Pretty simple really: the higher you go, the higher the chance of failure.
Back long ago, ED had more severe malfunctions (rando firing weapons etc) which made life much more interesting when the sparks started flying. These have been toned down but I miss how they would make situations much more chaotic.
Now, with the introduction of engineering to me at least this is like taking your CPU and overclocking it- you take your i9 A grade module and push it incrementally upwards. But, should each step up come with the increased chance of a temporary glitch or two?
This then makes engineering on its own risky the more you push. In this way it acts as a brake on blanket G5 grades, makes lower grades an option and vanilla modules not a death sentence.
Examples:
OC powerplant: high grades allow many ships to be loaded with anything but with MRPs, shields etc being what they are the fragility is not often an issue, what would life be like if G5 had a 5% chance of random power delivery? It could go 50%, 70% or nothing for a few seconds. Would this make lower grade engineering more popular because it is more reliable? And if you don't care or want maximum powah you take the risk anyway (and occasionally get caught out?). Experimentals like double braced might then have stats to limit this failure rate as a bonus rather than monstered which might make it worse again).
Weapons: OC or SRB (i.e. massive increases in DPS)- should they have surges and misfires that take a second or so to clear?
Long range FSD: the higher the grade, the more chance of glitches that either reboot or delay the module when engaged? This would then put more emphasis on Guardian FSD boosters, neutron jumping / synthesis because the highest grade FSD engineering is on the edge of reliability (which again could be attenuated by experimental effects that mitigate failure instead of hitting mass manager or deep charge which might make things worse).
Dirty Drives: these are so good, everyone has them. But, according to the description these have all safeties removed. Ships are now stupidly fast- what if dirty drives occasionally stopped working? All that potential speed could also be lethal in a battle. Perhaps chain boost might lead to an inevitable stall. You might then offer clean drives which don't suffer from this with the penalty of lower speeds.
Sensors: at max G4 or at G5 they glitch (a bit like Thargoid / Lagrange cloud lightning interference) occasionally.
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Together these then make full on G5 ships proper 'hot rods' on the edge of performance but also reliability. It (to me anyway) is a sensible route to reducing the god status of G5 without taking it away because reliability becomes a factor. Its power is still there, it just comes at a price that sits outside MRPs, thick shields etc. I know its RNG, but it throws in a new factor that adds complexity to situations- a G5 big balls pirate might wind up with a powerplant glitch that allows the trader to escape or fight back, a duel between a G5 hot rod and a G3 ship would be more even... the G5 might win if all his systems work reliably with no misfires but the G3 guy knows that he can rely 100% on his ship and weapons. Over time it might lead to G5 being less common, and gently reign in the outright power creep we see.
Back long ago, ED had more severe malfunctions (rando firing weapons etc) which made life much more interesting when the sparks started flying. These have been toned down but I miss how they would make situations much more chaotic.
Now, with the introduction of engineering to me at least this is like taking your CPU and overclocking it- you take your i9 A grade module and push it incrementally upwards. But, should each step up come with the increased chance of a temporary glitch or two?
This then makes engineering on its own risky the more you push. In this way it acts as a brake on blanket G5 grades, makes lower grades an option and vanilla modules not a death sentence.
Examples:
OC powerplant: high grades allow many ships to be loaded with anything but with MRPs, shields etc being what they are the fragility is not often an issue, what would life be like if G5 had a 5% chance of random power delivery? It could go 50%, 70% or nothing for a few seconds. Would this make lower grade engineering more popular because it is more reliable? And if you don't care or want maximum powah you take the risk anyway (and occasionally get caught out?). Experimentals like double braced might then have stats to limit this failure rate as a bonus rather than monstered which might make it worse again).
Weapons: OC or SRB (i.e. massive increases in DPS)- should they have surges and misfires that take a second or so to clear?
Long range FSD: the higher the grade, the more chance of glitches that either reboot or delay the module when engaged? This would then put more emphasis on Guardian FSD boosters, neutron jumping / synthesis because the highest grade FSD engineering is on the edge of reliability (which again could be attenuated by experimental effects that mitigate failure instead of hitting mass manager or deep charge which might make things worse).
Dirty Drives: these are so good, everyone has them. But, according to the description these have all safeties removed. Ships are now stupidly fast- what if dirty drives occasionally stopped working? All that potential speed could also be lethal in a battle. Perhaps chain boost might lead to an inevitable stall. You might then offer clean drives which don't suffer from this with the penalty of lower speeds.
Sensors: at max G4 or at G5 they glitch (a bit like Thargoid / Lagrange cloud lightning interference) occasionally.
-----
Together these then make full on G5 ships proper 'hot rods' on the edge of performance but also reliability. It (to me anyway) is a sensible route to reducing the god status of G5 without taking it away because reliability becomes a factor. Its power is still there, it just comes at a price that sits outside MRPs, thick shields etc. I know its RNG, but it throws in a new factor that adds complexity to situations- a G5 big balls pirate might wind up with a powerplant glitch that allows the trader to escape or fight back, a duel between a G5 hot rod and a G3 ship would be more even... the G5 might win if all his systems work reliably with no misfires but the G3 guy knows that he can rely 100% on his ship and weapons. Over time it might lead to G5 being less common, and gently reign in the outright power creep we see.
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. The chance has to be outside damage thresholds (i.e. a base value baked into that blueprint) to make it random enough to make people think. It may never happen to you, or, it might happen once or twice to keep you on your toes.