Make engineering better initiative (MEBI)

[RearJake100]

Greetings Commanders, I am writing this to ask for your help you guys are seriously awesome and I am sure you can help! So give me a bit off your time. (If you are short on time TLDR; at the bottom and thank you for stopping by)

Backstory
A little introduction I've been playing elite for about 2 months. I picked up the game during a sale and I fell in love , I clocked in about 320 hours to date. I love a lot about this game but I am starting to equally hate a lot (mainly engineering). I also have the sneaking suspicion that many of you do too !
I will try to keep this post as short and to the point as possible. Also, I want to emphasize that everything I say is with utmost respect to the developers and community and in no way meant to offend or be inflammatory.

The problem
In my humble opinion, Engineering is a massive grind and totally unbalanced/broken but It is also fun and provides a sort of meaningful progression.
Moreover, Frontier developments got their hands full with odyssey at the moment and given that I have basically zero knowledge about the inner workings of the company. But the state of the live game reflects a game on a skeleton crew/ life support/minimal support whatever you like to call it.
I want to play the game and have fun and try new , varied and fun builds in PVP/ PVE. I want to become a better pilot and learn to fly with FA off or not suck with Plasma accelerators. Basically, just have meaningful and rewarding game play that keeps me engaged through personal improvement or community engagement but I am always roadblocked by the game's true final boss ENGINEERING GRIND. As a result, I am starting to dread logging into the game.

Proposed solution
Decrease the number of rolls for all grades of engineering needed by 33%.
For example instead of G1-G5 taking Z rolls just have it be Z - (Z x 0.33)

Reasoning
In my opinion, I think this is a small change that would not strain the developers and won't take massive development time to implement but would be a noticeable QoL improvement to the players. It can be a short term solution that may on the long run convince the developers to have an in-depth look in balancing this major game play aspect. Maybe, with odyssey that is what is happening but that's at least 6 months away.
Proposed Plan of Action
Alone, I am nothing more than a random CMDR on the internet with a Forum post. But, together united as a community we can be a voice for change and improvement. From what I read it happened before and it sure can happen again.
I am unsure on what is the best way to reach out to the developers. But, I know for sure I will need the help of as many commanders as possible to spread the word.
If you are a community creator help spread the word to your followers. If you are in a discord server spread the word. If you are a squadron leader spread the word. If you have friends in game spread the word. If you are a Reddit user spread the word. If you are a community manager or developer help us have Fun.

Appreciation
I would like to use this space to thank the community of CMDRs for their amazing support to new players (special thanks to the new pilots initiative). Thank you to all the 3rd party developers who make the game easier/ better to play. Thank you to all the community creators who devote time to educate/entertain. Thank you to all the developers/community managers who help make and maintain an amazing game.
Regards,
A concerned commander

TLDR;
Engineering is too pointlessly grindy, restrictive and boring decrease the total required Rolls by 33%. Help the game become better by decreasing the grind please spread the word.

 

[gorankar]

Going to be honest. I know the ship has already sailed, but I think they should have stopped at G2 level of engineering. But that aside. While you want to make it even easier, I wish it was more difficult and offered less benefit. They have made it easier several times already. To the point anyone can have G5 everything with very little effort or time spent once the engineers have been unlocked.
Was a time when you only got one mat instead of 3. Though there was also a very short time when it was 6, but that came to an end quickly. Was a time you needed commodities in addition to mats/data. Was a time when the rolls were truly random, and didn't always go up every time. Was a time there were no material traders and you had to really look for that one bit you needed but did not have. I think they have made it easy enough already. Engineers are prolly the only real progression left in the game. It's the one of the few things you can't just buy with Cr.

Besides, once unlocked to G5 and pinned, up to G4 engineering is easy. We are talking 6-9 rolls from nothing to 80%-100% G4. It's only grindy the first time to G5, trying to G5 everything, or if you are trying to engineer multiple ships. A lot of people try to G5 everything on a ship, and like A rating everything, it is usually pretty pointless. I will G5 my FSD. I rarely bother to go past G3 or 4 on anything else that is not some edge build. Like exploration or AX.

If you know how to use inara, and corriolis, it is also already pretty trivial to get the mats/data you need for engineering. If you want to grind efficiently, and spend the least time at it as possible, there is Dav's/HGEs for manufactured, the Crystaline shards for raw, and the Jameson crash site for data. Hit them up, and then hit up a trader to get what you need, and you are done. It does not take long either. Or just play normally. You will get data from scanning ships/wakes/stations or as mission rewards, mfg mats from destroyed ships, mission rewards, and emissions, and raws from laser mining. It's already easy.

 

[metatheurgist]

Engineering is only grindy is you insist on 100% G5 everything. That is a choice. It may be an imposed choice because you "need" to pvp, but it's still a choice. G3 engineering is quite casual. G4 pretty easy to come by naturally.

 

[RamirezKurita]

I'd argue that engineering has already gone far too far towards making itself trivial to do. Between the material traders, remote workshops and the non-random nature of the current engineering system, engineering is trivial to the point where a maxed out G5 ship is considered normal, as opposed to the culmination of a players career. Dedicated players used to aspire to having even just a couple of god rolls on a single ship rather than having a whole fleet of galaxy-leading performance ships.

Engineering seems to quickly be going the way of credits as far as I can see - a trivial step in the pursuit of end-game performance, rather than an undertaking in its own right.

 

[Kimosabe_X]

In short : no thx !

It's already easy enough with nearly a fixed amount of rolls per grade and material traders