Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hi all,

AS OF KRONOS (JUNE 3rd 2014) The cap cost has been reduced by 10% per level, to bring it in line with the level 1 cost. THANK YOU CCP!

I've been enjoying the hell out of the Reactive Armor Hardener on my buffer Proteus. The major concern I'm sharing today is the penalty you receive for training the skill, Armor Resistance Phasing. While I enjoy the 50% faster cycle time to more quickly adjust my resistances, the trade-off of energy cost over time is concerning.

At level 5, I spend 31.5 GJ per 5 seconds (6.3 GJ per second). At level 4, I spend 33.6 GJ per 6 seconds (5.6 GJ per second). At level 1 (for comparison) i spend 39.9 GJ per 9 seconds, (or 4.43 GJ per second).

The higher you train the skill, not only does the module become more costly per second, but it also becomes increasingly more costly for the same benefit (1 second change every-time). This means that training level 5, which shaves a mere additional second, represents a 12% increase in cap cost for the module from 4-5. While this a relatively meaningless amount of cap on a larger ship (Battleship/Caps) the Reactive Armor Hardener is exponentially more effective on ships which have an inordinately large armor with comparatively small structure (given that they often replace the damage control on the ship). In short, they provide the most effective health on something like a Tech 3, which has a much smaller cap pool, than something like a single-plated Dominix, which still has a large structure pool with which it can benefit from a damage control. [edited addition]: My complaint isn't that the skill doesn't get better with level. My complaint is that the coefficient of quality decreases drastically because it is a 1 second change each time, but a smaller variable of change in the cap cost.

The fix is relatively simple; match the % decrease in cap to the % decrease in time (this maintains a 4.2 GJ cost per second at all levels, netting no cap benefit for training to 5). In something as irreversible as skilling up your character, I can't see why we should be penalized for maxing out skills. It's not comparable to the Repair Systems skill because while that does introduce cap instability, it's also on a module that can benefit from finishing a cycle and being turned off (if your armor is topped up, you're good), the same of which can not be said for maintaining a resistance pool, especially since the mod does not maintain it's resistance profile from being on-off-on. Thanks for reading,

[edit]: as this post has evolved here are some of the ideas I think stand out:
1) Standardize the cap cost by changing the skill to 10% per skill level energy reduction.
2) Cap cost based on the amount of change that occurs in the resistance profile, from 0 GJ to the full 35 GJ.
3) Reduce the general cap cost of the mod, leave skill as is.
4) Create versions of the mod for small, medium and large.

Svo.

Hoping for a dev reply to say "this is something on our radar" or "no Svo we're dream crushers!"

Svo

+1
It really doesnt seem to make sense. I saw another post about this and it is definitely in need of review by a DEV. Or at least a justification of why they wont fix it would be nice.

iirc the sweet spot for that modual is Level 3 skill.

What if you made the Cap per cycle a function of how much resistance adjusted that cycle?

IE it shifted from 15/15/15/15 to 10/10/30/10 that cycle, so the module takes 33 cap that cycle, but when its fully adjusted it takes no cap for those cycles.

Imo it would be better game design just to nerf it like you said and have the skill functioning perfectly, then it is to have a good module with a broken skill attached to it.

The skill really should be looked at.

+1

Unique, would fit the mod. I like it. Maybe reduced cap instead of no cap?

Svo.

I would be fine with it's current iteration if it was possible to swap between high cap/short cycle and low cap/long cycle.

Also, it's high time they renamed the inferno prototype modules and gave us meta/T2 variants.

More hope for an answer!

Svo.

I like that idea.