Thanks to not all of the Elite community being rich enough to get the Horizons expansion on a dime, the game's MMO (not so much MSO) aspects such as Open Play have quickly and obviously become pay-to-play. Due to this, nearly everyone who does not have access to the ability to come into contact with engineers and boost aspects of their modules, normally those that are pertinent to the PVP spectrum, are compelled to stay in Solo Play or group servers. Thankfully, not all hope is lost, as with the release of Horizons, the ability to synthesize upgrades of varying degree of efficiency based on materials used has been given to all CMDRs. Although some of these upgrades are temporary (and the ammo synthesized to higher damage output than defaulted by resupplying through a station is limited to your self sufficiency), this does open the window for willing CMDRs who can't afford Horizons, but want to stay in Open Play and try to be on par with a ship whom has been expensively engineered.
SADLY, acquiring materials without the Horizons expansion is more than frustrating and tedious. The wanting to stay on the same level as an identical ship whom has been engineered to its max potential in the absence of the Horizons expansion is a pipe dream to say the least. Therefore, the acquirement of materials that normally would have been tens of times easier with the ability to scour the surfaces of planets should equally have spatial locations of harvest in lieu of players without Horizons whom have been indefinitely teased with syntheses they may never have the chance to use as a feature.
SADLY, acquiring materials without the Horizons expansion is more than frustrating and tedious. The wanting to stay on the same level as an identical ship whom has been engineered to its max potential in the absence of the Horizons expansion is a pipe dream to say the least. Therefore, the acquirement of materials that normally would have been tens of times easier with the ability to scour the surfaces of planets should equally have spatial locations of harvest in lieu of players without Horizons whom have been indefinitely teased with syntheses they may never have the chance to use as a feature.
