Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Proposal to Permit the Substitution of Ingredients for Engineer Modifications Using Different Ingredients From the Same "Group".
The following is the basis of a proposal for an evolution (rather than a revolution) of the existing method used for Engineered modifications and is based on an examination of the type and rarity of existing Data, Manufactured and Elemental materials.
The Examination
Engineer blueprints use fixed ingredients to permit the modification to take place. Taking FSD Increased Range as an example:
Grade 1: 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes;
Grade 2: 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes; 1x Chemical Processors;
Grade 3: 1x Chemical Processors; 1x Phosphorus; 1x Strange Wake Solutions;
Grade 4: 1x Chemical Distillery; 1x Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories; 1x Manganese;
Grade 5: 1x Arsenic; 1x Chemical Manipulators; 1x Datamined Wake Exceptions.
Looking at these ingredients, a pattern of sorts emerges: the FSD Increased Range modification, in general, uses wake data, chemical manufactured materials and two elemental materials from the Nitrogen Group in the Periodic Table (and one from the Manganese Group).
This led me to think that there may be a way of using these groups of data, manufactured materials and elemental materials to change the outcome of modifications. See the following tables for my take on the groupings:
Current Engineer related data, grouped:
Current Engineer Manufactured / Salvaged materials, grouped:
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Current elemental materials, grouped:
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Looking at the tables it seems clear that both Data and Manufactured materials have all rarities in all groups (at least in the way that they have been grouped
) while Elemental materials have some gaps in particular rarities. The relatively complete coverage of groups vs. rarities leads to the proposal below.
The Proposal
Taking the Grade 3 modification as an example (and expressing rarity on a numerical scale from 5 to 1, 5 being Very Rare and 1 being Very Common):
Grade 3: 1x Chemical Processors; 1x Phosphorus; 1x Strange Wake Solutions.
The next step would be to translate the modification requirements into Type - Group (rarity):
Grade 3: 1x Manufactured - Chemical (2); 1x Elemental - Nitrogen (1); 1x Data - Wake (3). These ingredients have an overall rarity of 6 (out of 15 possible). Specified range minima and maxima for the standard modification are:
The actual range reduction due to the ingredients used in the blueprint would take into account both the overall rarity of the standard ingredients and the difference between that and the overall rarity of the ingredients used. The table below is a suggestion for the associated percentage range reductions:
The final step would be to permit substitution of a specified ingredient by another from the same group, with a different rarity. This effect on the standard ranges would depend on whether the overall rarity of all ingredients was higher or lower than standard. In the examples below an overall rarity change of 1 is considered.
The idea here is that substitution with a rarer ingredient would modify the RNG range positively, to reduce the variation range at the same time by moving the minimum towards the maximum - not to make the result better overall but to improve the chance of achieving a result that is close to the best, i.e. revised ranges for modification, after the substitution of one ingredient by another that was one rarity level more rare, would be, from the table above, reduced by 7.8%:
If a more common ingredient was used then the variation range would reduce with the maximum moving towards the minimum - this would possibly result in an outcome that was worse than the existing best, i.e. revised ranges for modification, after the substitution of one ingredient by another that was one rarity level more common, would be, from the table above, reduced by 26.6%:
The latter would offer less likelihood of as good a result as the standard ingredients would however it would permit a player lacking one (or more) specific ingredients to still be able to carry out the modification.
Using this approach, a Grade 3 FSD Increased Range modification could be achieved using, e.g. 1x Antimony, 1x Pharmaceutical Isolators and 1x Datamined Wake Exceptions for a higher probability of a "good" result or 1x Chemical Storage Units, 1x Phosphorus and 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes for a higher probability of a "worse" result.
