I see absolutely nothing wrong with the current power system. It works the way it's supposed to.
As to the supposed "benefits" of your proposed system...
BENEFITS:
- still gives smaller ships a necessary buff for power regen
No argument there, but it already works just fine under the current system. You don't have to make your small ships long needles just to get good regen; you can give it some wings and extend the power regen out that way via box dimensions. Anyways, power requirements for small ships have never been much of an issue. Now that Capital ships fulfill their logical role properly, being both slower and more cumbersome, smaller ships now have a better speed and evasive advantage versus them.
- still nerfs larger ships' ability to have superweapons (a gentler nerf)
A gentler nerf for power regen on larger ships is anything but a benefit. Their capacity for destruction is already immense if you build a good ship. This is already easily supplemented with dockable generators.
- eliminates the requirement of docked power generators in larger ships
This is a rather ignorant statement here. Docked power generators were
never "required" for large ships. It is easy to attain regen rates up to 4 million for a 350-meter battleship on just onboard power blocks alone, no docked batteries. Dockable reactors are a neat and fun ship engineering mechanic to have, and they allow for more fun ways to play the game. They allow smaller capital ships and gigantic mother ships to all compete more fairly, and their nature as a separate entity from the ship gives them a special vulnerability that plays into the whole mix quite interestingly as well.
- fixes the problem of large ships not being able to power their own engines, let alone everything else
I think the real problem here is that you are trying to relive the old thruster system on the new one, and naturally when you try to reach the same thruster potential for your ship as you were previously able to achieve, you are facing drawbacks. That's the way it's supposed to be. Titans don't move like frigates any more, and for good reason. Their slowness makes sense for their role, and it helps create a more diverse and fun play experience. Tired of your slow and cumbersome titan? Use a smaller ship. Fighters now actually mean something other than ships that are small-fry cannon fodder. Furthermore, with a combination of docked reactor batteries providing extra power in a smaller area of space, and a defensive push module effect, you can make your ship accelerate faster that way. Defensive push effect acts as a booster of sorts. It has some considerable power costs, but it's nonetheless a great system. Try it out.
- removes mysticism and ambiguity that's surrounded power generator designs since x,y,z buffs were removed/nerfed (makes it easier for new players to power their ships)
What? There is no mysticism or ambiguity about power generator design. What are you talking about? If anything, the current system now makes it easier for new players to power their ships than the old one did. The unique system that power generators work by is what makes them a great addition to the game. They work just fine as they are.
You want to know how the design for power generators is supposed to work? Here, I'll tell you.
You get power regen benefits for a single reactor group when each additional block to the group contributes to an expanding box dimension. It doesn't matter what direction it goes in, and you will recieve the same benefits no matter how long, wide or tall it is in other directions. On the old box dimension system, these benefits were ones where the new volume of the "box" multiplied your benefits. On the current one, it doesn't matter whether you make your box to be a tiny long string or a squiggly strand that encompasses the entire volume; as long as both that long string and squiggly strand both have the same amount of blocks in their reactor group, and each block in the group contributes to the benefits (eg. expands box dimensions in any way), they both give the same regen.
In summary, the power system as it stands now works perfectly. The docked reactor mechanic solves the power crisis for larger ships. We don't need to be upping the regen softcap for power, because that simply means capital ships can get way more power to their guns than they can now, which means more powerful weapon potential, which means shorter and more one-sided ship battles. We don't need that. The system you're proposing simply gives people more incentive to be lazy shipbuilders that don't have to care as much about putting effort and good thinking into their ship designs.
And if it was increased anyway, you'd then have more people coming to complain about shields being too weak, no longer holding their own against titan weapons; people complaining about thrusters being OP on titans, etc. Titans are already ridiculously OP in the game as they are, in how they've always traditionally allowed people to be one-man armies. Instead of that, we need to be encouraging people to work together as a team, in factions, flying ships together, instead of soloing everything with their own titan that's capable of obliterating everything in its path, without care or remorse.
The softcap is an essential tool to combat this issue of giganticism and it has already settled into a proper place as it is already. In the past few months I have seen much more balanced Starmade combat than I ever have since this game first existed. I think we've finally reached a good balance in the area of power, and I think we need not tamper with it any further, especially not on such a fundamental level as what you're proposing. There's nothing wrong with the system.
