Monolith should remain combat simulator , not become any kind of job simulator like frontier

[foggy mist]

hello i am writing this regardless all the changes monolith went thought from it's fun times to the modern times. The 1st trend i notice was the removal of port-striking and bases to act as spawn-point and decreasing the 'activity' of the factions , the 2nd one was the introduction of the known "HOOPS" this is what frontier did, they introduced more hoops , actions and requirements you need to do in order to achieve an objective. this is also known as 'grinding'.
to start what did made monolith unique to frontier? the answer is simple, monolith is a combat simulator ,(yeah , the experience in earlier days was aggressive and could be improved ) and then it became something good ,in contrast to frontier which is a job simulator. In monolith you join to enjoy some kick ass action and not to do , you know "frontier stuff" like mining , researching , 'grinding' etc...
However recently monolith was plague with an issue which i called "Enfrontirification" this i the act of putting some things that you want like getting items , upgrading your ships , and getting better weapons behind a "grind-wall" this is what frontier did over the days. They force you to visit each specialized ship to get the thing that you wanted and buy from them instead of outright equipping your ship and buying your gear and this even extended to food and drinks. In factions it's a "Forced grind research" instead of buying the weapons you want from uplink. The big issue here is this... barely work many times and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The thing is that you require extreme specialization for example it is mandatory for a faction to have a few "Service Workers" who do all the boring civilian-like work like getting materials and doing research. However , not many people ,(if at all in factions) want to do these boring jobs. many people just want to be mercenaries and do expeditions or outright jump in combat in factions. however they now need to do all these boring "FRONTIER" work instead.

Monolith should remain Combat simulator , not become any kind of job simulator like frontier

the big issue is that monolith treats research now as a requirement rather than a supplement , in the earlier days it was done perfectly.In factions you used to get an uplink. this uplink would give you advanced weapons and gear within your uplink credits. Or you could research those weapons for later use OR (heres is what we lost) you could get in combat and earn more of those credits and get even better gear. Now up-link gives you junk that you would get on every faction Eva locker and weapons only from T2 and below researches. no more exclusive high end faction equipment from uplink. playing factions now is a boring research job simulator , if you want anything better , research is the only way. Combat and earning uplink credits will get you nowhere and their pour spessos from them is nowhere near high enough to justify the combat risk. if it was done right, factions equipment/strength should also have been based on combat factor and how good those are at earning those credits and Research would have been as an alternative ,for those times your faction struggles in combat or could not get enough credits for an uplink.
in the mercenary-expedition section? , same story now. Mercenary vendors used to give you some advanced weapons. Now you need to research them.
"forced research" was a frontier thing. if this continues i might consider quitting monolith outright and returning to frontier as it doesn't longer offer anything unique anymore.

Monolith should remain combat simulator , not become any kind of job simulator like frontier

[broken crane]

We are working on integrating the research system more into faction gameplay (especially with it being more tied in with conflict), and we are deliberating on how to deal with the uplink

However, we will likely continue trying to make higher tier guns require progression throughout the round - Not make them grindy to get, per se, but rather make players need to use other guns to get said better weapons instead of jumping straight to the highest level by only buying from a vender

[foggy mist]

you don't understand , the issue is that research is boring , it doesn't have to do with any of faction conflicts(sevastopol database might have been a small exception if it wasn't for that AME)
research is it's own different thing. it's civillian ,it happens on every other server. it's barely rewarding especially to those rogues who will never see combat and never get paid...

[broken crane]

I do understand, and there are more ideas that we are thinking of to make research have more gameplay related to faction conflict

I agree that it is undercooked as it is right now

Tech tree is staying of course

[foggy mist]

so should you suggest to temporary quit monolith or revert the changes until the research is properly "cooked"

[broken crane]

That’s up to you. Personally, I think even with research being as it is, it is still workable and there are alternative methods of getting what it offers (think expeditions and faction equipment)

Research isn’t the entire faction gameplay, it’s a large portion of unlocking stuff in lathes - a lot of which is stuff you can still get through uplink, roundstart spawns, or loot

Quitting the server just because we are experimenting with different changes is a rash response imo

But I can understand somewhat

[foggy mist]

then why only so bad suits are available in the uplink even on the faction leader's uplink?

[broken crane]

Because we’ve been working on improving tech instead

You can get hardsuits from armories usually, plus they aren’t the end all be all of protection with recent ammo changes

[foggy mist]

without thinking that maybe frontier was about all that research that a vessel had to do and visit. monolith was different. now it's a frontier with...guns on ships?

[foggy mist]

research disks are extreme rare in most expeditions. plus no faction comes with any kind of expeditionary ship

[broken crane]

Factions also get points for free over time? Expeds are mostly for the merc balance argument

[broken crane]

There’s absolutely still differences between monolith and frontier - factions, roleplay, and rules environment
But if you want to constantly see frontier as a foil for monolith, I can’t stop you

[foggy mist]

lastly about mercs , now mercs deliberate require to get a research vessel for an increased price (prices for getting R&D servers from vendors also included and it's a hoop) and do this boring research or be lucky to find a research vessel who sells researched guns
you basically killed small expeditionary parties who are now depended on R&D vessels or to be stuck with crap weapons.

[broken crane]

1. Research grants access to some good weapons, but expeditions still have places that generate good loot weapons.
2. Vender/starter weapons are still completely viable. Maybe not your favorite choice but they can totally get the job done if used right.
3. If worst comes to worst and literally all options available to you well and truly suck… kill syndies on an expedition. You aren’t reliant on other people for doing expeds, and you can get an MR-8C on one exped with a syndie high priority target

[foggy mist]

what's next? are you planning on getting rid of speacial weapons from loadout? this is the last thing that make mercenaries so unique in monolith

[broken crane]

Nope

||we’re going to remove the uplink, research disks, and liberation station ||

For research we’re still thinking but in the meantime giving Sevastopol more research capability is on the agenda