Please, allow us to have repair ships in X4!

enriquepage · Post by **enriquepage** » Wed, 4. Oct 17, 21:51

Well, title says it all, it would be great to be able to care and maintain your ships, other than spending 2 hours in eva, o paying as much as a new ship to a shipyard.

Something like, being able to install repair lasers in my Magnetar, so I can take care of my fighters before they dock, or having a specialist repair ship, which I could order to come and make some repairs.

(in fact, I had to install mods in order to do this in AP, I have yet to test if it works as intended)

I think it would not only remove one of the major annoyances in the game (at least for me), but also add another layer to the game, having to care more about your fleet.

What do you guys think?

Falcrack · Post by **Falcrack** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 01:30

What I think, is that if we want our ships to repair in space, we should have repair kits in the ship cargohold. These get consumed as the ship repairs itself. Repair kits would be a ware that could be produced in stations. It would be handy to always have a few on hand for emergency situations. But, the repair rate would be slower than being repaired at a station.

Crimsonraziel · Post by **Crimsonraziel** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 09:58

We already had self repair capabilities in X:R.

hobblygobbly · Post by **hobblygobbly** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 11:40

What I would like is repair crews aboard a ship or aboard specific ships in your fleet that can be sent over (think like marines) to repair targeted vessels, and the skill of repair crews influence repair speed.

DaMuncha · Post by **DaMuncha** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 15:12

I world prefer to have a ship and crew come and repair my ship rather than my ship magically repairing its self

Sorkvild · Post by **Sorkvild** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 15:27

Exactly. No magic welder that can restore the whole ship from 1% to 100%. Manual repair should be allowed only up to 5-10% which is understandable. While all major repairs should be allowed only when docked inside of a carrier or by specialized crew and resources when speaking of larger ships.[/u]

sd_jasper · Post by **sd_jasper** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 15:40

I would like to see both crew and some sort of consumable needed to repair ships, at least fully. Free repairs lead to easy money via capping ships, and may cause issues with "wars" where the biggest fleet can roll the whole universe w/o it costing them anything.

Ezarkal · Post by **Ezarkal** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 17:01

I like the idea of repair ships. I comes with loads of possibilities to add both depth and challenge to the repair mechanism, and can help reduce the micromanagement hassle for the player.

If one's worried about resource balance, then there's a lot of stuff to consider in the equation. Here's a few ideas.
-The ship isn't free. It has to be bought, equipped, manned (repair specialist crews and drones) and deployed.
-Repairs would take both time and possibly resources. Having a few material and fuel consumed over time could be a nice way to balance the whole thing. The "repair kit" is a good idea, but I'd rather if they could only be deployed by specialized ships assisting another one. I don't like the idea of ships self-repairing to full capacity without outside assistance.
-Repair takes (once again) time, and both your support and repaired ship would basically be sitting ducks for a good period of time. Escort would be needed, which is also a considerable investment of resources, even if only a temporary one.
-Repairs could be completed until a decent state (repair engines, turrets, shields, hull to 50-70%) so patched ship could be used right away, but any form of full repair or weapon/drive retrofit would have to be done at a shipyard.

It would also open the door for potential generic mission: "Our frigate "Foxtrot526" got crippled by pirates in sector xy-alpha. Find them, fix their drives and escort them back to safety. Careful, the sector is still crawling with pirates." sounds like a good potential mission to me.

At any rate, I hope with whatever mechanism they take for ship repair, we won't have to send every single individual ships to be repaired one by one. Talk about a way to discourage a player from using fighters in XR. I don't even bother salvaging bailed fighters anymore. I just blow them up in hope there's rare engine components in the loot.
I know it sounds a bit contradictory: "Don't let capships fully repair themselves, but don't make us repair ships one by one." I guess what I'm trying to say is we had 2 extremes in XR: Self repairing capships and to-be-babysitted fighters. Considering the per unit value of both instances, I'd much rather have fighters that we just have to dock on a carrier so they get repaired, and capships that would require a bit more interaction if we're to leave with the prize.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Thu, 5. Oct 17, 23:22

DaMuncha wrote:I world prefer to have a ship and crew come and repair my ship rather than my ship magically repairing its self

^------ This.

*** +1 Internetz points

I can't stand the idea of "magic repair" for ships in an X game. It defeats the whole concept of "build/think/play/whatever/blowupstuffs/killeverything/pirates!/buy-the-galaxy" that's in an X game.

I want to set up complex repair logistics, where fleets are supported by a logistics hub that will send out repair crews, supply ships, etc, that, in turn, have to be protected and planned for.

I want to set up huge repair and "tender" ships that shadow offensive fleets and will send out smaller repair and supply ships, as needed. I want to have to worry about the safety of these critical support assets and I want my attack ships to be vulnerable if they can't receive adequate supplies and repair.

"Logistics" is a huge part of an X game and giving ships automagic repair functions so they're largely self-repairing is just plain "wrong" for this game's theme.

Make me have to build, plan for, and provide for such supply and logistics chains. Don't give me a magic "I WIN" button so I don't have to "worry" about such things... I WANT TO HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SUCH THINGS!

darkelf1 · Post by **darkelf1** » Fri, 6. Oct 17, 07:50

Good idea....

Falcrack · Post by **Falcrack** » Fri, 6. Oct 17, 12:44

We should be able to have some limited self-repair in space, but it should require some form of consumable resources, IMO. Maybe a special ware called a "repair kit", which would be consumed during repairs proportional to the amount of damage and size of the ship.

