A "Fabricator" subsystem for adding parts to a ship outside a shipyard/repair facility

[An Ning]

Something I was thinking of when I added on my 16th addition to my mining ship while out mining naonite:
It's one thing to repair a damaged or destroyed section of the ship (though even then I think that you should only be able to repair to a certain point when out of dock).
It's another to essentially build a completely different ship in the middle of an asteroid field instantly.

I think the idea of requiring ships to have a subsystem and facility on board for producing ship parts while out of a shipyard or repair dock's range would be worth considering.

[AvorionCraft]

I think that once a ship has assembly that's a certain % of the mass of the ship, it should be assumed that a ship can handle its own module installs/de-installs.

For instance, a 12+ slot ship with say over 100,000,000m^3 volume with 5%-10% assembly and at least 5 Colonel engineers and mechanics as the "Subject Matter Experts" on removing pieces/parts from the ship's systems.

Assembly I think requires a shipyard to build, so you can't just install it on the fly. It would require the ship to be designed to have the proper tooling to be sufficient in that regard.

For smaller ships, it makes sense to require an equipment dock. Its when your ship can tow 5 equipment docks around and not break a sweat that you find the mechanic infuriating.

So while I disagree with another module that allows it---module spaces are sacred---I do think the game needs some smoothing and grayzone for ways for a player to adjust the ship on the fly.

Edited September 25, 2021 by AvorionCraft