Evil idea: "Sorry, we can't repair your [foo] here.&quo

[Miramor]

This may sound too close to punishing players twice for bad investments, but IMHO there should be some limitations on who can repair what. Things like fusion reactors and shields are pretty universal in VS, and should be repairable almost anywhere. However, a lot of effort is going into weapon, armor, and ECM development thanks to the war, and the latest high-tech Andolian weapons, for instance, might be rather uncommon in LIHW territory. Likewise, expensive Aeran armor would probably get a lot of head-scratching on a backwater Bio-Simple planet.

("Po...lee...der...ane...ee...um... Nah, too many syllables. Can't repair it." *ptooey*)

Repair droids could also fit into this new scheme. An antimatter gun, for instance, might require that your droid be updated with special (and expensive) software; otherwise, the droid will not repair it, or refuse to repair it better than, say, 50%.

What say you guys?

[Momaw]

Completely plausible.

However, to make this anything less than hair-tearingly frustrating, you will also want to add a feature where you can transfer upgrade items to your cargo hold. Aerans wanting to simply take away your Confed ECM system rather than repair it? No problem: toss the 'Fed gear in the cargo hold until you get home. Also consider the ability to buy spare parts for equipment, which you store in your cargo hold and will (once, anyway) allow the repair of an item at a location that otherwise has no clue what to do with it. "What is this thing anyway?" "A Forsaken-designed missile launcher." "Uh...yeah, well, here's the thing..." "Maybe this crate of spares will help you out." "Oo, that looks promising."

[Miramor]

That sounds good too. However, I must say that I did not intend for people to loose their upgrades this way under any circumstances - they would get a message indicating the part couldn't be fixed at their current location for whatever reason, and no fix button.

[Momaw]

That sounds good too. However, I must say that I did not intend for people to loose their upgrades this way under any circumstances - they would get a message indicating the part couldn't be fixed at their current location for whatever reason, and no fix button.

No, I understand that, I'm just exploring the consequences. Of not having an instant repair option. Like what if you wade through a hailstorm of local fire to make a Bounty goal, and then you want to dock to repair your armor before you have to wade back through going in the other direction. If you have no ability to put your damaged armor into the cargo hold, then your choices are either a.) buy completely new armor, and lose your old armor because you can't take it with you, or b.) go without a repair job. While there are arguments to be made here in favor of balance (faction-specific tech should be better than general stuff), the reality is that you'd just aggrevate a lot of people. The ability to stuff upgrade items in your hold allows you to buy a cheap "good nuff" substitute to get you back home and not lose your cool factional item.

You relayed your idea perfectly, I just like considering what-if's on the playability/fun front

[Miramor]

Thanks... FWIW I think your idea of putting upgrades in the hold is also good. In fact, it would be a huge help in terms of in-game trade as well - ammunition shipping is very lucrative, but it's annoying to have the ammo occupying one's slots.

(Of course, there should be downsides to shipping ammo in the hold. If a laser beam pierces your hull, there should be a chance that it sets off that box of reaper warheads... )

[loki1950]

Shipping munitions has always been problematic Halifax NS comes to mind like the idea of carrying your own spare parts.not sure if the current upgrade code could be massaged to support this though.might need to rewrite it completely.

Enjoy the Choice

[whatch1]

You could fix the repair droids


and not have carry spare parts


Bill

[Miramor]

Even if you can carry spare parts, repair droids should still be handy, since they can do repairs in combat.

Edit: of course, this should probably apply to enemy ships too. Leave a crippled Plowshare alone for a while and its engines might start working again (although its hull integrity shouldn't be repairable).