A more balanced means of repairing

[JohnBWatson]

Repairing in Transcendence is currently handled in a strange and somewhat inconsistent way. Most ships don't repair at all, even at stations that can do so for the player, Korolov ships appear to repair over time at stations, and the player can repair instantly as long as they have the money, making a rich player effectively invincible when near a station.

My means of solving this is designed to balance realism and simplicity: Upon docking at a station and purchasing an armor repair, the station will begin repairing that segment over time at a given rate(much faster than a patcher arm, but dependent on the station, with shipyards repairing much more quickly than other stations.). Shields will be disabled for the duration of this, and moving away from the station will end the process. AI ships, including hostiles will carry out these repairs at any station with repair capabilities whenever there are no enemies on their scanner range and damage exceeds 10%.

Other solutions? Comments on mine?

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Game speed appears to be slowed down considerably while in the dock screen and leaving the dock screen coincides with undocking, so requiring players to remain docked while being repaired would force them to sit around for a really long time unless there was some way to remain docked after leaving the dock screen.

Maybe armor repair at small stations should consist of the station applying some sort of regenerating, shield-disabling "repair nanos" enhancement coating. The enhancement would regenerate the segment even after undocking. The "repair nanos" enhancement would be lost as soon as the armor segment is fully repaired or if it takes damage. Shields would have to be scripted to self-activate once the coating wears off. Shipyards could repair any damage instantly.

Armor paste, repair nanos, etc. could apply the same repair effect and have it work at different speeds, while armor patches could continue to provide direct armor HP repair (at the cost of being much heavier to carry around.)

[Atarlost]

Nothing is wrong with the current system. Slower repair services, no matter how implemented, would be nothing but pointless boredom.

[catfighter]

They'd be more realistic when applied to anything other than welding the nearest random chunk of metal to the ship, but they'd probably cause more people to rage-quit than is worth it.

If you really wanted a slow-repair option, there should be multiple types of repairing available. You can pay the normal amount to get some metal welded on, or you could pay a slightly smaller fee to have a barrel of nanos dumped on you and save the engineers some time and metal.

[JohnBWatson]

Game speed appears to be slowed down considerably while in the dock screen and leaving the dock screen coincides with undocking, so requiring players to remain docked while being repaired would force them to sit around for a really long time unless there was some way to remain docked after leaving the dock screen.

Maybe armor repair at small stations should consist of the station applying some sort of regenerating, shield-disabling "repair nanos" enhancement coating. The enhancement would regenerate the segment even after undocking. The "repair nanos" enhancement would be lost as soon as the armor segment is fully repaired or if it takes damage. Shields would have to be scripted to self-activate once the coating wears off. Shipyards could repair any damage instantly.

Armor paste, repair nanos, etc. could apply the same repair effect and have it work at different speeds, while armor patches could continue to provide direct armor HP repair (at the cost of being much heavier to carry around.)

My apologies, by undocking I meant turning or firing engines(IE moving away from the dock point). I'll fix the OP there, I can see how it was misleading.

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Nothing is wrong with the current system. Slower repair services, no matter how implemented, would be nothing but pointless boredom.

Repairing in the middle of combat presents a balance concern, reduces the value of shields, and breaks immersion.

Friendly ships not repairing breaks immersion and results in an excess amount of loot - heavy wrecks around contested friendly stations.

Enemy ships not being able to repair at the shipyard that just built them breaks immersion and makes hit and run attacks more viable than they ought to be.

Instant repair is entirely non - viable in an RTS such as CSC America.

That's four problems I was able to think of within 60 seconds.

[PM]

Another way to repair armor instantly is with repair kits, and they can (or at least used to) repair any armor, regardless of level or damage, even overtech like hierosteel. Ranx gunships are a renewable source of repair kits (and Akan shells) to farm from.

Similarly, superconducting coils can recharge its shields instantly, and the Huari have those, and they self-recharge once per second, making them annoying to kill.

[JohnBWatson]

Another way to repair armor instantly is with repair kits, and they can (or at least used to) repair any armor, regardless of level or damage, even overtech like hierosteel. Ranx gunships are a renewable source of repair kits (and Akan shells) to farm from.

