Engineers Returning player, how to start with Engineers?

Ice04

I
Hello guys,

I haven't played Elite since the 1.6 patch I think. I stopped after I reached my own goal at that time: to be able to afford a cutter :D
Now I'm considering to come back, but I'm not sure how to start. I already read some guides about Engineers, but I'm still very confused.
How exactly should I start now? Should I just jump into my cutter and start leveling Martuuk for the first FSD mod? (I haven't done any exploration yet, so Farseer is not an option :D). Or should I better build another ship to do all the work? If yes, which one do you recommend?
How long does it take approximately to get an engineer to G5?
I plan to get G5 FSD and G5 Thrusters for my trading Cutter. Are those 2 mods enough for a trading PVE build?
Thanks in advance for your help! :)
 
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Ceekay

Ceekay
Inara is an excellent resource engineering data http://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers

If you want G5 thrusters (Palin) you need to travel 5000 LY from your start location to get access plus you'll only get access through Qwent and you need an invite from the Sirius corp to get access to him (and modular terminals!!!), it's probably one of the most difficult and time consuming parts of engineers (so far! ;)).

I'd suggest Farseer as you'll already have an invite and she can mod up to G3 thrusters (I've got some at +23% optimum mass from her) just get some meta alloys from Maia and rank up, as to ships an Asp is good for some long distance commodity and mat collection (SRV scavenging) or even a Cobra.
 

Ice04

I
Thanks for your explanation! :)
If I do all the engineer works in an ASP, I wont be able to transfer a G5 FSD into my Cutter because of the difference in size, is that correct? Wouldn't it be better to fly in my Cutter then?
 

Klab

Klab
Ice04 said:
Thanks for your explanation! :)If I do all the engineer works in an ASP, I wont be able to transfer a G5 FSD into my Cutter because of the difference in size, is that correct? Wouldn't it be better to fly in my Cutter then?
Click to expand...
Correct. Flying the Cutter there makes more sense if that's the ship you wish to upgrade.
 

Mikey2305

Mikey2305
What a helpful and constructive response. OP, the majority of us are willing and able to assist. You only have to ask...
 

Codger

Codger
I'd suggest Felicity Farseer as the first Engineer to use. She's easy to unlock and has the best FSD upgrades, plus some other useful ones.

I have a couple of videos in which I go through the entire process of unlocking her, ranking up to Grade 5, and getting an FSD range increase mod. I do it in a Cobra, but the steps are the same regardless.

These are gameplay videos, so fairly long, but I do explain every single step, if you're interested.

See Parts 7 and 8 of this series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfWbIi9YGRbdxeiOWS9Pkxnxp4FboSQm6
 

Mikey2305

Mikey2305
Yes, i agree that farseer is the best place to start. With increased FSD range, everything is so much easier and quicker. And it will give you a feel for how engineers work. To get an invite you need to scout rank or above which is only about 135k worth of data. Which is dead easy if you fit ADS and DSS. Then all you need to do is whizzaround the bubble doing other stuff and honk as you go. When you have scout rank go out to darnielles progress to pick up your gift. Get a few sulphurs or whatever so you can do some level 1 mods. 3 level 1s and you have level 2, 9 level 1s and you have L3. Go off and get the stuff for level 3, 4, 5. When you are 66% through L3 you will get an invite for another engineer. Which ones you unlock and the order you do them in will depend on what you specialise in

My experience of the engineers is that once you get the invite and the initial task, the levelling and upgrading is pretty quick. And with commodities being removed, the whole thing which is pretty straightforward, will be dumbed down
 

Ice04

I
Thanks for your replies guys, I really appreciate your help! :)
I biggest concern right now is which ship I should take to work through the whole engineering process. My goal is to upgrade my Cutter, but I'm not sure if I should use another ship to unlock/rank up all engineers. Don't know if it will be faster that way to take a more agile ship with more jump range like ASP / DBX?
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
The best L5 FSD roll will max out around 53 - 55% range increase, on your cutter's stock FSD (around 20 LY) so you're looking at perhaps 30 LY max whereas an Asp E with an L5 FSD will be jumping around 45 LY with a decent roll, you cover a lot of LY doing engineering I'd suggest making life as easy as possible.

I've used both an Asp and a DBE and they work fine and a lot of your mods will be throw aways as you rank up with the engineers so it's only when you've got the ones you want to L5 and all the mats needed that you go there with your cutter (could be worse I've engineered about 22 ships so far, I must be crazy! ;))
 

Ice04

I
holy ...you upgraded 22 ships??? Respect !!! O_O
Thanks for your advice, I will build an ASP for doing engineer's work then :)
Or better a DBX? Which one is better suited for the big grind? :D

One more question: I just read that in the upcoming patch the commodities will be removed. So maybe it would be better to wait until this patch comes out to save some time right? In the meantime, I can farm materials / exploration data / wake data etc. When I switch back to my Cutter later (after the patch comes out), will those materials/datas be transfered, too? Or will I lose them?
 
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rp198419

R
Forget Engineers. Buy a slot machine simulator instead.

Incidentally, I notice I am ranked as 'mostly harmless'. In the UI in my Python, combat rank says 'competent' and trade rank says 'entrepreneur'. Am I missing something about this weird forum??
 
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Ceekay

Ceekay
Ice04 said:
holy ...you upgraded 22 ships??? Respect !!! O_O
Thanks for your advice, I will build an ASP for doing engineer's work then :)
Or better a DBX? Which one is better suited for the big grind? :D

One more question: I just read that in the upcoming patch the commodities will be removed. So maybe it would be better to wait until this patch comes out to save some time right? In the meantime, I can farm materials / exploration data / wake data etc. When I switch back to my Cutter later (after the patch comes out), will those materials/datas be transfered, too? Or will I lose them?
Click to expand...

Your materials/data will carry over between updates and ships (some of mine were collected pre engineers) so it'd be worth stocking up in the meantime, the Asp is a bit more flexible (bigger scoop, more cargo, SRV) and faster with stock parts then the DBX (same can be said of a Cobra 3 but it lacks the range of the Asp and DBE)
 

Arkku

A
re. starting with Farseer suggested by many people, personally I'd suggest going to Martuuk directly. Rationale: you need to "do" Martuuk anyway to access Palin, whereas Farseer doesn't unlock anyone particularly useful, so even though Farseer may give you quicker start with G3 thruster mods, otherwise it's a waste of effort. Of course, this is assuming you already qualify for the distance from start requirement for Martuuk.

(Personally I managed to do the Martuuk, Qwent, Palin unlocks in two days, but I did already qualify for the required distance from start, and I had enough exploration data to quickly ally with Sirius Corp.)
 
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Ice04

I
Yeah I understand your point. Since I never did any exploration, I need to force me to do it either way :D . My plan is to unlock the G5 FSD first, after that I will go on this 5k LY trip :)
 
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