Subset Games Forum

Maybe make power sorta like Oxygen?

If the Reactor is "powered" (I would treat it like a sub-system, constantly supplies its own power, so it is either powered, or damaged), we have power, game plays the way it already does, no big deal.

If Reactor is damaged, it isn't producing power, energy bars on the left slowly deplete (like Oxygen does in rooms when it's been taken out). If there are no bars on the left, power slowly depletes from systems (which would let us decide a priority for where they drain, similar to weapons).

If you have the med-bay as your top priority to drain power, and suddenly have boarders that you wish to fight in the med-bay to make it easier on you, you could then "re-route" power by shuffling the priority list, or by pulling energy bars out of another system (the exact same way you'd do it now).

Could become a lot to manage. Of course, if it proves difficult, you could add a "Hard Mode" that doesn't have to be much more than "Normal + Having to Deal with the Reactor".

JHawkInc wrote:Maybe make power sorta like Oxygen?

If the Reactor is "powered" (I would treat it like a sub-system, constantly supplies its own power, so it is either powered, or damaged), we have power, game plays the way it already does, no big deal.

If Reactor is damaged, it isn't producing power, energy bars on the left slowly deplete (like Oxygen does in rooms when it's been taken out). If there are no bars on the left, power slowly depletes from systems (which would let us decide a priority for where they drain, similar to weapons).

If you have the med-bay as your top priority to drain power, and suddenly have boarders that you wish to fight in the med-bay to make it easier on you, you could then "re-route" power by shuffling the priority list, or by pulling energy bars out of another system (the exact same way you'd do it now).

Could become a lot to manage. Of course, if it proves difficult, you could add a "Hard Mode" that doesn't have to be much more than "Normal + Having to Deal with the Reactor".

That is very interesting suggestion. I think the reactor suggestion in general would feel annoying rather than add depth to the game. But this is so far the most appealing version of a reactor secondary system.

I'm just wondering how the game should be be removing the power bars that are getting depleted when the reactor is damaged? Should it be random and likely to cause many frustrating situations or should it have some priority? Engines should always be powered right? So maybe have the reactor deplete engines first so that it doesn't interrupt any weapons loading or shield recharge or stealth duration. Players would be able to instantly shuffle their power around without it interrupting anything or causing any downtime.

chanman wrote:

Niknaktom wrote:this does infact actually make alot of sense. Of course there would be some sort of power generator. it would also make a prime target to hit. HOWEVER

Which i think maybe is why they didnt put it in as an actually system as you would only target that because why would you target anything else if that one system would bring down all the other ones.

Add batteries

I was just about to say this. You could buy from the "Ship" menu batteries in an Auxillery power room where you can divert unused power into the batteries that can be used in ONE full battle if the power goes down. Then you'll need to recharge them with the count down timer, like on teleporters and cloaks.

A better idea is it'll power your vessel for 20 seconds per level of battery purchased, maybe.

A good workaround to having a reactor room:

Reactor room has the most HP, one health for every reactor bar. Damaging the reactor only removes one bar of power for every one damage sustained, it comes back when you repair it.

Reactors are at the center of a ship, they are hardened to external damage from ship weapons. only boarding parties and boarding drones and teleported bombs can directly damage the reactor. Fire can start or spread into the reactor room too to damage it.

The big problem to solve (other than "why aim for anything else") would be, how do you manage which systems power gets taken away from? Random would be really annoying. Setting up some sort of failure order, especially if you want a system to only go down partway before taking power from the next, would be very tedious.

Its easy, just favor weapons first, then shields, then engines, then everything else.

GoldenShadowGS wrote:Its easy, just favor weapons first, then shields, then engines, then everything else.

Favor as in take from first or last?

Power generator is a subsystem that gets installed in shops,like Teleporter or Stealth.Costs around 75 scrap.
You choose a system at the ship which will get buffed by a power generatort for a short time with a long cooldown.

Buff could be either making system work without actual power presented(in case of weaponry,only a single weapon can be powered by generator),or work more effeciently.

GoldenShadowGS wrote:A good workaround to having a reactor room:

Reactor room has the most HP, one health for every reactor bar. Damaging the reactor only removes one bar of power for every one damage sustained, it comes back when you repair it.

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^^^^ ya that . Was going to suggest just this. I think that would be the best way to go about this idea.

How I imagine it: You turn the current 'available power' meter that's in the game and turn this to the reactor. The reactor is also a ship subsystem with its own room. Instead of only green bars on this meter that are currently there , showing available power, you turn this to show all available reactor power. There are no empty/blank bars, just green or yellow bars. Green represents power that is available to allocate, yellow will represent power that is allocated to other systems. Each hit to reactor causes the = amount of damage to power generation.

Damage to the reactor is repaired at double the normal rate for balancing. (And also to speed up repairs after battles, as you don't want to wait around for 15 bars of repairing to be completed).

With this system, I don't think the power reactor will be the only thing ppl target. It would still make sense to target shields and weapons first for many ships.

An alternate, much simpler idea to have a power generator put in the game (without tons of extra programming) would be to make a reactor subsystem room. A reactor damaged to the orange level produces %80 of the power it normally would. A red reactor produces %60 power say. Upgrades to the reactor room just improve the amount of damage it can take.

Having power generation as a crew skill would also be really cool.

There are a lot of arguments for and against a reactor room in this thread, I see. It's still probably safest to leave it out - there are too many ways at present to circumvent balancing measures. The only thing that made any sense to me was some sort of shield, maybe a subsystem that resists +1 damage point per upgrade.

If it was included, though, I think it really would make the most sense as a subsystem - the only real change to the GUI would be to move the vertical bar to the right-hand side, with the other subsystems.

It would be easy enough to determine the order in which systems are deprived of energy: just allow them to slide around, similar to weapons and drones.