Given the current CG. Thougths on keeping Engineers?

[EWanderer]

Good Evening,
so FDev have decided to open a preengineered module up for unlocking. Cool, cool.
That of course begs the question: Should we just get engineering out the window entirely?

At the moments it looks like, that the unlock will involve mining. And honestly, blowing up rocks instead of relogging instances to collect stuff sounds like fun alternative.
And while yes, I must admit, I didn't bother so much with the Mat Grind. You may call me a cheap commander for even advocating for abolishing the grind that so many others had to drag themselves through.

In the end the questions remains: Should after all this time, with the existance of Engineered Spec Op NPC wings, not even speaking about Insured "Unique" Modules + the overall dissatifaction with the Mat Grind be the Engineering system abolished in one way or another?

You could even trim down on decision paralysis by only offering the most common module modifications up and drop everything that currently has no place in the meta of any role.

Thoughts, Counterpoints (please think of something besides the obvious punch in the face for everyone who "wasted their time" if any change might occur) and so forth?

 

[WR3ND]

No, but they should add in missions for Engineers though. CGs err on the side of MMOish, same as grinding where the challenge and to an extend the enjoyment of playing a game is subverted by time invested in the meta progression. The damage of the power-creep is already done, not to say it couldn't be worse.

Maybe have it like mini campaigns with a bit of lore tossed in for good measure. Would have to be better than what we're stuck with now... right? I'm not talking about a full on story mode or anything; just a handful of optional missions to choose from for the Engineers as well.

By the way, I don't actually mind the grind much, so long as it is halfway contextually apt and makes sense for my Commander to be doing – I approach the game primarily as an explorer and survivalist, when able. Unfortunately, that's not so much the case with the Engineers. They're pretty arbitrary.

 

[Bottom Hat]

As they were supposed to be revisiting the engineering thingy, this raises an interesting point.

But don't punch me in the face, and so on!

 

[Vedmo]

The way they are handling the seeker tied to this CG really wouldn't be any different than going to an engineer and paying a set amount (in materials and commodities) for one individual G5 module knowing upfront the exact cost, skipping rolls all together.

I don't think you need to remove the current system. If they are married to unlocks then this wouldn't work, but if instead of giving Lei Cheung 200 gold upfront to unlock him and be able to use the system as it currently stands, one could pick the exact blueprint and level they wanted for one module and Lei Cheung would say ok that will cost you 20 gold, this list of materials, and a couple pain in the butt to acquire commodities, I'd be fine with that for those who want some engineered stuff but don't want to dive fully into all of it.

 

[CMDR DragonHorn]

What I'm not happy about is: double/triple effects. Engineering is already brutal powercreep. This game isn't Diablo or something like that, where whole gameplay revolves around making your character (ship) super-duper powerful by endless looting and levelling. Either though none of the upgrades has been given in recent CGs break balance hard (more like utility and convenience, which is fine, to an extent), but tendency is alarming. I really hope multi-effect engineering wouldn't become a thing in the future.

Regarding acquiring pre-engineered modules from tech broker, as I expressed in another thread: it's a welcome change. Player should be given alternatives on how one wished to acquire something. More choices - always the better.

 

[Bottom Hat]

The doubles are pretty crap though to be fair. Even the fsd only gives a tiny bit more.

 

[GroG79]

Lightweight is not really important.. Certainly for combat oriented modules.

However my DBX wants to talk to you @Bottom Hat...

 

[Oytis57]

The doubles are pretty crap though to be fair. Even the fsd only gives a tiny bit more.

We Peters know our stuff, but don't spread the word...disillusion incomingggg!!

 

[Bottom Hat]

We Peters know our stuff, but don't spread the word...disillusion incomingggg!!

Good point Peter, it's a little known fact that we are right about anything, which by definition includes everything. Even the weather.

 

[metatheurgist]

Nice try.

 

[Kantaris]

Not only are we keeping Engineers but more have been datamined for Odyssey.

 

[Quantis Trap]

Hmmm. Let's see. I can unlock the engineering of multiple modules when unlocking one engineer or I can unlock every pre-engineered module one by one. I don't think we'll actually know which is better until we see a bit more. Let's keep both for now!

