My two cents ... they're worth visiting 'cos their bases are very cool and at least worth a look. I also think it's worth dabbling in some mod's (I actually managed to get my Python a level 5 FSD mod' which means it's now got a +30ly jump range, even fully kitted out). I guess if you're into PVP they're possibly essential (but I'm not, so I haven't bothered with weapon mod's much ... except to make my multi-canons worse, as far as I can tell). I think the danger comes when you start to focus too much on getting one particular modification. Without material storage you end up carrying the precious materials you've gathered everywhere you go (which in turn gets you noticed by NPCs), you grind like crazy to get further specific mat's and you get annoyed when the roulette wheel doesn't give you what you want. My advice would be to do your normal thing in the game and if you end up with a bunch of materials in your hold from mission rewards etc then pay the engineers a visit (do a little tour of the ones you've been introduced to) and see what you can get.
Blackcompany
Banned
It's an exercise in frustration. A purposefully engineered time sink. Nothing fun or enjoyable at all.
The required grind to engineer your stuff is immense, and only doable by useing 3rd party databases, like inara to optimize your efforts.
Unfortunately you have no choice if you want to stay competitive - a fully modded ship is roughly 3 times more powerful than a vanilla ship, so ignoring engineers is not really an option.
Unfortunately you have no choice if you want to stay competitive - a fully modded ship is roughly 3 times more powerful than a vanilla ship, so ignoring engineers is not really an option.
Sorry. Not sure how that happened.
Sure it does, it greatly improves the performances of your ship. I'm almost invincible in my (almost) fully engineered Anaconda. It's a monster!
I have a smuggling Sidey that does 666m/s and can jump almost 28LY. I have a Hauler for transporting criminals around, jumps well over 30LY and goes around 620m/s. My explonda is fully armed and tricked with all possible gadgets, yet can still jump 37LY. If you enjoyed playing around with coriolis/edshipyard, engineers is awesome. Before trying it you can see how a ship would work with specific mods at edshipyard.coom.
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Blackcompany
Banned
Gives me something to do when I am otherwise not happy with the game, it is nice being able to jump over 30 LY in an Anaconda and 20 LY in a Corvette without FSD overcharge.
My lightweight iCourier has 3 class 2 weapons, chaff, ADS, ~37ly jump range, 2D shields (approx. 316 strength), and still whizzes around at 840 m/s (up to 851 if I can get some better lightweight rolls).
The worst part was unlocking the Engineers, but it was definitely worth the effort. It's a beautiful little ship.
The worst part was unlocking the Engineers, but it was definitely worth the effort. It's a beautiful little ship.
It's not that bad now with module storage and ship transfer. Some of the materials can be a pain to come by, but I got to try some activities I hadn't tried before and if I absolutely didn't like what I had to do, I just settled with lower lvl upgrades.
Turns out, Engineers are absolutely worth it. When they first released, I dabbled a bit, but was quickly frustrated due to not having any idea where to look for stuff. Since then, there's a good body of knowledge available as to where to find things. Anyone should be able to get a Grade 5 FSD from Felicity Farseer after 2-3 hours effort (and additional ones for other ships much quicker). A grade 5 FSD gets your around fast, and is definitely worth the effort.
As to the comment about Materials attracting interdictions, this just isn't true. Some upgrades require commodites, that can attract attention, but you can collect up all the materials you need first, then get the commodites you need and directly go to the engineer.
I've been upgrading my Corvette, really just for the fun of it (I'm not a PVPer). So far: Grade 5 + Special Effects on both Huge MC, Grade 5 on all the Pulse Lasers (plus a couple more special effects), grade 5 shield generator, 5 * grade 3 shield boosters and grade 5 distributor. Its not been quick to do, but it never felt like a grind - good sense of progress and lots of varied activities. Anyway, this monster can sit in a CZ literally all day - and I have plenty of materials to craft more ammo when I run out. When them Thargoids show up, I'm more than ready.
