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Author Topic: Buff Repair Station  (Read 1242 times)

DDarkray

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Buff Repair Station
« on: January 11, 2018, 10:36:38 PM »

Repair Station is really useful at times. Are you half naked? Get refit. Is your cool item about to go down? Repair it. Got a broken sensor array from scanning? No problem.

Despite all these cool advantages, I wondered why I haven't made much use of it. I rarely even touch this machine. In fact, I might have used Recycling Units even more than Repair Stations, partly because there's a chance of getting some cool items from it, and partly because there are more useful unauthorized hacks for Recycling machines.

One of the problems with Repair Station is its higher cost for failure. What's the worst thing that can happen for a failed fabrication? Wasting time, getting system feedbacks, and having investigation squad coming at you. But what's the worst thing that can happen for a failed repair? Losing your precious item! At least you can still scan after a failed scanalyzer, but it's possible to insert and lose your entire item from a destroyed Repair Station. You can't get it back!

The other problem is the long repair time which is comparable to its fabrication time. When you obtain a schematic of something, you can make several copies of that item. Meanwhile, repairing only works for one or a few damaged item. After that, there's little replay value. So when given a choice to repair or to fabricate, usually you'll pick fabricating. I'd rather have an almost dead sword and a healthy sword (possibly several healthy swords) than a single repaired sword alone.

And what happen when you have a half-damaged item? Is it worth the waiting time to repair it? Should you skip it and move on? Because repairing it at 20% integrity is no different than repairing it at 80% integrity, what incentive is there to repair the latter kind?

For stealth hacker build, fabricator is your best friend at creating whatever number of copies you want, creating backups in case your sensor array falls apart. Also, you can easily obtain any schematic you want from terminals and create something that you don't already have. Non-hackers like combat builds can make use of pre-installed schematic so they can immediately fabricate something that's interesting, sometimes out-of-depth items or robots.

Repair Station, on the other hand, has only a niche use. Its usefulness is limited to having a badly damaged item that you already own, or if you need a refit. And......that's pretty much it.

It's true that the Recycling Unit is even more of a niche from a strategic point-of-view, but I believe it's mostly there for fluff than for actual use. Repair Station doesn't seem to be this way.

Here are some ideas for buffing Repair Station:

1) Increase success chance for installing and repairing items.

2) Decrease repair time, perhaps proportional to the amount of integrity % loss. (So repairing a half-damaged sword would decrease the repair time by half)

3) Add a chance to have pre-installed damaged items, similar to how fabricator may have pre-installed schematic.

4) Add an eject button in case you need to pull out the item ASAP. Works well with idea #3.

5) Having an ally machinist will further decrease the repair time by a pinch.

6) More Repair Station unauthorized hacks.

7) If an item is already loaded into the Repair Station, destroying the machine may spit out the loaded item. (Similar to how Recycling Unit works)
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Kyzrati

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2018, 10:50:21 PM »

Yeah buffing it in some way has been on my list for a while, but along with my notes I also have other players suggesting that a buff would probably make it OP, at least for some styles. So it never makes it to the top of the list... (I was actually just looking at it again yesterday as I reordered the list for Betas 5/6.)

Either way, as you show there are ways to improve it without outright improving its main function--part of the problem with the latter is that it could clearly be too good if repairs become easier. It goes against the whole core idea of having to replace parts, so have to be careful with that.

Thanks for these suggestions though, it's a great list and adds to the features to consider when I do that update.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2018, 10:54:14 PM by Kyzrati »
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zxc

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2018, 11:45:03 PM »

Maybe repair stations spend a resource (matter?) to repair items. More integrity repaired = more resources spent? Can't do repairs without sufficient resources. Along with this, scale time taken by resources spent on a repair, and remove the possibility of wrecking the item.
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Happylisk

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2018, 07:27:12 AM »

Definitely needs a buff.  I only really use them in materials and storage, where the time it takes to get it done is offset by no extermination dispatches. 

Also agree that improving it too much will make them OP.  My suggestion: a new unauthorized brute force hack like Force(Accelerate) or something like that.  Overworks the machine to repair a part at a dramatically increased success rate and repair time (75% quicker or thereabouts), but shuts the machine down thereafter and like all brute force hacks causes an investigation squad to be dispatched.  So you can have one reliable, quick repair per station if you wish, but it'll have costs. 

You could could also give repair stations a chance to spawn with an associated Mechanic bot, kind of like the relationship operators have to terminals, and create a new Trojan that remotely rewires the mechanic (maybe temporarily, maybe permanently), so he can give you a touch up.  Lets you address more parts but only gets them from red to 50%.  Useful if a vital part is about to croak. 

e: option 3: leave as is, but have a chance for main.C outposts in caves to spawn with a repair station.  In-game explanation is for battlefield repairs to address combat attrition.  Could give you an incentive to take a small base on for the shot at programmer-less repairing. 

e2: agree with zxc about removing part destruction chance.  That's what makes them go from suboptimal to borderline useless in the mid and late game.  Anything worth repairing is usually too valuable to risk losing. 



« Last Edit: January 12, 2018, 07:35:18 AM by Happylisk »
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zxc

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2018, 07:38:17 AM »

I have experienced first-hand that repair stations are a bit silly-good when you have a bunch of hackware. You can just top up all your items with no risk and no cost except some more turns spent (with that hackware you can recall exterms so it becomes zero cost).

However, if you lack the hackware, the repair stations are borderline useless.
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Happylisk

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2018, 07:49:17 AM »

Yeah any fix would have to keep heavy hackware builds in mind to avoid wrecking balance.  That's why I think a well crafted brute force trojan is the ticket, since it'll be a one time potential bonus per station that's not limited to hackers. 
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Kyzrati

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Re: Buff Repair Station
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2018, 06:36:17 PM »

Though remember that brute force hacks immediately summon an investigation.

In any case, lots of good ideas here to consider! This was on the near-term list but Beta 5 is pretty full so a couple days ago it got bumped to Beta 6 for now.
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