Improve and Upgrade Module Stats?

[DaggerSnake]

I was watching the Dev stream from last Thursday and really liked the new expanded outfitting screen. One thing I really liked was the expanded list of stats and variables that we are getting.

Everyone seems really focused on the weapon mods that add new effects, but looking at the news letter...

'The Engineers (2.1) is the next huge update in the Elite Dangerous: Horizons season of expansions, which adds Loot and Crafting, the Engineers themselves and other tweaks that add a new dynamic to the way you approach every aspect of Elite Dangerous. Improve and upgrade the stats on every module of your ship, and add rare, experimental effects to your weapons, such as the two shown below.'

I haven't seen a lot about loot and crafting, but are we going to be able to start tweaking all these numbers? It will basically allow so many different random combos, there will not even be a "meta". Everyone's ship will be unique. You can grind up to the same Tanked Railed FDL as everyone else, but there will be subtle little tweaks here and there that you may not have randomly gotten with loot and crafting. They may have slightly more penetration or damage to their rails with more heat. You may have just that little extra thrust or slightly faster recharge to engines from your power distributor. They may have a tiny bit more pitch thrust on theirs. I have no idea.

I'm excited to learn more about how we can make our ships all unique.

 

[Thetele]

We will always have meta. 1 week after 2.1 hit live servers new meta will be in place. If something is better everyone will get to it. Tweaking numbers doesn't mean that we get a lot of unique ships because players will tweak same way to get the best build. FDev won't make it so that you can't get access to all upgrades you want. If tweaks are random (rng) players will just re-roll or craft again until they get the best combo. Don't worry there will always be the meta.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I wondered this too. I'd love to increase cargo capacity (within reason), upgrade stock armours, increase engine speed etc. Even if its small things, like you say it makes your ship 'yours'.

 

[Derath]

The only way to avoid a meta is make a system complicated enough that people take different approaches to it, however even that only delays it, there is basically a time coefficient between patch changes and the optimum build and depending on the complexity of the patch changes how long it takes.

However sometimes things end up being the norm when they aren't the best too, primarily when the playerbase isn't particularly motivated to be at their best. I'm not entirely convinced the current meta is the best setup I just think its what we have. If you dislike that just run whatever you want if your any kind of pilot you will still beat a majority of players anyway