Currently, defensive modules compete for space with a variety of other things. Shield cell banks and hull / module reinforcement packages compete with all other optional internals, and shield boosters compete with anti-missile systems, heatsinks, and the various scanners. On paper, this seems like a good design direction; reinforcing your ship comes at the cost of flexibility. In practice though, I believe it's actually hurting the game.
The Solution:
Military slots were a step in the right direction, but didn't quite go far enough. I propose the following:
Why this is good:
The Problem I'm trying to solve:
The Solution:
Military slots were a step in the right direction, but didn't quite go far enough. I propose the following:
- Bulkheads (the core armour module) now have "module bays", similar to how the SRV bay works.
- You can only fit hull and module reinforcement packages in these slots.
- This is THE ONLY PLACE you can fit hull and module reinforcement packages.
- The size and number of slots available will vary, depending on how durable FDev wants a given ship to be.
- Shield generators now have "module bays", similar to how the SRV bay works.
- Shield boosters and shield cell banks can be fit in these slots
- Size and class of generator decides how many slots it will have, and what class they are
- You can only fit a module of the matching class in a given slot, similar to how sensors work
- Larger class shield boosters provide the same boost percentages of smaller ones, but draw more power
- The idea is to keep the relative cost of a shield booster consistent as you go up in ship sizes.
- The lore justification would be that it takes more power to boost a larger shield.
Why this is good:
- FDev can now more tightly control the durability of a ship as a point of balance.
- The base stats of a ship are now relevant again, instead of only the thing mattering being its internal and utility slot count
- A player encountering a given ship will have a pretty decent idea of how tough that ship can be. With the current system, it's really anyone's guess.
- Players are still faced with several decisions when building their ship's defenses: "What ratio of hull-to-module protection do I want? Do I want large shields (boosters), or would I rather have the ability to rapidly replenish them more (shield cell banks)
- Players no longer have to choose between engaging with the various in-game activities, OR fitting their ship with enough defense to handle a PvP fit attacker.
- Cargo ships can mount a respectable defense, AND haul a lot of cargo. This allows pirating to be a more interesting activity for all parties.
- Since defenses are more even across the various professions, this allows organic player-on-player interaction to flourish and for people to play in open more comfortably.
- Gankers will have a much-smaller raw durability advantage when attacking unwilling victims.
- Players looking to engage in PvP (bounty hunters patrolling a CG, for instance) wont have to "lock themselves out" of all other activities (by using all their internals for defense) just to keep up with the defense of the baddies.
- Specializing in combat can be more about utility and endurance, instead of just raw defense. This keeps the single-fight performance difference lower, and thus the fights more fair.
The Problem I'm trying to solve:
- Defensive modules competing for space with everything else stifles the possibility of "organic player-on-player interactions", drives people out of open, and makes balancing PvE combat extremely tricky.
- The impact that defensive modules have on the survivability of a ship is immense. Especially when you get engineering involved, a ship with several structural reinforcement packages, shield cell banks, and shield boosters will have potentially several hundred percent the total effective health of a ship that just has upgraded bulkheads, and a shield generator. What this leads to is the following: a ship that's built specifically and exclusively just to kill another ship is WILDLY more health than one that's built to perform a variety of activities in-game. What this means is that a player that's specifically geared their ship for PvP has an enormous advantage over someone who's ship has been built to engage with the rest of the game's content. A pilot of a PvE ship, even one geared for the various PvE combat activities in the game, will need to potentially do several times as much damage as their attacker to have a chance at victory. If someone has a ship designed for non-combat-focused PvE activities, the difference becomes even more immense. A fight is completely out of the question, and even just escape is dubious.
- A cargo ship can choose between being able to haul a respectable amount of cargo (doing the thing they actually want to do), or have an even remotely respectable amount of defense. The obvious choice is to fit cargo racks, then simply avoid risk by hauling in solo / pg.
- A fight that is an appropriate difficulty for a general-purpose fit combat ship (with several internals dedicated to things like a fuel scoop, SRV (for scanning planetary installations), small cargo rack (for cargo mission rewards), limpet controller (for collecting materials), etc.) can be made trivial if the player instead just stack defenses.
- Balancing a given ship becomes difficult, since things like optional internal slots and utility slots can be converted directly into raw survivability instead of just utility. The FDL is a great example of this: a lot of its strength comes from its 6 utility mounts. Those were presumably added to give the ship the ability to fit all the bounty-hunting frills like KWS, anti-missile systems, and heatsink launchers (in keeping with its luxury bounty hunter lore). In practice however, many of those slots just get used for shield boosters leaving the ship extremely durable.
- A small general-purpose ship like the Diamondback Explorer stuffed with hull reinforcement packages can have almost as much armour as an Anaconda with military bulkheads. The range of possible durability for a given ship is immense, and potentially eliminates a lot of the character of a ship.
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