On-foot engineering is pretty lame at the moment. It's not exactly like ship engineering, where you can make things better at one thing at the cost of not being so good as it could be at something else. You mostly just make EVERYTHING better, overall. This, in turn, makes the engineering process kinda dull and boring, and also makes odyssey content at the highest level uninspiring and easy.
But how to make it more interesting? While ship-based engineering does have more depth, it's also pretty samey as you just have to fly out to a few pre-determined locations, fill up on engineering materials, and do whatever you want. That, to me, is kinda boring. I want to have to THINK about what I want, to work around unexpected requirements and challenges!
I think, however, there would be a cool way to combine on-foot engineering, exobiology, geology, and even potentially make viable ship interior content!
Consider finding a piece of Iron, floating out in the black. Most players are just going to ignore it outright. They know exactly what it does, and they probably have a bazillion more just like it.
But who's to say THIS piece of Iron is just like all the rest? Why is it that we collect iron as a material, but we ship tens of thousands of tons of Steel to make stations every day? What makes it special?
I think that if you find a 'material' out in space, it should have been flagged for having some unique or rare property, something beyond that which is seen in typical Iron. Maybe it's been exposed to some rare, exotic energies. Maybe it was sucked in close to and then ejected from a black hole. Maybe it just happened to slowly reform into something special in the blackness of space. Who knows! All that matters is, THIS iron is special. THIS iron is...exceptional.
And this iron, unlike ANY OTHER piece of iron, should give a truly unique effect, randomized at the point of generation. Maybe this iron could give you +25% armor integrity far beyond your normal armor plating. Or maybe it's lighter, or more flexible, allowing for more speed.
And what about alien plants? We STILL have no idea what the plants ON EARTH even do, with thousands of unknown species in the Amazon or deep ocean still undiscovered. Who knows which of them might cure cancer, or high blood pressure, or erectile dysfunction?
My idea would be that, raw materials(biological and mineral) should have UNIQUE effects. But these unique effects would be unknown until properly tested.
Inside your ship, next to a window, with a door to access from the outside, would be your experimental laboratory. Inside would be a variety of machines which could be used to test these materials.
These materials are completely unknown, after all. Your ship might be able to identify they're unique or distinctive, but that doesn't mean they should know what they do right away! These machines would do things like heat a test object up to a certain temperature, or spin it, or expose it to certain gasses. Maybe you could even do complex tests, like aerosolizing a plant and exposing it to a molten chunk of meteoric iron.
This wouldn't be Engineering, in the proper sense. Engineering typically means applying known constants in new ways to create new results. This would involve complete unknowns - Alchemy, in other words. Except instead of looking for the philosopher's stone, you're looking for a way to make your frag grenade twice as deadly.
For example, maybe you discover that your aerosolized plant sample is highly explosive, detonating at a certain temperature. You could then combine that with your frag grenades to dramatically increase the damage or area of effect of all your current stock of frag grenades!
Or maybe instead, you find that your plant sample is a powerful healing agent. You could instead merge it with a shield bubble grenade, so that anyone inside not only is protected, but is actively healed by the gasses contained inside!
But importantly, this would not be on a species by species basis. It would be distinctive to each PLANET. So no two stratum tectonicus would be the same. If you found a planet with +200% explosion damage on your frag grenades, you'd have unique access to something nobody else would have!
Importantly, this lab and external port would NOT replace the 'blue circle' instant cockpit access; they would SUPPLEMENT it. If you want to fly your ship, you could instantly fly your ship, as usual. But if you wanted to do on-foot science? You could do that, too.
Players would land on the planet, and run every test they could think of. Whenever they need more samples, they just run outside and harvest some more! Maybe they'd try exposing some meteorite metal they might use in their armor to alien plants, or heat, or cold. Maybe they'd shine lasers on it, or expose it to plasma of different varieties. Then, they'd have to SEE the results. Maybe under the laser light the metal seems to last longer than normal. Maybe the metal doesn't melt at the same temperature as before. But either way, the differences would be VISUAL; you'd have to LOOK. In fact, you'd have to LISTEN, too; sound design, after all, is one of Elite's strongest points. This would have the major perk of combining actual content with sound and visual design.
