Currently, to engineer a module, you go to an engineer with the appropriate materials and they fix it right up for you. This is a quite nice system, and is pretty fun now that it is far less random than it used to be. But, even though these engineers have a lot of CMDRs queuing up for upgrades, they must get bored on their downtime.
Slight tangent: The way banks operate is this - you put your funds into an account, they use those funds for various investment purposes, and make themselves money by getting returns on their investments. You also profit somewhat, not only by having a safe place to store your money, but also by gaining interest on your accounts. A similar mutually beneficial system can be applied to engineering.
You leave your module in storage at an Engineer's Workshop. Over time, whether that be days or even weeks, the engineer will apply random upgrades to it, free of charge. They get to practice their skills on your things, and in turn, you get to have somewhat improved modules. You shouldn't get Grade 5 perfect modules out of this (unless you leave your components in there for quite a while... months?), but this could be helpful if you have extra modules you don't particularly want to sell, but instead just want to unload and perhaps reuse later.
Thoughts?
Slight tangent: The way banks operate is this - you put your funds into an account, they use those funds for various investment purposes, and make themselves money by getting returns on their investments. You also profit somewhat, not only by having a safe place to store your money, but also by gaining interest on your accounts. A similar mutually beneficial system can be applied to engineering.
You leave your module in storage at an Engineer's Workshop. Over time, whether that be days or even weeks, the engineer will apply random upgrades to it, free of charge. They get to practice their skills on your things, and in turn, you get to have somewhat improved modules. You shouldn't get Grade 5 perfect modules out of this (unless you leave your components in there for quite a while... months?), but this could be helpful if you have extra modules you don't particularly want to sell, but instead just want to unload and perhaps reuse later.
Thoughts?