Fdev, Engineers, please read

[Almondclint]

First... THANK YOU for the free content! Ive had some fun at the guardian sites and the Chieftan is awesome!

Engineers. This system and the old system make zero sense. For some reason an engineer will do all sorts of work for FREE as long as I go see them. But, I can only pin one blueprint and, if Im somewhere else, they deny me access to experimentals. This is lame and outside the simulation that is ED.

When I want something engineered I should pay for the work. I for sure should have access to all the mods, including experimentals, at any station with outfitting. I should also be able to pay for any and all blueprints I want. Since the work is mostly automated the cost should be quite low but also a little higher when done remotely.

Right now, engineers are philantropists. This doesnt fit in the ED galaxy of quid pro quo.

Also, we can send messages literally across the galaxy but cant access blueprints that are publically available and not secret.

Please, just let us use the engineers from anywhere and tag a reasonable trade cost to the access. I agree that we should see them, face to face, when building the reputation. But, after 5 star access, we shouldnt need to go back. Unless we do something to reduce our access.

 

[varonica]

Right now, engineers are philantropists. This doesnt fit in the ED galaxy of quid pro quo.

It also doesn't fit the entire Engineer paradigm from when they first appeared!

Unlock a new level of customization for your ship and modules. Hidden on planet surfaces across the populated galaxy, each Engineer has a unique personality and history – and they just might choose to help you... for the right price

They were supposed to be mysterious secretive and hidden away with a story to follow to access them. may as well not bother really and just have engineering access at every star port. Engineers could have been so much better but alas we have what we have.

 

[Ra'Kaan]

I just noticed today you can pin one blueprint from EACH engineer! This totally changes things because now I can do most the legwork for my fleet without having to run around for my basic setups!

 

[rxay579]

I just noticed today you can pin one blueprint from EACH engineer! This totally changes things because now I can do most the legwork for my fleet without having to run around for my basic setups!

That might not work how you think. I just spent some time over the last few days taking my exploring ASPX to all the engineers (only 4 not yet unlocked) and pinning the blueprints I think I'll use most. I get back to my home station, switch to my current main ship and find that I can't remotely engineer anything; I just get a cryptic message indicating that there is nothing to mod. A little searching leads me to believe that only the ship that pinned the blueprints can be modded, but I haven't fully tested or researched that. I'm looking over the forums now to see if what's happening to me is a thing.

*EDIT*
My main ship only has legacy modules at this point. It hasn't visited any engineers itself in 3.0.

 

[Faded Glory]

That might not work how you think. I just spent some time over the last few days taking my exploring ASPX to all the engineers (only 4 not yet unlocked) and pinning the blueprints I think I'll use most. I get back to my home station, switch to my current main ship and find that I can't remotely engineer anything; I just get a cryptic message indicating that there is nothing to mod. A little searching leads me to believe that only the ship that pinned the blueprints can be modded, but I haven't fully tested or researched that. I'm looking over the forums now to see if what's happening to me is a thing.

*EDIT*
My main ship only has legacy modules at this point. It hasn't visited any engineers itself in 3.0.

The reason it shows no modules available to be modified is that they are already modified and cannot be converted except at the engineer. You can absolutely pin a blueprint in one ship and use that blueprint to remotely mod all your other ships / modules.

Three things you need the actual engineer for:

1. Pin blueprints.
2. Convert legacy modules.
3. Apply experimental effects.

Other than that you can do everything at your local station.

Frankly, if you have the materials for the low grade mods, simply remove the existing mod in outfitting and run through the whole upgrade from scratch. It's very few rolls to actually progress to grade five.

 

[rxay579]

The reason it shows no modules available to be modified is that they are already modified and cannot be converted except at the engineer. You can absolutely pin a blueprint in one ship and use that blueprint to remotely mod all your other ships / modules.
...

Glad to hear it explained even if I'm disappointed with myself for my previous assumption. Starting over is a option on some of my lightly modded ships, but I don't have the spare MATs to do so on my main ship. I'll either wait and rebuild materials or just make the trip in my main ship when convenient.