This not only makes this skill-based, rather than grind-based(you would, after all, need to be able to SEE, HEAR the difference as it happens!), it would justify this actually taking place physically, in an interior space!
Engineering would no longer be a grind to find the same exact set of materials as everyone else. Instead, it would be a quest to find the best possible materials, to make the best possible suit or weapon you can. Anyone could buy a standard suit, but if you want truly exceptional power, you would need truly exceptional ingredients.
Of course, many nearby locations for such materials would soon be shared, that doesn't mean they'd be the BEST locations. Factions and player groups would likely keep the best places to themselves, a carefully-kept secret to give them the advantage. And there would ALWAYS be the potential to find something better. Maybe the Fonticula of some system 500ly away gives 15% better armor strength than what's inside the bubble. Maybe the meteorites on a planet halfway across the galaxy gives you the best accuracy. The possibilities are virtually limitless.
There would always be the potential to find something better.
Find a plant of particular value? Well, it's unfortunate that it's probably ten thousand light years away.
But maybe you could GROW it?
This is the next part of the interior content. Players could have gardens inside their ships. Not for food and drink, but to modify their consumables. Maybe once a week, the plants would grow a new harvestable sample, which could be used for new modifications - or even could be sold to other players! It would also offer aesthetics to ship interiors, as players could design their gardens to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
The garden, too, should have varying parameters. Maybe each different plant needs its own type of light and its own force field, to grow at an optimum rate. Players would need to experiment to maximize their output.
Lastly, of course, there's the visuals of the thing. There's something about looking back at your ship, of seeing those warm lights shining out from inside the windows, that makes the deep black not feel quite so lonely. That has an intangible value, all of its own.
Taken together, I think this could be a cool way to better on-foot engineering - AND have tertiary benefits, all at the same time!
But how to make it more interesting? While ship-based engineering does have more depth, it's also pretty samey as you just have to fly out to a few pre-determined locations, fill up on engineering materials, and do whatever you want. That, to me, is kinda boring. I want to have to THINK about what I want, to work around unexpected requirements and challenges!
I think, however, there would be a cool way to combine on-foot engineering, exobiology, geology, and even potentially make viable ship interior content!
1. Randomized Materials
Consider finding a piece of Iron, floating out in the black. Most players are just going to ignore it outright. They know exactly what it does, and they probably have a bazillion more just like it.
But who's to say THIS piece of Iron is just like all the rest? Why is it that we collect iron as a material, but we ship tens of thousands of tons of Steel to make stations every day? What makes it special?
I think that if you find a 'material' out in space, it should have been flagged for having some unique or rare property, something beyond that which is seen in typical Iron. Maybe it's been exposed to some rare, exotic energies. Maybe it was sucked in close to and then ejected from a black hole. Maybe it just happened to slowly reform into something special in the blackness of space. Who knows! All that matters is, THIS iron is special. THIS iron is...exceptional.
And this iron, unlike ANY OTHER piece of iron, should give a truly unique effect, randomized at the point of generation. Maybe this iron could give you +25% armor integrity far beyond your normal armor plating. Or maybe it's lighter, or more flexible, allowing for more speed.
And what about alien plants? We STILL have no idea what the plants ON EARTH even do, with thousands of unknown species in the Amazon or deep ocean still undiscovered. Who knows which of them might cure cancer, or high blood pressure, or erectile dysfunction?
My idea would be that, raw materials(biological and mineral) should have UNIQUE effects. But these unique effects would be unknown until properly tested.
2. Experimental Laboratory - Alchemy, not Engineering.
Inside your ship, next to a window, with a door to access from the outside, would be your experimental laboratory. Inside would be a variety of machines which could be used to test these materials.
