From what I can see of the new Guardian weapons, they require 18 weapon blueprints.
With the "fix" introduced by ED, I see that we now get a whole 1 material per run through of the Weapon Blueprint unlock.
Implications are very easy, please player, go REPEAT this section another 18 times.
I get that Elite has a degree of grind in it, after all that's how you get to Elite. But 18 more times, of the same thing.
Are you trying to say "go forth and play DCS my young padawan".
I've all but given up playing this game. Release after release, year after years with questionable developments and little but no true progress in meaninful layered core gameplay mechanics...
I'd love a reason to come back! Some glimmer of interesting and involved gameplay.
BUT, when I read about yet more weapons being added (for what true purpose?), and yet more upgrades being added (for what true purpose?), requiring collections of yet more new materials (for what true purpose?) from yet more location, involving what many consider to be excessive grind gameplay? It hardly hits me as a good reason to start playing again.
Fun? Enjoyable? Challenging?
I'll put this down as yet another lazy/confused development in a string of similar ones which has unfortunately has made up all too much of the past 2-3 years...
Roll on Q4, for FD to show us what you can really achieve please! Let's see some truly bar raising new mechanics please, and a reason for me to actually load the game again.
Note: Clearly/seemingly people aren't enjoying the premise of yet more farming/grinding for yet more materials for yet more weapons? Surely the "fun" and "engagement" should be in the USE of the weapons and what activities and challenges you can undertake with them? NOT the needless time sponge grind to get them? It's as if FD know they can't offer much "fun" and "challenge" by actually creating more involved gameplay, so instead fixate on creating ever increasingly complex and time consuming grind walls pretending to be "gameplay".