Guide / Tutorial Guide to Engineers in Colonia

[GeePee]

Our research so far indicates:
1) Something happens at about 5,000 rolls - applying this many to a module has sorted it to the top of the list at its respective engineer (when it wasn't before).
2) After 10,000 rolls the module does remain at G1, however. Whether something more was supposed to happen after 5,000 remains an open question (we have opened a "maybe-a-bug-maybe-not report" on this point to seek clarity).
3) Other than the sort order change at that threshold there is no visible distinction between modules with different numbers of rolls put in.

You're welcome to join us on the Census Discord at https://discord.gg/rAdXpx6 if you're interested in helping with the research and/or suggesting alternate lines of enquiry.

Just dropped 300 rolls into each engineer to get them to level 5. Any further information on what thresholds there are yet?

I did:
297 rolls in Thrusters @ Brandon
297 in Hull @ Olmanova
297 in Multicannons @ Hicks
297 in Power Distributers @ Dorn

Do we know whether it's the engineers whole range of items, single modules or just individual blueprints which level up (i.e. does upgrading "overcharged" multicannons upgrade all the other upgrades for multicannons too?)

 

[Ian Doncaster]

297 rolls in Thrusters @ Brandon

Thanks - I've added this to our Thrusters upgrade counter.

Sort order changes appear to happen at about 4,000 rolls ... my current guess is that you need 10 of them - so 40,000 rolls - to upgrade the engineering level.

Do we know whether it's the engineers whole range of items, single modules or just individual blueprints which level up (i.e. does upgrading "overcharged" multicannons upgrade all the other upgrades for multicannons too?)

It's by module.

 

[Frullo]

TL;DR : Why have the Colonia Engineers linked to the Bubble Engineers?

Eh... say what?

I'm dreadfully sorry, but _WHY_ in Colonia do the Colonia Engineers need introductions from Bubble Engineers?!

It would have made much more sense (as well as given those of us who have not been in the Bubble since Engineers were released) if the Colonia Engineers had a completely separate introduction/unlock path from the Bubble Engineers.

A good example would have been getting introduced to one of them by Jacques; you know, that guy that's been here since the beginning and pretty much knows everything that's going down in and around Colonia? Then once you get friendly with the first one they introduce you to the next one and so on. (Just like Bubble Engineers).

Or possibly you get a rumour to go somewhere for a special mission (maybe have some trigger which indicates the player has spent some time in Colonia), and when you go and accept it it turns out to be a special delivery to an Engineer's base and the mission is effectively the (hidden) introduction.

Millions of ways of doing it.

But linking the Colonia Engineers back to the Bubble Engineers is a bit pants.

This! A hundred times this!

I was on my second trip to the core with my 30LY-jumprange-ASP about a year and a half ago, when I got tired of the game and left for other distractions. I came back a few weeks ago, ridiscovered why I had fallen in love with this game and resumed course for the core. Then, last weekend, I nearly crash-landed my ASP on some desolate rocky moon while showing the wonders of elite in VR to a close friend (him wearing the oculus, me piloting the ship), effectively reducing my ships Integrity to 50%.

What now, I thought. Turn back? Go on and risk loosing all gathered data? Then, I remembered something about a station far out, something about Jack or Jaques... Google helped, and led me to Colonia, this wonderful mini-bubble, closer to my actual position than Sol and still close enough to the core to allow me to see Sagittarius once more without having to do it all over again… Google helped even more, informing me about the Neutron-Hopping-Technique - lucky me being in the middle of a vast neutron field, reducing a 8500 LY route to a mere few short hours…

I realized that I had missed a lot of information since "beyond" had come out, so I tried to find out more, got knowledge about engineers - who could increase my jumprange even to mythical 70LY! But they were all situated in the bubble… to far away to be useful for the current task to reach the center of our Galaxy. And then I found out about the engineers at Colonia...

I thought, perfect, this is exactly what I need to keep me interested in the game for another while, pausing for the time being the exploring, upgrading my modules with the help of engineers - not to a range of 70 LY of course, but getting let's say to 50 would be nice.

Only to find out that all my reputation with Colonia Council is for nothing, because you still need to initiate the dance with the bubble-engineers…

:S

 

[C64Fan]

Are all 4 engineers still on G1?

 

[madbilly]

I've never done any engineering as I left the bubble before 2.1 and haven't been back, therefore I don't have any invitations and can't see their bases.

BUT I want to take my photo with one

Can anyone tell me the coordinates of the bases? Ideally Marsha Hicks in Tir.

Cheers

 

[madbilly]

Thanks to CMDR Zieluk who I met in game and showed me the way to Martha Hicks' base, o7 CMDR!

The coords are ~ -7, -78.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I've ranked up to four with Brandon, and three with Olmanova. No blueprint above level 1 available from either. Used multiple modules with both. Fresh, stock modules. I need to get the osmium for another engineer. Unfortunately, the Liz Ryder invite isn't working for me.

Is there a community, or other element that I am missing? I have spent at least 200 rolls each, and the information on the thread reports I need to spend about 400 to make Level 5 access. But the blueprints never go above level 1.

Bug?

Are all 4 engineers still on G1?

Seems like it.

Level 3 should be the max.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Is there a community, or other element that I am missing? I have spent at least 200 rolls each, and the information on the thread reports I need to spend about 400 to make Level 5 access. But the blueprints never go above level 1.

