Engineers I feel like I have to go for experimental effects on a good roll, but they do not seem that good

[Innocentius]

I have been busy upgrading my gear with engineers lately. Upgraded for the most of the fleet now: 5-6 G5 FSD, power distributors, power plants, shield boosters, shields, engines etc. And then I get to the weapons. SO many to upgrade and the experimental effects that I am "supposed to get" (at least in my own mind). I get a good roll and feel like I just cannot be bothered to use the anti-favor and lose rep with the engineer and then get those ranks back. That would be OK, if it was just 1 weapon, but when there are 20 weapons to upgrade, I really really cannot be bothered. And looking at the stats for the weapons, most of the upgrades have serious side effects also so I feel like I could maybe just skip them.

BUT will I regret it down the road? Are some of the experimental effects necessary? What do the rapid fire pulses really need? What about the overcharged MCs? PAs? Rail guns? (I did get plasma slug for those: really do not want to live with 30 ammo), bursts, beams... the list is just so long... [alien][alien][alien][alien][alien]

 

[BostromNZ]

I have been busy upgrading my gear with engineers lately. Upgraded for the most of the fleet now: 5-6 G5 FSD, power distributors, power plants, shield boosters, shields, engines etc. And then I get to the weapons. SO many to upgrade and the experimental effects that I am "supposed to get" (at least in my own mind). I get a good roll and feel like I just cannot be bothered to use the anti-favor and lose rep with the engineer and then get those ranks back. That would be OK, if it was just 1 weapon, but when there are 20 weapons to upgrade, I really really cannot be bothered. And looking at the stats for the weapons, most of the upgrades have serious side effects also so I feel like I could maybe just skip them.

BUT will I regret it down the road? Are some of the experimental effects necessary? What do the rapid fire pulses really need? What about the overcharged MCs? PAs? Rail guns? (I did get plasma slug for those: really do not want to live with 30 ammo), bursts, beams... the list is just so long... [alien][alien][alien][alien][alien]

I'm in the same boat, I started off buying special effects on good G5 rolls for my weapons but after a half a dozen or so and with so many to go, I just accept a good G5 roll now. At some stage once I've engineered my whole fleet I will probably head back and buy some special effects but I can't bring myself to rank back up right now. Engineers is such a huge undertaking that even thinking about having to re-rank up so many times makes me want to not play.

Only Bris Dekker to go. Praise the Braben.

 

[Innocentius]

Those are almost exactly my feelings, but there are new engineers coming all the time it seems and I should transfer some of my focus to them also I think. Just wish there was an engineer that would make lightweight sensors and life support I had almost all the engineers done at some point, but now after all the new ones in I still have Lori, Bill Turner, Bris Dekker, Ram Tah, The Sarge, Tiana Fortune (limpets... ) and Zacariah. Huoh. Bill Turner I will visit next to get my FAS up and running with some PAs. About the rest I really do not know if I want to see them at all.

 

[BostromNZ]

Those are almost exactly my feelings, but there are new engineers coming all the time it seems and I should transfer some of my focus to them also I think. Just wish there was an engineer that would make lightweight sensors and life support I had almost all the engineers done at some point, but now after all the new ones in I still have Lori, Bill Turner, Bris Dekker, Ram Tah, The Sarge, Tiana Fortune (limpets... ) and Zacariah. Huoh. Bill Turner I will visit next to get my FAS up and running with some PAs. About the rest I really do not know if I want to see them at all.

If you're going to Bill Turner make sure you're allied with the Alioth Independents faction first so you get the Alioth permit. They own a station called Fast Landing in Alcor that has multiple RESs. I found that the best way to gain rep as there were almost zero missions being given out.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

If I had the Storage capacity, I'd actually work to get me and try alot of Special Effects on various Weapons over time.

But with only 60 total, that'd seem completely futile.

