GrimJahk

You have to pay the engineers/mechanics to keep the generators functioning, would you not consider that an "upkeep" cost? no.. it's still "Do and Done" Permanent protection with no drawback. This is why there needs to be some sort of balance/depletion of resource tie to the shields. Currently, Shields are like a magic fender on your car. You side-scrape a post and in a few minutes it's back to brand new. No effort needed or cost. Shields should consume energy to refresh, or materials...

Wrong they do have an upkeep a massive amount of permanent energy drawl but energy means nothing atm lol. just plop more gens down. "Wrong" That is a foundation cost. Maintenance cost is upkeep... Putting down those generators is part of what I meant by "Once you install them". After that allotment of generators and the shields are in place... there is no cost.

I think he meant if you have ships in different sectors... Like a storage ship in the starting sector and one at the barrier.

Whats funny about this discussion, is that it's based on fixing the wrong problem. The problem with shields is that once you install them there is no upkeep... no maintenance cost... so, crippling other aspects of the game just to fix that broken thing does not make a whole lot of sense... The same holds true for other mechanics that can currently be abused.

Not to mention that this completely restricts the number of turrets you can mount.

To be clear, I'm am not a PVPer. and frankly not all that interested in multiplayer. My "balance" suggestion here is intended to improve long term playability of the game. Risk/reward is not there if there is no risk. Currently, for me, there is no challenge to combat. That aspect of the game has become boring because I have monster shields, and OP weapons, and the ability to gleefully engage any opponent(s) with no fear of loss due to the propulsion and warp mechanics as they now sit. People keep comparing this game as a "Sandbox" like Minecraft... in Minecraft you can die easily and rapidly if you make a mistake or get in over your head. That is not the case here. To die here you either need to play battering ram, or start a fight way over your head and then go AFK. Not a fan of PVP... correction... HATE PVP. Now, if you like to explain WHY this would be horrible, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Without some sort of challenge (as I said above) this game will get dull and boring fast... Think "No Man's Sky"... beautiful to look at, interesting to play, but after a little while, repetitious ... and ultimately more of a slog than quality entertainment that keeps you challenged.

You can go one step further with this, allow the creation of Panels (Tabs). Loadout 1 = Panel one, etc. This means that a module cannot be in two places at once. And you have the ability to place and protect your favorite/best modules.

One of the things that I have observed here in the suggestions forum ties around customizing turrets. Size, aesthetics, etc. What if... I'm stretching this a bit here... What if the fixed position turret block had a performance benefit... an inherent bonus for mounting a turret to it... since the turret no longer needs the guidance/aiming, or the resources to manage it (like aiming), they should be adjusted appropriately If mounted FixedPosition (size +2, DPS +20%, Range +20%, operators -1) <--- or similar This would be beneficial to unarmed turrets as well. Thoughts?

Are you sure about that? The obvious (at least to me) way to handle a shared energy pool would be to build relatively-massive generators and absurdly-massive energy-containers. And with shield blocks no longer being required to handle my shield strength (assumably at least, more on that below) I can focus more on having a crazy amount of power storage and power generation (I like laser weapons so I usually have overly-robust power generation anyway). How, exactly, would shield blocks even work in your suggested change? Would they function more like integrity field generator blocks, in that you just need to have one to cover your ship (or a few spread around if we take the integrity field generator block model further and make it so shield coverage requires spaced shield blocks)? <snip> Batteries have mass. If you make a 5,000^3 battery, it will take massive thrusters to move and turn it... And frankly, with other discussions going on about turrets (Hopefully using energy instead of Modules) Battery/Power management starts to be the glue that ties it all together... Offense, Defense, and Movement - how you allocate your power will affect your ship. 33% all around... great balance... but if you bump up a slider in one area, SOMETHING will have to be sacrificed. You want massive defense and damage output? Movement will suffer... Nimble and dangerous? Not so much power remains for shields... Shields change in no way from current system. What changes, is that your battery is tied to them... Right now, many are saying shields are broken... Once you pay the price to install them, they are a self repairing miracle of magic. By tying everything to a single finite source. You force the player to make decisions... have a plan... Logically, my idea has all kinds of flaws... I won't pretend otherwise. But, from a balance, integration, and ease of use perspective... I think it's solid... not to mention that you can use modules to "improve" your situation. Modules that reduce battery consumption of AB, Module that lowers the percentage of battery consumed by a Jump. ETC.

