Are weapon modifications or other randomized elements included in X4?

[Alan Phipps]

Personally I would prefer to be able to influence in some way how a mod kit you find or craft, should they be in X4, affects things rather than have the effects and which weapon it fits be totally RNG decisions. For one example, a mod kit for say mining lasers should fit all marks and versions of mining lasers in my opinion rather be tied to one particular version that neither the ship dropping it would have had, nor that the player would bother to craft it for.

Further, the effects should always be two-way interlinked and balanced - although perhaps weighted in degree by the RNG. By that, I mean that an increase in say cooling rate should always require a balancing reduction in firing and/or charging rate. An increase in bullet damage, speed, range or shot quantity should always require a balancing reduction in cooling rate, and so on. That way there are no unbalancing RNG super-mods nor any totally useless/negative ones. The player can then decide what mods to keep that best suit their particular play-style (keep hosing the target while jinking about, fire only short well-aimed bursts, go for quick early damage or go for slow continued wearing away over time, etc).

[Redtor]

...Just let my buy the darn thing I'm after please!

With In-game currency, ALWAYS In-game currency.

[Chris0132]

Personally I would prefer to be able to influence in some way how a mod kit you find or craft, should they be in X4, affects things rather than have the effects and which weapon it fits be totally RNG decisions. For one example, a mod kit for say mining lasers should fit all marks and versions of mining lasers in my opinion rather be tied to one particular version that neither the ship dropping it would have had, nor that the player would bother to craft it for.

Further, the effects should always be two-way interlinked and balanced - although perhaps weighted in degree by the RNG. By that, I mean that an increase in say cooling rate should always require a balancing reduction in firing and/or charging rate. An increase in bullet damage, speed, range or shot quantity should always require a balancing reduction in cooling rate, and so on. That way there are no unbalancing RNG super-mods nor any totally useless/negative ones. The player can then decide what mods to keep that best suit their particular play-style (keep hosing the target while jinking about, fire only short well-aimed bursts, go for quick early damage or go for slow continued wearing away over time, etc).

I kinda figured that rather than being per-weapon it would perhaps be per-mounting, so you could swap out weapons but the mounting could be modified to adjust whatever you put in it. Like you put better heat sinks in and all weapons cool down faster, better barrel actuators give a higher rate of fire, better turret motors give you better tracking etc. I agree with being able to influence what you get without outright just picking it, easy minmaxing is disappointing but so is getting utterly useless things.

And yeah for the most part you want counterbalancing factors though I'm not averse to it generally making the weapon mount more effective, as you are putting resources into it and you want it to actually make you more powerful.

[atavistuk]

...Just let my buy the darn thing I'm after please!

With In-game currency, ALWAYS In-game currency.

That was implied. Sorry if I didn't make it clear. Yeah... lemme buy the modifications I desire with in game currency. I don't care how hard they make it to find a seller to get EXACTLY what I am after...

Or let us craft them, either way, so long as it is not utterly random!