[X3TC] Suggestion: More user-friendly repair laser

[Tekky]

Currently, the repair laser is only useful on smaller vessels. Repairing larger vessels is a pain, unless you are prepared to use exploits such as this one:

Since the repair laser repairs (If you're playing TC) only 20 hull points/second you might get bored if your ship is anything bigger than a M4. I recomend flying next to the Trading Station, ejecting your SETA, ejecting your self and picking up the SETA in your space suit. You can now "SETA repair" press and hold left control (while aimed at your ship) this will fire your repair laser. Now press and hold "J" this will activate SETA. Hold both keys until your ship is repaired. When you get back into your ship, the SETA will disappear. Now dock at the trading station and buy a new one. Simple really.

I think it would be nice to use the repair laser as efficiently as described above, without having to resort to this exploit. Why should it not be possible to advance time while doing boring things such as using the repair laser?

Also, I find it very annoying that the repair laser keeps on turning itself on and off because you keep on running out of energy. It would be nicer if the repair laser were constantly on. I assume that this can be accomplished by making the astronaut suit produce more power than the repair laser requires.

[JoeVN09]

Although the repair laser runs out of energy, it seems to me that as it's a continuous beam "weapon" it still repairs the same amount when it's empty as when it's full.

As for rebalancing the repair laser, I'm of the view that making it too efficient would deter people from paying to get their ships repaired -- It's only really meant to me used for small dents and scratches in your ship, not repairing cap-class monsters to full operation.

[Tekky]

Although the repair laser runs out of energy, it seems to me that as it's a continuous beam "weapon" it still repairs the same amount when it's empty as when it's full.

That may be correct, but my point is that the sound effects of the repair laser switching on and off get repetitive and annoying after some time.

As for rebalancing the repair laser, I'm of the view that making it too efficient would deter people from paying to get their ships repaired -- It's only really meant to me used for small dents and scratches in your ship, not repairing cap-class monsters to full operation.

Well, in the 'recover stolen ship' mission, you NEED to repair the ship immediately after capturing it, since the ship will otherwise be unable to reach its destination in time, due to the hull damage. Repairing the ship in a shipyard is normally not an option, as it would take too much time.

[costi]

Well, it'd be kinda silly if one guy with a welding tool could repair a barely-holding-together battleship to top shape in a reasonable amount of time

[Tekky]

Well, it'd be kinda silly if one guy with a welding tool could repair a barely-holding-together battleship to top shape in a reasonable amount of time

If SETA is used, the rest of the game will also advance faster, not just the ship repair. Therefore, it seems fair to me. Of course, repairing a battleship should still take a long time with SETA active.

[JoeVN09]

....It would be so awesome to have a pocket Time Accelerator

[costi]

Welll, even repairing an M3 takes quite some time, so theability to use SETA would be nice...

Stiil, I solved the problem by installing a "marine repairs" script, so any marines on board a ship will act as repair crews. It still takes time, but at least I can use SETA and/or do other stuff in the meantime

[Odin Hammersong]

Currently, the repair laser is only useful on smaller vessels. Repairing larger vessels is a pain, unless you are prepared to use exploits such as this one:

Since the repair laser repairs (If you're playing TC) only 20 hull points/second you might get bored if your ship is anything bigger than a M4. I recomend flying next to the Trading Station, ejecting your SETA, ejecting your self and picking up the SETA in your space suit. You can now "SETA repair" press and hold left control (while aimed at your ship) this will fire your repair laser. Now press and hold "J" this will activate SETA. Hold both keys until your ship is repaired. When you get back into your ship, the SETA will disappear. Now dock at the trading station and buy a new one. Simple really.

I think it would be nice to use the repair laser as efficiently as described above, without having to resort to this exploit. Why should it not be possible to advance time while doing boring things such as using the repair laser?

Also, I find it very annoying that the repair laser keeps on turning itself on and off because you keep on running out of energy. It would be nicer if the repair laser were constantly on. I assume that this can be accomplished by making the astronaut suit produce more power than the repair laser requires.

