The Problem With Empyrean Resources is NOT About Volume/Grind

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

It is the fact that content scales up about 20x faster than your equipment is able to keep up. The drop increases help a bit, but you're still running the same handful of nodes over and over.

I have a few suggestions.

1. Double the Empyrean star chart: Star chart progression equals natural resource accumulation. It helps on two fronts: less time going out of your way for resources, and twice as long for content to scale up. Much better flow. This would be an odd change now; would have been a good idea out of the gate.
2. Group resource costs by type: Every upgrade tier shares the same set of non-special resources. This is bad because you can only choose one upgrade at a time, without knowing how it will perform, and are locked into that choice for the next 8-10 hrs of resource gathering. Splitting resources into an offense upgrade group and defense/performance upgrade group (maybe a third as well for performance) will allow the player to install two upgrades per interval, without any change in the amount of time it takes to fund any one upgrade currently.
3. Remove repair timer: Scrapping old equipment to fund new equipment leaves you using even older equipment until the repair finishes. If you want a timer, add a cost-free 12hr "Polish" action, after which the equipment can be funded to make it instantly usable. Coupled with suggestion 2, this completely eliminates the urge to hold out for Mk III.
4. Remove electrical hazard, shields block all hazard accumulation: Self-explanatory. Shields are not very useful for defense, partly because they are almost always down, and partly because they don't help much when they're up because electrical hazards hurt shields way harder than fires hurt hull. Electrical hazards aren't even worth repairing. This suggestion draws player attention to shields at the same time that suggestion 2 enables you to upgrade them without sacrificing firepower. (Shields still need some help. I recommend adding a way to manually kickoff shield regen, that is available without avionic/intrinsic.)

Hope you find this helpful, DE. I have other suggestions to help with the resource slog, but they're things you already intend to implement (dynamic objectives, etc.). I happen to like Empyrean a lot despite its flaws and incompleteness. I understand that you felt compelled to honor your release schedule. Keep up the good work. You'll get there eventually.