Ship repairs in station should be like the AFU repairs

[Wyaston Hypatia]

Currently repairs in the stations are instant. There's no risk or danger in the game when everyone can have fully repaired ships at the push of a button. Having to make the choice to continue to fly or wait for repairs would add some jeopardy to the game.
I would like to see them function in the same way as the AFU, where it takes time to repair modules. The station AFUs - lets call them Auto Station-Repair Units (ASU) will be faster than the AFUs but still take time. Costs can be deducted as the repairs progress and launching the ship stops repairs at the point they have reached if not completed.
Further you can set priorities for repairs for each part of the ship, so if you have the hull at 1 so that it's repaired first. Repairs will progress down the priority list from 1 to 5. The repair timer can also be functional whilst logged off, so a new session will see the ship at full health.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Oh please no.
Why would you want to spend time NOT playing the game?

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

It's not about not playing it's about being forced to make choices.
How long to stay in combat, now much damage to take, how long to stay in station repairing, what level of damage is it ok to go out with again? That sort of thing.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

If you're a trader/miner/explorer it would simply increase the cost of being attacked. Even if you escape, any damage you take is going to result in dead time watching a counter, because flying damaged just makes it more likely you'll die.

There really isn't an up-side to this idea.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

I don't see it that way. For me there has to be some risk to the game, and I play many roles in the game, this isn't about pew-pew, it's about challenge.

I don't expect it to be wanted by all, nor to be what others would like to see. It is something that I would like to see though. Which is why I've put it in the suggestions thread.

 

[MK Regular]

I don't see it that way. For me there has to be some risk to the game, and I play many roles in the game, this isn't about pew-pew, it's about challenge.

I don't expect it to be wanted by all, nor to be what others would like to see. It is something that I would like to see though. Which is why I've put it in the suggestions thread.

Well then, why don't you forgo repairs after an engagement for 'extra challenge'? Or leave the game open while your ship 'repairs' and see how it affects your credit income? Go do those, then come back and talk.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

Well then, why don't you forgo repairs after an engagement for 'extra challenge'? Or leave the game open while your ship 'repairs' and see how it affects your credit income? Go do those, then come back and talk.

I already do. As for credit income - it's not a metric that worries me.
To be honest I find your tone a bit condescending so am unlikely to 'talk' further.
This is a suggestion for FD after all.

 

[Starwolfe]

If you suggest this, we need a wait time on cargo transfers.

Personally, no. I like the game-y aspects right now.

 

[Faded Glory]

I'm afraid that in my opinion, there's already far too much waiting in the game...

Waiting for mission targets to spawn so that we can get on with the actual gameplay of fighting / destroying them. Waiting for ships / modules to be transferred so we can use them to play the game. To name but two...

I don't disagree with your sentiment that there should be more choices for players to make in the game, reasons for thinking and planning, but a choice shouldn't be about waiting or being disadvantaged, it should be about two different gameplay activities that are fun to do, but will require the player to do things differently depending on which route they decide to take.

The game is already a significant time investment, which is fine, but time sinks should not be the reason for this. Gameplay should.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

Whilst personally not against cargo load times, I don't see them adding anything to the game if introduced.
Having repairs take time would add choices / decision points to the game. It will also make damage meaningful beyond a transitory tactical situation. I'm just suggesting a mechanism that could make it work.

(I will nearly always be on the more sim/hard side of the debate about mechanisms)

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

I'm afraid that in my opinion, there's already far too much waiting in the game...

Waiting for mission targets to spawn so that we can get on with the actual gameplay of fighting / destroying them. Waiting for ships / modules to be transferred so we can use them to play the game. To name but two...

I don't disagree with your sentiment that there should be more choices for players to make in the game, reasons for thinking and planning, but a choice shouldn't be about waiting or being disadvantaged, it should be about two different gameplay activities that are fun to do, but will require the player to do things differently depending on which route they decide to take.

The game is already a significant time investment, which is fine, but time sinks should not be the reason for this. Gameplay should.

I don't see this as a wait, but that's because I'll fly damaged ships. I'm also not against waiting that makes sense in game - which transfers do. I see this as something that would move the game closer to my ideal - I'd be very surprised if FD ever did it though.

If everything in game was a choice between two or more great game activities I'd be happy

 

[Chrystoph]

This proposal is nothing but a useless time sink in a game already full of time sinks.

If everything in game was a choice between two or more great game activities I'd be happy

The "choice" here is wasting time not playing the game while I sit and stare at the screen waiting for repairs to complete or playing another game that actually engages me. It certainly isn't "great".