Similarly, superconducting coils can recharge its shields instantly, and the Huari have those, and they self-recharge once per second, making them annoying to kill.

Coils I can see as viable, given how shields aren't made of matter. Repair kits raise some odd questions, especially when used in the middle of combat, but their weight and cost makes them balanced, so I don't have an issue with them. Perhaps limiting the armor they work on based on repair difficulty would help with immersion issues?

[digdug]

Perhaps limiting the armor they work on based on repair difficulty would help with immersion issues?

they are already quite limited, repairing less and less hp as the level of the armor increases. Barrels do the same, even enhancing barrels will give a minor % bonus at higher level armors.

[PM]

Nothing is wrong with the current system. Slower repair services, no matter how implemented, would be nothing but pointless boredom.

The one thing I dislike about the current system is while armor repair services cannot repair armor damaged by more than 75%, armor repair devices and consumables can repair armor regardless of damage. It would be nice if armor repair was consistent.

[gunship256]

The one thing I dislike about the current system is while armor repair services cannot repair armor damaged by more than 75%, armor repair devices and consumables can repair armor regardless of damage. It would be nice if armor repair was consistent.

And when a shield is not installed, Domina powers can repair armor that is damaged by 75% or less.

[AssumedPseudonym]

And when a shield is not installed, Domina powers can repair armor that is damaged by 75% or less.

 That I don’t have a problem with. She’s already capable of plenty of feats that are more impressive than repairing armor that anyone in Human Space would consign to the scrap yard.

[gunship256]

And when a shield is not installed, Domina powers can repair armor that is damaged by 75% or less.

 That I don’t have a problem with. She’s already capable of plenty of feats that are more impressive than repairing armor that anyone in Human Space would consign to the scrap yard.

Yes, though it's interesting that an armor repair kit can repair armor that is 100% damaged, but Domina powers can't.

[JohnBWatson]

Nothing is wrong with the current system. Slower repair services, no matter how implemented, would be nothing but pointless boredom.

The one thing I dislike about the current system is while armor repair services cannot repair armor damaged by more than 75%, armor repair devices and consumables can repair armor regardless of damage. It would be nice if armor repair was consistent.

I remember someone requesting the option to use any repair patches a station had if an armor was damaged beyond normal repair capacity a while back. Do you think that would work?

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Yes, though it's interesting that an armor repair kit can repair armor that is 100% damaged, but Domina powers can't.

Is it possible that that's a glitch? It does seem very strange.

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they are already quite limited, repairing less and less hp as the level of the armor increases. Barrels do the same, even enhancing barrels will give a minor % bonus at higher level armors.

That's true. Would it be balanced to reduce the rate at which the repair lowered in exchange for adding a hard cap to armor level?

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Another idea I had was reducing the cost of repairs / increasing success chance when using armor patches if a patcher arm is installed.

In addition, is there any support for a ROM that causes any installed patch spiders to automatically uninstall when the ship takes damage, coming back out a while afterwards?

[AssumedPseudonym]

And when a shield is not installed, Domina powers can repair armor that is damaged by 75% or less.

 That I don’t have a problem with. She’s already capable of plenty of feats that are more impressive than repairing armor that anyone in Human Space would consign to the scrap yard.

Yes, though it's interesting that an armor repair kit can repair armor that is 100% damaged, but Domina powers can't.

 …Oh. I completely misread that. Yeah, in that case, I kinda do have a problem with it. I would expect Domina to be able to repair armor damaged nearly to the point of nonexistence, what with the phenomenal cosmic power and all. Slapping an armor patch on the last two percent of light Iocrym armor you have, though, that… seems kinda sketchy.

[gunship256]

Oh. I completely misread that. Yeah, in that case, I kinda do have a problem with it. I would expect Domina to be able to repair armor damaged nearly to the point of nonexistence, what with the phenomenal cosmic power and all. Slapping an armor patch on the last two percent of light Iocrym armor you have, though, that… seems kinda sketchy.

My bad - I should be clearer in my writing. Patcher arms can also regenerate armor that's at zero, and armor with +Regen can repair itself even when it's completely gone. For consistency's sake, it might be better to have dockyards and Domina powers be able to repair armor no matter how far gone it is.