Hull Repair - it's bleedin expensive

BIGHELMET · Post by **BIGHELMET** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 09:36

Hi - near the start of the game in my sabre and my hull is down to 55% so I thought I'd check into my local Shipyard. It's insanely expensive - over 2000c per %!!! Is there a cheaper way? Thanks

Drummer · Post by **Drummer** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 09:49

Well, since you mention a Sabre, I take it you're playing TC, so for an alternative to repairs at a shipyard, you can eject from your ship, and repair your ship using your spacesuit's built in repair laser. It doesn't heal a lot of hull points very quickly, but it shouldn't take too long to get your sabre back to 100%, and the best part is that using the repair laser is absolutely free.

Sp@c3Ch!mp · Post by **Sp@c3Ch!mp** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 09:54

I always repair my ships with the repair laser in TC. Cheap but slow, u save millions.

irR4tiOn4L · Post by **irR4tiOn4L** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 09:59

I THINK i remember the following working. When repairing something REALLY big with the repair laser in the spacesuit, I would go into the ship, eject the SETA drive, then pick it up with the spacesuit, set a macro on the keyboard to keep firing the repair laser and activate seta.

Repairs a lot faster, but make sure you eject the SETA out of the spacesuit again or youll lose it

Interesting factoid, the spacesuit can be upgraded up to about 36m/s I think, but all upgrades are lost once you return to a ship

BIGHELMET · Post by **BIGHELMET** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 10:05

Brilliant!!!!! Thanks very much! Btw - just started playing this and its already an obsession!! Got to go shopping now and I think I'm gonna go cold turkey!!!!!

Umpa Lumpa · Post by **Umpa Lumpa** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 10:22

Id forgotten all about this little feature and have also been stuggling through a new start. Thanks

Glutes · Post by **Glutes** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 12:07

Another trick that I have been using involves the wireless mouse I use to play. If I'm repairing something especially large which would take 10+ minutes to repair, I just hold down right-click to fire my laser and then walk my mouse a couple feet away and set it down. It's no longer in range of my computer to work, but the right-click is 'stuck'. Then, I watch TV or play PS3.

glenmcd · Post by **glenmcd** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 12:18

irR4tiOn4L wrote:I THINK i remember the following working. When repairing something REALLY big with the repair laser in the spacesuit, I would go into the ship, eject the SETA drive, then pick it up with the spacesuit, set a macro on the keyboard to keep firing the repair laser and activate seta.

Repairs a lot faster, but make sure you eject the SETA out of the spacesuit again or youll lose it

Interesting factoid, the spacesuit can be upgraded up to about 36m/s I think, but all upgrades are lost once you return to a ship

If you could eject the SETA from a spacesuit, that would be great. I've never found a way to do this so if you have done this please explain how it's done.

Spacesuit is 14 m/sec upgradeable to 28. Strafing alone moves you at 80 m/sec. Double strafing moves you at 113 m/sec (again without using your engines). In other words there's not a ship in the game that can't outrun a Xenon Q or a Paranid Deimos if you're piloting it, even if its hull is down to 0.1%.

Snafu_X3 · Post by **Snafu_X3** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 17:08

irR4tiOn4L wrote:I THINK i remember the following working. When repairing something REALLY big with the repair laser in the spacesuit, I would go into the ship, eject the SETA drive, then pick it up with the spacesuit, set a macro on the keyboard to keep firing the repair laser and activate seta.

Don't forget the time limit when using SETA repair: your spacesuit contains enough air for 2 hours gametime. With SETA on the default 600% this equates to about 17 minutes realtime with no interruptions. Should be enough for most ship repairs, but for really high hull values you'll need to dock (at a ship or station) at least once to replenish your air supply. If still in the suit, the SETA will be lost when you dock.

The ship hull only needs to be repaired to 90% or above to reattain its max speed

Yes you can repair (your own) station's hulls this way, but it takes a /really/ long time!

Vim Razz · Post by **Vim Razz** » Sun, 17. Jul 11, 20:06

Buying second hand fighters under about 75% hull, repairing them with your repair laser, and then reselling them is also an easy way to make money early on. Freighters are less profitable because they take so long to repair and have a lower resale value.

Later in the game you'll be able to make money faster with missions or trade, so it'ill be cheeper to buy repairs from the shipyard than to waste time repairing that could be spent doing more profitable things.