Suggestion for an Enhanced Range of Available Elemental Materials
To enhance the range of elemental materials, additional members from the existing groups could be added. The following is one idea for an augmented list of elemental materials that includes a number of additional elements and rarities in some groups:
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Summary
In summary, the proposal would permit the player to carry out modifications with what they had available from the same groups as the required ingredients (with possibly better or worse results than when using the standard ingredients depending on the relative rarity of the requirement compared to the actual ingredient used) rather than having to have the exact ingredients.
The following is the basis of a proposal for an evolution (rather than a revolution) of the existing method used for Engineered modifications and is based on an examination of the type and rarity of existing Data, Manufactured and Elemental materials.
The Examination
Engineer blueprints use fixed ingredients to permit the modification to take place. Taking FSD Increased Range as an example:
Grade 1: 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes;
Grade 2: 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes; 1x Chemical Processors;
Grade 3: 1x Chemical Processors; 1x Phosphorus; 1x Strange Wake Solutions;
Grade 4: 1x Chemical Distillery; 1x Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories; 1x Manganese;
Grade 5: 1x Arsenic; 1x Chemical Manipulators; 1x Datamined Wake Exceptions.
Looking at these ingredients, a pattern of sorts emerges: the FSD Increased Range modification, in general, uses wake data, chemical manufactured materials and two elemental materials from the Nitrogen Group in the Periodic Table (and one from the Manganese Group).
This led me to think that there may be a way of using these groups of data, manufactured materials and elemental materials to change the outcome of modifications. See the following tables for my take on the groupings:
Current Engineer related data, grouped:
Data Group | Very rare | Rare | Standard | Common | Very common |
Data | Classified Scan Fragment | Divergent Scan Data | Classified Scan Databanks | Unidentified Scan Archives | Anomalous Bulk Scan Data |
Emission | Abnormal Compact Emission Data | Decoded Emission Data | Unexpected Emission Data | Irregular Emission Data | Exceptional Scrambled Emission Data |
Encryption | Adaptive Encryptors Capture | Atypical Encryption Archives | Open Symmetric Keys | Tagged Encryption Codes | Unusual Encrypted Files |
Firmware | Modified Embedded Firmware | Security Firmware Patch | Cracked Industrial Firmware | Modified Consumer Firmware | Specialised Legacy Firmware |
Shielding | Peculiar Shield Frequency Data | Aberrant Shield Pattern Analysis | Untypical Shield Scans | Inconsistent Shield Soak Analysis | Distorted Shield Cycle Recordings |
Wake | Datamined Wake Exceptions | Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories | Strange Wake Solutions | Anomalous FSD Telemetry | Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes |
Current Engineer Manufactured / Salvaged materials, grouped:
Manufactured | Very rare | Rare | Standard | Common | Very common |
Alloys | Military Grade Alloys Proto Radiolic Alloys | Proto Light Alloys Thermic Alloys | Phase Alloys Precipitated Alloys | Galvanising Alloys | Salvaged Alloys Tempered Alloys |
Capacitors | Military Supercapacitors | Polymer Capacitors | Electrochemical Arrays | Hybrid Capacitors | Grid Resistors |
Chemical | Pharmaceutical Isolators | Chemical Manipulators | Chemical Distillery | Chemical Processors | Chemical Storage Units |
Components | Improvised Components | Configurable Components | Mechanical Components | Mechanical Equipment | Mechanical Scrap |
Composites | Core Dynamics Composites | Proprietary Composites | High Density Composites | Filament Composites | Compact Composites |
Conductors | Biotech Conductors | Conductive Polymers | Conductive Ceramics | Conductive Components | Basic Conductors |
Cooling | Proto Heat Radiators | Heat Vanes | Heat Exchangers | Heat Dispersion Plate Heat Resistant Ceramics | Heat Conduction Wiring |
Crystal | Exquisite Focus Crystals | Refined Focus Crystals | Focus Crystals | Flawed Focus Crystals | Crystal Shards |
Shielding | Imperial Shielding | Compound Shielding | Shielding Sensors | Shield Emitters | Worn Shield Emitters |
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Current elemental materials, grouped:
Elemental | Very rare | Rare | Standard | Common | Very common |
Carbon Group | - | - | Tin | Germanium | Carbon |
