Repair Kits should not fully repair all damages. It's unrealistic.

[Xenutheeviloverlord]

It's simple as that. Especially dealing with heavy damages that may require dry docking, you can't repair certain damages simply by using a repair kit. To deal with more realism in your game, which will require better decision making than, hit repair to repair to 100%, repair kits should be limited to keeping your ship alive long enough to reach a settlement and repair with all the shipbuilding tools they would have there.

[jodgi]

It's unrealistic for sure. But it's great to be able to go fight without having to get back to friendly waters after each brush.

[Galileus]

It's simple as that. Especially dealing with heavy damages that may require dry docking, you can't repair certain damages simply by using a repair kit. To deal with more realism in your game, which will require better decision making than, hit repair to repair to 100%, repair kits should be limited to keeping your ship alive long enough to reach a settlement and repair with all the shipbuilding tools they would have there.

 

How does "sail towards closest town" after each duel requires more decision making?

 

If anything, the choice of go back to restock or keep on fighting when low on RKs gives some decision making. "You gotta go back" does not. It also hugely limits your possible area of operations, only further limiting choice. 

[Eishen]

As said , to make game playable and interesting repairs has to be that way, on the other side I would like to see limited supplies (ammo , food, drinkable water) to add to that decision making 

[xAzDKr]

Repair kits are also a money sink (not a huge one) but big enough to be worth keeping

[maturin]

Repair kits are also a money sink (not a huge one) but big enough to be worth keeping

It's not a money sink if you get a return on investment.

[Galileus]

It's not a money sink if you get a return on investment.

 

That's not quite true. It's not like you pay for RKs and you then sell them high.

 

Money sink means a mean by which money disappears from the system. Buying a ship is a money sink. Buying a ship from someone is partly a money sink - tax gets removed from the system, rest just changes hands. Repair kits are a money sink as well. They remove money from the system.

 

If you were to stretch it so far as to "you get return on investment" when we're talking about RKs (making fights easier, fights making money, not necessary at all), you can never define anything as a money sink. Tax? Allows someone else to gain money, plus, you profit on a ship. Buying another outpost? Allows you to hunt new targets = profit.

 

Everything one way or another leads to more profit - this is just the very zero-one-zero-one of video games.

[Slamz]

It might be interesting to do something like SWG's "black bar damage".

 

In SWG, your character could get hit and lose health and this could be healed, like in every RPG in the world. But he could also get some of his health bar blacked out -- this represents damage that cannot be healed via normal combat heals. He had to get out of combat and have a surgeon fix that type of damage (in a hospital or camp).

 

 

Applied to this game, it might be something like:

For every 100 damage you take, 5(?) points cannot be repaired by a kit.

or

Particularly damaging shots can randomly cause a random percentage of the hit to be unrepairable.

 

Going into port is the only way to repair all damage.

 

Conceptually I like the idea that I can hit someone, do a bunch of damage and then if they get hit again they might not start at full health. It adds a little more sense of risk to deep enemy patrols.

 

 

On the other hand, porting up is not that hard and this might just encourage people to stay close to home more than they already do. Maybe discouraging deep enemy patrols is the last thing we want -- they are a needed PvP source and all too uncommon as it is.

[Aposky]

There is much easier way to implement attrition system into the game without much effort: Limit number of available repair kits on a ship further.

 

Captains would need to be more careful with their ships. Time spent on open seas would matter. You don't need to come back to friendly port that often if you had a good run.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Aposky

[Hethwill]

It's simple as that. Especially dealing with heavy damages that may require dry docking, you can't repair certain damages simply by using a repair kit. To deal with more realism in your game, which will require better decision making than, hit repair to repair to 100%, repair kits should be limited to keeping your ship alive long enough to reach a settlement and repair with all the shipbuilding tools they would have there.

 

Careful what you wish for. You might get it... from the other end of your suggestion, over and over again and not living long enough to reach a settlement.

[Volcanus]

It's simple as that. Especially dealing with heavy damages that may require dry docking, you can't repair certain damages simply by using a repair kit. To deal with more realism in your game, which will require better decision making than, hit repair to repair to 100%, repair kits should be limited to keeping your ship alive long enough to reach a settlement and repair with all the shipbuilding tools they would have there.

Well then hitting shallows should bust your hull and do massive damage. Big waves should also kill or make your men go overboard in battle and while in the OW. 

How about we add to the realism of your post then? I can help with that. Lets make it so it takes weeks in ingame days to fix your ship. Or how about once you lose your ship you have no durability on that ship and it is instantly sunk for good? Because we know in real life you get it sunk, it is gone forever right?

You know why these things aren't in the game? It breaks up the gameplay. It keep players from playing because they have to dick around and constantly go back to a port after every battle they ever have.

