There are LOTS of threads about all the doom that might be Beyond update 1 and the beta we are about to see. I've even posted in a few. We need at least one positive thread. So, please only put positive feedback here and stick your negative feedback in the other threads. Since I know that is hard, I'll settle for neutral or even wait-and-see feedback.
I shall start...
Chieftain
What I've seen of the Chieftain looks far more positive than negative. Judging from how it was handling in the 3 videos, it is quite nimble. It looks far more like I would imagine a space ship to look than most of the other ships in the game. It's not a flying wing (which makes little sense outside of an atmosphere) and nor does it look like a flat of brick with rockets strapped to it (I'm looking at you Lakon).
Staying positive: I like the flying wing look. The Vipers (both of them) are my favorite looking ships, followed closely by the Python and Anaconda. I love the look of DeLacy designs.
I admit I am a bit concerned about the number of general purpose optional internals in the Chieftain. I fear that those three military only slots will go to waste in the vast majority of use cases. They also take away so many options that I doubt the explorer players (and possibly the bulk cargo players) will use it. But, I don't know that for sure. It still have 5 or 6 (if I remember correctly) internal slots. That might be enough for exploring given how tough it can be with reinforcements. It's something to test.
Engineering
We can't really look at the changes to engineering progression in isolation. We also have to look at what else has changed. The new materials brokers mean we can swap otherwise useless materials for the ones we need (assuming we can swap vertically as well as horizontally). I don't know about you but I've got a lot of materials in my inventory that I have absolutely no use for. If I can swap those at a not-insane loss to what I need, then the only real difference between the old jump right to G5 and roll-roll-roll until you are happy might only involve hitting the roll button a few more times. If that is the case, then it's not much different. The grind (in the current version of engineers) for me is getting the right materials, not the rolling.
Plus, with the change to how engineering rolls work, with each roll always meaning improvements on the previous roll, it takes away a lot of frustration. When I did my first engineering roll, I had no idea if it was "good" or not, it definitely wasn't a "god" roll. But everything was kind of in the middle. My second roll put some positive effects a bit better but the power usage went almost as far negative as possible. Was that better? I still don't know. Fortunately for me I had enough materials to try a third roll which put everything better than the first roll, so I took it. I still don't know if I should have gone and gotten more materials and tried a bunch more rolls. With the new system, I can keep rolling until I'm happy.
Plus, we also have the workshops in stations other than the engineers homes. This will cut down on flight time (possibly significantly). That cuts down on the grind of flying back and forth (particularly if you are far from the engineer).
Point being, they've made enough changes in the engineering side of things that we won't really know if they kicked up the grind or lowered it with all the other aspects put around it. We have to try it out. That's what the beta is for.
Planets
I don't know how anyone can be upset about this. Worst case, it's less blah beige in the planets. That's just more eye candy and a good chunk of ED is about the eye-candy. Best case, we are able to use the color variations to more easily figure out where to land to get the materials we want/need (thus avoiding the trade-in losses). So, even this needs to be factored into the new engineering grind (it's not like the old engineering wasn't a grind).
Summary
There is LOTS of good in what they've shown us so far.
Chieftain looks awesome or at least looks different from all the other Lakon ships.
Planets look more interesting and have the potential to cut down on engineering grind by letting us better identify what to expect on the planet.
Engineering becomes more predictable, which is good for reducing frustration in a lot of us.
Material brokers have the potential to cut down on materials grinding by virtue of trading in what you don't want for what you need.
Workshops have the potential to cut down on travel time by letting us avoid going all the way back to the engineer when we want to upgrade.
I shall start...
Chieftain
What I've seen of the Chieftain looks far more positive than negative. Judging from how it was handling in the 3 videos, it is quite nimble. It looks far more like I would imagine a space ship to look than most of the other ships in the game. It's not a flying wing (which makes little sense outside of an atmosphere) and nor does it look like a flat of brick with rockets strapped to it (I'm looking at you Lakon).
Staying positive: I like the flying wing look. The Vipers (both of them) are my favorite looking ships, followed closely by the Python and Anaconda. I love the look of DeLacy designs.
I admit I am a bit concerned about the number of general purpose optional internals in the Chieftain. I fear that those three military only slots will go to waste in the vast majority of use cases. They also take away so many options that I doubt the explorer players (and possibly the bulk cargo players) will use it. But, I don't know that for sure. It still have 5 or 6 (if I remember correctly) internal slots. That might be enough for exploring given how tough it can be with reinforcements. It's something to test.
Engineering
We can't really look at the changes to engineering progression in isolation. We also have to look at what else has changed. The new materials brokers mean we can swap otherwise useless materials for the ones we need (assuming we can swap vertically as well as horizontally). I don't know about you but I've got a lot of materials in my inventory that I have absolutely no use for. If I can swap those at a not-insane loss to what I need, then the only real difference between the old jump right to G5 and roll-roll-roll until you are happy might only involve hitting the roll button a few more times. If that is the case, then it's not much different. The grind (in the current version of engineers) for me is getting the right materials, not the rolling.
Plus, with the change to how engineering rolls work, with each roll always meaning improvements on the previous roll, it takes away a lot of frustration. When I did my first engineering roll, I had no idea if it was "good" or not, it definitely wasn't a "god" roll. But everything was kind of in the middle. My second roll put some positive effects a bit better but the power usage went almost as far negative as possible. Was that better? I still don't know. Fortunately for me I had enough materials to try a third roll which put everything better than the first roll, so I took it. I still don't know if I should have gone and gotten more materials and tried a bunch more rolls. With the new system, I can keep rolling until I'm happy.
Plus, we also have the workshops in stations other than the engineers homes. This will cut down on flight time (possibly significantly). That cuts down on the grind of flying back and forth (particularly if you are far from the engineer).
Point being, they've made enough changes in the engineering side of things that we won't really know if they kicked up the grind or lowered it with all the other aspects put around it. We have to try it out. That's what the beta is for.
Planets
I don't know how anyone can be upset about this. Worst case, it's less blah beige in the planets. That's just more eye candy and a good chunk of ED is about the eye-candy. Best case, we are able to use the color variations to more easily figure out where to land to get the materials we want/need (thus avoiding the trade-in losses). So, even this needs to be factored into the new engineering grind (it's not like the old engineering wasn't a grind).
Summary
There is LOTS of good in what they've shown us so far.
Chieftain looks awesome or at least looks different from all the other Lakon ships.
Planets look more interesting and have the potential to cut down on engineering grind by letting us better identify what to expect on the planet.
Engineering becomes more predictable, which is good for reducing frustration in a lot of us.
Material brokers have the potential to cut down on materials grinding by virtue of trading in what you don't want for what you need.
Workshops have the potential to cut down on travel time by letting us avoid going all the way back to the engineer when we want to upgrade.