What is it exactly that makes using SETA while repairing an exploit? Is it an exploit to use SETA while crossing a sector? Is there a difference between crossing a sector and repairing a ship? What advantage do you gain while using SETA for reparing a ship?

I think the idea is that if it takes too long to repair it, you should suck it up and take it to a Shipyard. Or take the hit in time and repair it yourself.

Fast, Cheap, or Done. Pick two.

[Nanook]

...
Well, in the 'recover stolen ship' mission, you NEED to repair the ship immediately after capturing it, since the ship will otherwise be unable to reach its destination in time, due to the hull damage. Repairing the ship in a shipyard is normally not an option, as it would take too much time.

No, you don't need to repair the ship. There are other options. In most cases (not including those in Terran space) use of a jumpdrive works quite well. In fact, I think the missions involving the larger ships assume that's what you'll do. And even docking it and giving it max speed tunings can work. And if it comes down to having nothing that works, you have to make the judgement call to simply abort the mission, preferably before claiming it to minimize the rep hit. These missions aren't supposed to be sure things and automatic money makers, you know.

[mrbadger]

I'm of the opinion that the only real value of the repair laser is in the very early game. During my first game that let me tour the map doing missions, and repairing damage to my ship as I went along. Plus fix up any small captures I made. It used to be quite a lot of fun, getting into a scrap then floating in space next to my trusty M3, fixing her up before moving on.

There is no need to use the repair laser in a return ship mission on anything larger than an M5, and that only before you own a TM with a jumpdrive. TMs are cheap ships, and if ship return missions are your thing (It's my favorite mission at the moment), a TM is required anyway.

The so called SETA repair exploit seems pointless to me. First off, you lose the SETA device, and that's an inconvenience, is it really worth the bother of going and buying a new one? I doubt it. Secondly, time spent repairing a ship larger than M4 to sell would be better spent doing another mission and making money that way. It's not as if there is a shortage of missions.

I've used it to repair my own TS ship, or TM when I needed to in the early game, a bit at a time usually. During the early days of a game it's great, really useful, but after that, well, a toy of no real value.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

I think repair laser should be limited to only repairing the ship to 50%.

[Dodgey]

1) Line up target
2) wedge mouse between keyboard and solid object so button it held down
3) Make tea/beer/tidy room

Works a charm!

[Farrelli]

I wedge my room key into the Ctrl key and make the tea - or pour a Jameson, Irish whiskey

[amtct]

I think repair laser should be limited to only repairing the ship to 50%.

Yes,if your ship has 50% damages

[1muvwndr]

The repair laser is one of the most lucrative tools in the game. You don't spend a cent on it and you can make huge profit from it. You buy a second-hand m3 for 100k, repair it and sell it for 1m+, even more. I'd limit it's repairing "power" to max 10k hull points.

Want to repair ships faster? Just use the cheat package. Because a better repair laser would be just that.

[thetack]

a repair drone would be mutch better idea and if a one shot job with 10k of hull repair advalabe give some tatical variation. this would make it a question of is the repair worth the cost of the drone or not, the simple reason its a one shot is it removes its own pannaling to repair ship holes , simple solution with a logical story make them around 10000 credits each and as common as ore (advalable at all EQ and TS) and you have a belivable and intresting side line after all your ship under repair will need to be stationary and an easy target, this would give you the option of throwing 10 drones at the target to repair 10 times faster but of course at 10 times the cost.more thought required than wedge the keys with a weight of my put elastic band round trigger on the stick.

[Nanook]

I think repair laser should be limited to only repairing the ship to 50%.

I disagree with this. I personally think the repair laser is very well balanced in the game. After all, judging from the opinions ranging from "it's too powerful" to "it's too slow and needs to be faster", it appears that it's somewhere right in the middle, i.e., just right. It is, after all, a tradeoff between time spent repairing and time spent doing other things. I don't believe the repair laser affects making more or less money either way. Personally, I make a judgement call every time I go to use it, but it usually ends up that I only use it for repairing fighters (M5 to M3+) and nothing else. Of course, I'm not one of those that leaves the game running while I go do something else, either.

