Engine upgrades are confusing - or bad?

[Sushi_Rocks]

I simply didn't understand the thoughts behind the engine upgrade system in the game.
I simply upgraded to the single slot jet drive engines are buying the ugrade for the first engine upgrade. After doing so there is basically no good reason to upgrade any further into the bigger engine models (except for the last one in the late game) from my perspective.

Just placing jet drive engines in all engine slots is more efficient than using (almost) all of the bigger engine upgrades.

Is this an oversight by the devs or by design? Apart from delaying the player from unlocking the last high-end engine, I see no point in unlocking the more space hungry bigger engines (which also can't utilize the smaller engine spots).

Am I missing something?

[Cocofang]

Think the Jet Engine is just numerically imbalanced. The benefit of being very flexible and only losing a small portion of your speed on damage instead of the majority of it should account for most of its power budget. That it also has a very high kn/slot efficiency is a bit much.

[Sushi_Rocks]

Originally posted by Cocofang:

Think the Jet Engine is just numerically imbalanced. The benefit of being very flexible and only losing a small portion of your speed on damage instead of the majority of it should account for most of its power budget. That it also has a very high kn/slot efficiency is a bit much.

If you have enough money, you can also choose to just burn out multiple jet engines instead of decreasing your speed while using haste. That way you will reach your target way faster.
If you do the same with bigger engines, your stuck on low speed.

Not that I wouldn't like that, but the other bigger engine types just don't make sense.

[cevgar]

You are forgetting cost. The Jet's price/speed ratio is pretty bad, and the five and six block engines are more efficient slot/speed as well. Also the initial research investment for the Jet is steeper.

Example: $300 will either get you one 1slot Jet @ +9.5 knots, or one 3slot Refined Outboard @+26.3 knots. If you get 3 Jets to make up the difference you will be shelling out 3 times the cost of the Refined Outboard and will only be going 2 knots faster, but you have backups in case your engine gets hit.

Example 2: a 5slot TwinJet engine will give you +52.5 knots @$500. 5 Jets will get you +47.5 knots @$1500.

It doesn't really make much sense to have more than 2 Jets.


Edit: Though I conceed that - given the rate of research drops - by the time you unlock the last engine and have a ship that can fit it the cost point is pretty much moot.

[Cocofang]

With the current economy balance the cost is a complete non-factor though.

[Moon Rabbit]

Originally posted by cevgar:

You are forgetting cost. The Jet's price/speed ratio is pretty bad, and the five and six block engines are more efficient slot/speed as well. Also the initial research investment for the Jet is steeper.

Example: $300 will either get you one 1slot Jet @ +9.5 knots, or one 3slot Refined Outboard @+26.3 knots. If you get 3 Jets to make up the difference you will be shelling out 3 times the cost of the Refined Outboard and will only be going 2 knots faster, but you have backups in case your engine gets hit.

Example 2: a 5slot TwinJet engine will give you +52.5 knots @$500. 5 Jets will get you +47.5 knots @$1500.

It doesn't really make much sense to have more than 2 Jets.


Edit: Though I conceed that - given the rate of research drops - by the time you unlock the last engine and have a ship that can fit it the cost point is pretty much moot.

Money is so easy to get, it's hardly a factor and jets are super cheap. You just buy and store them until you can replace a full engine piece with them.

[Ittrix]

I guess jet drives were supposed to be expensive to kinda limit 'em, but... sort of a non issue, money.

Even throwing them out the engine system seems wrong, though. I never used the twin jets because there wasn't room on my boat for another engine. Yes, the twin jets were faster per space, but I didn't have anything to fit in the last slot so I never used 'em.

There's a lot of similar stuff for fishing and nets.
I'm in the endgame stretch and slowly filling out the research tree. There's really no reason for me to use a Harvesting Platform at this point.
On the right side of my boat, I could use a harvesting platform and a basic rod for ~170% fishing power. With the same space, I can reach ~137% fishing power and still be able to fish up mangrove and volcanic fish at the same time.
Even supposing I *did* want to specialize, the Encrusted Talisman with over 300% fishing power paired with whatever specific fishing rod will always outdo it... unless we tried to pair it with the harvesting platform, since that won't fit.

In the same sense I have zero desire to use anything but the two by two trawl nets. If I use a six by six, that only leaves 2 horizontal slots to use, which is potato.
I can get 18 fish daily from trawling and 38% extra fishing power, or I can get 12 fish daily from trawling and get 82% extra fishing power- plus I get to fish in oceanic, abyssal, and hadal zones. Or bust out the 300% extra fishing power and aberrant chance bonus on the left side. I'd always choose the second one personally, Except for getting that dumb aberrant jellyfish.


None of this killed the game for me or nothing- it was still good. But it feels like they were missing a key feature with boat upgrades. Letting us move the engine, rod, and net slots would change a lot of these situations for me. If I could move the bottom two spaces elsewhere, I might be able to fit in some other rods than the starting ones when using a 6 space trawl.

[Killroy]

Its too easy to make money in the game, plain and simple.

[Curious Duck]

Originally posted by Killroy:

Its too easy to make money in the game, plain and simple.

Not what the topic is about at all. Might want to re-read the post.

As I basically went from having all Jet Drive engines to a Twin Prop engine + Jet Drives then finally I'm at the Engine Stack + Jet Drive engines

I didn't bother with the Refined Outboard.

[Ittrix]

Originally posted by Curious Duck:

Originally posted by Killroy:

Its too easy to make money in the game, plain and simple.

Not what the topic is about at all. Might want to re-read the post.

Well, we're talking more specifically about jet drives, in addition to it all. They can be unlocked for research very early on, offer huge flexibility, and are numerous and small so hull damage will rarely deter them.
Their downside is that they're relatively expensive for how much force they give.

Which, unfortunately,

Originally posted by Killroy:

Its too easy to make money in the game, plain and simple.

so they're pretty great even from the outset.

[RCMidas]

Easy to make money sure, but it takes a lot of time investment where all you are doing is fishing and not progressing the story or side missions. So if you want to maximise your speed early, you are able to do this no problem. But it will be a very repetitive grinding session in the early game.