 

[Aris_]

You don't have to roll all your weapons swap them between ships e.g if you use plasma in your fdl and your Annie use the same , you don't have to do 2 also to hrps , scb and utilities etc

 

[GammaZ]

There are at least some specials that are usefull, and getting rank back is not that hard, you just need a little bit of planning. Compared to time you need to find materials for few G5 rolls (to get a good one) 3 G3 and 3 G4 upgrades (the easiest ones engineer can do) are nothing.
Personally i still find 1 corrosive + all other incendiary the best multicannon configuration for PVE.
For beams, untill we have efficient, heat vent is a good way to avoid heat issues.
For bursts/pulses i usually go with scramble spectrum, it works on NPC-s and is at least partially usefull.
Rails with plasma slug are obvious.
PA-s have some nice specials related to disrupting enemy targeting...

But then... i am not trying to upgrade every ship i have... for now i have a pair of class 3 G5 efficient PA-s with specials, a pair of huge incendiary MC with G5 overcharge, one large corrosive MC with G5 overcharge.... and that's it. Other weapons (like heat vent beams or plasma slug rails) i did with some useless G1 upgrade just for special, which is easy.

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

I usually pay for EFX on most of my G5 rolls. I just roll as many G5 mods until I receive something decent (top 90 percentile for the primarily desired effect) and apply the desired experimental effect. One mining session in a Cutter will usually yield me two favours.

Once I run out of storage I just sell the least efficient ones. Upgraded 10 ships that way now and it's running smoothly.

 

[Madrax573]

I only look to do grd 1-3 engineer mods as the effort for higher is way more and I haven't found a real pressing need to go there yet. Well apart from some lvl 5 FSD builds.

I've 'spent' some rep on specific effects for a couple of builds but generally I'll take what I get if it's got decent stats for me.

 

[Codger]

I don't have as many weapons as you do.

Mostly I only really want to ensure Corrosive Shell on a multicannon or two, and maybe Incendiary Rounds. The various laser special effects aren't as important (for PVE anyway), to me.

So I do the rep dance for my multicannons, and that's about it.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

I have been busy upgrading my gear with engineers lately. Upgraded for the most of the fleet now: 5-6 G5 FSD, power distributors, power plants, shield boosters, shields, engines etc. And then I get to the weapons. SO many to upgrade and the experimental effects that I am "supposed to get" (at least in my own mind). I get a good roll and feel like I just cannot be bothered to use the anti-favor and lose rep with the engineer and then get those ranks back. That would be OK, if it was just 1 weapon, but when there are 20 weapons to upgrade, I really really cannot be bothered. And looking at the stats for the weapons, most of the upgrades have serious side effects also so I feel like I could maybe just skip them.

BUT will I regret it down the road? Are some of the experimental effects necessary? What do the rapid fire pulses really need? What about the overcharged MCs? PAs? Rail guns? (I did get plasma slug for those: really do not want to live with 30 ammo), bursts, beams... the list is just so long... [alien][alien][alien][alien][alien]

Some of the effects are definitly necessary.
For example at least one multicannon (or other) with corrosive shell. No matter what!! It doubles your damage against hull, even if applied to a class 1 mount it will help you a lot.
On the opposite, for beamlasers there is only 1 experimental effect that can be useful when flying in a wing (heal beam) but all other effects i try to avoid. The penalty is just too much for what they do (at least in PvE)

There are still some other 'must-haves' but they depend heavily on what you wanna do. PvE or PvP? Some other effects should be avoided (these one that apply Jitter, it makes the weapon as same useless like the stormtrooper rifles )

 

[Klab]

I don't think it's necessary to have a special effect for every weapon on your ship. Personally I pick what I think is going to be important, and the rest I just take a good G5 roll. For example, I really wanted a long range healing beam so I used a favour for it, likewise for the G5 overcharged MC's (corrosive) the other 4 fixed pulses I settled with a G5 efficient upgrade. Can always go back and get something if it is needed later anyway.