Not sure if you have grouped up with people before but some times you can do 9 missions or more in a row where you take heavy damage each battle, in that time you can use up all your repair kits, and have to blow another 50k for more repairkits later on. Repairkits aren't cheap, they may seem it but they aren't compared to flat healing at a port. So port repairs are still very viable or useful. You can't just stay out for days on end and never have to go back to port because you WILL run out of repairkits. 

Removing them would be a very stupid idea.

[OTMatt]

As said , to make game playable and interesting repairs has to be that way, on the other side I would like to see limited supplies (ammo , food, drinkable water) to add to that decision making 

 

I agree, if its too tedious to be a mandatory requirement then at the very least make provisions serve as bonuses to crew performance.

[Slamz]

You know why these things aren't in the game?

 

It's really a question of mechanics and what makes games fun and interesting.

 

What's more interesting:

You almost sink someone. He wins but limps out of combat. Your friend attacks him.

 

A. The damaged enemy is full health because he clicked a couple repair kits. There is only "total victory" and "complete defeat".

B. The damaged enemy is still damaged and your nearly-successful attack against him still matters. There are degrees of victory and "barely victorious" is not much better than "sunk".

 

I see good arguments for both cases. I see no good argument for "a wave washes some of your dudes overboard". That's the difference.

[Volcanus]

It's really a question of mechanics and what makes games fun and interesting.

 

What's more interesting:

You almost sink someone. He wins but limps out of combat. Your friend attacks him.

 

A. The damaged enemy is full health because he clicked a couple repair kits. There is only "total victory" and "complete defeat".

B. The damaged enemy is still damaged and your nearly-successful attack against him still matters. There are degrees of victory and "barely victorious" is not much better than "sunk".

 

I see good arguments for both cases. I see no good argument for "a wave washes some of your dudes overboard". That's the difference.

Why wasn't your friend in the battle with you is the real question.

I see how it could be annoying that they can repair after a battle they won in PVP sense but overall removing repair kits is a very bad idea and will cause so much more of a time sink in this game. Think about it, you sail 14 minutes out to a mission, the closest mission to you is 4 or less minutes out. You do the mission. You took a good amount of damage due to a mistake and the mission alone took 25 minutes to do. You now have to sail back 14 minutes to the port. Repair, come back out and said 17 minutes to the next mission. So 14+25+14+1+17 = 71 minutes for one mission worth of gold and EXP. Now consider the poor player who get 2-3 hours tops each day to play. Yeah that means MAYBE 2 missions a night maybe 3 if you get lucky and it is close by. Of course not all missions are that spread out of course. But i have had missions send me from PR to Cayman Brac before. Which isn't a small amount of sailing to do. 

Overall unless they change a LOT of things radically, this suggestion is just another "i want things hardcore/realistic" post for people who want the game to not have a player base. The difficulty and price of the game already is to much for most players why would you want to make more want to leave???

[Blackjack Morgan]

All this would do is further reduce people venturing further than a stones throw from a friendly port. While the idea might sound interesting it would end up pushing even more people away from the game while not really adding any "fun factor" value....would also be relatively easy to abuse with having 1 guy in the group sail the grey crap ship with no other purpose than to cause as much damage as possible before he sinks while his buddies just wait for that fight to end to finish off the crippled ship. This kind of stuff just is not what we need now or in the future.

[Volcanus]

All this would do is further reduce people venturing further than a stones throw from a friendly port. While the idea might sound interesting it would end up pushing even more people away from the game while not really adding any "fun factor" value....would also be relatively easy to abuse with having 1 guy in the group sail the grey crap ship with no other purpose than to cause as much damage as possible before he sinks while his buddies just wait for that fight to end to finish off the crippled ship. This kind of stuff just is not what we need now or in the future.

Yeah this.

This is the short form of what i was saying.

[Galileus]

I will also add...

 

What's more interesting:

You almost sink someone. He wins but limps out of combat. Your friend attacks him.

 

A. The damaged enemy is full health because he clicked a couple repair kits. There is only "total victory" and "complete defeat".

B. The damaged enemy is still damaged and your nearly-successful attack against him still matters. There are degrees of victory and "barely victorious" is not much better than "sunk".

 

B is more "interesting" for a broader audience in spectator mode, which is not there.

A is more interesting and fun for you. Because you can just jump at the guy again for round 2. In example B you instead need to waste 30 minutes going back to city for repair, not enjoying the time with your friends, not engaging the bad guys, not playing the game, not having fun and most of all not being engaged (interested) by the game at all.

 

So yeah, in broad lens it seems interesting - you wound the prey and someone else finishes it off. The problem is the broad lens doesn't show you your own state, which is miserable and which means all that juicy interesting drama you just created is going to pass you by, while you AFK sail and make some sandwiches.

 

Don't get me wrong, sandwiches are great, but still... you know... it ain't kitchen simulator at all...!