Grind requirements are insane

I don't care about the meta. I'll get somewhere close to it eventually through playing the game, but I don't care for it.

If the randomised mods were dropped between a min and max value, with the max value always achievable through engineers refining it, it would be fair. As for glacial progress - are you new here? Elite has always had glacial progress.

And I didn't mention anything about getting inferior rolls. Much like the current Ship Engineer implementation I would have it so that every time you upgraded a mod it would be a positive improvement. Your +3 backpack mod you found upgrades to a +5, to a +10, whatever the max capacity is.

I know very much how bad the original Engineers launch was. And I never said that a randomised mod system should copy that.
I think you might care about meta at one point - I'm confident a good portion of players would: Once you figured that half your dabbling with upgrades has led to a colossal waste of time and supoptimal solutions. It also tears the disparity and balance between players further apart and I have a hunch that players mostly like fair matchups instead of meta chariots lolstomping them at first sight.
 
What comes too easily is worthless. It should take a long time to acquire the necessary materials for Grade 5 engineering, otherwise what's the point in having Grades 1-4? (For that matter, why bother with engineering at all, and instead just make everything pre-engineered?) Whether it should be a grind or not is a different matter. If I had my way, all game items would be tradeable between players and NPC traders - ships, weapons, materials, commodities........planets. That way we could do what we want to do instead of having to grind at something we don't like.
Well, I had to work the clock to earn the cash to buy the game. That's enough effort for some entertainment entitlement in my book. No need to clock more work to get some fun out of my money.
 
The material grind to upgrade the quality of your items is something we certainly need in Horizons as well. Do not sell anything except E-rated items and then force the player base to grind materials to upgrade them. Just imagine how much fun it would be to only have E-rated FSDs available and then - in order to make it A-rated - you need to travel to the Coalsack Nebula and Sagittarius A* 'cause those two systems are the only systems that spawn the materials you need for a D-rated FSD.
 
Grinding mats is boring - if you can't buy the items and can't get them by doing a fun activity in game - then it's just grind.

Grinding mats to upgrade items required to grind more mats is not a 'game' it's job, it's 'work', it's something have to do rather than 'want' to do. It's like taking out the rubbish (trash) we have to do, it's a chore that needs to be done.

I don't 'play' video games to do 'chores' - I play to have fun. If it's not fun, it's not interesting and it's not a really a challenge. Then it's not worth my time.

Hence I have no plans to bother with any of the new on-foot engineers.
 
I don't understand why High Tech stations don't routinely sell G2/3/4/5 souits and weapons. If you can afford them you should be able to buy them. Empty, so you will still have to grind to get the mods to the suits, but why is it so random to simply buy them?
Given how many pilots are billionaires it seems bonkers that we don't just get the option to purchase the higher grades (at the appropriate stations).
I know why. I have 2.8 billion credits, and would spend a good chunk of it on getting the best stuff. Fdev don’t want that. This rare G3 sale needs to go, though. And mats needs to be three at a time, not one.
 
My concern right now is the Fdev will gate ship or SRV upgrades behind the Suit grinding and eng unlocks. I have zero desire to play the FPS game. Will Fdev try and force FPS play, to unlock better exploration ship or srv tools? If so you can have my stuff.

I do like being able to go on foot on the planets to explore and look around. Will they lock much of that type of game play behind doing the FPS grinding? I think they probably will.
 
I know why. I have 2.8 billion credits, and would spend a good chunk of it on getting the best stuff. Fdev don’t want that. This rare G3 sale needs to go, though. And mats needs to be three at a time, not one.
I don't understand why they would let us accumulate wealth (I have 2.1 billion and all the ships I want) and then not let us spend it how we see fit... Why can't I buy a G3 suit and then have to grind to engineer it? Why shoult I have to buy a G1 and grind it up to G3 and then grind to engineer it? And for all the "pay to win" crowd who will say "that's not what ED is about", I've done the grind to earn the money (I didn't do the 4 billion CG), so I've paid in game time for everything I've got. If you're not buying a suit with Arx then it's not "pay to win" since you can't buy in-game credits.
 
My concern right now is the Fdev will gate ship or SRV upgrades behind the Suit grinding and eng unlocks. I have zero desire to play the FPS game. Will Fdev try and force FPS play, to unlock better exploration ship or srv tools? If so you can have my stuff.

I do like being able to go on foot on the planets to explore and look around. Will they lock much of that type of game play behind doing the FPS grinding? I think they probably will.
Of course they will, because this is what their game designers think passes for content...
 
Now that I have several hours gameplay in EDO I was curious how much more grind is required to get suit and weapon upgrades. It shocked me. So far, I was only able to collect a small percentage of the stuff required. I'm not good at FPS, so I don't go into settlement missions.
So, how shall a non-FPS player get enough mats for at least 2 suits (Artemis, Maverick) in a reasonable time?

FDev disabled all relogging "exploits" I'm aware of, which makes the situation worse. And I'm not saying that logoffski gameplay is fun.

