Hmmm... In context to my comment: If Frontier were going to change engineering (specifically) - demands for such being raised since before I was a member here - they might have implemented them already, if this was their intention.
I'd say they've made progressive tweaks as the game has gone on, even to engineering, and at least one major change already to reduce the overall grindiness.
Is there a rebuttal to my statement that picking up G1 mats is like picking up every 1 gold junk item in a bethseda RPG (or something like Divinity Original Sin that has a lot of junk for immersion). It's actually worse in Elite since you basically have to do the equivalent of a lengthy lockpick minigame to be able pick up anythign at all.
I agree with that viewpoint completely. But if they made collection much faster, then picking them up would make a lot more sense.
Complaining about collectors collection speed? That's rich.
Have you run out of thigs that annoy you and want them changed?
Edit: i mean, seriously - that's a really a freaking non-issue for engineering.
Just collect materials in a small and agile ship and dont use collectors if you feel they're slowing you down.
New players don't have either of those things. For me, personally, engineering is a non-issue, because I grinded them all to the cap ages ago. But when I was new, looking at that massive list of random junk I needed actually made me quit for a good while.
Try to see things from the perspective of a new player. Elite loses a huge number of potential long-term players because of engineering, and it would take a relatively small amount of changes to improve that situation, from a new-player perspective, dramatically.
remember I am on the take your time side of things there is no need to collect every mat at once.
If materials could be collected instantly it would be another step to the dark side of being an arcade game.
The problem is, this causes the game to feel 'grindy' to many players. You can still take your time even with faster material collection; there's no reason the game can't be for everyone.
My ideal point is players arrive at engineering with a decent stockpile of engineering mats already in the bank, because it doesn't take any extra effort to grab them. That way, they're prepared ahead of time, and instead of needing to grind EVERYTHING, they just need to grab a few more things.
That's a lot more tolerable to the average player.