XX Reasons Engineering 3.0 Is Horrible & Needs To Be Fixed.

I've provided feedback elsewhere about engineering 3.0, and I know FDEV have their hands full with all the bugs. But i'm thoroughly disheartened with engineering 3.0.

Despite all of the cynicism this is posted with - the intention of being helpful/constructive and for the better...
If we don't speak up - what do we expect? Elite is a great game, and offers so much potential it's actually inconceivable. We play it, love it, and invest in it. Yes, playing elite is actually investing in something. It's hard not to care about it as a game.

But engineering 3.0 is crap....
1) Engineering 3.0 has removed unique variation from the results. Why?
All ship engineering ends up in the same end result. Every explorer conda is going to be far more similar, and the same goes for pvp/combat ships etc. This is a horrible change imo.

1.1) Results being streamlined (as above) is probably seen as a positive by those that didn't really get into engineering but felt they simply had to (speculatively the many). Fair enough. Secondary rolls in 2.4 engineering were either a random blessing or a horrible curse. Remove the secondaries and wouldn't have had an entirely horrible system.

2) Engineering modules from 1 to 5 grades is a time sink and material sink.
Now every single material is very important and the rarest materials are wasted in a 'process'.
With 100% of the 5th grade requiring 'more' than previously, it's just soul destroying getting to a 10th or 12th roll of a 5th grade mod as your rare materials run out. You used to be able to achieve at least something with 1 of each rare grade 5 material. It's now around 10 x 3 (= 30). This is lacking creativity game design-wise and a deliberate hand-brake on engineering as a part of game play (something I used to pre 3.0 spend more than 70% of my time doing to experiment with all the various glorious/cool/ things FDEV gave us via engineers). There are infinite better ways to make players do something to achieve a grade 5 100% roll than just materials and clicking .

3) Material traders are not a fun / enjoyable / reasonable solution.
Thanks for adding a middle man for some time-sink. Why?
I think they should exist for a multitude of reasons. They should even produce their own missions for material rewards. They clearly need somethings and we need somethings etc. But as a counter or excuse for materials-sink 'engineering' they are just an inconvenience / busy work / time sink to get a result.
At this juncture I have to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/7smzb3/elite_dangerous_beyond_live_stream_engineering/
r3amumzdm0c01.png

...Sorry but you did and you have. Badly. And you know it. You designed it.

4) I'm going to say time-sink again.
I don't believe for a second that any engineering should be instantaneous or immediate. Nothing in Elite should be. Hard work should pay off in dividends. But this isn't hard work. It's busy work, and ultimately so everyone can get the same streamlined engineering results. What a horribly boring, uninspiring thought. You used to be able to get something done with at least 1 of each grade 5 material. I'm not suggesting that's how it should be now, although some of my best rolls where with less materials than I now require to get 100% (urrrrhg!) ...Now WAY too much time is expected to be spent vacuuming space/planets for materials.

5) The RNG generation of materials.
FDEV, move on. It's horrible, and RNG is an obvious, lazy failure in logic.

Someone who recommends smart rounds as a very good engineering mod (some livestream during focused feedback) isn't really into engineering the way many of us players actually are. So a fresh set of eyes, please. Some creativity, some logic, less time-sink, less material sink if materials is going to be RNG horrible, and yay! we can all (no, not you, but everyone else) be happy with engineering.

Looking forward to your amazing comments.

EDIT: Tidied this up a little bit. I wasn't sober when I originally wrote this dribble, and would prefer to be a jerk on more of a part-time basis. Looks like it's spawned some good debate/discussion.

EDIT: and TheYamiks says it better than me: https://youtu.be/1iDAdSy6xgY
 
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For the record, I disagree with all your points. :)

Same here.

I find all this never ending whining tiresome. I wish these people would just learn how to use the new system instead of complaining about how it doesn't work the way they want it to.

I finished re-engineering my 10 ship fleet going on two weeks ago now. It was relatively painless and fun compared to 2.4. Then again, I took the last two weeks of 2.4 to gather up all the G5 mats and data I could find, so that when 3.0 dropped I was able to fill out all of my Mat and Data inventories, proceed to the various engineers for a quick and smooth upgrade progression. Totally uninterrupted by material and data gathering because I already had all of the required ingredients in significant volume.

Not rocket science. Just pre-planning and common sense.
 
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I'm gonna have to come back to this tomorrow, I'm tired and I burnt my eye with a teabag so I only read the bold parts;

the intention of being helpful/constructive and for the better...But engineering 3.0 is crap....
1) Engineering 3.0 has removed unique variation from the results.
far more similar,
2) Engineering modules from 1 to 5 grades is a time sink and material sink.
3) Material traders are not a fun / enjoyable / reasonable solution.
Thanks for adding a middle man for some time-sink.
...Sorry but you did and you have. Badly. And you know it. You designed it.
4) I'm going to say time-sink again.
5) The RNG generation of materials.
 
For the record, I disagree with all your points. :)

Going to have to agree with this. Here's my thoughts on it, cause I agreed with these points until I did it myself. I wanted to increase my jump range on my T9 post 3.0 and loathed hunting for Arsenic pre 3.0. I was not looking forward to it. BUT as I played the game, prospected and enjoyed the new planet shading I found that my worries and negative thoughts about the system were washed away.