EDIT: woops, forgot I had already commented earlier in this thread!

Nikola515 · Post by **Nikola515** » Fri, 6. Oct 17, 13:13

I think this would sound good but only for S/M ships. In XR all S/M ships wore useless just because we spent more time fixing them than actually using them in squad. It was no different in X3 games as well... As for capitals I don't thing they should fix them self more than 50% (hull) and modules like shields and turrets 75%. Also carriers should have ability to fix small fighters but not for free.

bgi123 · Post by **bgi123** » Sat, 7. Oct 17, 04:26

Repair drones should work, but they would use up your drones. Repair ships and docks auto repairing is good. Maybe have the docks auto repair cost energy cells and some ore.

Fedora01 · Post by **Fedora01** » Sat, 7. Oct 17, 06:31

Just my idea on the topic:

Repair Drones:
Repairs X of HP per drone can only heal up to X%
Cannot be launched during combat and can only be used while at slow speeds.
(would be balanced around the average fighter and freighter HP pool)

Repair Craft:
Can repair Fighters to full HP and Capital ships to X% HP will also repair damaged modules by X% amount and fix Destroyed moduls back up to X%.
MUST be based out of a ship capable of carrying XL class cargo and uses up scrap/ore.

Mobile Repair Base: Can dock and repair any ship back to full HP
Requires great commitment and large amounts of resources. Repairs slower than shipyards. Weak shields/armament would make it near useless in combat but would still be able to repel small fighter attacks by itself.
(would probably make for a good mid-late game plot line even, recovering the Aran or something?)

Sandalpocalypse · Post by **Sandalpocalypse** » Sat, 7. Oct 17, 08:23

the problem is that you don't want to discourage people too much from using their ships in combat. in every x game to date it has been easy to lose enormous amounts of money in combat and the rewards are generally not commensurate to the risk.

thats probably why they went ahead and added core shields and full self repair to XR. They eventually struck a decent balance for capitals imo, since heavy damage could take a long time to totally repair, even though it was free.

fancy self repair schemes are okay but take up dev time that might be better used elsewhere.... *shrug*

RodentofDoom · Post by **RodentofDoom** » Sun, 8. Oct 17, 01:27

2 new ships could do it

Salvage Ship
Needs consumable Welder Drones to function
Dismantles Cap-ship wrecks & Station wrecks to collect "Resource(s)"
Resource(s) can be used for repairs, or traded to NPC's for £'s

Fleet Support Ship
Uses consumable Welder Drones + "Resource(s)" to repair target ship
Secondary function - Refuel, re-supply ammunition

just a random idea
mostly based around the 'stations will be destructable' comments in the Q&A's

I kinda envisage them being smaller than the Fedhelm, but bigger than the Dwalin & needing 2+ crew

astreus · Post by **astreus** » Sun, 8. Oct 17, 13:38

Sound good, a balance between not to easy, interesting but not as hard to frustrate rookies.

1.) low level self repair: on your own, deep out in space you should have a chance to get your smashed ship moving and maneuverable again at a minimum. welder / or engineer with drones / spare / repair kit
2.) Carriers may use enhanced tools(crew+stuff), may repair docked ships up to ? 90% ?,
3.) And for the larger ships, cant dock on other ships, a medium size (and faster) repair ships do this job ...
4.) While big XL repair ships with own (small) trade ships for resource support, will repair all ship size to 100%
5.) station may add/built a repair module, maybe modules for different ship class (size) level, trade ship will automatically get resources (its boring to do this by your own as in PHQ) -

The repair ships should be able to do salvage jobs as well ....

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 8. Oct 17, 16:16

I rather liked the way CODEA from X3TC did it, where you could repair fighters in a carrier (or any ship docked in the Aran), but it cost Ore and Microchips to do so, along with the mechanics necessary to do the repairs.

That said perhaps increasingly expensive repair subsystems adding higher repair capacities. 25,50, and 75% for each of them, with the last 25 only being repairable at a shipyard. Of course capitals would require a shipyard, or dedicated repair ship for any kind of repairs.

wolvern · Post by **wolvern** » Mon, 9. Oct 17, 15:57

Why not make the repair ships more versatile... add salvage ability and walla, your repair ship has all the materials to repair other ships by actually salvaging the enemies you kill...

It's perfect, legit and also works well to make everything make sense

rulerofallcheese · Post by **rulerofallcheese** » Fri, 13. Oct 17, 04:28

Falcrack wrote:What I think, is that if we want our ships to repair in space, we should have repair kits in the ship cargohold. These get consumed as the ship repairs itself. Repair kits would be a ware that could be produced in stations. It would be handy to always have a few on hand for emergency situations. But, the repair rate would be slower than being repaired at a station.

I was never a fan of ships automatically repairing themselves just because an engineer happened to be on board or by using consumables. Engineers should only be able to do things like speed up shield recovery or flight acceleration. I'd much rather Egosoft introduce a new class of repair ships that are specialized for field repair.

Basically if your cap ship gets beat up in a fight but manages to survive, then just hail your repair ship for assistance. it would jump over to you and use it's own repair drones, etc. to fix you up. That way you could still get fixed even if your (cap) ship's own drone launch bay were to be destroyed. If this new ship class isn't introduced, I'd at least like to see this as a command you could issue another drone-capable ship.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Please, allow us to have repair ships in X4!

Please, allow us to have repair ships in X4!