Engineers No point in engaging with Engineers for at least a month?

[Knightshark]

So they'll remove commodities for good. That's very(!) fine, but it won't happen until the new year - the end of the beta.
So at this moment it is quite a waste of time to grind the commodities and level with engineers if it will be much less painful soon. Hmm, i wish they could squeeze the commodity removal into the game earlier.

 

[Weps]

I don't know, I have not been bothered by commodities until now. Usually it involved me planning to see an engineer, making a detour to some place where the commodities are sold, filling up my hold then continuing to the engineer.

In some cases I did need mission specific commodities, but I would just pick up the missions which give them.

Must be the fact that I didn't try to get perfect rolls and I just picked the best roll I got from 4, or 8, or 12 tries, depending on how many commodities I had. And even with mission specific commodities, a lot of the times the bottleneck was some rare mat and not the commodity (where are my exquisite focus crystals!!!).

So to conclude, I personally don't care that much either way.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I don't know, I have not been bothered by commodities until now. Usually it involved me planning to see an engineer, making a detour to some place where the commodities are sold, filling up my hold then continuing to the engineer.

In some cases I did need mission specific commodities, but I would just pick up the missions which give them.

Must be the fact that I didn't try to get perfect rolls and I just picked the best roll I got from 4, or 8, or 12 tries, depending on how many commodities I had. And even with mission specific commodities, a lot of the times the bottleneck was some rare mat and not the commodity (where are my exquisite focus crystals!!!).

So to conclude, I personally don't care that much either way.

Normally, I have tried to only use level 1 upgrades, just for those reasons.

There was no point in going beyond Level 3 in most cases. The disadvantages were too great.

 

[Sylow]

Actually i use a number of grade 4 and 5 modifications. A lot of the commodities can be bought or mined, so they can be collected in a fast and reliable way, very much unlike some of the materials, which are hidden behind a very painful wall of "you can only get it if you know where and then still need a lucky roll to actually get it.
.
So if you can get the data and material for higher grade modifications, the commodities are very often not the problem. Some of them are a pain in a specific body part, but for many it's actually not that bad, just fly to the right station, buy it and off you go.
.

 

[Mikey2305]

I agree that obtaining and storing commodities has not been an issue for me. I think its a huge shame that The Devs have given in to pressure over what I regard as absorbing and challenging gameplay. But im sure i will get over it as the votes have been counted and the deed is done.

I will make a point of finishing off all the current engineers to level 5 using current game mechanics and before the great dumbing down day arrives...

I was getting quite well known at a couple of stations... hey mikey, here for some more CMM composites mate, or can i interest you in another batch of magnetic emitter doodahs?

 

[Shadowdancer]

You have the choice of getting and using upgrades now, or wait and get them more conveniently later.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

well you still need the materials so if you are focusing on one ship do it now, if you want to engineer for many ships then build your material catalog and do the unlocks now but engineer the mods later.

 

[Knightshark]

You have the choice of getting and using upgrades now, or wait and get them more conveniently later.

Yes, that's essentially what i was saying. I consider getting the commodities a chore, and i lost a lot of progress lately because i naively though "oh cz! let's give this ship a spinn! ... then died in 3 seconds". But yeah, of course there is no reason to wait. It;s more a dilemma, get the module i want now but work for it or wait and get it more conveniently.

 

[Mephane]

No point in engaging with Engineers for at least a month?

At this point I'd extend this idea: don't engineer anything that does not have

* Grade 5 blueprints (unless it is one of the few blueprints where grade 1 is often fine, e.g. overcharged power plant)
* Experimental effects

Anything currently lacking grade 5 blueprints is likely to get them eventually, and the effort for grade 5 is often not that different from grade 3, while the stats are much better. And experimental effects have been mentioned to be planned for non-weapon modules, e.g. shields, FSD etc. So one would be best served waiting with these upgrades, too.

I have been collecting materials for some increase FSD range rolls recently to improve mine, but that is now on hold. I won't put even more hours into it when it is likely that the rolls will be obsolete once there are also experimentals for the module.

 

[Weps]

At this point I'd extend this idea: don't engineer anything that does not have

* Grade 5 blueprints (unless it is one of the few blueprints where grade 1 is often fine, e.g. overcharged power plant)
* Experimental effects

Very much this. I'm trying to build a blockade runner and was very much interested in an engine focused power distributor only to find out that the max grade charge enhanced one offers better recharge capabilities, and for all capacitors at that! I see no point now in doing either, and will just have to wait for the grade 5 engine one to be released...

 

[metatheurgist]

Nah, I'm all engineered up. I'll take advantage of not taking commodities to Palin though.

 

[Mikey2305]

If I had to do modular terminals and unknown fragments then everyone should be made to!

 

[PhanttoM]

So they'll remove commodities for good. That's very(!) fine, but it won't happen until the new year - the end of the beta.
So at this moment it is quite a waste of time to grind the commodities and level with engineers if it will be much less painful soon. Hmm, i wish they could squeeze the commodity removal into the game earlier.

I wont go quite that far - I'll simply stick to upgrades where the commodities can be bought.