These materials are completely unknown, after all. Your ship might be able to identify they're unique or distinctive, but that doesn't mean they should know what they do right away! These machines would do things like heat a test object up to a certain temperature, or spin it, or expose it to certain gasses. Maybe you could even do complex tests, like aerosolizing a plant and exposing it to a molten chunk of meteoric iron.
This wouldn't be Engineering, in the proper sense. Engineering typically means applying known constants in new ways to create new results. This would involve complete unknowns - Alchemy, in other words. Except instead of looking for the philosopher's stone, you're looking for a way to make your frag grenade twice as deadly.
For example, maybe you discover that your aerosolized plant sample is highly explosive, detonating at a certain temperature. You could then combine that with your frag grenades to dramatically increase the damage or area of effect of all your current stock of frag grenades!
Or maybe instead, you find that your plant sample is a powerful healing agent. You could instead merge it with a shield bubble grenade, so that anyone inside not only is protected, but is actively healed by the gasses contained inside!
But importantly, this would not be on a species by species basis. It would be distinctive to each PLANET. So no two stratum tectonicus would be the same. If you found a planet with +200% explosion damage on your frag grenades, you'd have unique access to something nobody else would have!
Importantly, this lab and external port would NOT replace the 'blue circle' instant cockpit access; they would SUPPLEMENT it. If you want to fly your ship, you could instantly fly your ship, as usual. But if you wanted to do on-foot science? You could do that, too.
3. The process.
Players would land on the planet, and run every test they could think of. Whenever they need more samples, they just run outside and harvest some more! Maybe they'd try exposing some meteorite metal they might use in their armor to alien plants, or heat, or cold. Maybe they'd shine lasers on it, or expose it to plasma of different varieties. Then, they'd have to SEE the results. Maybe under the laser light the metal seems to last longer than normal. Maybe the metal doesn't melt at the same temperature as before. But either way, the differences would be VISUAL; you'd have to LOOK. In fact, you'd have to LISTEN, too; sound design, after all, is one of Elite's strongest points. This would have the major perk of combining actual content with sound and visual design.
This not only makes this skill-based, rather than grind-based(you would, after all, need to be able to SEE, HEAR the difference as it happens!), it would justify this actually taking place physically, in an interior space!
Engineering would no longer be a grind to find the same exact set of materials as everyone else. Instead, it would be a quest to find the best possible materials, to make the best possible suit or weapon you can. Anyone could buy a standard suit, but if you want truly exceptional power, you would need truly exceptional ingredients.
Of course, many nearby locations for such materials would soon be shared, that doesn't mean they'd be the BEST locations. Factions and player groups would likely keep the best places to themselves, a carefully-kept secret to give them the advantage. And there would ALWAYS be the potential to find something better. Maybe the Fonticula of some system 500ly away gives 15% better armor strength than what's inside the bubble. Maybe the meteorites on a planet halfway across the galaxy gives you the best accuracy. The possibilities are virtually limitless.
There would always be the potential to find something better.
4. Gardening.
Find a plant of particular value? Well, it's unfortunate that it's probably ten thousand light years away.
But maybe you could GROW it?
This is the next part of the interior content. Players could have gardens inside their ships. Not for food and drink, but to modify their consumables. Maybe once a week, the plants would grow a new harvestable sample, which could be used for new modifications - or even could be sold to other players! It would also offer aesthetics to ship interiors, as players could design their gardens to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
The garden, too, should have varying parameters. Maybe each different plant needs its own type of light and its own force field, to grow at an optimum rate. Players would need to experiment to maximize their output.
5. The Visuals
Lastly, of course, there's the visuals of the thing. There's something about looking back at your ship, of seeing those warm lights shining out from inside the windows, that makes the deep black not feel quite so lonely. That has an intangible value, all of its own.
Taken together, I think this could be a cool way to better on-foot engineering - AND have tertiary benefits, all at the same time!