Why is engineering still such a grind and clart on??
- Thread starter Bryski
- Start date
Agreed. And this idea that everything has to be max G5 is flawed IMO. Most engineer modifications come with costs, so I purposefully stop at G3 on many of these because the costs start to outweigh the benefits in G4 and G5, at least for my particular goals. Engineering to max G3 is incredibly easy!
I am trying my best to get back into the game having grown up with the original back in the 80's but this engineering carry on is really killing it for me
I get that you need to gather mats etc but I am just finding it so mind numbingly boring and tedious that I have already logged off 3 times today and almost uninstalled the game :/
Surely it cant be like this and I am doing something wrong to make it so painful???
There is an easy solution actually: Don't.
There is only one, no wait, two scenarios I can think of where engineering is kinda mandatory.
1. you want to be competitive in PvP. Not a clue about that because I don't do PvP, but people keep saying it's super important...
2. You need a specific jumprange to reach some very far away star in a region of space that is not dense with stars (rim regions, Formidine Rift for example)
Other than that it's absolutely optional. I did some material gathering, but never to the point of grinding, or logging more than two times. All I have I gathered on the way while I did other things, and I actually have a few G5 modules and will have more, but, and that's the important thing for me: I don't need those tomorrow.
So perhaps lean back, play the game and keep your engineering goals in the back of your mind.
I've had much more fun with ED since I did more or less what you said.
Not chasing for this crap makes it pop up every now and then. Just have some cargo, wake scanner, SRV and you're prepared for anything the game throws at you when you don't want it.
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Thing is though, some people don't settle for second best, or third or fourth best.
I'm like that in real-life, and in video games.
For example, when I buy a new car, the first thing I do is take it for a drive and get an immediate feel for where it's lacking performance wise. Then over the course of a few weeks I'll monitor how it feels to me. Then I'll book a track day and be able to really push it.
After a month or two I know exactly what needs to be done to make the car feel better for me.
I don't then go scavenging in the local park for bit of rocks, nor do I go scavenging at the side of the road for rusty pieces of metal.
I take it to a specialist workshop in the city, tell the guys and gals in there exactly what I want, throw my bank card at them and wait for the phone call to say it's ready.
Then I can get round to having the most fun with my car.
I'm like that in real-life, and in video games.
For example, when I buy a new car, the first thing I do is take it for a drive and get an immediate feel for where it's lacking performance wise. Then over the course of a few weeks I'll monitor how it feels to me. Then I'll book a track day and be able to really push it.
After a month or two I know exactly what needs to be done to make the car feel better for me.
I don't then go scavenging in the local park for bit of rocks, nor do I go scavenging at the side of the road for rusty pieces of metal.
I take it to a specialist workshop in the city, tell the guys and gals in there exactly what I want, throw my bank card at them and wait for the phone call to say it's ready.
Then I can get round to having the most fun with my car.
The problem is the game and the distribution SUCKS,
mechanical scrap is supposed to be COMMON, ingame it says its form haulage ships preferably in ressource extraction sites.
So yesterday I spent 4 hours for:
destroying haulage ships in CZ's but none of the T9's dropped any.
destroyed haulage ships in a low res site, T6,7,9 no drops, not a single one.
destroyed haulage ships at the nav beacon, haulers, T6, T7, T9, NONE.
this even in an anrachy system, because I surely do not want to get bounty on a stupid system which needs "scrap" to upgrade a ship, which magically seems not even to drop from mentioned specific ship types except in very magic additional conditions.
I have not seen any mission rewards for mechanical scrap so far, and so the only possibility is to rely on RNG appearing USS to find RNG drops seeded in RNG sides.
And how is this a "common" material while I found so much more rare materials at all. And yes this makes people mad and stop playing such a game, because there is no logic and sense behind this kind of material aquirement. Thats a Huge pile of coded excrement thats so big stinky and steamy that it keeps the thargoids out of the bubble just by it's stench.
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Trading doesn't bring me in contact with engineer mats, and I refuse to change doing what I like, to something I don't like to simply play that engineer thing.
Therefore have never touched engineering, nor will I. It's sad as I'd like to upgrade some modules for quality of life.. Ironic that you have to cerb your fun for a QOL upgrade.
Therefore have never touched engineering, nor will I. It's sad as I'd like to upgrade some modules for quality of life.. Ironic that you have to cerb your fun for a QOL upgrade.
blaze your own trail and get excluded by 90% of the new content we added.
For a universe meant to be so big and complex there should be many ways to achieve these same changes, yet we have basically only one.
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I don't drive cars. Cars stink. Next try...
And yet you can get food without a car, amazing isn't it? If RL were like Elite, you would starve because you don't drive cars.
There is an easy solution actually: Don't.
There is only one, no wait, two scenarios I can think of where engineering is kinda mandatory.
