Forums » Suggestions
Power Cells need some more diversity!
Currently, power cells don't really make sense to me. The light, medium, and heavy cells seem more like incremental improvements over each other, with only very, very specific use cases ever dictating that you use the "lighter" ones over the heavy one. And that goes for double once you unlock the fast charge. The fast charge, far and away, is the best power cell unless you need a bank of power for deshielding or lower mass in racing. There is no tweaking your loadout where you consider your power cell because other than charge speed and total power, and charge speed is more important in 99% of cases because most loadouts just aren't that different.
I originally thought this was just kind of the intent: light and medium cells are just stopgaps until you get the heavy, which is occasionally better than the fast, which you will be using almost all the time.
And then I got the improved high drain power cell. Now things get interesting: the slightly lower grid power means you can't run *every* loadout you normally could (Ragnaroks and Ineubis Ravens are notably restricted), and you need longer to charge your cell if you're running, but the increased capacity means you can last longer in a fight. It allows for such a different style of play that it opens my eyes to a ton of different ways power cells could affect gameplay. These are certainly not the only valid ideas, but I think the following changes would be a really good start:
1. Rename the light, medium, and heavy power cells the power cell mk i, ii, and iii respectively.
2. Add a TRUE heavy power cell. Have it weigh 1000 kg or so, lower the charge rate (maybe as low as 40), but give it a huge power bank of 700-850 and give it a grid of 25-30. Think of the possibilities:
Now you can carry heavier energy weapons on the Rag, and you'll be able to deshield a capship faster and more reliably, but you're heavier and can't run indefinitely should you get into trouble. Want to mount a capgauss on your moth? Congratulations, you can - you're a flying glass cannon that costs 600k. BUT: You have the option. You can do more than you could, and I'm sure some enterprising minds out there would find something that work well.
3. Following the above suggestion. you could have superlight power cells with high charge but lower grid, similar to the extreme drain, perfect for racing.
By tweaking the individual aspects and unlocking different gameplay styles, there will be a lot more to outfitting your ship than throwing a fast charge on it and being done with it.
I'd also love to see the grid power vary a lot more on weapons (why does a rocket launcher that requires a binary signal to fire need as much energy as a marvel of nuclear-power-based directed energy weapon?), but that's a whole other post.
I originally thought this was just kind of the intent: light and medium cells are just stopgaps until you get the heavy, which is occasionally better than the fast, which you will be using almost all the time.
And then I got the improved high drain power cell. Now things get interesting: the slightly lower grid power means you can't run *every* loadout you normally could (Ragnaroks and Ineubis Ravens are notably restricted), and you need longer to charge your cell if you're running, but the increased capacity means you can last longer in a fight. It allows for such a different style of play that it opens my eyes to a ton of different ways power cells could affect gameplay. These are certainly not the only valid ideas, but I think the following changes would be a really good start:
1. Rename the light, medium, and heavy power cells the power cell mk i, ii, and iii respectively.
2. Add a TRUE heavy power cell. Have it weigh 1000 kg or so, lower the charge rate (maybe as low as 40), but give it a huge power bank of 700-850 and give it a grid of 25-30. Think of the possibilities:
Now you can carry heavier energy weapons on the Rag, and you'll be able to deshield a capship faster and more reliably, but you're heavier and can't run indefinitely should you get into trouble. Want to mount a capgauss on your moth? Congratulations, you can - you're a flying glass cannon that costs 600k. BUT: You have the option. You can do more than you could, and I'm sure some enterprising minds out there would find something that work well.
3. Following the above suggestion. you could have superlight power cells with high charge but lower grid, similar to the extreme drain, perfect for racing.
By tweaking the individual aspects and unlocking different gameplay styles, there will be a lot more to outfitting your ship than throwing a fast charge on it and being done with it.
I'd also love to see the grid power vary a lot more on weapons (why does a rocket launcher that requires a binary signal to fire need as much energy as a marvel of nuclear-power-based directed energy weapon?), but that's a whole other post.
Too long didn't read.
+1 Moar powercell diversity.
+1 Moar powercell diversity.
+1
+1
+1
+.5
Get a atlas and slap a heavy on it and ye got a capital atlas (caprails)
Get a atlas and slap a heavy on it and ye got a capital atlas (caprails)
I'd think the downsides would make such a thing not too broken - the mass (iirc 25000kg) would make it nearly unflyable. You'd also only be able to fire at targets to the rear, and not mount any front-facing weapons. All this at the cost of slower charge and no infiniturbo. The cost would make it prohibitive to run continuously if anyone got the better of you (and I'd think they would).
+1. We really need more powercells. Some with more grid and mass created specifically for heavy assault like Ragnarok. And some for travel too. Powercells are IMO a very underserved class of addons.
Here's a thread I created a while ago regarding a powercell rebalance and manufacturing diversity.
Powercells and Expanded Manufacturing
Powercells and Expanded Manufacturing
Damn draugath thats one long and well worked out suggestion. Really would like to see it implemented.
Yeah I'm tempted to recite some thread raising incantations.
Back to this suggestion I kinda like it, not too sure where I stand on putting in even faster charging cells, but a cell that gimps mass for ludicrous amounts of juice would be neat, add something else in the arsenal against cappies!
Back to this suggestion I kinda like it, not too sure where I stand on putting in even faster charging cells, but a cell that gimps mass for ludicrous amounts of juice would be neat, add something else in the arsenal against cappies!
+1