To just upgrade all 3 suits (Artemis, Maverick, Dominator) from grade 1 to grade 5 you need the following materials. Be aware: This is just upgrading, engineering is on top of that. Data collected from crafting lists in INARA.
  • 93 Suit Schematic
  • 87 Health Monitor
  • 90 Power Regulator
  • 63 Manufacturing Instructions
  • 80 Aerogel
  • 80 Titanium Plating
  • 80 Carbon Fibre Plating
  • 240 Graphene
To upgrade 2 guns (randomly selected: Manticore Oppressor, Karma P-15) from 1 to 5 you need this:
  • 10 Weapon Schematic
  • 42 Manufacturing Instructions
  • 31 Compression-Liquefied Gas
  • 31 Ionised Gas
  • 80 Tungsten Carbide
  • 80 Weapon Component
  • 80 Chemical Superbase
  • 64 Microelectrode
I'm confused... Are people actually complaining that you can't get the best gear in eight days?? Grinding is NOT hard in this game by any means. You're going out of your way to avoid profitable missions because you don't want to try and succeed at something. Like what? Is this a joke? Sorry but just like every other MMO in existence, you have to grind. Stop complaining and play the game. Also I'm still very confused why you need upgraded suits if you're "Not good at FPS"...
 
Grind is a poor substitute for content.

But FD love grind, they really do, ultimately it’s a limitation wall, put there to supposedly stop everyone maxing out.

Getting that G5 modded weapon is not supposed to be easy, not everyone is supposed to have them, so for FD grind is seen as the perfect deterrent and a cheap alternative for content.

But FD fail to realise how some players actually do like grind, either seeing it as a challenge to be overcome or it’s an obsessive compulsion, but also some have hours to spare and are happy to grind out the game and get that maxed out ship in under a day or two.

It’s not supposed to be a key element of gameplay, it’s supposed to slow you down. Like everything else in ED it’s poorly implemented, FD have consistently failed to account for human behaviour.

Since day 1 FD wanted players to follow the smaller factions missions, which should have taken players around the galaxy, but FD never told anyone at the time, until they admitted they got it wrong, because people were just focusing on repetitive actions and grinding; so what do FD do, but give people more grind.

Don’t grind, play.
 
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The problem is not that there is "grind" but that there is too much of it at all levels.
I could understand that in 2015 when I started playing because there was a lot less to do and so farming for your objective (bigger ship) took time which prevented players from getting bored, but since then there have been a lot of gameplay additions but each addition has had an extra grind to do without really reducing the existing one (well not significantly for my perception of the game) to the point where now (even before odyssey) you have a lot of objective choices (event, story, galactic lore. ...) but we spend a lot of time just grind rather than doing fun things in the game.
I have many contacts who stopped playing Elite largely because of this omnipresence of grind obligation in the gameplay loop.
 
It's been pretty fun going to the settlements and looting everything. That said, the way to get most of the rarer ingredients is mission rewards. You can get up to 5 of the rare ones and up to 3 of the very rare like Power Regulators for Threat Level 5 missions. If you go to the NPC mission people, you can negotiate your reward and get up to 7 of the rare items.

I've managed to get a couple G5 suits and weapons with a couple of mods. Waiting until the other engineers are unlocked. I played a lot this past week because it was fun, not because it was a grind.

You'll eventually have it all. Only a week has gone by. Give it some time.

You can get G5 with a few days of work if you keep at it. Below are a couple of the ones I completed last night.

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Now that I have several hours gameplay in EDO I was curious how much more grind is required to get suit and weapon upgrades. It shocked me. So far, I was only able to collect a small percentage of the stuff required. I'm not good at FPS, so I don't go into settlement missions.
So, how shall a non-FPS player get enough mats for at least 2 suits (Artemis, Maverick) in a reasonable time?

FDev disabled all relogging "exploits" I'm aware of, which makes the situation worse. And I'm not saying that logoffski gameplay is fun.

To just upgrade all 3 suits (Artemis, Maverick, Dominator) from grade 1 to grade 5 you need the following materials. Be aware: This is just upgrading, engineering is on top of that. Data collected from crafting lists in INARA.
  • 93 Suit Schematic
  • 87 Health Monitor
  • 90 Power Regulator
  • 63 Manufacturing Instructions
  • 80 Aerogel
  • 80 Titanium Plating
  • 80 Carbon Fibre Plating
  • 240 Graphene
To upgrade 2 guns (randomly selected: Manticore Oppressor, Karma P-15) from 1 to 5 you need this:
  • 10 Weapon Schematic
  • 42 Manufacturing Instructions
  • 31 Compression-Liquefied Gas
  • 31 Ionised Gas
  • 80 Tungsten Carbide
  • 80 Weapon Component
  • 80 Chemical Superbase
  • 64 Microelectrode
There is a fine line between the two but it’s easier to design grind than gameplay.
 
These are my results with Power Regulators when playing without relogs at my own pace and doing just normal activities at crash sites outside settlements.
I think I might have angered the RNG gods or FDev simply doesn't want us to have fun.
View attachment 234362View attachment 234363

Just take missions which provide you with a power regulator then abandon the mission - sure, it costs you credits in fines, but I just pretend that's how much they cost.
 
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