Chromium Group | - | - | Molybdenum Tungsten | Chromium | - |
Iron Group | - | Ruthenium | - | - | Iron |
Manganese Group | - | Technetium | - | Manganese | - |
Nickel Group | - | - | - | - | Nickel |
Nitrogen Group | - | Antimony | - | Arsenic | Phosphorus |
Oxygen Group | - | Tellurium Polonium | - | Selenium | Sulfur |
Scandium Group | - | Yttrium | - | - | - |
Titanium Group | - | - | - | Zirconium | - |
Vanadium Group | - | - | Niobium | Vanadium | - |
Zinc Group | - | - | Cadmium Mercury | Zinc | - |
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Looking at the tables it seems clear that both Data and Manufactured materials have all rarities in all groups (at least in the way that they have been grouped
) while Elemental materials have some gaps in particular rarities. The relatively complete coverage of groups vs. rarities leads to the proposal below.The Proposal
Taking the Grade 3 modification as an example (and expressing rarity on a numerical scale from 5 to 1, 5 being Very Rare and 1 being Very Common):
Grade 3: 1x Chemical Processors; 1x Phosphorus; 1x Strange Wake Solutions.
The next step would be to translate the modification requirements into Type - Group (rarity):
Grade 3: 1x Manufactured - Chemical (2); 1x Elemental - Nitrogen (1); 1x Data - Wake (3). These ingredients have an overall rarity of 6 (out of 15 possible). Specified range minima and maxima for the standard modification are:
ATTRIBUTE | MIN | MAX | RANGE |
INTEGRITY | -15.0% | -6.0% | 9.0% |
MASS | 25.0% | 10.0% | -15.0% |
OPTIMISED MASS | 12.0% | 30.0% | 18.0% |
POWER DRAW | 14.0% | 5.0% | -9.0% |
The actual range reduction due to the ingredients used in the blueprint would take into account both the overall rarity of the standard ingredients and the difference between that and the overall rarity of the ingredients used. The table below is a suggestion for the associated percentage range reductions:
Total / Delta | -12 | -11 | -10 | -9 | -8 | -7 | -6 | -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.0% | 5.7% | 12.3% | 19.3% | 26.6% | 34.0% | 41.7% | 49.4% | 57.4% | 65.4% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% |
4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 0.0% | 6.3% | 13.5% | 21.2% | 29.2% | 37.5% | 45.9% | 54.5% | 63.2% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - |
5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 41.7% | 0.0% | 7.0% | 15.1% | 23.6% | 32.5% | 41.7% | 51.0% | 60.6% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - |
6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 57.4% | 26.6% | 0.0% | 7.8% | 16.9% | 26.6% | 36.6% | 46.8% | 57.4% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - |
7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 65.4% | 41.7% | 19.3% | 0.0% | 8.9% | 19.3% | 30.3% | 41.7% | 53.4% | 65.4% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - |
8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 51.0% | 32.5% | 15.1% | 0.0% | 10.4% | 22.4% | 35.1% | 48.3% | 61.9% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - |
9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 57.4% | 41.7% | 26.6% | 12.3% | 0.0% | 12.3% | 26.6% | 41.7% | 57.4% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
10 | - | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 61.9% | 48.3% | 35.1% | 22.4% | 10.4% | 0.0% | 15.1% | 32.5% | 51.0% | 66.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
11 | - | - | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 65.4% | 53.4% | 41.7% | 30.3% | 19.3% | 8.9% | 0.0% | 19.3% | 41.7% | 65.4% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
12 | - | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 57.4% | 46.8% | 36.6% | 26.6% | 16.9% | 7.8% | 0.0% | 26.6% | 57.4% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
13 | - | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 60.6% | 51.0% | 41.7% | 32.5% | 23.6% | 15.1% | 7.0% | 0.0% | 41.7% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
14 | - | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 63.2% | 54.5% | 45.9% | 37.5% | 29.2% | 21.2% | 13.5% | 6.3% | 0.0% | 66.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
15 | 66.7% | 66.7% | 66.7% | 65.4% | 57.4% | 49.4% | 41.7% | 34.0% | 26.6% | 19.3% | 12.3% | 5.7% | 0.0% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
The final step would be to permit substitution of a specified ingredient by another from the same group, with a different rarity. This effect on the standard ranges would depend on whether the overall rarity of all ingredients was higher or lower than standard. In the examples below an overall rarity change of 1 is considered.
