as weapon attachments.

Agreed, I haven't even been engaging with odyssey engineering. I unlocked the first engineer, Green or whatever her name was, and checked out some of what she offered. I then used EDEngineer + Inara to figure out what I would need to do to get the upgrades I wanted, and it was just too convoluted and tedious.

Now i just pick up pre-engineered kit if it's at the station i'm on, but the inventory management is so cumbersome i'm slowly not bothering with that either.