Being able to repair destroyed ship blocks automatically.

[Optapodamus]

My first post was so well received I decided to make another
Not really.
I didn't do to great, but I think this is gunna be better!

Why do this?
Because it's god-awful to try and find and repair every block on your meticulously crafted ship after a battle where your shields dropped, especially if complex logic systems were hit. It's not fun!

4 ways to do this.
1. Automatically regenerating blocks. Obviously at a very slow rate. Like for example 1% of total blocks get repaired per minute. While not under attack it could even be slower/stopped if you like, whatever. Or you could have a new block/module group that facilities this in the same way shields regeneration works. Just throwing out ideas.

2. Healing beams, but only from undocked ships and maybe from a minimum distance if possible. (So people can't undock ships inside their ship mid battle and heal from the inside.) I'd be faster than auto but not so fast that it makes people invincible. Maybe make it so it can't be used to ai, nor can any other weapons be applied to the ship. So you either have a friend as a dedicated healer mid battle or you pop out and do it yourself.
This one I'm not sure if can be done. Wont hurt my feelings if it can't.

3. Shipyards.
Obviously the fastest method. Maybe not instantaneous. Would be neat to see your ship getting put back together. Say 10% total blocks per minute? I guess you could do a flat rate if you want. I just worry about big ships taking forever.

4. Shops.
Pay a fee ship gets fixed. Seems reasonable.

How would it work?
Maybe after every change is made in build mode the ship is "saved". I don't know if I'm going to remember to hit save every time if I have to do it manually, so I'd be real nice if it was automatic lol. But I don't know how things work so whatever you gotta do.

Should it cost some resource? (other than power)
I think so. Couple of ideas:
1. Money- just charge money for the exact cost of the blocks lost and call it a day.

2. Exactly blocks that must be replaced- It makes sense but I'd reeeeally rather not have to keep every block type in my cargo bay to repair with. Because I'm lazy. And I think it might discourage the use of a wide variety of block types. I mean I know it would for me.

3. A new resource- Just have a some nano bots or something, I don't know. Make them be more expensive than using the real blocks. So you can choose to use real blocks or just the nano bots, or a combo.


I think that about covers it. Let me know if I'm a complete idiot and should be ashamed for daring to even suggest the idea.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

My first post was so well received I decided to make another
Not really.
I didn't do to great, but I think this is gunna be better!

Why do this?
Because it's god-awful to try and find and repair every block on your meticulously crafted ship after a battle where your shields dropped, especially if complex logic systems were hit. It's not fun!

4 ways to do this.
1. Automatically regenerating blocks. Obviously at a very slow rate. Like for example 1% of total blocks get repaired per minute. While not under attack it could even be slower/stopped if you like, whatever. Or you could have a new block/module group that facilities this in the same way shields regeneration works. Just throwing out ideas.

2. Healing beams, but only from undocked ships and maybe from a minimum distance if possible. (So people can't undock ships inside their ship mid battle and heal from the inside.) I'd be faster than auto but not so fast that it makes people invincible. Maybe make it so it can't be used to ai, nor can any other weapons be applied to the ship. So you either have a friend as a dedicated healer mid battle or you pop out and do it yourself.
This one I'm not sure if can be done. Wont hurt my feelings if it can't.

3. Shipyards.
Obviously the fastest method. Maybe not instantaneous. Would be neat to see your ship getting put back together. Say 10% total blocks per minute? I guess you could do a flat rate if you want. I just worry about big ships taking forever.

4. Shops.
Pay a fee ship gets fixed. Seems reasonable.

How would it work?
Maybe after every change is made in build mode the ship is "saved". I don't know if I'm going to remember to hit save every time if I have to do it manually, so I'd be real nice if it was automatic lol. But I don't know how things work so whatever you gotta do.

Should it cost some resource? (other than power)
I think so. Couple of ideas:
1. Money- just charge money for the exact cost of the blocks lost and call it a day.

2. Exactly blocks that must be replaced- It makes sense but I'd reeeeally rather not have to keep every block type in my cargo bay to repair with. Because I'm lazy. And I think it might discourage the use of a wide variety of block types. I mean I know it would for me.

3. A new resource- Just have a some nano bots or something, I don't know. Make them be more expensive than using the real blocks. So you can choose to use real blocks or just the nano bots, or a combo.


I think that about covers it. Let me know if I'm a complete idiot and should be ashamed for daring to even suggest the idea.

I'm sorry to hear that your other thread didn't go well. You have some promising ideas but this particular concept may need some tweaking; both for realism and practicality. I'll explain below. Take with a grain of salt and let me know what you think.

Regeneration: While an organic armor system sounds cool, restoring lost/missing blocks in this manner doesn't seem like a practical addition (with regard to time spent on developing it) from a developer standpoint; at least not at this time. On the other hand, an onboard system to restore block HP before a block is destroyed could lead to some interesting armor tanking concepts.

Healing/Astrotech beams: To be honest, I don't think they should be able to restore lost blocks. This is for the same reason I mentioned above. However, it would be cool if they caused the healing equivalent of splash damage; preferably via a tertiary effect (like explosive) added to them.