 

[777Driver]

I don't see this as a wait, but that's because I'll fly damaged ships. I'm also not against waiting that makes sense in game - which transfers do. I see this as something that would move the game closer to my ideal - I'd be very surprised if FD ever did it though.

If everything in game was a choice between two or more great game activities I'd be happy

I'm with you on this mate, but forgot trying to convince this crowd, they wont get out of bed for less than 50 million an hour, and everything is a grind to them.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I'm with you on this mate, but forgot trying to convince this crowd, they wont get out of bed for less than 50 million an hour, and everything is a grind to them.

Simplistic generalization mate

I don't give a monkeys about credits and grind is entirely in the mind, but this suggestion wouldn't improve my gameplay experience one jot. I'd just be sitting in a station waiting for a timer, rather than actually having fun playing the game.

I'm all for adding more consequences, strategy and planning to the game, but timers aren't the way to do it.

 

[MK Regular]

I already do. As for credit income - it's not a metric that worries me.
To be honest I find your tone a bit condescending so am unlikely to 'talk' further.
This is a suggestion for FD after all.

Yes, I realize my original comment was condescending, and I apologize in advance if this one comes off as condescending.

The thing that everyone needs to remember is that ED is a game. It is supposed to be fun, ideally to the largest amount of people so FDev can make as much money as they can. This must be kept in mind for every game mechanic that is introduced.

I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of people do not find waiting fun. Waiting isn't too bad if they are given something else to do while they wait, but when they aren't they get bored really quickly. What you are asking for here is a timer to wait for. A lot of people will not like this because they will be waiting, and there will not be anything for them to do while they wait. Instead of waiting, they will stop playing ED and go play another game because they are not having fun playing ED.

I can't really see FDev doing implementing something that would only serve to drive away a large portion of their player base. It doesn't make sense for them to reduce the number of people buying their products.

If you want to add more consequences, I'm all for it, but this isn't the way to do it.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

The problem with the fun argument is that it's not quantifiable. One persons fun is another's grind or simplification or 'gamification'. I don't know and a doubt even FD knows what people want from the game. I can only say what I want. This might be against what everyone else wants but I have to let FD know this to help them come to informed decisions.
If a change like I've proposed was introduced in isolation then there would be a sub-set of players (such as myself) it would appeal to. How large that sub-set is I don't know (I doubt it's a majority). However I would expect only to see such mechanisms if there were other things to do in the stations, which is another thing I'd like to see.
I personally don't see why everyone believes that they should be flying around in perfect ships and not be given difficult choices, but then I might be strange in that respect.

I'm going to leave it at this, FD are the ones to make the choices over the gameplay and overall direction of the game. There's thing I like and things I don't. Some of these I can work around with self imposed rules, never the best but I do what I can.

 

[DARGAN]

translator

I am not against the general idea, it would also take a load time for the goods, logistics takes time.

by cons while waiting what to do ?

I'm reiterating this suggestion when we walk with our commander at the stations, hoping that this will happen one day as I have heard, when there is enough content to fill that waiting time.

for now I would say 10 minutes of content to furnish, between choice of missions, map of galaxy and galnet.

a little like the module and ship transfers, this waiting time is very good, realistic in any case, but perhaps still too early.. I usually send the transfer, then I leave to do something else in the meantime..

when it's not too long, I leave the station for one or two missions, but if the logistics take time I'm grounded.

 

[Chrystoph]

So, even presuming some sci-fi explanation such as nano-tech, hull repair in a realistic environment would take hours if not days.

That being the case, I would be getting off the ship while it was in the yards and going and doing something else.

Given that the "something elses" available on a station are limited to contract negotiation (instantaneous) and haulage negotiation (instantaneous) and that you can only engage one function at a time in game, there is not a lot of realism available there in the first place. You don't manage the kitchen supplies or, theoretically, hydroponics, you where your suit 24/7 so you aren't out looking for uniforms, you don't have human interaction in game, etc.

In short, being a flight sim plus limits your options for filling the time expended while you would be waiting on repairs.

I don't want to have to manage the repairs in station the way I do with an AFMU, but, at least with an AFMU, I am spending that time as a crisis, not as a pointless exercise in doing nothing.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I'd been expecting the Thargoids to provide this sort of gameplay - you go out on an extended mission a long way from inhabited space, so you need an AFMU, you need at least some of your wing to have repair limpets and SRVs to prospect for restock materials, you need to make your combat ship a bit more rounded than "combat everything" internals, and you need to think about accumulating damage and what repairs you prioritise, because heading 100 LY back to the station between fights is going to get tedious.

(They might still do - it's early days yet, and the only real change that would be needed would be allowing synthesis of AX ammunition, which it's reasonable not to have available yet)

 

[Chrystoph]

Sounds like good game play to me.