Engineers I see 3 options... what do you prefer?

[body count]

I don't really care. I'm done with this. After spending more then 4 hours searching the planet for a specific material (and it is on it) and not finding it I'm done. I got better things to do then working my ass off for few rocky fragments to get        at the end by rng, while 250mil credits is totaly useless. 15 years ago I've played lineage II which was a hardcore grind, but my god, elite's far worse. Actually I've probably played majority of AA/AAA games rated over 78 in last 15 years or tried them out, but I haven't seen such a disgusting mixture of unnecessary complications, bad descriptions, missions, shallow gameplay and so much grind in any of them. And let me not get into the controls for this game.        g lock on which is a        g plane simulation has less keys then elite.

 

[RealNC]

I'd like the Engineer mods to work like RPG stats in other games. You get two sets of points to distribute. Positive points and negative points. For every positive point, you need to also apply a negative one.

Easy, simple and makes sense.

If you want to make a mod with less resources, then you could have RNG results. If you only have half the materials needed for a "safe" mod, then you can still try and modify your module, but there's a chance the result might be suboptimal. There's been MMOs in the past that did that; you can use a safe recipe where you need the full set of materials, or a risky recipe where you need less but have a risk of failure.

Also, Engineers should be able to remove the modifications from your modules (for a price.) They're "engineers" dammit; they know how to do it.

 

[House0fDerp]

To me the most balanced method seems to be a preset effect for each upgrade. That said the best from a personal perspective is being able to determine the outcome and tailor it to what you specifically want.

 

[Tikigod]

I didn't vote because my opinion is not covered by the 3 options.
I want a fixed total value for all outcomes, but variation: i.e. you get:

- (1) more mass but more improvement module
- (2) less mass but less improvement to module
- but never (3) more mass and less improvement to module

The way I understand it works now is that (3) is possible. It shouldn't be. All level 1 mods should have the same total improvement factor, all level 2 mods the same, somewhat higher, overall improvement factor, etc.

A little RNG in my opinion is fine, so long as it's fair and balanced.

The base values are all balanced, there's a relationship between the positive stats and the negative, so if a positive rolls high than it's corresponding negative attribute will roll lower in relation to how high the positive was.

The only thing that breaks this relationship are the possible secondary effects you can roll after which increase or decrease one specific stat.

 

[Lord Momo]

RNG!

- Without it, you have what you have - no need to try any more, your optimum is reached. Done! Endgame achieved. (Okay, a reset is still fun...)
- With RNG, there is a long-lasting incentive to keep playing (even with an advanced commander). There will be always the chance to get an (even slightly better) result.
- A bad RNG roll can be tried again - a good one will last "forever".
- There is no light without shadow. How can anybody feel the triumph of an awesome RNG roll without the "threat" of failure?
=> Whenever you'll look at this one, awesome "wow"-equipment, you'll know that this is something special and a reason of rejoice! Droping RNG will steal this feeling from us and the game would be poorer because of it!

I guess I just whole heartedly disagree with you on what is fun. Personally I hate gambling real life and in games. When I lose I feel like I was robbed, when I win I feel like I did nothing to earn it.

Please make it based off skill, if you want to make it hard fine, but please don't make me play roulette every time I want to upgrade my weapon. If you enjoy gambling fine, but personally it makes it much harder for me to enjoy the update because I want to play the new content and upgrade my gear, but it is very unenjoyable if I am forced to gamble if I want to do that. I would get much more happiness if I saw my awesome piece of equipment and said "wow I worked really hard to get that and did something challenging." compared to "I rolled a 100 and got it"

Edit: The threat of failure could be the engineers give really hard missions and if you mess up you lose rep and can't make the grade 5 module for a little while, triumph without rng.