Snafu_X3 · Post by **Snafu_X3** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 00:19

As it happens I did a short experiment just a couple of hours ago that may be slightly relevant

I had a Gannet that was at 99% hull docked at Argon shipyard. Cost to repair hull to 100%: 451,400(ish - it was within 10Cr or so). Sale price at 99% (unrepaired hull): 34,767,814; sale price with hull repaired to 100%: 35,083,512

[Edit - maths doesn't seem to work out WRT amount of profit, but I still think I made something. Anyway this is to highlight the amount you can make by repairing hulls manually]

(Max race rank for all races, natch)

BTW a previous mini-experiment showed that selling ships to their race's shipyards made no difference WRT price compared to selling them to any other race's shipyards

Greyhawk1 · Post by **Greyhawk1** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 02:20

I use my remote control on my wired mouse. I balance it so the rubber buttons are on the fire button so it doesnt slip off and then weigh it down with something.

Then go do the washing up or watch some Iplayer for a while.

Its a shame you cant permanently upgrade your suit

Wyld Karde · Post by **Wyld Karde** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 02:38

Calling up the Steam overlay also locks the fire button on if it's active. I generally browse these forums while doing manual repairs.
One caveat though, the default keybind for the overlay is shift-tab, so if you're not paying attention you may find yourself full thrusting toward the target. Ouch.
Gotta go, this 2nd hand Caiman Super's at 100%.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 04:30

While we're on the topic of repairs...how does one repair their own stations apart from the repair laser?

irR4tiOn4L · Post by **irR4tiOn4L** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 05:15

Slashman wrote:While we're on the topic of repairs...how does one repair their own stations apart from the repair laser?

To be honest, I abandoned the whole 'repair laser only on spacesuits' limitation a while ago. There are a number of mods that add repair lasers or repair laser fabs to the universe so you can buy them and equip ships with them.

Even with 8 repair lasers on a Pirate Centaur, energy drains fast and repairing still takes about 10 'rounds' of 100% to 0% energy, followed by seta back to 100%. Repairing a super freighter is still at least a 5-10 minute affair, even with seta to get back to 100% laser energy after draining. Much faster than the suit though

Is it a bit unbalanced and cheap, giving you easy money? Yes. Is it more fun and worth it regardless? Definitely. There is nothing worse than micromanaging a fleet of damaged freighters moving 10-20m/s to crawl back to a shipyard

EarlHarewood · Post by **EarlHarewood** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 05:37

This has to be the WORST aspect of this game, the sheer cost of repairing your damaged ship.
I mean realistically, yeh okay, your hull is down to 50% so therefore the repair cost is roughly half of what it cost to purchase it, and a little extra on top (my best estimate, im not sure what the actual equation is)

Gates that transport you halfway across the universe to another galaxy? Is that realistic? no, makes the game viable though. Should be the same for ship repairs.

Cut us some slack here, make ship repairs a wincy incy bit cheaper in a shipyard or give us decent repair lasers ^^

Hubert99 · Post by **Hubert99** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 06:54

There is a mod what makes all buyable ships have a build-time.

Kind of makes sense. I mean, who just builds military class vessels and have them in stock all the time ... they are extremely expensive, compare the price of a wheat farm to a mere M6. Not to mention M1 and M2 class ships.

It's unrealistic enough to buy any ship at any given time in a split second.
High repair cost adds a bit of realism at least, as repair time is reduced to none by it. Basicly, what they do at shipyards when you come in for repairs, is to transfer all your installed components to a new ship, and transfer the plate number.

It's natural that you need to pay for a new ship, from what your wreck's price is cut. Or you thought there is a magic insta laser built in shipyards ? Well, there is no such thing.

ancienthighway · Post by **ancienthighway** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 07:44

There's a mod that allows freight drones to repair ship also. I know teladianium is required, but I can't remember if there's other requirements. I used it for a bit, but then decided to take it out until I get around to tweeking it a bit to take more time to repair and use more resources: microchips, computer components, ore.

Looking at the configuration for MARs turrets, I notice there's an option for drones to repair ships. I haven't looked into that yet, but it may be useful.

glenmcd · Post by **glenmcd** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 07:56

I kinda like the challenge of having to eject to repair a ship, but I don't like how long it takes. I'm just now experimenting with increasing the power of the repair laser. I'll upload something later if it works out.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 18. Jul 11, 09:18

Why is everyone talking about these complicated methods of holding down buttons to keep the Repair Laser firing? A couple of coins on the left CTRL key on the keyboard (which is bound to Boresight Fire by default) are what I use--no need to walk several feet away with my mouse or carefully balance something, because the keytop is large and flat enough to easily accommodate the weight required!

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Hull Repair - it's bleedin expensive

Hull Repair - it's bleedin expensive