Moving Items (IE to research) is instant for individual items via Right-click --- once I found that ... much happy. I would like to see Hotkeys for controlling the turrets. Hit the number to make the group hot 'F'ocus My target 'G'uns free (fire at will) Hit the number again to release the group with their orders. Guns on 1, salvagers on 2 I currently have "2" set to "G" and "1" set to "F" Fight starts... One of the ships is a nasty one and I am more interested in seeing him dead faster. I hit "2" and "F" now my salvagers are hitting the target that I just broke shields on, It dies, some little pests are still buzzing around I Hit "1" (since "2" is still active) and hit "G" and both guns and salvagers go autonomous, I hit "1+2" to release them with their orders while I look around at the field of battle for loot. Shortly the last enemy dies, I hit "1" and "F" to use the guns to assist the salvagers in destroying wreckage.

Actually, I think my math directly addresses both of those points... Once you have taken sufficient hits to your shield that you are worried, your battery is already below 80% so jumping away is no longer an option... additionally, if you have taken enough hits that your battery is @50% you only have 10 seconds of boost before you are drained. With Jump, Shield, and Afterburners all tied to one pool, you have to plan strategically. But Yes, this was an attempt to solve the "I can pick any fight and alway walk away" problem that is the meta now. I tried to minimize changing game mechanics, and just tie existing functions together in a different way... I like your ideas as well, but some of that (changing Jump mechanics) might be a bit more challenging. On a different thread about a week back I also suggested the "your ship must be damage free for xx seconds for the jump to be properly calibrated."

Affix Warp, Shields, and AB to the battery. Warp consumes 80% of your battery. If your battery is below 80% you cannot warp. Shields strength is based on battery... You take a pounding... your battery depletes... you lose half your shields? You cannot warp away, you had best run... and hope they can't keep up... Afterburners consume 5% of battery per second. This running action also deplete the Shield effectiveness... Thoughts?

1) I like this 2) I would add that bigger scale also needs more operators... (more operators, larger footprint and logarithmic power requirement = more DPS/Range) 3) OMG YES... If we have to Hire (and pay) crew members to operate the turrets, once the turret has X crew to operate it... it makes SENSE that they can pick their own targets ---- I would add that it would be WONDERFUL if, -as commander- I can set "Autonomous with priority targeting". If I target something the turret will prioritize it, otherwise it does it's own targeting. 4) Wow... intuitive and balancing... I LIKE 5) OMG Yes... switching to Accuracy/range/Efficiency/DPS modules!!!!! If I want to make a ship that has 500 turrets on it (for entertainment purposes) I can't. Switching to Power/Crew as limitation factors allows me to do that and then either use them or not. Imagine a ship with 50 turrets... That all guzzle energy to fire... Massive Alpha strike, but depletes the battery, now vulnerable and can't warp away ...

#2 Here. I dislike needing to enter build mode to change out turrets. I want hardpoints (blocks) that allow me to change out turrets from a management screen. When you save your current ship design it loses the turret info, so having hardpoints would be a great fix IMO NOTE: you left out of the option list the currently mentioned integration of blueprints... Which I love... I hope that kills the need to play cargo hauler for hours on end ;-)

Actually, that's a great thought... however... lets go back to ROI assessment... Is it a smart use of resources to invest time and funds into creating and integrating code, on the off chance that someone else will build a MOD to utilize it? (if the code was already in place for this to happen easily, we would have seen it by now... if only for testing reasons...) That all depends on how much time and what value is returned... If the code is an interface adaptation to allow overwriting of core coded systems... Like the booster mentioned, It may only be a day or three of coding that the Modding Community would go crazy over... so maybe... If that same code requires two to four weeks of time and has to be retrofitted into the core of the game... probably not happening ... soon. There is great benefit to working with and helping the modding community thrive, and I'm reasonably sure the DEVs see that... Again... I don't hate on this idea... but as others have said... it's too complex... whether or not I'd actually use it, it has no value NOW but later? Who knows? With a shiny future in the hands of the modding community, I fully expect to see all kinds of things down the road... including themed mod-packs and the like...

