Two tiny changes to make engineering a blast.

[Bloodsign]

(1) Material traders SELL materials for credits. In what world can you only trade to get stuff?

Candy store guy: "So, kid, you want gumballs. Thing is, you gotta trade licorice sticks for 'em, at a 6:1 ratio. I see you don't have any, so you'll have to convert your gumdrops to licorice sticks first at a 32:1 ratio."

Kid: [grabs jar of gumballs and runs]

(2) Increase material amount gained per scoop.

Candy store guy: "Did I mention you can't buy licorice sticks or gumdrops anywhere either. Nope, you're gonna have to go harvest those from the wilds. Good luck finding a licorice coyote or a gumdrop tree. Don't die out there."

Kid: [Realizes Candy Store Guy drops gumballs, reaches for baseball bat.]

 

[Chaparral]

Credits are silly easy to get, mats (many gathering mechanics broken) not so easy to get.

Engineering is the only progression this game currently has that affects "character level".

Actually having the stated in game descriptions of how to obtain mats become valid would be a huge step in the right direction.

I would prefer to see mat gold rushes. Hot spots where raw mats are found in abundance. CGs where pirates / USSs carry extra manufactured mats. Cargo ships that carry substantial numbers of raw mats and manufactured mats as cargo for piracy. Vastly increased numbers of data mats for scanning targets and missions would help as well.

 

[Daynen]

(1) Material traders SELL materials for credits. In what world can you only trade to get stuff?

Candy store guy: "So, kid, you want gumballs. Thing is, you gotta trade licorice sticks for 'em, at a 6:1 ratio. I see you don't have any, so you'll have to convert your gumdrops to licorice sticks first at a 32:1 ratio."

Kid: [grabs jar of gumballs and runs]

(2) Increase material amount gained per scoop.

Candy store guy: "Did I mention you can't buy licorice sticks or gumdrops anywhere either. Nope, you're gonna have to go harvest those from the wilds. Good luck finding a licorice coyote or a gumdrop tree. Don't die out there."

Kid: [Realizes Candy Store Guy drops gumballs, reaches for baseball bat.]

I like this kid.

 

[CharlestonGeek]

Credits are silly easy to get, mats (many gathering mechanics broken) not so easy to get.

Engineering is the only progression this game currently has that affects "character level".

Actually having the stated in game descriptions of how to obtain mats become valid would be a huge step in the right direction.

I would prefer to see mat gold rushes. Hot spots where raw mats are found in abundance. CGs where pirates / USSs carry extra manufactured mats. Cargo ships that carry substantial numbers of raw mats and manufactured mats as cargo for piracy. Vastly increased numbers of data mats for scanning targets and missions would help as well.

Material Gathering hotspots would be nice. Tied to some sort of story/event. Crashed or blown up ships; volcanic eruptions and asteroid/comet collisions.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

frontier already increased the material gained from 1 unit to 3 units per scoop, and there are already ship graveyards you can find in space and mineral clusters on planets.

 

[varonica]

Material Gathering hotspots would be nice. Tied to some sort of story/event. Crashed or blown up ships; volcanic eruptions and asteroid/comet collisions.

There already are, not long ago I pulled 150 technetium in around 15 minutes from one Crystal Spike site plus the other odd materials, and there were maybe a dozen sites on the body, making a possible 1500+ technetium available from the one body, how many mats exactly do you consider constitutes a hot spot?

 

[Factabulous]

There already are, not long ago I pulled 150 technetium in around 15 minutes from one Crystal Spike site plus the other odd materials, and there were maybe a dozen sites on the body, making a possible 1500+ technetium available from the one body, how many mats exactly do you consider constitutes a hot spot?

Yeah, that's great for raws, now point me to the one for pharmaceutical isolators and I'll head over

(Don't like the ops suggestion - it's basically another "can I have a win button" request)

 

[Bloodsign]

Yeah, that's great for raws, now point me to the one for pharmaceutical isolators and I'll head over

(Don't like the ops suggestion - it's basically another "can I have a win button" request)

I disagree with that last bit; the game is pretty easy even without engineering. And I wouldn't think engineering itself is an insta-win in PvP; it's how the build is put together and the pilot's skill in utilizing that build.

