Ever notice that "tuning" service that a lot of stations have? AFAIK, that's a legacy thing from something or other, and doesn't actually do anything?
What if it did? Give stations the ability to do rank 1 engineering, for money. ALL engineering still uses the same materials/data.
Engineering: Works as current, except ALL engineers gain the ability to do level 1 mods to all modules. Grade 2-5 distribution and unlocking, unchanged.
Pros:
"Tuning" service at NPC stations: Grade 1 engineering on all modules, for material+credit cost.
Pros:
This would allow easy access to basic ship tuning, to everyone. Engineer unlocks open up the higher grades. This would creep the power up a little, but since most people use G5 rolls for most things ANYWAY, not too terribly. It just moves the baseline up somewhat, and could result in newer players getting their feet wet engineering Sidewinders and such.
What if it did? Give stations the ability to do rank 1 engineering, for money. ALL engineering still uses the same materials/data.
Engineering: Works as current, except ALL engineers gain the ability to do level 1 mods to all modules. Grade 2-5 distribution and unlocking, unchanged.
Pros:
- No monetary cost. (Your cost of admission is upfront, however you unlocked the engineer, they provide basic supplies free.)
- Grade 2-5 access, ability to customize special effects on weapons.
- Travel time, you have to fly there and land on a planet.
- That initial unlock.
"Tuning" service at NPC stations: Grade 1 engineering on all modules, for material+credit cost.
Pros:
- Accessibility, you can do grade 1 mods anytime, many places.
- Money cost, PER ROLL. Say, 1000cr per size, per roll. So a size 5 item costs 5000cr each time you roll the dice in an NPC station. Small ships should be cheap to roll a few times, large ships and hundreds of rolls should be a little pricey. This is the station charging you for basic materials. (But not THAT pricey, because people can just fly to engineers.)
- Limited to grade 1.
This would allow easy access to basic ship tuning, to everyone. Engineer unlocks open up the higher grades. This would creep the power up a little, but since most people use G5 rolls for most things ANYWAY, not too terribly. It just moves the baseline up somewhat, and could result in newer players getting their feet wet engineering Sidewinders and such.
