The most simple answer i can come up with was:
- Before engineers, elite was an elegant sandbox.
- Engineers added one of the most inelegant mmo mechanics, a gearcheck to the combat pillar.
- Just like in every single other game where this is implemented, this creates impossible balance issues, and creates a class system in players. Both outcomes in elite have been strong negatives.
- They could have just buffed the ai.
But taking my own advice im sure there is something workable that isn't a complete misery out of the system. As it stands i haven't so i can't combat effectively until i do. Which means i took my weapons off. Which means the game is literally not as fun as it was before the feature. Tangibly worse in terms of combat.
Edit: Another way to look at things is:
- Theres just a simple mistake of not being able to earn engineer mods via combat.
- Imagine world of warcraft, where riding your mount was really fun, but suddenly due to gear, the process of using your abilities really unfun.
- Then also make it so that before you get your abilities in the first place, you have to do something else completely unrelated, leftfield, and nothing but grindy to earn abilities to make it fun.
- I could even understand if you had to say, mine for 100 hours before getting upgraded lasers. Cut your teeth and all. But insanely engineers are powered by secondary systems that feed off the good stuff and worst are not sandbox experiences, they're repetitive grinds doing what the mission board tells you to do, over and over again.
- Before engineers, elite was an elegant sandbox.
- Engineers added one of the most inelegant mmo mechanics, a gearcheck to the combat pillar.
- Just like in every single other game where this is implemented, this creates impossible balance issues, and creates a class system in players. Both outcomes in elite have been strong negatives.
- They could have just buffed the ai.
But taking my own advice im sure there is something workable that isn't a complete misery out of the system. As it stands i haven't so i can't combat effectively until i do. Which means i took my weapons off. Which means the game is literally not as fun as it was before the feature. Tangibly worse in terms of combat.
Edit: Another way to look at things is:
- Theres just a simple mistake of not being able to earn engineer mods via combat.
- Imagine world of warcraft, where riding your mount was really fun, but suddenly due to gear, the process of using your abilities really unfun.
- Then also make it so that before you get your abilities in the first place, you have to do something else completely unrelated, leftfield, and nothing but grindy to earn abilities to make it fun.
- I could even understand if you had to say, mine for 100 hours before getting upgraded lasers. Cut your teeth and all. But insanely engineers are powered by secondary systems that feed off the good stuff and worst are not sandbox experiences, they're repetitive grinds doing what the mission board tells you to do, over and over again.
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