I wanted to put this in the focused feed back but I see that it has moved on and I didn't want to get removed. FDev, you are the intended audience for this post.
First, let me give you a bit of background on my CMDRs. I have two Elite accounts on my Xbox. My first account is a deep space exploration account. This account has over 12 weeks of in game time and tens of thousands of systems tagged with it's name. My second account is my bubble account. This account is approaching 10 weeks of in game time, is approaching double elite and a member of the cutter club. I have been an active CMDR since the GPP on Xbox. I tell you this because I want you to understand this is coming from a long time, even if relatively silent member of this community.
Secondly, a little background on myself. I am a life long gamer. I have a successful career that has blessed me with a modest amount of disposable income that I can spend on recreation. Over the last few years, I would spend 20-30 hours a week in game. My wife and I welcomed our first child in November so my in game time has been cut drastically. An average week may see me log 5-7 hours of game time, mostly on Friday and Saturday nights after I have gotten our son to sleep. Forgive the back story, the relevance of this will be apparent later in the post.
FDev,
Let me start by saying you have put out a beautiful game. It is truly one of a kind and the fact that I have spent more time in this game than any other since I left WoW during the Kungfu Panda era is a testament to that fact. That being said, I think the time for me to move on is rapidly approaching and I feel I owe you an explanation of why.
Another CMDR, in a post that appears to have already been removed, said it best. You've wasted my time FDev and my time is more valuable than just about anything I have to offer right now. I just don't have enough of it and unfortunately I have become rather protective of the time that I am fortunate enough to have to relax and you simply seem to not value it as much as I do.
Your engineering system is frankly broken and borderline abusive of the people who keep your project afloat and alive. I understand the major trend in game design for the last several years has been to find a way to keep your gamers in your game as much as possible, but this has crossed a line. I also understand the major focus of the changes to engineering were an attempt to alleviate some of the RNG aspects of the mechanic. I understand all these factors, but in doing so you have taken a mechanic that already was a bit "grindy" and in an effort to fix a different failed aspect of it, made it more grindy. At the end of the day, I can't get past the fact that I had already max engineered several of my ships and you are forcing me to go through this effort again, an effort mind you, that I wasn't really fond of in the first place, but for the sake of the game I chose to participate in. I understand you've built in a sort of "opt out" so to speak. I can simply just choose not to participate and keep my "legacy" mods in place and call it a push. I contend this isn't really an option. You are asking me to not participate in an aspect of a game that frankly I paid for with hard earned money. That seems like an pretty unacceptable option to me. I understand this grind is moderated (only ever so slightly, tbh) by the material traders, but when I start looking at the numbers, I have spent every single hour in game since the launch of Beyond trying to catch my exploraconda up and I am still not done. This is maddening.
My time is so limited FDev. My options are not. This grind is a monumental waste of time. I can spend an entire week worth of game time trying to find one mat for one G5 upgrade and come up empty handed. This is a huge was of time and frankly I expect some sort of reward for the time I spend in game. To be fair, maybe "reward" is the wrong term. At a minimum I expect to have progressed towards my goal in some sort of fashion. To spend what little time I have available in a given week in your game and to come up empty handed is just something I can't tolerate any more.
I've thought long and hard about this FDev and it is a sad day, but I think the time has come to move on. Coming from a life long ( I am 41) gamer, this is an amazing time in the gaming industry. There are so many amazing games out there right now and so many amazing options for me to spend what little time I do have to relax and frankly FDev, you have failed us here.
DWE2 is on my radar so I may just get my Conda geared up and ready to go for that and come back, but for now, the time has come to say goodbye.
CMDR Azazul/Xerbeross signing off. Good luck CMDRs and Fly Safe o7.