 

[Elprez]

Do we know how it will change? Will we simply be able to do the upgrades with 3 existing materials/data or will a fourth material or data be needed instead of the commodity.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

As I only get the commodity when I need it, it would make any difference to me.

 

[CMDR-AD]

I think I want a reinforced shield on my Beluga, and pretty sure I can buy that Commodity when I'm out in that neighborhood on other business. So I'll likely do that if/when I'm out that way again, rather than waiting a month.

 

[Mikey2305]

Just got myself a huge A4 laser for annie and wanted to mod it and needed magnetic emitter coils. Which are sold around leesti, so i thought i would pop in at lave while up there to get some brandy for Didi. Luckily they are in boom so got 2x24 to finish her off and got her levelled up to 3. Took the opportunity to go to george lucas which is also in boom so lots of rares. Then whizzed them down to fujin for a tidy profit on 60 t of rares then got some tea to take to broo. Finally stopped at a refinery for some golld and back to tutuma for the CG, still top 10% before logging off. Quite an interesting and varied evening methinks. Yup, you can wait a month if you wish. I will have fun with engineers today

 

[Deleted member 38366]

A few days ago I purchased a load of Magnetic Emitter coils and headed for the Engineer System.
Docked at the nearby Station, I transferred 9 other Ships to my location.

Then I chain-modded a total of 10 Ships at that Engineer

IMHO working Engineers have become sufficiently workable, provided the ENG Cargo needed is available. Ship transfers can help all that, if the spare Credits are available to do it that way.

PS.
Since the ENG Cargo storage seems to be limted to Engineer places, I guess the benefit will be rather limited. Plus, the delivery trips still need to be made.
When I'm forced to travel to an Engineer, heck I might as well take a Ship I want to mod there anyway.
At best, I'd use such an Engineer-located Cargo Storage for any unusued stuff I got left over after doing my mods.

 

[CMDR R SWIPE]

I'm currently getting ready to upgrade about 10 cannons of various flavors. I bought them all with an Anaconda (since they range from Huge to Small), and stored them, which I'll transfer to Sarge when I get there. That said, I usually use the Anaconda for engineering trips. You can fit anything on it that'd fit on any other ship (as far as I saw). So you can just buy lesser class equipment, store it, and then transfer to the engineer.

Currently going around picking up the commodities (Ive got tons of the materials needed). The only drawback, which apparently will be resolved, is that the CMM composites (needed to re-level engineers after "buying" favors*) and Reinforced Mounting Plates (needed for all G5 Overcharged mods), are only available at outposts, thus, no L pads.

So I found a shipyard in a neighboring system, and bought a Type 6, whose sole purpose is to jump one system away and buy the commodities. Transfer back into the Anaconda, and go on my way.

I've got all the commodity locations bookmarked, so it's pretty simple.

For the time being, I'm using a couple of stationed Type 6s for this purpose. They're only about a mil cr each, so it's not that big of a deal. If this next update removes the commodities, I'll just sell them.

But as I'm buying other ships I want to try out (FDL/FAS, etc), I'll keep those around, since a lot of the mods from engineers I like/want, require the same materials/commodities.

*I'm too impatient to try 20 rolls on a single weapon to get lucky and get High Yield and/or Corrosive shell, so I just do the favor thing, then re-level. It takes a little planning, especially if you want to do it a few times (or 6). So I get all the stuff around for G3 and G4 upgrades to get back to G5.

I've spent the better part of the last two months, doing nothing else than Engineer stuff (unlocking them, leveling them all up). There are only two left to unlock, and one requires the Shinrarta pass (Lori, only want the SCB mods)... The other one is Bris, which has nothing I really care about.


I'm actually having a fair amount of fun trying/modding different weapons and combinations. I've got various rapid fire and overcharged pulse lasers, with different side effects on them, same with Multi cannons and Railguns.

You're given 60 storage slots, I think I'm at 40 (still storing a half dozen Shield Boosters, waiting for a ship to put them in), of which probably half are weapons. Once something's modded, it gets transferred back to my "home" base, where I mix and match them on a Python/Anaconda for field testing. If there's something I don't particularly like, it gets re-engineered into something else.

In the last couple weeks, I've gotten really focused on the mods I think are useful, or at the very least, what I think are worth a try. As such, the materials and data collected has been pruned to those that I will need, so when I'm collecting things, if there's something I don't need, I either don't pick it up (mat), or it gets discarded (data).

 

[metatheurgist]

If I had to do modular terminals and unknown fragments then everyone should be made to!

It only applies to upgrades. You still have to jump the hoops for access. MTs are easy now anyway, they're everywhere if the state is right.

A few days ago I purchased a load of Magnetic Emitter coils and headed for the Engineer System.
Docked at the nearby Station, I transferred 9 other Ships to my location.

Then I chain-modded a total of 10 Ships at that Engineer

IMHO working Engineers have become sufficiently workable, provided the ENG Cargo needed is available. Ship transfers can help all that, if the spare Credits are available to do it that way.

Except for Palin. No shipyards in Maia.