Guide / Tutorial Guide to Engineers in Colonia

[C64Fan]

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)

Yes, something like that would make a big difference. That’s all I am asking for.

rOmiLaYu - please understand that I am not interested in knowing your opinion about this matter. I am not saying that to insult you - but according to post 1 this thread is obviously intended for questions to FD, and that’s what I am trying to do.

Besides, this post: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...nia-Engineer?p=7033014&viewfull=1#post7033014 could perhaps imply, that something isn’t right. We haven’t heard anything since.

I am asking FD, and they have the answer.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

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.

I'm sure 2.8% of all software developments come in on time, under budget, and working correctly.

Attention: It's 2018, we've been being burned since Babbage's Engine on expectations about software, and giving out information is mandatory, as IT is being held accountable like every other business entity.

 

[The Lawful]

"There will be a local news article in the engineer's base showing their progress to the next skill levels per module type."

Well, as I'm currently at The Brig, I checked the news. There's an odd article there named 'Luchtaine News:' (sic, mind the colon) that lists the modules & grades (all 1 for good old Mel), but no progress (in terms of percent) or whatever.

The problem is I have a rather old Cobra here with lots of legacy modules (some level 5, like the 38% FSD, yuck) I'd like to convert and upgrade, but this way, it will never work. After 40 or so level 1 upgrades (switching to and fro between two mods), I'm giving up on these engineers. Nice idea, but didn't work.

O7,
[noob]

 

[Ralph Vargr]

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)

You are not cleared for that, citizen.

Frontier, and it's code of silence.

 

[zZCannonFoddaZz]

I’ve taken my 3 CMDR’s to Colonia in the last 3 weeks and unlocked all 4 Colonia engineers to G5. I picked one module per engineer and flipped between two mods that used raw mats. So for Mel I used overcharged and efficient on a burst laser from g1 to g5 which is a lot of rolls! Multiply that by 3 and it’s hundreds, I think frontier may have grossly overestimated how many people are willing to roll g1 mods!
Did I misinterpret it? Does it have to be different modules and not rolls per module?!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

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

FDev have - indirectly, via Galnet at the engineer base - now given an update on this.

After ~25,500 recorded rolls (thanks to everyone who contributed!), we have succeeded in getting Engines to the giddy heights of "5% complete" ... implying a target for an actual G2 upgrade of approximately 500,000 (half a million) rolls. This is a pretty clear explanation of why they're all still G1 at everything.

 

[Vasious]

FDev have - indirectly, via Galnet at the engineer base - now given an update on this.


After ~25,500 recorded rolls (thanks to everyone who contributed!), we have succeeded in getting Engines to the giddy heights of "5% complete" ... implying a target for an actual G2 upgrade of approximately 500,000 (half a million) rolls. This is a pretty clear explanation of why they're all still G1 at everything.

I hope someone sneezed on the '0' key there

 

[C64Fan]

FDev have - indirectly, via Galnet at the engineer base - now given an update on this.


After ~25,500 recorded rolls (thanks to everyone who contributed!), we have succeeded in getting Engines to the giddy heights of "5% complete" ... implying a target for an actual G2 upgrade of approximately 500,000 (half a million) rolls. This is a pretty clear explanation of why they're all still G1 at everything.

Christ! Okay - I’ll stop trying untill they lower the target numbers considerably. I know of course it’ll take longer if many of us stop using them - but those numbers are just too high.

Thank you for telling.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

FDev have - indirectly, via Galnet at the engineer base - now given an update on this.


After ~25,500 recorded rolls (thanks to everyone who contributed!), we have succeeded in getting Engines to the giddy heights of "5% complete" ... implying a target for an actual G2 upgrade of approximately 500,000 (half a million) rolls. This is a pretty clear explanation of why they're all still G1 at everything.

Well, at least Trump might be out of office when we hit G2....

 

[Xalder]

Kind of dumb not having any engineer that can be unlocked without first unlocking an engineer in the bubble. Nobody who might be impressed or interested in your business considering you made it out so far, with or without already having engineered systems? Bit disappointing that I have to go all the way back to the bubble to start trying to figure out anything relating to engineers really.

 

[Micha]

Kind of dumb not having any engineer that can be unlocked without first unlocking an engineer in the bubble. Nobody who might be impressed or interested in your business considering you made it out so far, with or without already having engineered systems? Bit disappointing that I have to go all the way back to the bubble to start trying to figure out anything relating to engineers really.