As to the comment about Materials attracting interdictions, this just isn't true. Some upgrades require commodites, that can attract attention, but you can collect up all the materials you need first, then get the commodites you need and directly go to the engineer.
I've been upgrading my Corvette, really just for the fun of it (I'm not a PVPer). So far: Grade 5 + Special Effects on both Huge MC, Grade 5 on all the Pulse Lasers (plus a couple more special effects), grade 5 shield generator, 5 * grade 3 shield boosters and grade 5 distributor. Its not been quick to do, but it never felt like a grind - good sense of progress and lots of varied activities. Anyway, this monster can sit in a CZ literally all day - and I have plenty of materials to craft more ammo when I run out. When them Thargoids show up, I'm more than ready.
It's definitely worth it. Your ships become much, much more powerful.
Another reason to do it is it gives you some build variety and options. I've extensively modded four of my ships with the standard overcharge, dirty drives etc builds but now I'm focusing on an ice cold DBS build using low emissions, clean drives etc and it's fun. I don't know how effective the ship will be at the end of it but it's enjoyable from a RP perspective as my DBS is my covert operations ship.
Another reason to do it is it gives you some build variety and options. I've extensively modded four of my ships with the standard overcharge, dirty drives etc builds but now I'm focusing on an ice cold DBS build using low emissions, clean drives etc and it's fun. I don't know how effective the ship will be at the end of it but it's enjoyable from a RP perspective as my DBS is my covert operations ship.
I have found it to be extremely worth it, to the point that I don't like to fly un-engineered ships anymore, they are just too inferior.
Even in my brand new game, which I started just after 2.2 dropped, as soon as I got my first Cobra, and kitted it out with an A-rated frameshift drive, the next thing I did was unlock Felicity and boost my jump range. It made doing rares runs really nice.
I've spent umpteen hours engineering my ships, and I have a few (Corvette, Cutter, Anaconda, Python, Asp Ex, T6, iCourier, iEagle, Cobra MkIII) because I love how amazing they become. I'm not even done with them all, but I'm happy with them now, and working on more.
Yes, it's time consuming. Some of it is quite tedious, although tedium doesn't seem to bother me as much as some folks, as long as the resulting reward is good enough. And it is.
Even in my brand new game, which I started just after 2.2 dropped, as soon as I got my first Cobra, and kitted it out with an A-rated frameshift drive, the next thing I did was unlock Felicity and boost my jump range. It made doing rares runs really nice.
I've spent umpteen hours engineering my ships, and I have a few (Corvette, Cutter, Anaconda, Python, Asp Ex, T6, iCourier, iEagle, Cobra MkIII) because I love how amazing they become. I'm not even done with them all, but I'm happy with them now, and working on more.
Yes, it's time consuming. Some of it is quite tedious, although tedium doesn't seem to bother me as much as some folks, as long as the resulting reward is good enough. And it is.
X-Terminator
Banned
It's very worth it as the Ships handle so much faster and more efficient. Be warned though that you will attract Elite big Ships when carrying 4 or more commodities around so get them used up from rewards from Missions. Sothis was the best giver for all these and really did the game a great favour. To balance we now need a 10x buff of mats availability e.g. 10% of all the rares. We did the hard work in searching for the correct planet to start on so is no good to have to then spend 3hours with our SRV to find nothing but iron & sulphur.
One should bother with at least Elvira Martuuk or Felicity Farseer.
They're 2 easily accessible engineers who have useful modules.
Increased Range FSD.
Yes it is a bit of a grind to meet the entry requirements, and then to collect the materials and commodities. The outcome however is totally worth it!
Clipper
Anaconda
Asp
They're 2 easily accessible engineers who have useful modules.
Increased Range FSD.
Yes it is a bit of a grind to meet the entry requirements, and then to collect the materials and commodities. The outcome however is totally worth it!
Clipper
Well ask yourself the question, do you want to make improvements to your ship(s)? It's a simple query with a binary output
if(yes)
{
// Give engineers a try, even grade 1 mods can make a good difference to your ship and you probably already have the required mats
}
else
{
// One should not bother.
}