Make PvE modules like Cargo Racks add hull points

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I've just chimed in on another thread about the hit point power creep whereby now with the advent of engineered hunter killer ships, pve ships are instakilled. It dawned on me then, but I didn't want to derail the thread so started this one instead, that one way around that would be to make PVE modules like SRV hangars, Collector Limpets, Refinery and Cargo Racks add structural integrity to the ships hull. So in essence a cargo rack as well as carrying cargo also moonlighted as a hull reinforcement module.

I envisage a couple of ways of implementing this sort of change, one would be make new modules like "Reinforcing Cargo Rack's" which have the bonus, another would be engineering blue prints for such things as a special effect, and the most obvious would be just to give existing modules the new attribute of hull reinforcement as a bonus.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

Are you talking about engineered hunter killer npcs or other CMDRs in open? If you mean the latter, then why should anyone who doesn't want to PvP get an advantage? In any case, what would stop everyone from using them? Hoween PvPers and PvEers in an open environment?

Perhaps I'm missing something or I didn't understand correctly.

 

[Firebeard]

It's an interesting idea and maybe could be an engineered feature, add mass for structurally enhancing a cargo rack.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

The idea is to make PvE ships inherently tougher to encourage more PvE players into open and make "Ganking" less of an issue by making it more likely for a PvE ship to be able to survive long enough to jump out.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Are you talking about engineered hunter killer npcs or other CMDRs in open? If you mean the latter, then why should anyone who doesn't want to PvP get an advantage?

What advantage? I doubt very much that cargo racks would offer the same hull increase as HRPs that already fit in the same slots...

All that the proposal does is reduce the disadvantage that cargo ships are already at compared to combat ships that fit HRPs.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Robert nailed it, they wouldn't offer the same hit points as a HRP, but they would add something to a PvE ships survivability. Applying real world Engineering principals to this, I see it as bolting in modules to the ship which would bolt together different sections of the hull and act like a bracer.

 

[Morbad]

Not seeing any credible niche for these. Either they remain massless, and somehow strengthen the ship's hull integrity, while still being able to carry the same amount of cargo...which is flatly absurd...or it's better to continue to use cargo rack in large slots and HRPs in smaller ones, just as we do now.

As far as other modules go, I don't see why they'd increase hull integrity either. HRPs are clearly abstracted uparmoring, as indicated by their name; structural support, plating on internal and external surfaces, spaced armor, etc and so forth. A limpet controller is none of these things. Again, I don't see any reason why one wouldn't simply save their smallest internals for current HRPs and use the intermediate sized ones for utility modules. It's not like any ship is going to lack space for any reasonable loadout especially with the extra slot(s) that are coming.

A strange 'fix' for a nonexistent problem.

All that the proposal does is reduce the disadvantage that cargo ships are already at compared to combat ships that fit HRPs.

A ship equipped primarily to haul cargo instead of armor should be at a significant disadvantage in durability. Regardless, no ship need sacrifice much cargo capacity for sufficient durability, even under the current system.

I have two ships equipped to haul cargo in the vicinity of Colonia currently, both are fairly safe, even in Open. One is a T-6, with zero engineering, no A rated modules, and 96 tons of cargo capacity...still has more than 1k hull integrity. The other is my corvette, which is currently outfit to haul 512 tons of cargo at a time, and has over 5k hull integrity. I encounter other CMDRs there all the time, some of them who are overtly hostile to mine, and they rarely even both trying to interdict these ships because they know I'm not going to stick around to fight in a cargo vessel, and that their odds of downing even the unengineered D-to-B rated T6 before it leaves are low. The corvette can also crush any and every NPC it encounters with marginal difficulty, as well as put up a fight against most medium CMDR vessels in the area.

PvE ships survivability.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVGBWMOc_8s