23,000 LY And A Mistake: Would Fully Functional AFMU's Be Overpowered?

[sohara]

I voted not overpowered - in fact, it needs to be improved.

Pretty much an echo of others, but I love the idea of a 3D printing module as part of the repair unit, fed by mined and refined material; this is a real compelling reason to fit repair modules. Run a diagnostic check, find out what materials you need for a repair job. Use the existing mining mechanic (mining lasers, refinery) and then feed the refined materials into the printer.

- It takes away the immediate 'hull potion' effect that would undoubtedly be abused in PvP
- It's a lifeline for those that make mistakes 1,000's of LY away from inhabited stations

 

[Innigo]

My personal opinion about in the field repairs is that ultimately be a slow decline in that they never repair fully received damage and thus give a sense of the ship running down. Now, on top of that I'd have the ability to repair up from zero, as standard, but only to like 5% - just enough to get to the nearest station in an emergency.

 

[Lodorenos]

To the crowd saying that it would remove risk from exploration, how do you envision it to be? Sure, risk should be a large part of trip planning, but I would love to be self sufficient out there and not have to cancel some epic journey because of a cracked canopy. The early world explorers didn't turn back after mast damage, they repaired it. Hole in the hull? They fixed it. Ripped sail? They sewed it back up. I'm not asking for all risk to be taken away, but I am asking for a way to explore the galaxy for extended periods of time. I want to mine asteroid fields to gather materials to repair my hull. There will be dangers; hitting rocks, dropping out of SC too late and making an emergency stop, etc. I want it to feel like a journey, not a test of how long my hull can last before having to dock. We already have the most dangerous profession in the game. Until your hear "Docking successful, engines disengaged" you are in danger of losing everything you've explored. Days, weeks even, can be lost to a single mistake.

 

[Farmboy]

I'd love to see a manual FMU and EVAs to use them. You'd have to buy one, and an EV suit and be able to pop the canopy, manouver to the repair site apply the FMU to it (gaffa tape for a cracked canopy would be fun too - improves it's status, but blocks some of the view ) all before your emergency oxygen supply gives out.

And can you imagine the screenshots from your helmet cam - drifting outside your ship taking in the cosmos through your visor.

Not a trivial thing to implement I'd guess, but it could be quite special just for that last effect alone.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I have never used an AFMU in any of my ships. I don't know if they make any difference to my ship loadouts when exploring. I have tended to do without them when loading out my ship for long distance travel: saving mass and power draw and freeing up a slot for something else I'll install and never use such as a docking computer.

That said, the ideas in this thread to make exploration and exploration-based equipment more versatile and useful are genuinely good ideas. Particularly incorporating elements of mining to effect repairs is fascinating, so that you truly live off the land as it were.

I like the idea of an EVA suit once the gameplay foundations for pilot movement are in place. External hull and canopy makeshift repairs (or Autoglassing) would be great. It would also be great if your location in space affected your time limit for EVA work due to local conditions such as heat, radiation, etc.

i traveled 52.000 light year to Sagittarius A* and back with near zero damage to my ship... how do people manage to wreck their ships so easily?

Fifty two point zero zero zero light years without damage is easily done in a few short minutes these days. Fifty-two thousand light years, on the other hand...

Anyway, being hounded by NPC ships interdicting me at every opportunity at all points of the journey didn't help - but then again, this was back in the bad old days: when NPCs were everywhere, the galactic core region was a beige soup, and hyperspace travel near the Core was a lottery in server connections. You young 'uns have it too easy these days... [continues on long grizzled rant until medication trolley arrives]

 

[uncle bulgaria]

I don't think it would be overpowering at all, and like the idea of it taking some time and/or being able to replenish the unit by mining along the way. These are things that would make long exploration trips more interesting and certainly give travellers a bit of variety in their activity, "out there".

This. the idea of having to gather together materials or taking some with you would be good. Repairing things like the hull and thrusters should be relatively slow so it's not a combat instant heal button.

 

[Egan]

Is anyone else reading dark text against a dark background... I've been highlighting the words to read.... but why am I doing this, haha?

No, all fine here. I usually get white text against a white background which is equally annoying.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

A fully functional AFMU... no, it'd not be overpowered - but it should take *time* to fix things, not just a click of a button. And when low in "ammo", you should be able to go mining for various metals required, provided you also haul along a refinery and mining laser - possibly a (yet not existing) mini-factory of sorts. That'd make AFMU much less "god-mode" - hunting for things you need for repairs.

Sounds good. +1

 

[Dominico]

I think exploring is for the hardcore. N repair modules would remove ALL danger from the aspect.

It definitely cannot be in the game. Some things are unrepairable. You cant jury rig a spaceship in deep space.

Things like this would mean everyone and their dog would be mking deep space trips.

No.no.no.

Why is there a post every other day popping up asking for easy mode?

Should there also be auto pilot to take you 100 jumps so you can watch homeland while your ship explores?

You should be proud you were brqve enough tp get that far. Why do you want to wreck the challenge of making it to the centre?

Also you explorer analogy is bad. Most who tried died trying. The only ones you kjow. Are the ones who mde it. They were gret unique people and technically in the sea there are dry docks. Where they beached the ship and fixed it. Not possible in deep space.

 

[avow555]

I had envisaged at some point being able to land on a planet to effect repairs but until such time a more effective repair system would make a lot of sense.