ED engineering is a nightmare for anyone who really enjoys experimentation (me). It's not enough for me to engineer my ships; I'll likely end up engineering each one several times until each is "just right.". The way things are currently implemented means it will take about 206 years to do that, most of which time will be spent gathering mats, not flying my ships. :/

I didn't "mind the grind" at first, but I'm realizing there's no end to it.

 

[lenna]

...

Essentially, you want an easy button for engineering - finding the required materials is not that hard overall but engineering in itself is just a means to an end not an end in itself. Nothing you have proposed would make it more "fun", just easier.

 

[RamirezKurita]

Until they actually get the economy stabilised, income for different activities balanced, rein in the income inflation and implement a wide reaching cost inflation to match the current income potential, then there's no point making anything that can be obtained with credits.

 

[DARGAN]

Also, I found this system of exchange unsuitable for the year of this game. Banks no longer exist to return to an exchange system without using credit ?

In fact, it has disturbed me from the beginning, I'm not saying that we have to remove material brokers, but simply that they should be placed only in low security systems or only on the planetary bases of the engineers themselves for a little more consistency.

otherwise I agree that being able to buy materials with credits would make engineering much too simple.

 

[lenna]

Banks no longer exist to return to an exchange system without using credit ?

Yup - the concept of Banks (or at least Credit Loan Agencies) were near enough unilaterally abolished after they caused the collapse of the world economy and triggered WW3.

 

[Bloodsign]

Essentially, you want an easy button for engineering - finding the required materials is not that hard overall but engineering in itself is just a means to an end not an end in itself. Nothing you have proposed would make it more "fun", just easier.

Quicker, specifically, but I see your point.

I'll just have to keep doing what I do and analyze the heck out of the mat gethering process until I find the optimal way to harvest each individual material.

 

[Faded Glory]

Would perhaps be nice if the engineers themselves gave out a few missions that resulted in either finding appropriate high grade materials used in their blueprints during the course of the mission or those materials were given as mission rewards. Would only really be the grade 5 mats that would need to be made available this way as lower grade mats are pretty easy to get and material trading down gives decent yields.

This would provide another 'incentive' to actually visit an engineer (which I accept some people probably wouldn't like), and would be a more targeted way of getting things that we are looking for, rather than the usual random method (and very limited gameplay IMHO - hunting HGE's can't surely be considered to be fun gameplay) that exists now.

 

[Bloodsign]

Would perhaps be nice if the engineers themselves gave out a few missions that resulted in either finding appropriate high grade materials used in their blueprints during the course of the mission or those materials were given as mission rewards. Would only really be the grade 5 mats that would need to be made available this way as lower grade mats are pretty easy to get and material trading down gives decent yields.

This would provide another 'incentive' to actually visit an engineer (which I accept some people probably wouldn't like), and would be a more targeted way of getting things that we are looking for, rather than the usual random method (and very limited gameplay IMHO - hunting HGE's can't surely be considered to be fun gameplay) that exists now.

Now here's some outside-the-box thinking I haven't heard before! Nicely done.

 

[Icybow73]

Yeah, that's great for raws, now point me to the one for pharmaceutical isolators and I'll head over

(Don't like the ops suggestion - it's basically another "can I have a win button" request)

Share with me

 

[nanite2000]

(1) Material traders SELL materials for credits. In what world can you only trade to get stuff?

WHile I agree it seems unrealistic in the 'real world', it is a necessary suspension of disbelief required to prevent players buying their way to the top.

Right now, without engineering, credits offer reasonably level playing field amongst all the ships and modes of play.

Engineering creates a power imbalance that credits alone cannot redress, and it is only the tedious materials gathering process that provides a limiting factor to further power imbalances.

FDev have stated many times that the currency of engineers is time, and if they make materials purchasable, anyone could buy that power imbalance effortlessly.

Essentially, you want an easy button for engineering...

Where would we even find room on our keyboards for all those ‘I win’ and ‘easy mode’ buttons you think we all want.