Just to be clear (because I'm not sure it is from that post in isolation) I was talking specifically about the difficulty FDev would have in converting existing mods to any new system using a method that players would find equitable. A changed system can itself be set up any way they would want including bonuses etc.
The issue I was highlighting is that under the current system there have been rolls produced that would be outside the likely combination of values that a slider-based system would offer even with bonuses. Even if the potential bonuses stayed as they are now in terms of both the attributes affected and the range of possible bonus changes, the base rolls for current gear in some cases still have the best possible outcome for three or even four out of five attributes in some cases, plus the best bonuses possible. Assuming a slider based system would be based on trade offs rather than just allowing people to max everything out, those rolls could not be replicated under such a system.
If you have a mod now with say four attribute changes and the mod has three of those attributes within 95% to 100% of the best possible change, plus one of them increased to 105% of that range due to a secondary, that mod simply can't stay in the game if the best possible effect you could create under a slider-based system is changing two attributes to +95% of the range with the trade off being that the oither two attributes can only be set to the bottom 30% of the range.
I'm assuming here that when people talk about a slider-based system they want something like the way skill points are allocated in RPGs where there is always a trade off involved in that if you allocate them to attribute X they aren't available to also max out attributes Y and Z.
All I'm saying is that any system like that would mean some current god-rolls and even some decent ones where the roll is in the 'best' 75% range say for each attribute couldnlt stay in the game because they couldn't be rolled by a new player under that new system and you can't have a situation where some players would have gear that would be a) overpowered by virtue of being outside the new range of possibilities and b) unattainable by any player after the changes for the same reason.
There's also no 'fair' way for FDev to automatically change existing gear to fit with that system because a straight proportional decrease in all the gear values until the total changes fit what could be achieved with a new system would not take account of the relative importance of the various attributes and their actual values.
Take a power plant (for example) which has good rolls for each attribute, say be a 23% decrease in heat efficiency (range is currently -20% to -50%) a 25% reduction in integrity (range is currently -20% to -50%) and a 32% increase in power output (range is currently 10% to 36%).
A slider-based system of the kind people seem to want would be very unlikely to allow players to allocate those improvements since the whole point of such a system is usually a trade off between one stat and another whereas the current mod would be basically near the top of every possible range, so the player couldn't be allowed to keep that after any changes because nobody else could ever make one - that's not realistic in a game that includes pvp. So Fdev do what, proportionately change the old mod so it matches the new parameters? How?
Apply a straight proportionate reduction to each attribute until the total changes between the three are what you would get by allocating improvements pretty equally across the three attributes under the new system? That would probably give something like a 33% reduction in heat efficiency, a 33% reduction in integrity and a 25% increase in power output.
Trouble is, although that might seem fair, the player who made that mod because he needed the 32% increase in power output is screwed, his mod is now worthless.
OK so FDev are smart - they decide that for each adjustment they will keep the critical stat for the upgrade type at either its current value or cap it down to the maximum if it was above it and then automatically split the necessaryh balancing between the other attributes. So that power plant becomes one with a 32% increase in power output still, but to keep the total changes within those allowed by the new slider allocation system it has to have a -40% change to integrity and a -40% change to heat efficiency. The player keeps his power output increase but evey time he has to fire a shield cell his ship catches fire due to the greater loss of thermal efficiency.
There is just no way to do an equitable conversion automatically and unless people are thinking that a slider-based system would actually allow them to almost max out every stat (which it surely wouldn't) that is a reality of any such change. I mean I know for a fact that my own totally legit rolled FSDon my DBX would be history under such a change because it's exactly as described above - in the 'best 10% or so for every attribute change and with two beneficial secondaries on top of that.
I'm not making a point based in self-interest here, just using that as an example (I rarely fly the ship and didn't do 5,000 rolls for that mod or anything, it was genuinely just a lucky one) but there are players whose entire builds are so finely balanced with the current stats of their mods that any change that resulted in the overall improvements they have on those items of gear falling outside the ranges possible under a new system would not only trash a single piece of gear but would result in them having to re-work entire ship builds.
As I said at the start, the issue is simply that if you think about the current system in terms of allocating an overall pool of improvement points/percentages the problem is that it effectively lets players allocate enough to max out everything with a lucky roll. No slider-based system of the kind people have said they want, one that involved forced trade-offs, could possibly replicate that, it's mathematically impossible and that alone would mean that some existing rolled mods would have to be changed.
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