Yep, my complaint day 1 the Colonia Engineers were released. As far as I'm concerned; completely useless, except to possibly change some experimental effects on existing modules.

Sometimes it's very very difficult to grasp the design decisions FDev make. And it seems to be almost impossible to acknowledge a poor design decision let alone make them change their minds once something is released.
It's almost japanese in nature (no offence to any japanese), but the culture here (in Japan) is basically such that incredible work-arounds are made to solve problems, just to avoid having to acknowledge the problem in the first place, let alone actually fix it, because doing so might cause offence/loss of face to whoever created the problem (unless they are gaijin, ie, foreigner, in which case it's perfectly ok to blame them for everything).

 

[ITZC0ATL]

FDev have - indirectly, via Galnet at the engineer base - now given an update on this.


After ~25,500 recorded rolls (thanks to everyone who contributed!), we have succeeded in getting Engines to the giddy heights of "5% complete" ... implying a target for an actual G2 upgrade of approximately 500,000 (half a million) rolls. This is a pretty clear explanation of why they're all still G1 at everything.

This is crazy. FDev can we please get a balancing pass on this for Q4 launch?

 

[waldgeist]

I also think the numbers are way too high.

I'd be willing to contribute to process if the numbers were a little bit more realistic, though.

Is there a chance that fdev will adapt this soon?
Or maybe even combine it with a cg?

 

[steampvnc1880]

From the patch notes for beta week 3:

"Engineers

Reduced the grade thresholds of the Colonia engineers"

 

[waldgeist]

Good news.

I hope FD has included observations about traffic in colonia etc. in their thaughts to adapt the numbers.

Surely we colonians are up to a challenge, as long as it doesn't feel like fighting windmills or filling up an empty lake with a waterbottle which has a hole.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I've done some quick testing in Beta and the new targets seem fair - at least for G2. It would still be a lot of work for a lone individual to get a blueprint to G2, but a Colonia-sized group could get through them at a decent pace, and the two or three most popular blueprints should improve at a visible rate - if still relatively slowly - just through general use and people ranking up with the engineers.

So, many thanks to Frontier for this, and we'll pick up working on them in 3.3.

(Beta's actual totals don't reflect live at all - I suspect they're mostly a result of some internal FDev testing - so it's hard to predict exactly what's going to happen when it goes live, but I would expect us to get several G2 blueprints just on the basis of rolls carried out so far)

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I'm bringing back a ton of G5 engineered modules, plus blueprints.

It's part of the Travellers Last Act Of Defiance Tour. No DSS. 57 light year jumps.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I hope that at least Mel Brandon gets Engines to grade 2 with the new balancing. In time, he could be the best Engineer in the game with all the key modules he works on but I shudder to think how many player hours are spent on the engineering screen. I've decided to return to the Bubble for now but have put in another 585 mods for Engines with him (and 252 into heat sinks with Petra Olmanova and 302 into frag cannons with Marsha Hicks in the course of getting to grade 5 access with them). Good luck to everyone staying out in Colonia! o7

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I hope that at least Mel Brandon gets Engines to grade 2 with the new balancing.

Thanks for all the efforts!

From the tests I've done in Beta and the progress seen so far in live, I would expect at least the following to be at G2:
Mel Brandon: Engines, Beam Lasers, Pulse Lasers
Petra Olmanova: Armour, HRPs
Marsha Hicks: Collector Limpets, Multi-cannons
Etienne Dorn: -

...with of course time in the next few weeks for some more modules to get onto that list.

 

[Nutter]

I'm struggling with the concept of improving the engineers at Colonia. I visited there due to an emergency (I had no AMFU). I manged to pick up a couple of AMFUs and fit them to my ship, which is handy.

Whilst the engineers fitted my new hardware I thought I would see if I could tweek some of my modules with a bit of engineering. Well this is where I fail to see how these engineers will progress. All the engineers could offer were downgrades to my already engineered modules. So of course I have no need for their services. So I flew back to the bubble and got the work done there.

So my question is, why would anyone use the engineers? I can fly back to the bubble in the same time as it would take to collect the unlock requirements.

Why not make them grade 5 for one area and 1 for the rest? That way they would get used and then level up?

Nutter o7