1. you want to be competitive in PvP. Not a clue about that because I don't do PvP, but people keep saying it's super important...
2. You need a specific jumprange to reach some very far away star in a region of space that is not dense with stars (rim regions, Formidine Rift for example)
Other than that it's absolutely optional. I did some material gathering, but never to the point of grinding, or logging more than two times. All I have I gathered on the way while I did other things, and I actually have a few G5 modules and will have more, but, and that's the important thing for me: I don't need those tomorrow.
So perhaps lean back, play the game and keep your engineering goals in the back of your mind.
Right, just be aware that if you don't engineer, you'll have engineered AI spawn on you anyway.
So you essentially need to be some sort of super dude who not only can kill these bulletsponges with some magic skills - you'll also have to have a thick skin because those pimpships are just as much worth as the normal ones. I'm sure noone minds and is perfectly happy just taking 50% longer to do the same thing they did before engineers became a thing.
Yeah, it's typically the mentality of those that have or those that simply don't care, to tell people they don't NEED stuff that will improve life/gameplay.
Realistically we don't NEED anything, so let's just get rid of our homes and amenities and go back to living in caves, only some of us will die from starvation or cos of the cold, all good!
If the majority of these super CMDRs that can easily deal with anything in the game take off their VR headset, swap their graphics card out for a low level one that just barely keeps up game play on minimum settings, get rid of their good mouse/keyboard or HOTAS setup, (or break the joystick and make the buttons sticky by spilling coffee on their controller for controller/console users), change their monitor/TV to a 14in 1024x768 one and tell me you're still enjoying the game thoroughly for all it's worth?
That's what this is about, personal enjoyment.
People play games for fun, we enjoy games differently. Me, I'm a competitive sort (though I won't PVP in this game) by nature. I'm also a creator, so I'll modify things to serve a purpose better than its default form, more performance, better practicality etc.
In GTAV I mod my cars to look amazeballs (subjective but I've pretty good taste) and am a competitive racer, in BF4 and CoD I'm MrRapeFace and I obliterate the enemy team with smart tactics, helping teammates to push the goals. In ED I like to have whatever edge I can to fight better/quicker, to jump places easier, to last longer in a sticky situation (we all wanna last longer, amiright?
).Otherwise there's no point in upgrading our ships, go grab yourself a completely stock Corvette, utterly stock and keep it that way; go play the game and tell me you're having fun.
If you are, you're more than likely a masochist by nature. Embrace it and get your partner to tie you up and step on you wearing thin heels (whether male, female, toaster, goat or lamp).
My advice, for what it's worth, would be to just engineer the modules you feel will actually benefit you, in the ships you actually use, and when it's convenient to do so. Don't force yourself into racing to max-upgrade every module in every ship you've ever bought, just so you can leave it unused in a station somewhere.
This isn't Pokémon and you don't "Gotta Catch 'Em All". Obsessive collecting of upgrades will lead you to madness and misery
This. Pin all blueprints you need, and just check after each session when you're docked if you can upgrade something.
And I like fast cars and going round a track, sometimes very sideways.
I eat healthily, I'm fit and active. I play lots of video games too.
While I get the overall sentiment of your post, there are people who can balance these things out y'know.
I eat healthily, I'm fit and active. I play lots of video games too.
While I get the overall sentiment of your post, there are people who can balance these things out y'know.
I am trying my best to get back into the game having grown up with the original back in the 80's but this engineering carry on is really killing it for me
I get that you need to gather mats etc but I am just finding it so mind numbingly boring and tedious that I have already logged off 3 times today and almost uninstalled the game :/
Surely it cant be like this and I am doing something wrong to make it so painful???
Nope, that is the way Frontier has intentionally designed it. Many of us tried to reason with the devs in the beta, it didn’t work.
To be fair though, 3.0 did a lot to improve the engineering process:
- Improved UI
- Improved many mat drop rates
- Mod rolls always improve now
- Material Traders help with mat collection
But then they doubled down on the grind aspect which offset a lot of the good things they had just done:
- The Grade Grind on every module makes engineering much more time consuming for most players
- Mat Trader ratios are overly punishing
- Data mat drop rates were made worse in many places (getting 1 instead of 3)
The end result is that engineering is better in many ways while also being worse too. Their insistence on preserving the time grind hurt what could have been one of the most positive updates ever for Elite. It was still a good update in many ways, but they just can’t seem to break the cycle of making things super grindy.
and then there is also effort/reward.
whats a G5 maxed PP on a c3 worth and costs in mats compared to a G5 maxed on a c7? the fact that the sizes don't even factor into egnineering costs is saddening. fully engineering a sideys core internals is as much effort s fully engineering a cutters core internals. And now lets see which of both ships can do the mat grind more efficient.
it is with like many other things in ED a HUGE balance issue happening here.