1) Those are called reality checks... Each one of those four items is a critical decision making factor for any business. "too hard to develop" - if a project is 80% done, and if a new "feature" will require more than XX% of that time (Additionally) to develop and implement... Is it worth it? "Nobody wants it" - Very valid question. Will the added feature be used by more than XX% of the player base? "It will affect Performance" - If a game is so resource hungry that a dedicated SOLO gaming rig suffers, how would a server handle it? If a feature cripples the game for some of your player base, what is an acceptable percentage? "Dev resources are needed elsewhere" - When do you draw the line? There is a difference between polish/tweaking and adding/altering core functions. Every project must ship at some point. We are back to the; How much additional time will be needed to "add new" AND finish the project. 2) This is where you answer your own question. A small start up that has limited resources spends a crazy amount of time managing them... ROI (Return On Investment) is a powerful decision making tool. Time, cost, impact, value to consumer. - How long it takes is a huge issue, time is the only thing you cannot recover from. Once spent it's gone. - Cost is a factor of resource management, finances, labor, schedule... "What is the COST man!?!?!?" - Impact describes the positive or negative effect. Bugs have huge impact, server performance (good or bad) have impact. Percentage of player base affected has Impact. - Playability, storyline, ease or complexity, is it fun, is it a grind, is this a game that you restart every other day with a 35 minute forced tutorial that drives you crazy? Basically all QoL (Quality of Life) factors that make a player likely to recommend the game to a friend... If it takes one day of coding to polish a feature that everyone uses... The ROI is huge, so It happens. If there is a Bug that affects 90% of the player base, (thus potentially affecting sales) it will get fixed even if it takes a month. Again, ROI driven. Those are easy examples. Then it starts getting murky... A new feature, that has appeal (additive) to 50% of the (current) player base, and will take 3 days to code and implement... Maybe. Three weeks? ... Probably not. After all of the above... the one thing to remember... any project is the product of a person's/team's vision. They read the forums, they read the discussions, then they implement what they think will truly improve the game... When people (like myself) express concern over suggestions, it is a form of feedback as well. I didn't count noses on this topic, the fact that it's 3+ pages of debate makes that unnecessary. There is a significant divide in the player base on this. Having that piece of information helps the Devs. It's up to them to decide the value of this concept and how it fits into their puzzle.

Any ship that doesn't need a lieutenant shouldn't need a Captain. A team has their functions. A Pilot to fly, gunners for the weapons, Miners for the salvagers etc. All of them report to the commander of the fleet.

Am I the only one that sits at the loading screen and thinks of Red Dwarf?

I see... Either way works for me, Just would like to see it (or similar) in game

Not bad... BUT "Tactics" will require behavioral rework (hopefully already underway) Resource Scarcity would only effect sectors before generation... Unless your idea is ONLY for generation of the current game? And I would add in one more Diplomacy - How hard or easy it is to adjust your faction standings

Yeah. I'll also put forward the idea of a system card that works with this block to boost item pick up range and/or collision damage reduction. I was thinking it could be a function of Material/Volume... Unless you think this system is OP enough to warrant a choice of restricting other systems? (not many free module slots on my ships)

Functional block (volume dependent) that "assists" with Docking and collecting loot, and helps reduce collision damage with other ship/asteroids. Anyone like it?

This!!^^^^ Huge solution that addresses a number of problems... Tiny ships can no longer equip 1k DPS turrets (or more than one), and an actual reason to have a bigger ship. I would assume that it also translates to Passive turrets as well... this is an AWESOME solution!

Beautiful translation!!! Thanks! (Mein Deutsch is sehr schlecht...)

It was recently posted officially that "Blueprints" (commented around weapons) were being designed/implemented/added... I think this may address your concern around fleets and also the dreaded Haulfest that is the current turret Factory implementation. Around fleets and new players... the bigger issue (not weapons) would be gathering the required materials to build said ships... Or collecting the credits to pay for the crews and construction of ships... Most new players just jumping in, unless they are in creative, have bigger obstacles than quantity of available weapons as a hurdle to leading a fleet.