[mrbadger]

I think repair laser should be limited to only repairing the ship to 50%.

50% of what? 50% of max hull? or 50% of damage.

50% max hull would make it pointless in most cases, since the best use for the thing is a quick bout of repair on your own ship to fill in some dents after a fight.

If it's 50% of total damage, well that can't be done, since the suit and laser are non persistant objects, and thus stateless. There would be no way of finding when 50% of the original damage had been repaired.

Not that I particulerly want to disagree with the mighty SLUG, it's far too likely that my name would turn up on a slave manifest...

I don't personally think it's worth repairing capped ships all the way anyway, as I said before, in the time taken you could make the cash that would produce in other ways.

[wizrd755]

I think repair laser should be limited to only repairing the ship to 50%.

I disagree with this. I personally think the repair laser is very well balanced in the game. After all, judging from the opinions ranging from "it's too powerful" to "it's too slow and needs to be faster", it appears that it's somewhere right in the middle, i.e., just right. It is, after all, a tradeoff between time spent repairing and time spent doing other things. I don't believe the repair laser affects making more or less money either way. Personally, I make a judgement call every time I go to use it, but it usually ends up that I only use it for repairing fighters (M5 to M3+) and nothing else. Of course, I'm not one of those that leaves the game running while I go do something else, either.

I also disagree with any limitation on the repair laser. Unless you haven't noticed, it DOES appear it was NERFED in v2.5.

Pre 2.5, I could repair a M5 Disco (plain, no Hauler, Raider, etc) with 40% hull damage with less than one full charge. Now, post 2.5, it's @3 full charges to repair the same level. I cap'd a HERC TL with 86% hull left. Pre 2.0 it would take @15 minutes to repair (thankful for "sticky-key's). Post 2.5, better eat Dinner, it will take @30-45 minutes.

A limit of 50%, 60% 80%, whatever, would negate this player tool and FORCE the player to pay for "minor" repairs on all assets. Early in the game, this would severely impact the playability for "Vanilla" players..

I see absolutely NO reason to force players to pay for repairs. It has no effect on the X3TC economy except to drain the players resources.

But, if you are of the: "get-it-now" type", just "script" in the ships, money, stations, "auto-repair".

I say let the "vanilla" game play as it is designed and adapt, quirks and all, fix the bugs (known), and enjoy..

[Threesixtyci]

Heh... and I want them to remove it altogether. Me thinks it spoils the financial part of the game and thus, is a cheat. Especially, considering the high cost of hull repair at the local ship yards. Really, makes no sense to me...

Suit repair laser should be a reward for an overly difficulty mission... Could be deemed a prototype or some dead race technology or something... Could make a whole story behind it... And it, as a reward, would be self explanatory, then.

Speaking of repair laser, I've noticed that a lot of ships have a repair laser listed as equip-able.... Is that laser a reward, or just hard to find? And how much does it cost? Because if it is hard to find and expensive, then the suit repair laser makes even, less sense to me....

Regardless, I just don't use the thing... I play TC as if it were R in that regard.

Well, in the 'recover stolen ship' mission, you NEED to repair the ship immediately after capturing it, since the ship will otherwise be unable to reach its destination in time, due to the hull damage. Repairing the ship in a shipyard is normally not an option, as it would take too much time.

Actually, it doesn't; just be more creative.... Have a Discover Hauler on standby and use it to transfer it's jump drive and energy cells to the crippled ship and then jump the ship to the sector it needs to go to. And have the discover play catchup. The Discover can pick up the remaining jump drive when it arrives on sector.

If worried about the jump drive vanishing in space due to time and GOD, then eject your jump drive and pick up the one floating in space and alternate every few minutes, but it shouldn't take too long for the a M5 Discover to catch up and pick it up...