The idea here is that substitution with a rarer ingredient would modify the RNG range positively, to reduce the variation range at the same time by moving the minimum towards the maximum - not to make the result better overall but to improve the chance of achieving a result that is close to the best, i.e. revised ranges for modification, after the substitution of one ingredient by another that was one rarity level more rare, would be, from the table above, reduced by 7.8%:
ATTRIBUTE | MIN | MAX | RANGE |
INTEGRITY | -14.3% | -6.0% | 8.3% |
MASS | 23.8% | 10.0% | -13.8% |
OPTIMISED MASS | 13.4% | 30.0% | 16.6% |
POWER DRAW | 13.3% | 5.0% | -8.3% |
If a more common ingredient was used then the variation range would reduce with the maximum moving towards the minimum - this would possibly result in an outcome that was worse than the existing best, i.e. revised ranges for modification, after the substitution of one ingredient by another that was one rarity level more common, would be, from the table above, reduced by 26.6%:
ATTRIBUTE | MIN | MAX | RANGE |
INTEGRITY | -15.0% | -8.4% | 6.6% |
MASS | 25.0% | 14.0% | -11.0% |
OPTIMISED MASS | 12.0% | 25.2% | 13.2% |
POWER DRAW | 14.0% | 7.4% | -6.6% |
The latter would offer less likelihood of as good a result as the standard ingredients would however it would permit a player lacking one (or more) specific ingredients to still be able to carry out the modification.
Using this approach, a Grade 3 FSD Increased Range modification could be achieved using, e.g. 1x Antimony, 1x Pharmaceutical Isolators and 1x Datamined Wake Exceptions for a higher probability of a "good" result or 1x Chemical Storage Units, 1x Phosphorus and 1x Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes for a higher probability of a "worse" result.
Suggestion for an Enhanced Range of Available Elemental Materials
To enhance the range of elemental materials, additional members from the existing groups could be added. The following is one idea for an augmented list of elemental materials that includes a number of additional elements and rarities in some groups:
Elemental | Very rare | Rare | Standard | Common | Very common |
Carbon Group | Flerovium | Lead | Tin | Germanium | Carbon Silicon |
Chromium Group | Seaborgium | - | Molybdenum Tungsten | Chromium | - |
Iron Group | Osmium Hassium | Ruthenium | - | - | Iron |
Manganese Group | Rhenium Bohrium | Technetium | - | Manganese | - |
Nickel Group | - | Darmstadtium | Platinum | Palladium | Nickel |
Nitrogen Group | Bismuth | Antimony | - | Arsenic | Phosphorus |
Oxygen Group | Livermorium | Tellurium Polonium | - | Selenium | Sulfur |
Scandium Group | Lanthanum Actinium | Yttrium | Scandium | - | - |
Titanium Group | - | Rutherfordium | Hafnium | Zirconium | Titanium |
Vanadium Group | Dubnium | Tantalum | Niobium | Vanadium | - |
Zinc Group | Copernicium | - | Cadmium Mercury | Zinc | - |
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Summary
In summary, the proposal would permit the player to carry out modifications with what they had available from the same groups as the required ingredients (with possibly better or worse results than when using the standard ingredients depending on the relative rarity of the requirement compared to the actual ingredient used) rather than having to have the exact ingredients.
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