While I continue to play this game, I can't help but notice what I regard, in my own opinion (ie not pretending everyone thinks this way), is a serious design issue with Odyssey engineering.
On one hand you have a major fault with Odyssey engineering where you are not allowed to remove or re-apply different engineering mods to suits and weapons; and on the other hand you have a system that now allows people to gather Odyssey engineering mats by simply purchasing them. I propose that both of these systems devalue the associated Odyssey engineering game-play because the primary problem is with the inability to alter suit and weapon engineering mods and now the purchasing of Odyssey materials appears to be a quick fix for the issue that does not address the core problem but instead undermines the whole relationship between engineering and materials.
If we look back at the launch of Horizons ship engineering, the major problem with the initial implementation was the randomised outcomes of blueprints, however a lot of people reported initially that the issue was with the difficulty gathering mats (just like they are now doing with Odyssey). While Frontier did implement ways to make it somewhat easier to gather these Horizons mats, they eventually realised that the main issue was in fact the result of randomised outcomes for engineering blueprints, not necessarily the material gathering. They fixed this by making Horizons blueprints deterministic instead of semi-random. I propose that this initial same issue is present within Odyssey engineering but in a slightly different way. What I essentially mean is that it is the 'destination' that is the problem, not the 'journey'.
Just like Horizons initially, I propose that the real problem with Odyssey is not material gathering but instead the process of applying engineering because not being able to replace suit and weapon mods leads to an exponential grind for materials as well as making experimentation difficult on a grade 5 item. Now, instead of fixing this, they have essentially devalued the material gathering game-loop by allowing commanders (and especially new commanders) to simply bypass the whole process and purchase them. Due to money being easily made very quickly, along with the application of INARA, this is concerning.
While no one is forcing me to purchase mats instead of gathering them traditionally, I still point out that instead of correctly analysing the actual problem, Frontier have simply created a bigger one and in the process devalued Odyssey engineering.
I would also add that the ability to purchase pre-upgraded suits and weapons (with potential random mods) does in itself recognise that the issue is the non-removability of engineering mods by trying to apply a 'fix' while not addressing the key problem. Meaning that they try to make it easier for you to bypass the actual problem without addressing the actual problem.
In my opinion the combination of the above two issues undermines Odyssey in a serious way and my response to this is not to engage with Odyssey engineering, other than to upgrade my suits and weapons to Grade 5. I will engage with Odyssey engineering when I have the full ability to experiment with the application of a combination of mods in my grade 5 suits and weapons. This will then allow me to build and mod other Grade 5 suits for different purposes with confidence.
On one hand you have a major fault with Odyssey engineering where you are not allowed to remove or re-apply different engineering mods to suits and weapons; and on the other hand you have a system that now allows people to gather Odyssey engineering mats by simply purchasing them. I propose that both of these systems devalue the associated Odyssey engineering game-play because the primary problem is with the inability to alter suit and weapon engineering mods and now the purchasing of Odyssey materials appears to be a quick fix for the issue that does not address the core problem but instead undermines the whole relationship between engineering and materials.
If we look back at the launch of Horizons ship engineering, the major problem with the initial implementation was the randomised outcomes of blueprints, however a lot of people reported initially that the issue was with the difficulty gathering mats (just like they are now doing with Odyssey). While Frontier did implement ways to make it somewhat easier to gather these Horizons mats, they eventually realised that the main issue was in fact the result of randomised outcomes for engineering blueprints, not necessarily the material gathering. They fixed this by making Horizons blueprints deterministic instead of semi-random. I propose that this initial same issue is present within Odyssey engineering but in a slightly different way. What I essentially mean is that it is the 'destination' that is the problem, not the 'journey'.
Just like Horizons initially, I propose that the real problem with Odyssey is not material gathering but instead the process of applying engineering because not being able to replace suit and weapon mods leads to an exponential grind for materials as well as making experimentation difficult on a grade 5 item. Now, instead of fixing this, they have essentially devalued the material gathering game-loop by allowing commanders (and especially new commanders) to simply bypass the whole process and purchase them. Due to money being easily made very quickly, along with the application of INARA, this is concerning.
While no one is forcing me to purchase mats instead of gathering them traditionally, I still point out that instead of correctly analysing the actual problem, Frontier have simply created a bigger one and in the process devalued Odyssey engineering.
I would also add that the ability to purchase pre-upgraded suits and weapons (with potential random mods) does in itself recognise that the issue is the non-removability of engineering mods by trying to apply a 'fix' while not addressing the key problem. Meaning that they try to make it easier for you to bypass the actual problem without addressing the actual problem.
In my opinion the combination of the above two issues undermines Odyssey in a serious way and my response to this is not to engage with Odyssey engineering, other than to upgrade my suits and weapons to Grade 5. I will engage with Odyssey engineering when I have the full ability to experiment with the application of a combination of mods in my grade 5 suits and weapons. This will then allow me to build and mod other Grade 5 suits for different purposes with confidence.