 

[Faded Glory]

Glad to hear it explained even if I'm disappointed with myself for my previous assumption. Starting over is a option on some of my lightly modded ships, but I don't have the spare MATs to do so on my main ship. I'll either wait and rebuild materials or just make the trip in my main ship when convenient.

Depending on what modules you are going to mod, and what their current mods are, it might be worth doing a bit of material / data hunting (and also checking out the material traders to see whether you have some high grade stuff that you can exchange for lower grade). Although the new engineering mods give a higher final upgrade than most current mods, if you have any very good G5 mods you might not want to convert them... It's unlikely, but you could end up with something that doesn't work out quite as well due to the secondaries that no longer exist. I've taken to buying a new module and upgrading that to be sure it will be better.

It's worth reiterating that the early grades progress with very few rolls. For example, grade two unlocks after a single grade one roll (has for me every time), and grade three unlocks after one or perhaps two grade two rolls, grade four after two or three grade three rolls, and grade five after three, perhaps four grade four rolls. Completing a grade five upgrade takes anything from seven to eleven rolls in my experience, and often the difference that you get for the last three or four rolls is small. I've found it important for dirty drives to max out on my two racing ships, but for example, FSD's will only get you an extra 1/2 Ly or so, and when you already jump 40 or 50 Ly, that's marginal at best.

You will want to visit the engineer for the experimental effects.

 

[rxay579]

I try to avoid specifically hunting for materials as I don't like my play sessions to be dominated by it. At one point I set up a ship with a wake scanner and spent a few hours outside of a station just scanning wakes and it was not entertaining; at least when I'm cleaning up after a ship encounter or skimming a planet for rocks and other POIs, I get some fun out of the process. I've been lazily engineering and was thrilled about the new per-material limits; I've been spending 10% or more of my recent game time (pre-3.0) just sweating what to drop just so that I could pick something else up. I don't have a lot of many high grade mats to trade down, so I'm probably going to stick to my current method of naturally collecting materials and maybe hunting down one or two when I get close to a specific goal, though I do appreciate the advice.

I did notice that when I had a higher rating with an engineer, the lower tiers whizzed by pretty quickly; happy about that. Only one engineer had a lower-than-five rating (Tod) due to previous use of favors and I think it took slightly more work to get back to unlocking grade 5, but not enough to exclude a statistical anomaly. Being able to choose the experimental effects vs hoping for an appropriate secondary effect is nice, though there are modules (e.g. collection limpets) that completely lack experimental effects. Why does that matter? One of my ships only works because a few modules had a -X% power draw secondary and I'll need to redesign it from scratch if I want to get it in line with new engineering standards; not breaking my game or anything, but still annoying.

 

[Almondclint]

Which is even more reason to let us have full access to the engineer from all outfitting stations. The restriction isnt about balance because either way all players are on even ground. The restriction doesnt play into BGS or lore, at all. Its like t.v. shows, theyre mostly all dominated by writing drama for the sake of drame. In this case, its a restrictive system for the sake of having a restrictive system. Which, for me, is disengaging. Im still having fum, but not nearly as much.

 

[Lee Archer]

Move to a 20% smaller fleet, %500 ship performance.

Working as intended, this is not a civilization simulation.
That’s why we shoot alien artifacts to investigate them, heh.
Lordy.

#kick stellar Forge ash

 

[Screaming Fliea]

Perhaps I simply do not understand how Engineers work, but I seem to be having a problem. I have grade 4 access to Felicity Farseer, for example, and I have all the mats I need for upgrades beyond level one upgrades, but, for some reason, everything above level one appears to remain locked to me, and I've never been able to use an experimental effect either. Is this a bug, or am I missing something? My understanding is that I have to have the level one increased FSD before I can get access to level 2, and I have it. Do I have to get all the level one upgrades, even though I don't want them, before I can do ANY level two upgrade?