Hey, so in the wake of Odyssey's trailer drop, some people have commented saying that they want to go outside of their ship and repair it. Space walk style...
It got me thinking however about the games current balance of module, shield, and hull health.
If we look at other Sci fi franchises, say Star Wars or Star Trek, ships tend to be quite survivable and repairs are not easy to come by, thus making it sometimes helpful to the plot to have the gang stop to take the time to repair. But within the bubble, ships seem to be far too sturdy and survivable to warrant any kind of emergency repairs.
A properly engineered ship, and a pilot who knows what they're doing will easily be able to bug out of a situation to lick their wounds instantly at a spaceport or carrier.
Sure there are limpets we can use in battle for repairs but often such limpets sacrifice combat performance for a marginal gain, ie, you'd probably be better off having a hull reinforcement and Module reinforcement than a cargo rack and limpet controller.
So should combat be changed to have weaker shields and ships? Where engagement times are shorter and more lethal?
If we look at the expanse, ship to ship combat is far more destructive. And probably preferable to giving a proper space Sci fi feel to Elite dangerous.
The problem is, balancing. If smaller ships are weak enough to pose this kind of thrill seeking risky combat, then ideally, the large ships would also be more vulnerable, but fundamentally I struggle to find myself drawn to playing in anything other than my large Federal Corvette. Not only does it have a rapid time to kill, but my Corvette is also incredibly survivable. I almost never lose shields and my costs to participate in combat are minimal rearm and repair costs.
Fundamentally what I'm getting at here is the frustration of having to go through exceptionally thick shields. Both as an aggressor and defender.
While I get the appeal of super heavy shield tanks, I think it takes a lot of the danger of flying in Elite. And at least for PvE, it takes a lot of appeal away from smaller more vulnerable ships where time spent in a combat zone is minimal and total payout decreases. Why bother trying to farm the Sirius community goals in a Federal Gunship or Federal assault ship when a Corvette or Cutter simply remains indestructible while the medium ships get torn to shreds repeatedly. Lethality needs to be increased while making larger ships draw more fire so that preference of ship size is given more to players and less on optimizing the grind.
It got me thinking however about the games current balance of module, shield, and hull health.
If we look at other Sci fi franchises, say Star Wars or Star Trek, ships tend to be quite survivable and repairs are not easy to come by, thus making it sometimes helpful to the plot to have the gang stop to take the time to repair. But within the bubble, ships seem to be far too sturdy and survivable to warrant any kind of emergency repairs.
A properly engineered ship, and a pilot who knows what they're doing will easily be able to bug out of a situation to lick their wounds instantly at a spaceport or carrier.
Sure there are limpets we can use in battle for repairs but often such limpets sacrifice combat performance for a marginal gain, ie, you'd probably be better off having a hull reinforcement and Module reinforcement than a cargo rack and limpet controller.
So should combat be changed to have weaker shields and ships? Where engagement times are shorter and more lethal?
If we look at the expanse, ship to ship combat is far more destructive. And probably preferable to giving a proper space Sci fi feel to Elite dangerous.
The problem is, balancing. If smaller ships are weak enough to pose this kind of thrill seeking risky combat, then ideally, the large ships would also be more vulnerable, but fundamentally I struggle to find myself drawn to playing in anything other than my large Federal Corvette. Not only does it have a rapid time to kill, but my Corvette is also incredibly survivable. I almost never lose shields and my costs to participate in combat are minimal rearm and repair costs.
Fundamentally what I'm getting at here is the frustration of having to go through exceptionally thick shields. Both as an aggressor and defender.
While I get the appeal of super heavy shield tanks, I think it takes a lot of the danger of flying in Elite. And at least for PvE, it takes a lot of appeal away from smaller more vulnerable ships where time spent in a combat zone is minimal and total payout decreases. Why bother trying to farm the Sirius community goals in a Federal Gunship or Federal assault ship when a Corvette or Cutter simply remains indestructible while the medium ships get torn to shreds repeatedly. Lethality needs to be increased while making larger ships draw more fire so that preference of ship size is given more to players and less on optimizing the grind.
