Criticisms on Quality

Quality was one of the most anticipated features of SA for me ever since it was first mentioned on FFF. It was a natural way to add a lot more longevity to a playthrough. Though, having spent quite a bit of time with it, from throwing quality modules around the factory as soon as I unlocked it to now rolling for all legendaries, I have some criticisms.

1) Unrestricted quality hinders more than helps. Getting errant uncommons or rares onto your main bus just gets in the way and causes blockages. I not only need to ensure they all get filtered off, but that I have a proper way to sink them into crafts so they don’t back up and cause other problems. This means I need to keep all my quality rolling on an isolated system. Why is it punishment to have uncommons mixed with commons, conceptually? Maybe there should be a way to permit crafts to mix different qualities for a lesser effect.

2) In quite a few cases, the best strat is to remain common all the way to the final product, then recycle loop that. Is that intended by Wube? Seems less about logistically solving a quality pipeline and more about having small closed-off loops to sink resources into.

3) Products of mid quality sit in perma storage. If I want to put down solar panels somewhere, I would declare it in my personal logistics so it gets delivered to me. I need to individually request common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary when really I might just want whatever the highest quality is available. Then do the same for modules, beacons, assemblers, etc. Then do the same with space platforms across all the planets. Suddenly your personal logistics and platform requests are huge lists. Or maybe I’ll just have 600 rare speed modules sit in a chest for eternity somewhere.

4) Everything below the highest quality is trash. All other points combined, the end result is that it’s not worth wasting time on any mid-quality product or material. Getting rares is like getting that mid-tier card in your favorite CCG. It might as well not even exist.

Anyway, curious on anyone else’s thoughts.