At the moment, they only offer G1 blueprints - all getting to Rep 5 (297 rolls total) will do is reduce the number of rolls to max out a module.

It's not clear how many rolls - community-wide, not individual, so everyone benefits from everyone's rolls - it takes to boost a module to offer G2 blueprints. My current guess is 40,000 - but while there's both a logical reason for Frontier to have picked that number and a logical reason to think that Frontier did pick that number, all we can really say for certain at this stage is "more than 16,000".

We're still working on adding rolls to the Engines blueprint to see what happens - if you do any rolls on that, please mention them here so I can add them to the counter (or join us on Discord and tell CensusBot about them directly, if you prefer)

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I stayed about 1 hour ducking in the Nav Beacon at Carcosa to meet the goal. I was lucky enough to find some The Nameless wings while reading Galnet for a bit of a wait 

Did the same. Picked up some materials, too.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

At the moment, they only offer G1 blueprints - all getting to Rep 5 (297 rolls total) will do is reduce the number of rolls to max out a module.

It's not clear how many rolls - community-wide, not individual, so everyone benefits from everyone's rolls - it takes to boost a module to offer G2 blueprints. My current guess is 40,000 - but while there's both a logical reason for Frontier to have picked that number and a logical reason to think that Frontier did pick that number, all we can really say for certain at this stage is "more than 16,000".

We're still working on adding rolls to the Engines blueprint to see what happens - if you do any rolls on that, please mention them here so I can add them to the counter (or join us on Discord and tell CensusBot about them directly, if you prefer)

Rats. I don't have that exact data. Sorry.

I think this is how Frontier is going to put a lid on the arms race.

 

[C64Fan]

Are we dealing with a bug here, FD? It seems strange that all 4 engineers are still on G1 at this time.

We need more info.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Are we dealing with a bug here, FD? It seems strange that all 4 engineers are still on G1 at this time.

I think it's just that the target is "too high" to be reachable in a short time. I put "too high" in quotes because I don't think the target is intrinsically unreasonable - it's just the UI gets in the way of meeting it far too much.

If you compare the station repair progress with a bubble trade CG, it goes 8 times slower. Comparing the engineer target (which looks like about 40,000) with the latest Colonia Research CG (330,000 in a week) the ratio is about the same.

The problem is that it takes 4 seconds to hand in a full set of 300 G1 materials to a research CG, whereas it takes 4 seconds *per material* clicking through the engineer screens.

I've made a more detailed post about this at https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/449643 with suggestions for how it could be improved. (Ideally better visibility of progress and a way to give the engineer materials in bulk ... if that can't be done the targets need to come down to compensate)

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I think it's just that the target is "too high" to be reachable in a short time. I put "too high" in quotes because I don't think the target is intrinsically unreasonable - it's just the UI gets in the way of meeting it far too much.

If you compare the station repair progress with a bubble trade CG, it goes 8 times slower. Comparing the engineer target (which looks like about 40,000) with the latest Colonia Research CG (330,000 in a week) the ratio is about the same.

The problem is that it takes 4 seconds to hand in a full set of 300 G1 materials to a research CG, whereas it takes 4 seconds *per material* clicking through the engineer screens.

I've made a more detailed post about this at https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/449643 with suggestions for how it could be improved. (Ideally better visibility of progress and a way to give the engineer materials in bulk ... if that can't be done the targets need to come down to compensate)

Just finished running a D class Sidewinder around my engineers. Once you hit grade 3 access, the rolls return to the normal speed. I also used rolls on every module I could find. *Getting* to level 3 is a Palin.

I must have used over a hundred rolls between them so far, with no scientific method of tracking them. I pulled in modules from storage, and also bought the non-optimal modules for sale at the engineer bases.

Done my part. I think Frontier wants them nerfed for a long time. You can fly back to the bubble, and engineer parts faster than you can bring those blueprints up.

 

[Mephane]

The problem is that it takes 4 seconds to hand in a full set of 300 G1 materials to a research CG, whereas it takes 4 seconds *per material* clicking through the engineer screens.

Nah. The problem is that this entire concept of community wide engineer level unlocking was terrible idea to begin with. Should just be grade 5 right from the start, period.

 

[C64Fan]

Could we pleace get an update on this, FD? Why are all Colonia engineers still on G1?

 

[rOmiLaYu]

Why are all Colonia engineers still on G1?

 

[C64Fan]

^^ No, something is wrong, and please let FD answer.

Post 1:

 

[rOmiLaYu]

^^ No, something is wrong, and please let FD answer.

Post 1:

I respect your optimism but I fully expect that this is "working as intended."

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I respect your optimism but I fully expect that this is "working as intended."

A short statement to that effect would nevertheless be useful information at this stage.

If the answer is "nothing has changed because not enough has been put on any single blueprint" that's still useful information. (If they gave us, say, the percentage completion of the closest blueprints to upgrade, that would be even more useful)

 

[rOmiLaYu]

A short statement to that effect would nevertheless be useful information at this stage.

If the answer is "nothing has changed because not enough has been put on any single blueprint" that's still useful information. (If they gave us, say, the percentage completion of the closest blueprints to upgrade, that would be even more useful)

I don't disagree at all, but give the response of this community to data being shared (regard the "2.8-gate"), I wouldn't blame them if they never shared another datum at all.