 

[Captain Willard]

Couldn't live without engineers.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

Engineers need a rework especially in the blueprints department. Some modules have a variety of viable options but some of them have only 1 blueprint that makes any sense. What i would like to see is a multi effect approach but keep the 5 nuts system of tiers. For example, say you want to upgrade multi cannons. Right now you pick 1 blueprint and you can have it grade 1 through 5 depending on how many materials you dump into the magic blender. Instead, i would like to see you choose 5 units of upgrade provided they are not contradictory. So you could have grade 2 long range and grade 3 overcharged combined OR g5 overcharged OR grade 1 short range and Grade 4 efficient. This would give people alot more options to mix and match but keep it within reason so we dont have double or triple G5 things.

 

[Rat Catcher]

What I'm not happy about is: double/triple effects. Engineering is already brutal powercreep. This game isn't Diablo or something like that, where whole gameplay revolves around making your character (ship) super-duper powerful by endless looting and levelling...

Are you certain about that?

Certainly whenever I have mentioned such radical thinking it hasn't been particularly well-received... It does appear that, to some, this game is exactly about that

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

Are you certain about that?

Certainly whenever I have mentioned such radical thinking it hasn't been particularly well-received... It does appear that, to some, this game is exactly about that

Meanwhile I’ll be happily mooching about flinging useless missiles at baddies and shouting MISSILE AWAY and scaring the (not cockpit) cats. Whatever gets your reactor firing is fun to me!

 

[Rat Catcher]

Meanwhile I’ll be happily mooching about flinging useless missiles at baddies and shouting MISSILE AWAY and scaring the (not cockpit) cats. Whatever gets your reactor firing is fun to me!

You'll have to pledge to LRY and get packs...
Not only will you be chuckling your socks off when unleashing 5 all at once from a Beluga but after the second rapid salvo can watch your PS4 melt into a puddle of sticky goo...

 

[CMDR D Noize]

That of course begs the question: Should we just get engineering out the window entirely?

No, absolutely not. Removing content, options and dumbing down gameplay is not the direction to head in.

At the moments it looks like, that the unlock will involve mining. And honestly, blowing up rocks instead of relogging instances to collect stuff sounds like fun alternative.
And while yes, I must admit, I didn't bother so much with the Mat Grind. You may call me a cheap commander for even advocating for abolishing the grind that so many others had to drag themselves through.

There’s absolutely no need to ever re-log for mats if you know what you’re doing.
Assassination/Massacre Missions are the simplest way of farming 2 out the 3 types of mats (Manufactured, Encoded), which is just like “blowing up rocks” but it’s more fun because the rocks shoot back.
Raws you can already find by blowing up rocks or driving round a Biologically/Geologically active planet, so it wouldn’t make much difference.

In the end the questions remains: Should after all this time, with the existance of Engineered Spec Op NPC wings, not even speaking about Insured "Unique" Modules + the overall dissatifaction with the Mat Grind be the Engineering system abolished in one way or another?

Again, it’s not a grind if you know what you’re doing.
If a player is constantly searching for HGEs or relogging Davs Hope for hours on end, they’re going about it all wrong.
A couple of hours of natural gameplay will give you all you need to G5 a whole ship from scratch.
You don’t need to have maxed out bins all the time unless you need to use Synthesis on a regular basis too.

You could even trim down on decision paralysis by only offering the most common module modifications up and drop everything that currently has no place in the meta of any role.

Again again, removing content and dumbing down gameplay (perhaps because players don’t understand how best to use various blueprints to their advantage) is not the way to go.
The right combination of blueprints can allow you to viably run some really interesting builds if you like to get creative.
Who’s to decide what the most common mods are or what the meta is for each role?
Ships builds, particularly when it comes to Weapons & Defences, are highly subjective and very much personal preference.
All my ships are custom built to optimise the load I chose based on my own experience of playing the game, not because of some YouTube video or Wiki page.

I’ve got no problem with FDev adding all the double engineered Blueprints to Tech Brokers for those that want to put in a little extra work to unlock them.
I actually think that’s a really cool idea and breathes an extra bit of life into Tech Brokers.
But there’s no need to remove engineering for pre-built off the shelf mods.