Skipping an engineering 'step'

[Alpenniless]

I'm modifying my FSD - let's say towards the last few steps of Level 4 (before completing) and Level 5 opens up - do I need to fully complete Level 4 before jumping to Level 5 ?

I accidentally skipped the last step of Level 4 and I begin Level 5 - then I found Level 4 states 'completed'.

 

[Stealthie]

No.

There are people who like to max-out G4 "just to be on the safe side" but the fact is that the G5 parameters (minimum improvement to maximum improvement) remain constant regardless.
Once you gain access to G5, continuing to apply G4 mod's is just burning mat's.

Personally, I never start a mod' unless I've got enough mat's to complete it.
I do that to avoid creating a situation where, for example, I think I've got a "completed" module when, in fact, it might only have one or two G5 rolls on it.
That being the case, the only time I'll max-out a G4 mod' would be if I don't have enough mat's to complete the G5 mod' so I'll complete G4 just to give me the biggest possible improvement without starting G5.

 

[Alpenniless]

Thanks! I'm on my second FSD mod and learn a few stuffs from the first try - the first attempt it jumps like 50% then when you think you've got enough material.. the % gets smaller on subsequent attempts!

 

[Stealthie]

Thanks! I'm on my second FSD mod and learn a few stuffs from the first try - the first attempt it jumps like 50% then when you think you've got enough material.. the % gets smaller on subsequent attempts!

Yeah, FDev do that to torture OCD completionists.

Wait 'til you get to the end of a G5 mod' and you're burning up mat's and the little progress dials are barely moving.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yeah, FDev do that to torture OCD completionists.

Wait 'til you get to the end of a G5 mod' and you're burning up mat's and the little progress dials are barely moving.

...and if you're not a completionist, that's the time to stop spending mats on it, because four extra G5 material sets for 1m/s extra speed or 0.03LY extra range is probably not actually worth it unless you have a lot of spares.

This is especially true for weapons - if you're e.g. overcharging four multicannons, doing the same number of rolls on each of them will be far more effective than maxing out one, getting half way through another, then running out of materials.

 

[metatheurgist]

Yeah, FDev do that to torture OCD completionists.

Wait 'til you get to the end of a G5 mod' and you're burning up mat's and the little progress dials are barely moving.

"Respecting your Time" ™

 

[Stealthie]

...and if you're not a completionist, that's the time to stop spending mats on it, because four extra G5 material sets for 1m/s extra speed or 0.03LY extra range is probably not actually worth it unless you have a lot of spares.

In my defence, I like to complete G5 mod's simply 'cos, if I don't, I end up wasting even more time trying to figure out why different ships perform differently.

I've spent, literally, hours trying to figure out why two allegedly identical DBXs don't have the same jump-range.
Thought I'd swapped every module between them (though, as it turns out, I obviously didn't) and couldn't figure it out.
In the end I realised I was looking at it wrong.
I was focussing all my attention of finding out why one was worse than the other.
Checked all it's modules, they were all identical, all G5 modded and none were one-roll legacy modules.
Last night, by pure luck, I happened to notice that one of them did still have a legacy life-support module (which I only noticed because it didn't show up as being possible to remote-engineer).
I then got all confused 'cos this was on the ship that has the better jump-range.

Turns out that this legacy G4 life-support is actually lighter than a current G5 life-support module.

Lordy, figuring out engineering can be a chore!

 

[MoonRacer]

A on topic question, since this comes up here: On Coriolis Shipyard you can also activate engineering mods. The results seem to be exact enough.

But: If I select a mod (for example FSD increased range) I see a field with values, blue for good values, red for bad values.
I started playing after 3.3, where engineering was changed. The results are now fixed, I learned, no longer random. At least when a mod is ready. But on Coriolis there is still a range, for example with FSD increased range grade 5 (3A FSD) it reads: Optimal Mass: (blue) Worst 45%, best 55%. The red values have all the same values for 'worst' and 'best'.

Does anybody know the background of this? It seems, that there are still slightly different results possible for the same mod. Or is this an error on Coriolis?
On Inara the values do not have a range, they seem to be fixed per mod and grade. Which is right?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

A on topic question, since this comes up here: On Coriolis Shipyard you can also activate engineering mods. The results seem to be exact enough.

But: If I select a mod (for example FSD increased range) I see a field with values, blue for good values, red for bad values.
I started playing after 3.3, where engineering was changed. The results are now fixed, I learned, no longer random. At least when a mod is ready. But on Coriolis there is still a range, for example with FSD increased range grade 5 (3A FSD) it reads: Optimal Mass: (blue) Worst 45%, best 55%. The red values have all the same values for 'worst' and 'best'.

The "best" is for the top of G5, while the "worst" is for a theoretical G5 module at the bottom of its dial (in practice even with just one G5 roll you'd get better than that)

It's for fine-tuning your Coriolis profile if you don't have the materials (or can't be bothered) to max a grade out.

 

[Stealthie]

Does anybody know the background of this? It seems, that there are still slightly different results possible for the same mod. Or is this an error on Coriolis?
On Inara the values do not have a range, they seem to be fixed per mod and grade. Which is right?

I assume Coriolis has left the values as being adjustable so people can play around with builds that use legacy modules.

If I wanted to find out what effect fitting, say, a Fuel Limpet Controller would have on my explorer AspX (which has a crazy-good legacy FSD), I'd have to plan the build and then manually twiddle the FSD stat's to reflect what my ship actually has.
Just relying on the "standard" stat's for a G5 FSD wouldn't give me the right info'.

 

[Crank Larson]

I don't think it's ever taken me more than 6 upgrades to complete the G5 level. The first two will usually get 75%, then the last few are incremental.