 

[Ilenya]

I would like the AFMU be able to repair all parts of my ship, including hull and canopy (from a story-perspective, this could be robots that can do repairs). As a balance, the charges for the AFMU would be expensive (either in Cr at the station or in effort to acquire in the field), obviously W&T doesn't get repaired (and field-repairing hull or canopy might even lead to a slightly lowered integrity on each use. I would also be ok with the AFMU requiring a stationary ship (or even going as far as requiring a ridiculous amount of energy, so during repairs many of the ship's systems need to be turned off). Overall make it useful to explorers out on the far ends of the galaxy but make it uninteresting for use near civilisation.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Why is there a post every other day popping up asking for easy mode?

Funnily enough, when I announced that I reached the galactic core 8 weeks ago today, there was a very vocal feeling among many over whether exploration was "too easy." Although I haven't done much playing of late, as Nutter's unfortunate incident the other day showed, it seems the exploration game today is a more careful balance of loading-out a ship and having to make a choice between jump range and pilot comforts - just like in the old days of sailboat exploration. Currently I still feel it needs more options and versatility, and in general more stuff to do than point and scan. Whether said versatility eventually materialises and subsequently leads to exploration being much easier with fewer risks involved, well that remains to be seen.

 

[neXib]

I would love a system where we could step out of out chair and through the back door, exit out of the ship attach yourself to a panel and hold a button to repair or something like that. In a game like this balance is all about things going to your advantage needing to take time. So that makes sense. The time you spend outside could be affected by your life support modules timing. So you could decide if you want to spend the oxygen on fixing your ship.

(besides, we never see the outside of our ship)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I would love a system where we could step out of out chair and through the back door, exit out of the ship attach yourself to a panel and hold a button to repair or something like that. In a game like this balance is all about things going to your advantage needing to take time. So that makes sense. The time you spend outside could be affected by your life support modules timing. So you could decide if you want to spend the oxygen on fixing your ship.

(besides, we never see the outside of our ship)

Once pilot movement independent of the ship is introduced (which may be a long while) then I would love to see this too. It would also mean the life support module you buy for the ship would be much more important, and perhaps oxygen refining from planetary water or scooping from water and oxygen atmospheres would need to be something to do to replenish any lost supplies.

 

[Lodorenos]

I think exploring is for the hardcore. N repair modules would remove ALL danger from the aspect.

It definitely cannot be in the game. Some things are unrepairable. You cant jury rig a spaceship in deep space.

Things like this would mean everyone and their dog would be mking deep space trips.

No.no.no.

I take it you don't do exploration then? Why do you want it to be so "hardcore" compared to other professions? It already pays next to nothing and carries the greatest risk of time loss. By your logic, why can we then repair the FSD? Surely it's the most advanced system on your ship.

Why is there a post every other day popping up asking for easy mode?

"Easy mode" is not what is being asked for. We're asking for expansion on the current Spaceball Simulator 3301.

Should there also be auto pilot to take you 100 jumps so you can watch homeland while your ship explores?

Did we ask for one? No. There shouldn't be. Stop being sarcastic.

You should be proud you were brqve enough tp get that far. Why do you want to wreck the challenge of making it to the centre?

It wouldn't wreck the challenege, it would simply make exploration more enjoyable. It would still take the same amount of time to get places and crisping in a star's gravity well or baking after jumping into a binary system would still be very real dangers.

Also you explorer analogy is bad. Most who tried died trying. The only ones you kjow. Are the ones who mde it. They were gret unique people and technically in the sea there are dry docks. Where they beached the ship and fixed it. Not possible in deep space.

It's not bad, it's very relevant. I didn't say everyone made it back alive, I said that critical components such as the hull and sail were repaired.

 

[CMDR Flaxton]

I believe that especially with long haul exploration, a repair unit should be able to repair hull damage as well as components. I also think that if this was implemented, the repair time should be very slow, hours to repair a major % of damage. This way it does not become a combat kit which repairs while you fight but becomes a back-up to let exploring continue without the worry of having to get back to the core or risk loosing all the gathered data.

CMDR Flaxton

 

[OBoile]

I voted "other". I think it would be fine as long as it took a long time to repair "critical" systems. Something like say 1% every 30 seconds or so. That way, it wouldn't be useful in combat, but could still be used to save an explorer.

 

[Lodorenos]

Well as one of the Frontier staff have said, it won't be possible to repair the hull with the AFMU. "Won't be the way to..." is how it's put, so I hope there will be another way to do so. Combat and trading don't speak to me much, I'm happiest when in deep space, and as the game progresses I hope that there will be a valid yet challenging way of being self sustaining out there for months at a time. Exploration needs some love. Maybe 1.3 will give it some.

 

[Varrag]

I wouldn't mind if they make AFPU actually useful for us explorers, but then this module should get an overhaul in a sense that mounting it would severely cripple combat ships - be it through long repair timers, or by shutting down shield and hardpoints while AFPU is being active... I don't know.

On the other hand - only damage I took on my exploration trips so far has been from one damn fast NPC Viper who interdicted me within the civilized space. So, as far as I am concerned, they can as well leave AFPU useless as it is right now.

 

[TheGoatee]

My preference is for multiple units to be used in synergy.

Module for external repairs (hull and screen) something like a slime repair system, a bit like a semi transparent expanding foam that's pumped over / into the hole / defect and sets. When used on fractured windscreen partially obscures vision. System can be powered down when not in use. No effect on repair cost as slime needs to be removed and repaired. Slowly repairs hull and ship needs to be stationary to allow foam to set correctly. - medium weight / low power consumption.

Module for internal repairs (all internal systems, including thrusters and FSD) involves rerouting systems electronically to backup systems, must be left powered on to have effect. No effect on repair cost as original system needs to be repaired and restored from backup. Takes time to initialise - Low weight / medium power consumption.

Proactive maintenance unit - when utilised with above systems to negate / reduce wear and tear by rerouting damaged electronics or filling hull micro fractures prior to them becoming a problem.