X3:TC - The personal repair laser, a curse or a blessing?

[xiriod]

I just wonder, what do you guys think? Is it a blessing because you can repair your own ships? Or is it a curse, because you really have to repair your own ships. Even the biggest one that takes forever, paying for it is out of the question

For me, it is the latter....

Don't get me wrong, I love the feature. But I hate myself for insisting on using it even though it takes forever

[Nanook]

The repair laser is really for repairing small dings in big ships, or big dings in small ships. It's not really meant to repair a badly damaged M2. For that, you just need to pay the piper and use a shipyard. That should be a good enough lesson to not let your expensive ships get that badly damaged. Generally, they'd fire/shoot an incompetent captain that let his ship get to that state.

[Carlo the Curious]

For me, the former - it's just nice to have when you actually need it.

I'm not inclined to spend hours repairing a ship when I could make the cash to have it done at a shipyard in a fraction of the time (unless I'm actually doing something else and feel like just leaving my Zippo on the fire key ).

[Random_Guy]

Yeah, for the amount of time you would spend using the Repair Laser on larget ships you could make enough money to pay for the repairs.

Nanook pretty much summed it up. "Small dings in big ships or big dings in small ships." The longest I've ever spent with the thing is zapping a badly damaged Teladi M8 from a Station Protection mission early in the game before I had much money. Other than that, I've never really needed more than a minute. Useful for if your fighter gets shot to hell or if you run across a pesky MD user in your Frigate/Destroyer.

[xiriod]

Well, I play with the reduced rewards mod so what I gain from missions and such are more or less the same as from X3:Reunion. I did not want to make millions upon millions from patrol missions

On the other hand I have time to do some RL stuff, like clean the apartment and cook a real dinner for once

[GCU Grey Area]

I use it all the time regardless of how big the ship is or how long it'll take - I can always jump aboard a ship if the O2 is running a bit low. Mostly use it for repairing captured ships, so the basic principle is that if I've gone to all the trouble of capturing the ship, damned if I'm going to pay the shipyard a significant % of its value to repair it - if I was going to do that might as well have bought it. So far in my current game: total expenditure on shipyard repairs = 0cr. Like I said, it's a matter of principle.

[wolverine005]

Cant you equip some ships with repair lasers? I'm sure I've seen them sold, and I've seen ships with the ability to equip them.

[Nanook]

No, you can't, even though some ships list them as mountable. The only repair lasers are the ones repair drones use for repairing stations, and the one on your suit. Check your encyclopedia for more details.

[pjknibbs]

To my mind, it's the same as Real Life. I'm sure that I *could* service my car myself, but I'd rather pay an expert to do it who (a) won't mess it up and (b) saves me several hours of my own time. Similarly in the game--if I'm not in the mood to stack some coins on the CTRL key and read a magazine for half an hour while the ship repairs, I'll just pay the money and get it done instantly!

[xiriod]

Cant you equip some ships with repair lasers? I'm sure I've seen them sold, and I've seen ships with the ability to equip them.

Yes and no. There is a mod out that lets you do it and creates factories that produce it, but it is not in the vanilla version. Personally I think it is a bit too powerful to use them like that but to each his own

[jlehtone]

Even the biggest one that takes forever, paying for it is out of the question

If you cannot afford to repair your big ship, you cannot afford a big ship.

When the Teladi pay you 30 mil for saving them from Xenon, and then charge 31 mil for fixing your ship, it feels so right.

And if you start penniless -- not knowing the dangers of the X-Universe -- you end up with damaged ship and no way to pay for repairs. That is where the torch saves the game.

[orion_1394]

To my mind, it's the same as Real Life. I'm sure that I *could* service my car myself, but I'd rather pay an expert to do it who (a) won't mess it up and (b) saves me several hours of my own time. Similarly in the game--if I'm not in the mood to stack some coins on the CTRL key and read a magazine for half an hour while the ship repairs, I'll just pay the money and get it done instantly!

yes and there is also the real life scenario were you know about how to fix your own car so you can/may even be able to do it quicker. (special attributes) or you may know someone who would be able to fix it for ya at a drop down price (special connections) those 2 are most likely add-ons..

wouldn't it be nice if there was some kind of special suit that could let you repair faster and another that would let you fly faster or another with jumpdrive...all at a high price..... (hmmm idea )

[NeverSnake]

If you're still using it then that's a pretty good sign that you haven't got sufficient income - so go and build more factories!

[jannix]

I agree. Its very useful early on when you fly around in small ships and easily get into trouble. Later on, I don't bother since I have a steady source of income to pay for repairs, and need for repairs are very rare since I'm usually flying something super powerful. So to the original question, I think it is a great feature.

[xiriod]

Point is, I absolutely hate building and manufacturing I can't organize two factories even. So fight, capture and repair suits me really. Yes, it takes some time. But then again I get to read the boards and post a few

[Coruskane]

as a tip, assign a spare numpad key to fire (as well as your normal fire buttons) then hold it down and turn numlock off whilst still holding it down. It should then keep firing and you can go afk etc (or just use a zippo as mentioned adove )

[summon_libre]

Get high enough Trade Rank and you can pay for a lifetime of repairs from a single well-paying build mission.

[xiriod]

Get high enough Trade Rank and you can pay for a lifetime of repairs from a single well-paying build mission.

I get nothing from build missions, they are utter loss really, because I use the reduced payouts mod that sets things to X2/X3:R standards Which I like.

[Alec_trev]

the repair laser is a definite blessing.

However i was quite shocked when, as i did a Freighter escort mission, one of the freighters i was escorting was down to 10% hull, so i heroically leap from my ship and begin repairing it, only for it to count a repair laser as being attacked, turn hostile, fail the mission, and have the military Centaur in the sector hot on my heels.

[juanitierno]

It really helps new players. I remember when i played reunion and a station moved and crashed into me (or maybe it was the space fuel ), and my buster was left with 65% hull.

I didnt have the money to repair it, and the game became way harder because of the reduced speed.