Lying awake the night before Beta, concerned with the prospect of an engineer revamp that doesn’t sit right with me, I realized something:
Agency is nothing without choice.
In the current engineering system, a roll always gives me a choice, to keep or change my module. Usually, later rolls will have a lower chance of improvement and the reward for doing a roll has diminishing returns. Sometimes I have the choice of a lower primary stat, eg. optimal mass modifier on my FSD, for an interesting secondary, eg. heat efficiency. This is what makes a choice interesting and fun, debating pros and cons while giving me a sense of creating a personalized ship. However, the process of rolling randomly is tedious and needs to change.
The proposed changes would reduce choice to an initial track, with each roll being a simple step on a one-way ladder. Secondary effects would be changed to another simple choice, removing the prospect of surprising benefits or odd personal combinations on modules.
That said, I totally get that some people just want to finely tune their machine to be the best at doing one thing, which the new system would fix completely.
Another thing that I fear for the new system is the additional required rolls for improvements. I am currentlt happy doing a single G5 roll for most engineer visits, but the new material requirements are steep, with no added value to my wish for creating a personalized ship.
And so, I have a proposal for an adjusted model:
These changes would retain the option of personalized feel of modifications, keep the linear and potentially optimal solutions for those who want it, add potential benefits to fill the gap of a bad roll, add some randomization without removing anything and give us an option to progress to G5 for fewer materials but with less control. As the FDev proposal stands, I probably won’t use the new engineers as much as I have and at least will keep my current G5 rolls with all their glorious flaws.
In the end, the quality of your modules is not something that only depends on their optimization for a single purpose. It is their use and how well they fit a commander.
What is good, and what is not good, is the choice that makes customization fun.
Agency is nothing without choice.
In the current engineering system, a roll always gives me a choice, to keep or change my module. Usually, later rolls will have a lower chance of improvement and the reward for doing a roll has diminishing returns. Sometimes I have the choice of a lower primary stat, eg. optimal mass modifier on my FSD, for an interesting secondary, eg. heat efficiency. This is what makes a choice interesting and fun, debating pros and cons while giving me a sense of creating a personalized ship. However, the process of rolling randomly is tedious and needs to change.
The proposed changes would reduce choice to an initial track, with each roll being a simple step on a one-way ladder. Secondary effects would be changed to another simple choice, removing the prospect of surprising benefits or odd personal combinations on modules.
That said, I totally get that some people just want to finely tune their machine to be the best at doing one thing, which the new system would fix completely.
Another thing that I fear for the new system is the additional required rolls for improvements. I am currentlt happy doing a single G5 roll for most engineer visits, but the new material requirements are steep, with no added value to my wish for creating a personalized ship.
And so, I have a proposal for an adjusted model:
- Keep the general structure of the proposed changes. Progress through grades, flat penalties, gradual progression of primary stats etc.
- Scrap the proposed requirement of reaching max in a grade to advance. One roll should be enough to roll your next grade, but the primary stat benefits on the next grade should be lower from such a suboptimal progression.
- Add secondary benefits on your roll, based on your missing percentage of each grade. Eg. you roll 30% on a G1, you get some amount of heat efficiency, reduced weight, or whatever from the pool of secondaries. Secondary benefits should amount to a fraction the missing 70%, as the material cost of another roll is an important factor when making a choice to keep or to roll. (I think 50% secondary weight is a good place to start.) On a roll of 100%, the modification is pure and only gives you your primary stat.
- Keep accumulated secondary effects throughout subsequent grades, matching the penalty to primary stats from suboptimal progression. Early choices should have consequences. Ideally, I would maybe use the initial distribution of primary and secondary stats as a base for later rolls, but that might be illegible or hard to balance.
These changes would retain the option of personalized feel of modifications, keep the linear and potentially optimal solutions for those who want it, add potential benefits to fill the gap of a bad roll, add some randomization without removing anything and give us an option to progress to G5 for fewer materials but with less control. As the FDev proposal stands, I probably won’t use the new engineers as much as I have and at least will keep my current G5 rolls with all their glorious flaws.
In the end, the quality of your modules is not something that only depends on their optimization for a single purpose. It is their use and how well they fit a commander.
What is good, and what is not good, is the choice that makes customization fun.