Turret/System upgrades/tweaking

[Ohm is Futile]

Ok, so a lot of ideas here, please bear with me.

 

Tweaking systems/turrets:

I think it would be interesting if, for example, equipment docks and research station(in the case of systems) or equipment docks and turret factories(for turrets) allowed to tweak their stats.

 

Systems: click on the system, using a slider or maybe a dropdown menu, one could apply either a -50%, base stats, +50% or +100% modifier to a system's stats. This would increase or decrease the drawbacks of systems as well and obviously wouldn't work with pure upgrades such as generator upgrades. However, I could decide to make my +4 jump range 3GW system into a +2 jump range 1.5GW module, at least temporarily. This could be called overclocking and be done anywhere, maybe? I could also go the other way and, make my +2 unarmed turret mod 0,5 GW into a +3 for 0,75GW or +4 for 1GW.

 

Better quality systems would come mostly in the form of systems with a better ratio of drawbacks to bonuses. This idea may also be limited to plus or minus 50%, for balance reasons.

 

Turrets: A similar idea may be implemented for turrets. Example, you could have sliders for fire rate vs damage that you could adjust. The turret would keep the same DPS, but you could tweak those stats proportionally by, let's say plus or minus 50% again. One thing that may be offered as a service at a station may be the addition or removal of certain properties such as independent targeting, burst fire and such, with all the consequences that those modifiers normally carry.

 

For mining and salvaging lasers, I would absolutely love it if we could tweak damage vs efficiency. For instance, when I feel a new resource is scarce and I don't want to get closer to the center of the galaxy, I could tweak my turrets to effectively mine slower (less damage) but more efficiently. I could do the opposite when I feel at ease in a system filled with new resources where I can't be bothered to try and get the most out of each asteroid and, instead, choose to increase the mining speed.

 

Upgrading turrets/systems:

Ever moved up a tier in materials, only to notice that your previous equipment doesn't scale well? Here is my suggestion for a bit of an alternative. I feel this suits turrets a lot more than systems, since systems don't rely on materials as much. So I'm only going to give turrets as an example. Also, for balance reasons, this should probably be limited to stations services offered by equipment docks and turret factories, as I mentioned earlier.

 

How would I suggest upgrading turrets? Well, one would dock with a station, put the turret in a slot and pay a price in credits and materials to upgrade their turrets. Again, for balance reasons, one may want to limit the number of upgrades a specific turret may receive to one. The turret would move up to the next tier of material and receive a slight buff to its basic stats (5 to 10%, randomly?). The cost would be determined by a formula similar to this: credit cost = tech level*rarity[example: 1.0 for common, 1.25 for uncommon, 2.0 for blue, 3.0 for yellows and 5.0 for legendary?] * 1000

material cost = credit cost * 0,05 of the target material.

 

Example: upgrading a Blue quality Naonite Mining Laser of tech level 20 to a Blue quality Trinium Mining Laser of the same tech level would cost 40,000 credits and 2,000 Trinium. This turret would be able to mine the next tier of materials and also receive a randomized bonus of 5 to 10% to its base stats.

 

Thoughts, comments, approval?

[GrimJahk]

Interesting ideas, but after a few hours of slaughtering Pirates you will have hundreds of modules and turrets.

 

The current materials "system" is strongly built around collecting bits and pieces and making turrets, so overclocking won't be much help there... and the research system of 5:1 trade-up at no cost addresses the I have too many junk in inventory problem, while rapidly giving you more "stronger" module options.

[Ohm is Futile]

I see your point, quite valid actually. The thought behind this suggestion is to offer options that are less reliant on procedurally generated equipment, at a cost and within reasonable limits, although I will admit I haven't gotten quite that far into the game.

 

Still, I'd like having options that do not entirely rely on RNG to outfit my ships without turning the game's current mechanics upside-down completely.

[GrimJahk]

Actually the RNG is the weak kid sister the the crafting mechanic (currently). Best weapons are currently crafted at turret factories and can be mass produced (aka OP)

 

I strongly suggest playing up to Trinium/Xanion level harvesting and you will have a much clearer insight to the game and more exposure to the current meta game, lots of warping and watching. ;)

[Ohm is Futile]

Yeah, I quickly found out about crafted turrets since I came across a turret factory really early in my game. That said, they do need balancing.

 

Crafting is not great early on though, and since it does need balancing, I don't feel my suggestion is made irrelevant either. It's just a new feature that gives players a bit more control over their loadouts while still keeping the system largely RNG/loot related. It's also a more predictable alternative to tossing stuff in the research station thing.

 

Anyways, yeah, I'll definitely keep playing and see what I find out as the game progresses. Other thoughts on this suggestion?

[DivineEvil]

I largely see no point for such features. At least I would never ever use neither. You already can acquire modules and turrets, that are better by random chance than other turrets of the same rarity/tech level. You already can fuse Modules and Turrets in Research Lab to produce better equipment. Individual modifications and upgrades are just yet another way to do so, and this time it would be excessive. Modifying Module performance will only diminish the value of individual Module slots on the ship, difference between rarity tiers and the research mechanics, while Turret upgrades will be too hard to balance between redundancy and necessity to justify the development time.

[Ohm is Futile]

I largely see no point for such features. At least I would never ever use neither. You already can acquire modules and turrets, that are better by random chance than other turrets of the same rarity/tech level. You already can fuse Modules and Turrets in Research Lab to produce better equipment. Individual modifications and upgrades are just yet another way to do so, and this time it would be excessive. Modifying Module performance will only diminish the value of individual Module slots on the ship, difference between rarity tiers and the research mechanics, while Turret upgrades will be too hard to balance between redundancy and necessity to justify the development time.

I agree with most of your points and I especially agree that it is in no way a priority and only an "icing on the cake" kinda feature.

 

I will concede that overclocking systems would negatively affect the value of the slots.

 

I will argue for my turrets upgrades, though. The current crafting mechanic is broken and, yes, the game does offer a lot through random drops. In fact, there are probably too many drops, in my opinion. You get swamped in all sorts of crap and then you have to sift through it. The research station mechanic does offer a fix for this, though it still requires you to sift through all the stuff that drops.

 

My suggestion would allow the game to remain focused on random drops, but, if it were implemented, one could reduce the amount of drops since you would have an alternative to upgrade mods and save players some time by not having to go through as many drops.

 

Is it a priority, no.