I wanted to post some suggestion on how I would improve SRV gameplay. The first table represent the state some of the things that we can do with a ship, and the second one represents what we can do with the SRV.
Ship:
SRV:
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If ships were to the SRV what a starport is to a ship it would make much more sense in my mind. Same as a ship can refuel, restock, repair on the starport, the SRV could refuel, restock, repair on a ship. I think the gameplay would be much more dangerous and immersive that way. Especially now that besides the mining laser, you could also use the SRV to collect resources (but not also refine and use them without the ship).
Granted, it's not as bad as I made it look in the tables since it takes some time to find those materials and since one could argue that the SRV has some mini auto-field maintenance unit and a mini refinery on board, just like it has a mini shield generator.
However it still seems very arcadey to me, so I came up with two suggestions on how to change this. These are just suggestion or a wish list. I obviously don't expect that this will actually happen, I just needed to write it down. I hope it doesn't hurt. The first suggestion is not as good as the second one. Here is the first suggestion:
Both the ship and the SRV should be picking up NON-refined materials only (and not that the materials on the ground are already refined somehow). If picking materials with the SRV, then they have to be taken to the ship with the refinery on-board. Refinery could be changed so that it can get hydrogen fuel for both the ship and the SRV from ice rings and also oxygen to refill the life support unit (ice = H2O). Auto field-maintenance unit should instead of using ammo to repair ship the "Russian" style, use synthesis materials with some 3D printer for replacement parts and even make ammo for both the ship and the SRV instead of using it. And it can maybe still use ammo if you don't have appropriate materials. The tables would look like this:
Ship:
SRV:
However, since this would require us to be equipped with both the refinery and the 3D printer unit, gameplay would probably suffer too much. So my second suggestion involves balancing this by coming up with another hardware unit that serves both as a refinery and the 3D printer. I'll call it the synthesis unit. The tables for this case:
Ship:
SRV:
And if there is still too much hardware for you, then get rid of the fuel scoop and refuel using the ice rings. That way the number of occupied hardware slots is the same as it were before. Unless you weren't using the fuel scoop anyway, in which case there is one unit more. But even that can be solved by maybe further combining stuff or giving us one more slot.
Ship:
| input | hardware | output |
| materials | mining laser, refinery | refined materials |
| ammo | auto field-maintenance unit | partial repair |
| appropriate star | fuel scoop | refuel |
SRV:
| input | hardware | output |
| materials | refined materials | |
| materials | repair | |
| materials | refuel | |
| materials | restock | |
| materials | FSD-injection |
----------------------------If ships were to the SRV what a starport is to a ship it would make much more sense in my mind. Same as a ship can refuel, restock, repair on the starport, the SRV could refuel, restock, repair on a ship. I think the gameplay would be much more dangerous and immersive that way. Especially now that besides the mining laser, you could also use the SRV to collect resources (but not also refine and use them without the ship).
Granted, it's not as bad as I made it look in the tables since it takes some time to find those materials and since one could argue that the SRV has some mini auto-field maintenance unit and a mini refinery on board, just like it has a mini shield generator.
However it still seems very arcadey to me, so I came up with two suggestions on how to change this. These are just suggestion or a wish list. I obviously don't expect that this will actually happen, I just needed to write it down. I hope it doesn't hurt. The first suggestion is not as good as the second one. Here is the first suggestion:
Both the ship and the SRV should be picking up NON-refined materials only (and not that the materials on the ground are already refined somehow). If picking materials with the SRV, then they have to be taken to the ship with the refinery on-board. Refinery could be changed so that it can get hydrogen fuel for both the ship and the SRV from ice rings and also oxygen to refill the life support unit (ice = H2O). Auto field-maintenance unit should instead of using ammo to repair ship the "Russian" style, use synthesis materials with some 3D printer for replacement parts and even make ammo for both the ship and the SRV instead of using it. And it can maybe still use ammo if you don't have appropriate materials. The tables would look like this:
Ship:
| input | hardware | output |
| materials | refinery, mining laser or SRV | refined materials + refuel and oxygen from ice rings and planets + FSD-injection |
| refined materials (or ammo) | 3D printer unit | partial repair |
| refined materials | 3D printer unit | restock |
| appropriate star | fuel scoop | refuel |
SRV:
| input | hardware | output |
| refined materials | ship with 3D printer unit | repair |
| ship fuel (or hydrogen fuel cargo) | ship | refuel |
| refined materials (hydrogen fuel from ice rings) | ship with a refinery | refuel |
| refined materials | ship with 3D printer unit | restock |
However, since this would require us to be equipped with both the refinery and the 3D printer unit, gameplay would probably suffer too much. So my second suggestion involves balancing this by coming up with another hardware unit that serves both as a refinery and the 3D printer. I'll call it the synthesis unit. The tables for this case:
Ship:
| input | hardware | output |
| materials | synthesis unit, mining laser or SRV | refined materials + refuel and oxygen from ice rings and planets + FSD-injection |
| refined materials (or ammo) | synthesis unit | partial repair |
| refined materials | synthesis unit | restock |
| appropriate star | fuel scoop | refuel |
SRV:
| input | hardware | output |
| refined materials | ship with synthesis unit | repair |
| ship fuel (or hydrogen fuel cargo) | ship | refuel |
| refined materials (hydrogen fuel from ice rings) | ship with synthesis unit | refuel |
| refined materials | ship with synthesis unit | restock |
And if there is still too much hardware for you, then get rid of the fuel scoop and refuel using the ice rings. That way the number of occupied hardware slots is the same as it were before. Unless you weren't using the fuel scoop anyway, in which case there is one unit more. But even that can be solved by maybe further combining stuff or giving us one more slot.
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