Player Features and Ideas Discussion

We spend years learning to fit our ships, getting the skills trained up and overall learning the ins and outs of all the modules in game.

It would be nice to also have an option to fine tune our modules to get more custom tailored performance. I would like to propose an idea of module tuning. Give us the ability to custom fit our modules to our needs. For example I would like to see the ability to route power to mods for better performance. Instead of just having a generic power grid, we can actually fiddle with the way modules CONSUME the powergrid and CPU. You are still limited by the stats of the mods but you have a little bit of room to adjust performance.

For example I can set my shields to perform a little better and tank more but lose the rate of fire from my guns. I can re route power from HIGH to MID slots or LOW to HIGH slots. Basically each module would have a minimum and maximum operating mode. By tweaking these per module I can fin tune my ship and have it a bit more customized to my play style. Overall this idea does not affect the powergrid usage for fitting, only the performance of the modules AFTER they are fit.

Rigs essentially do this role, but there is no way to adjust it based on a scale, or slider. I wish there was a bit more room and ability to adjust modules on a percentage based level.

Example MWD:

max velocity bonus 500 % *0.7 = 350%
activation cost 45 Energy * 0.7 = 31.5
CPU Usage 25 tf *1.0 * 0.7 = 17.5
Power usage 15 mw * 0.7 v=10.5

Essentially, The microwarp drive is operating at 70% power, I can still overheat it but my overall speed is lowered as well as CPU and POWERGRID usage. There could be a MIN and MAX safety level as well, you can push PAST these, but then you risk damaging your module over time during usage. For example if you drop your MWD below 50%, it could cause the engine to STALL or possibly even take damage by not having enough power to cool down fast enough. In other words there is a floor and ceiling concept for each module which can be fine tuned. By pushing the engine past these standard limits you risk causing damage to your mod, but you also have the ability to truly fine tune your weapons of war.

Push it too hard and the module could explode and be permanently destroyed..

I call it Alpha gank.

I don't see it as a problem. I see it as a one time usage big boom stick.

Overloading modules to get more performance at a cost already exists.

Ideally it could be done via:

Skillbook: Ship engineer, module reconfiguration, powergrid specialist, CPU specialist, advanced mechanical engineer .

Training these skills will enable you to make precise custom modifications to your spec! Think of it like a fine suit tailor made to fit your body, or pod in this case.

It would be ideal if you could route power from high to mid slots as well during play. So imagine you have a MWD that you modified to 70% of it's total power consumption. However you are in a desperate situation and you need your speed back PRONTO, BUT you are flying at 70% your max speed.... you reconfigure your system power from HIGH and LOW slots to MID slots. You overheat your mod, and also route all power to MWD to keep it running! Overheating a module which is configured at 70% means you could stall if you overheat or push it past it's safe operating limit. By reconfiguring your power this injection of power gives you a sudden burst of 110%!!!

Why?

Docked you can configure your powergrid, in space you can re route power but still operate with the 70% MWD powergrid. This can actually cause your engine to stall, because you are pushing it 40% above your configuration (with advanced mechanical engineer trained to 5 you can operate safely at 5% more per level, for a total of 25% max). You are free to go above or below 25% but your engine could POP too. By overheating the engine the game enters a ROLL the dice mode. It;s based on luck and how well you maintain your engine / weapons. This would encourage you to fix your mods, because when they are damaged and pushed and stressed by your piloting , well they are easier to break.

Same goes for guns, you reconfigure or re route power from HIGH to MID and your guns can take damage if you push them to operate under stress.

It becomes a game of power management, you can push your ship and your modules to their breaking point and if you know what you are doing can also learn to use these custom configuration to your advantage when the odds are against you.

Scotty I need moar paaawer !!!

Perhaps T3 modules.

Isn't that the point though? Ships are balanced around needing fitting mods, implants, only doing x damage, etc. and those implants/mods/whatever are balanced by taking a slot that could be used to boost another attribute.

If you compound a system like this with implants/rigs/whatever it becomes nigh on impossible to avoid some ****** OP fit that stomps everything, fits an oversized AB and tanks like a particularly stoney stone because they fit an Auto Targeter in their utility high.

Good name for it!

"You get one shot out of your guns. One. Shot. But boy, will it be heard..."

I also like your idea of specific skills to enable/aid power routing, but I'm not exactly at peace with the way you propose it should work.

Rather, here's my suggestion:
When fitting, you can over-/under-clock each module by up to, say, 10% down, 20% up. This reduces CPU and powergrid needs by as much, along with benefits, so an MWD will give that much less/more speed (while still reserving 25% of your capacitor), a shield extender gives that less/more shield, a shield booster gives that much more/less shield each cycle. Capacitor-powered modules also draw less/more cap at activation.
In space, you get some buttons that allow you to route power between racks both way (High-Mid, High-Low, Mid-High, Mid-Low, Low-High, Low-Mid). Routing from one rack to one other cuts module performance by 25% in the source rack, boosting by 25% in the target rack, with any modules that are maximally under-clocked going offline and maximally over-clocked modules incurring 50% heat damage per cycle; routing to two others cuts performance by 50%, with all under-clocked modules going offline, and routing from two racks causes a 50% boost with all over-clocked modules incurring 50% heat damage until enough power is routed back.

To go with your MWD example, now it would work like this: you under-clock your MWD 10% to fit, say, one more gun. Then while out roaming, you bite off more than you can chew, and you need to GTFO fast. Seeing that guns are useless, you route power from your highs and lows to your mids, increasing the MWD's performance by 50% (a net 40% increase). Plus, just to get out of there that much faster, you overload the module, making it take heat damage, but giving you the overheat bonus too. As an added bonus, your shield booster now boosts 50% more, but also draws 50% more cap, making your tank stronger, but also unsustainable.
Or in the Alpha-tank example, you fit a rack of T2 blasters, over-clock them as far as you can, then route power from the mids and lows to the highs. As a result, your guns begin to take 50% heat damage, but now also hit 50% harder. Then you overload them, making them take 150% heat damage (and likely burning out in two cycles), but for those two cycles, they will hit 65% harder. Of course, after that, you'll be unarmed. And you won't have much of a tank to speak of with your depowered shield modules, and you won't be able to go very fast with the 25% loss in propulsion effect.