Wear and tear (Which is going to be renamed and
slowed down) represents your ship suffering long
term damage that results in a reduction to maximum
hull health (so even if your hull says 100%, if you've
suffered wear and tear, that 100% will be lower than
it could be). Wear and tear never reduces your
maximum hull health to 0 (I think the cap reduces your
max hull down by 70% – we might tweak this).
I believe there will be a nominal fee to buff up your
livery, which will become its own separate thing,
allowing Commanders tomake their ships look nice
even if they are starting to rot on the inside.
If your wear and tear was at 100% (the worst it could
be) then your maximum hull health would be reduced
by 30%. Wear and tear is not meant to totally cripple
your ship, but it should still be a significant risk. Again,
though, we're lowering the rate at which wear and
tear accrues, as we think it was too quick.
The effects of having a ship that looks rough
compared to one that looks pristine are not in the
game yet, but that is the concept we are heading
towards.
They way we imagine it is that when your hull is
damaged it is because something very clear and
obvious has happened: a cannon shell has punched
a hole in it, or a bracket connecting an articulate
plate has sheared clean off. You can easily look
at the hull, or scan the hull and detect this kind of
catastrophic failure.
But even during normal operation, your ship's hull
suffers lots of low-grade strain. Every time you pull
hard G turns under thrust, every time the frame shift
collapses and expands space, and even natural
perishing processes on components, all take their
collective toll on the vessel.
You can't obviously see or detect this effect
without effectively having a starship mechanic look
specifically fort it. Maybe a hull plate has warped
slightly and is mashed slightly harder into the plate
next to it under thrust. Perhaps a bracket has started
to wear and become loose, but has not yet snapped
or failed. Possibly the gunk has started to build up
in the cooling loops, increasing the pressure of the
circuit, but not yet enough to burst the system.
A whole host of fatigue effects build up in the ship's hull
and associated plumbing, and whilst they don't show
as obvious trauma, they do overall make your ship less
sturdy and more likely to fall under extreme forces.
Our wear and tear system is a simple abstract
way of representing this effect without being too
complicated.
Getting various repair costs perfect is quite
complicated, and it will be something we keep overwatch
on, making tweaks when we see all positive
effect gains.
Wear and tear is being slowed down. However, it
still needs to be fast enough to have an effect in a
reasonable game time. If I said that on average you
might likely see a percent drop in about an hour of
flight that might help give an idea.
Also, wear and tear actually accumulates by
activities such as hyperspace jumps, super cruise,
being in asteroid fields, fuel scooping and from
combat, so the rate is variable to a minor degree.
For clarity: currently wear and tear only affects hull. In
the future we might consider module wear and tear,
but not at the moment.
The concept of wear and tear is two-fold: it
represents longer term fatigue for ships, and
introduces another risk element to manage. You
never *need* to sort out your wear and tear, the
penalty caps out at 30% of your hull.
But of course, should you run into trouble, that 30%
hull might become a significant factor in deciding
whether your ship stays in one piece or not
Also wear and tear should only affect the ship you
are using, because it accrues based on ship activities