Shipyards: This is already in game but not functioning as desired. Shipyard repairs tend to cause errors with the naming system and fleet mechanics, since you are basically deleting and respawning the ship. I hope they streamline this process and eliminate these errors so that shipyards become more practical than blueprints.

Shops: Most definitely, yes. Just add a reboot/cool down time so it isn't abused such as; using a shop to regenerate during combat and we're good to go.

Regarding how to pay for repairs; I think that using both credits and the needed blocks make the most sense with regard to realism. This may also contribute to the player economy; as players can build dedicated repair shops (in shipyard form or as shops), where the player receives payment for their selling price of the required blocks (parts) and a fee for the repair itself (labor). There should be no "labor fee" associated with personal or faction owned repair stations; provided you are the owner of, or in the same faction as the station.

 

[kulbolen]

i think repairing damaged blocks would be a great chamber effect when coupled with a balance update to give blocks a bit more hp, as they get 1 shot al lthe time right now.

i dont think magically replacing destroyed blocks should be cheap and easy, it removes consequence from those moments you fail to run away from a fight fast enough... i mean make bad tactical decisions. working shipyard repair would be great, though. remove that extra 5 second immersion breaking step of deconstructing and respawning.

 

[Cluwne]

Regeneration: While an organic armor system sounds cool, restoring lost/missing blocks in this manner doesn't seem like a practical addition (with regard to time spent on developing it) from a developer standpoint; at least not at this time. On the other hand, an onboard system to restore block HP before a block is destroyed could lead to some interesting armor tanking concepts.

That reminds me of whatsitsname field from Battlestar Galactica that somehow hardens the hull in leu of actual energy shields.
Though that exact mechanic is now relegated to chambers apparently, ship-wide block repair system (NB: only repairs existing blocks) could make shields only one of the multiple solutions to the "not dying"-problem. Even if it would only work for armor blocks.
Though some serious damage mitigation is needed, since some weapons could easily punch a tiny hole through that armor.

Healing/Astrotech beams: To be honest, I don't think they should be able to restore lost blocks.

There isn't much point in having A/T beam in the game at all then. Even Pulse, albeit only as secondary, is useful sometimes. Not even the largest AoE would change that.
What would change that:
● no longer affecting individual blocks, but rather the entire ship
● the ability to repair both armor and structure points up to current maximum
● application of a stacking(?) HoT (heal over time) instead of direct heal with some secondary combinations
Perhaps then it will be worth the ID space wasted on it.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

There isn't much point in having A/T beam in the game at all then. Even Pulse, albeit only as secondary, is useful sometimes. Not even the largest AoE would change that.
What would change that:
● no longer affecting individual blocks, but rather the entire ship

Please read the rest of my post you quoted, as shown below.

However, it would be cool if they caused the healing equivalent of splash damage; preferably via a tertiary effect (like explosive) added to them.

● the ability to repair both armor and structure points up to current maximum
● application of a stacking(?) HoT (heal over time) instead of direct heal with some secondary combinations
Perhaps then it will be worth the ID space wasted on it.

I could get on board with that. A good way to combine regen with astro-tech for this purpose would be...
- to allow the beam to hit the same ship that is firing it.
- to allow the option to have the beam restore lost system, armor and block HP by spreading the repair effect over the entire mass of the ship.

 

[NaStral]

Considering that currently you can go to a shop and repair your existing systems and armor back to full health I think the astrotech beam being re purposed to accomplish the same thing but over time and with restrictions would be a smart move. To avoid the kind of support cheese seen in other multiplayer games it might be useful to 1. boost ALL support tool effectiveness, 2. Any support equipped vessels would have some kind of tag labeling them as such which would prevent them from being the recipient of any other ships' support tools , 3. No support systems could be operated docked to a non support ship. This would make support a viable tool for use in combat while preventing deadlock in a fight from cheesy back and forth team healing.
[doublepost=1505495248,1505494051][/doublepost]In addition, field repairing vessels would need to have some limits. For example you couldn't get hull to exceed 75% and armor pool 50% from astrotech.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Shop/shipyard repairs should be 100%; repairing HP and replacing blocks.

Any field repair that replaces blocks should be a much slower process to prevent abuse. For realism, both systems should require the player to have the needed blocks on hand.

 

[Optapodamus]

All of that sounds good to me.
I didn't think of the armor tanking at all, any chance for their to be a greater variety of strategy that doesn't imbalance the game I'm all about.

And armor tanking would require more advanced ship design compared to shield tanking, provided it works similar to an explosive effect like was suggested rather than the entire ship at once. Being as how it does require a more advanced design would it be fair to suggest that it be balanced to be more effective than Ion effect's mitigation? Or have some other advantage over Ion, like maybe requiring less space?

I don't mind requiring blocks, or paying money. But I'd be nice to be able to make field repairs as well as at a shipyard. I believe there are scheduled updates coming that will enable large ships to have ship yards and factories? I think it would be neat for a ship to be able to be completely unreliant on stationary structures. A fully capable "mothership", being able to be 100% self reliant. There could even be a faction that are peaceful nomads that regularly travel between galaxies for trade and whatnot.

 

[Calhoun]

You can already deconstruct ships with a shipyard, and add the blocks to a blueprint. Shipyards also have the function to repair from template, but it's somewhat buggy as all hell.