But that's one of the reasons why I think those tools change our perception of the game. You know it can be easy to find those modules, so looking for them longer than necessary seems like a drag, but if you change your approach, then it's slightly different thing. Like in Odyssey now - I don't think there are tools to help me find modified Grade3 suits and weapons (except people leaving notes on forum threads), so if I want to find something, I need to search for it - I can make it my main objective and get frustrated, or just look around while doing other things.
When it comes to trade, those tools skew player perception, because everything is about most efficient way to earn millions per hour. When flying without them, there's broader selection of opportunities that player might find interesting, simply because he might be not aware of META around corner.
FWIW, I think the pre-engineered Ody gear is a good example of a well-done difficulty curve, for the following reasons:
1.) I don't need engineered gear to do CZs, even high intensity CZs. (Let's not talk about missions for right now, heh)
2.) Almost any outpost you go to has a decent chance of having something useful, even if it's not the thing you're precisely looking for.
3.) Basic engineered gear without mods is still overall better than base gear.
So yeah, you still have to do some shopping around, but I feel like the rate of return is pretty good for the time spent. And I like that it gives me a specific reason to visit outposts vs. large stations when I'm traveling. Honestly, I kinda wish there were RNG G1-G3 ship modules available this same way.
As regards the tools changing people's perceptions of the game... I don't know, it seems to me like there's a chicken and egg thing going on. Early players of ED made those tools and were supported by the community precisely because there was widespread sentiment that parts of the game were more obtuse than they needed to be. I sincerely believe it was bound to happen. New players get the benefit of that, and yeah, it means they don't have the experience those early players had.
But like, in the absence of those tools, I don't think we'd have a lot of new people coming in and going, "Oh, this is supposed to be hard because it's a sim!" and just living with that. Like, I think people use the tools precisely because they see what the game is "supposed" to be like and reject that for whatever reason.
So, case in point, I mentioned earlier I got back into the game because a couple friends of mine wanted to get into it. I can tell you for sure that if I'd left them to their own devices and been like, "have fun with the tutorial, let me know when you know what you're doing so we can play together," we'd be short two CMDRs right now. Instead I sent them a Google doc with a bunch of info resources, websites, etc.
So now, we've got a healthy pair of mid-game players, one of whom has done even way more engineering than I have, Guardian tech unlocks, etc., and may be an overall better Elite player than I ever have been.
I gotta say, if my choice is between "let the difficulty curve cull whomever it culls" and "use all the websites so I can have in-game friends," like... I'll take the latter, any day.
