Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I'd love a module that can act as either a micro warp drive or an afterburner. Basically one mode of operation would give afterburner like speed bust while the other mode would give micro warp drive like speed boost and only the micro warp drive like speed boost would give the signature radius penalty.

It would need a new mechanic to have these two different modes out of a single module which could open up other interesting possible dual use modules (either combining existing modules or employing new mechanics entirely). I could see a combined relic and data analyzer for instance (which is in no way a game changer given mobile depots).

The penalties and skill requirements should encompass both unit types and the top velocity gain for either mode should be slightly sub par as compared to the best unit from either individual category. It should additionally need an added negative to further penalize the use and I think that could be a cooldown when switching between modes. I don't think the cooldown need be that long though, perhaps 5-10 seconds max.

The usage I see out of it is for ship that want to be in relatively close range to a target they could enable the device as a microwarp drive and get into their desired range and then once there switch the device to after burner mode to help them keep range/orbit without the signature penalty. Currently you can do this by using up two mid slots, but I'm not sure if the benefits would ever out weigh using two slots. Giving us this combo module with proper negatives built in I think would be an interesting choice for players to make.

Rough ideas on the negative:

- Need skill level 5 in both the skills needed for Afterburners and Microwarp drives (possibly leading into a new skill or just being requirements for this module without a new skill).
- Fitting requirements could be slightly higher than the microwarp drive equivalent for the given size, possibly including the cap reduction penalty of the microwarp drive
- Total speed/thrust gain for each mode would be less than a mono-booster equivalent. Possibly by as much as 25% less increase (perhaps when overheating this could give speed boosts roughly equal to a the equivalent mono-booster type)
- Signature radius gain for the microwarp drive mode could be larger than the true microwarp drive equivalent.
- Cooldown when switching between modes

While kind of a neat idea, I can't imagine this actually being useful. It runs into the problem where it will never match it's more dedicated cousins in either mode, and will end up being inferior in almost all cases.