Yes, arsenic was still a pain in the . Yes, I did not have enough to get what I wanted. BUT I didn't have to throw anything else out to make space for it. I found LOTS of other mats at various grades. Which, we're useful for 2 big reasons, I could now pin a blueprint & go to a mat trader, trade what I needed and finish my rolls there. But also, since the storage has been revamped, I had enough EXTRA stuff for engineering later. It was fantastic. The big problem. Was storage for me. I'd spend hours looking for ONLY Arsenic pre-3.0, now I look for aresenic, pick up everything, and have enough to do some stuff later.

I found this to be the same for manufactured mats. A lot of wing and cargo missions give away Grade 5 crystals, so itake them and trade them off for what I want later. Will it take hours to do full engineering? Sure it may, but in the long run, for someone who actively avoided it since launch, I find it worth the time now. Props for FDev to make these changes. It's not perfect, but it truly is in my mind a better system
 
I...
1) Engineering 3.0 has removed unique variation from the results. Why?
All ship engineering ends up in the same end result. Every explorer conda is going to be far more similar, and the same goes for pvp/combat ships etc. This is a horrible change imo, and obviously foreseeable if Sandro didn't have his head up his space loach. [alien]
...

Not only was it foreseeable, I am convinced it was absolutely intended - and personally I think it is the very best aspect of the entire Engineering changes. Top rolls are now in reach, and with all CMDR having access to them, at least PvP (voluntary or not) has returned to one of skill and loadout, rather than who rolled the luckiest or the most.
 
Not sure what the OP's definition of constructive criticism is, but it's certainly not the same as mine. This post just comes across as rude and whiny, without really offering alternative solutions to the problems the OP perceives.
 
Same here.

I find all this never ending whining tiresome. I wish these people would just learn how to use the new system instead of complaining about how it doesn't work the way they want it to.

I finished re-engineering my 10 ship fleet going on two weeks ago now. It was relatively painless and fun compared to 2.4. Then again, I took the last two weeks of 2.4 to gather up all the G5 mats and data I could find, so that when 3.0 dropped I was able to fill out all of my Mat and Data inventories, proceed to the various engineers for a quick and smooth upgrade progression. Totally uninterrupted by material and data gathering because I already had all of the required ingredients in significant volume.

Not rocket science. Just pre-planning and common sense.

"I used my knowledge from the beta test to do something that no player reading my post could replicate in the live game today, so constructive criticism of the system they will have to use from now on is obviously just whining. Even though I spent two weeks farming materials in 2.4 specifically to avoid having to do it in 3.0 myself."

This is an interesting take on many things, including logic.
 
2) Engineering modules from 1 to 5 grades is a time sink and material sink.
Now every single material is very important. Why? Now rare materials are wasted in a 'process'. Why?
With 100% of the 5th grade requiring 'more' ( a colossal f___ tonne of rare material rolls) than previously, it's just soul destroying getting to a 10th or 12th roll of a 5th grade mod as your rare materials run out. WHY? You used to be able to achieve at least something with 1 of each rare grade 5 material. Now that's 10 x 3 (= 30 materials for whoever's maths is as bad as Sandro's). This is lacking creativity game design-wise and a deliberate hand-brake on engineering as a part of game play (something I used to pre 3.0 spend more than 70% of my time doing to experiment with all the various glorious/cool/ things FDEV gave us via engineers). There are infinite better ways to make players do something to achieve a grade 5 100% roll than just materials and clicking .

I would say that from grade 4 to max out 5 is awful. Just converted four overcharged MCs form legacy grade 5 and even though I was full on required materials for that after just two maxed out MCs it was obvious how stupid the process is and how much materials I spent so the two other MCs left at half.
I can't even imagine making four efficient something, since proto heat radiators, unlike MEF are not mission reward...:eek::(:mad:
 
Everything about the Engineers is actually now spot on. New system is easy to use, no stupid gambling, and provides a clear upgrade path.

FD did well. :)

However!
Material gathering still sucks. Lol
I don't like the material brokers either, and personally think that synthesis of manufactured materials [from elements*] would be more fun and streamlined.
Data broker could stick around, because I can't think of a better way that.

*Elements also need the RNG toned down a bit. Apparently that's coming in Q4.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 
Not only was it foreseeable, I am convinced it was absolutely intended - and personally I think it is the very best aspect of the entire Engineering changes.

You're right one that one. Obviously foreseeable and well everyone wants what everyone else has.

I don't believe you are entirely on the money about the PVP statement though - perception vs reality - was about rolling the smartest more-so, and then other factors such as special effects and power playing to get multiple power play related modules comes into it... etc etc.
 
I would say that from grade 4 to max out 5 is awful. Just converted four overcharged MCs form legacy grade 5 and even though I was full on required materials for that after just two maxed out MCs it was obvious how stupid the process is and how much materials I spent so the two other MCs left at half.
I can't even imagine making four efficient something, since proto heat radiators, unlike MEF are not mission reward...:eek::(:mad:

Yep. Totally. The last 4 & 5 grade rolls are just a sink hole.
 
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