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[FooF]

Formerly known as Augmented Engines, this hull mod was right there with Integrated Targeting Core for "most valuable hull mod" contention. It increased Burn speed (a huge deal) and it also increased in-combat speed. It was a "must have" for most ships and contributed to the high-speed combat of pre-0.8a.

For the latest patch, it was given a new name, only increases burn speed, has a sensor penalty (both ways) and is locked behind difficult-to-salvage Research Stations or (typically) Tri-Tach Cooperative Commission Military markets. Occasionally, one may drop for you but it's incredibly rare.

With the addition of Sustained Burn, I believe the pendulum swung too far the other direction: it's practically worthless now. Even with proposed changes to S-Burn (i.e. AI fleets will use it), +1 burn just isn't worth 5/8/15/20 OP and 50% less Sensors/+50% greater sensor profile. I don't know if I'd mount if or 0 OP cost yet its being treated like a god-tier hull mod.

I'm of the opinion that it should remain a highly-prized/rare hull mod so I'm ok with it being a bit on the powerful side. The suggestions that follow are based on that premise:

1.) -35% Fuel Use (no penalties). OP Cost reduced to 2/5/10/15. Rather than making ships go faster, it makes them more fuel efficient. Useful for capitals that are fuel hogs but you can squeeze it in on a lot of ships to really reduce your fuel consumption. Good for exploration. Stacks with Navigation 2 bonus. Since this is a per-ship mod, you can pick and choose where its appropriate.

2.) +10% Top Speed, +25 0-flux speed boost. Negative effect on Coordinated Maneuvers bonus (-1/2/3/4%). If you have Coordinated Maneuvers, ships with ADF will not contribute to the bonus (unless you stack Nav Relay on top of it) and if you don't have it, ships without ADF will be slowed down by the debuff. Numbers might need to be tweaked but the point is putting this on a ship makes that ship faster at the expense of slowing everything else down a little bit. Doesn't have the range penalty of Unstable Injector but is overall slower.

3.) +3 Burn, +25 0-flux speed boost. Sensor penalties intact. Mostly for capitals, ADF makes Level 3 Navigation a bit less of a must-have because you slap ADF on the one or two offending ships that are dragging your fleet down. In-combat, it gives the slowest ships a reasonable speed boost before the shooting starts. Also makes Level 3 Helmsmanship a bit more attractive, even for already fast ships.

Other ideas would be welcome.

[AxleMC131]

I do agree ADF is now horribly overshadowed by Sustained Burn. It definitely either needs to be way more common, or re-buffed in some way.

Practically though: I like the idea of it increasing the bonus of the zero-flux engine boost. That (the actual flat bonus value) is a stat that doesn't get a lot of love or variety and I reckon really needs it.

Reducing fuel use I'm less behind, although it's a neat idea - Augmented Engines/Drive Field has always seemed to me like a way to make a ship's engines more grunty overall, not more efficient.

A bigger bonus to burn speed is probably the easiest change to make, and I wouldn't be against that, although it could become OP when fighting pirates and such - don't forget that the difference in average speed between frigates and capitals is about 3 or 4 burn speed levels, meaning this method would make a capital as fast as a frigate with or without SB engaged. After a little thought, I don't think this is the way to go.

As for the interactions with Coordinated Manoeuvres, that sounds hella cool, but also hella confusing. I'd be wary about doing something like that because it looks mighty confusing, and you'd be hard pressed to explain all of that in the hullmod tooltip. Nevertheless, it's a neat concept and I do like it.

[Morbo513]

Agreed, right now I don't touch it except on logistics ships that are 1 burn slower than the rest of my fleet. I like option 2) best

[FooF]

@AxleMC131

I'm glad anyone could figure out what I was trying to say! The reason I went with the 0-flux boost is that increasing top speed has been (intentionally) taken off a per-ship basis and rolled into a fleet-wide increase. Personally, I've liked that approach and didn't want to interfere with it too much. In fact, I wanted the hull mod to work counter to that. If I were trying to maximize my own flagship, I probably wouldn't give much thought to slowing the rest of my fleet down but if I was going for a more fleet-wide buff, each time I add ADF to a ship, I lose a little edge over my enemies (from a fleet perspective). Of course, there are situations where you really want to have a certain ship be faster and the range penalty from Unstable Injectors is too much.

 

[Histidine]

I'd recommend against fuel consumption changes, simply because it opens the door for micromanagement to optimise interstellar travel: put ADF on when you want to go somewhere, then take it off and spend the OP on combat stuff once you get to your destination.

(maybe the only person who'd ultimately do such a thing is Megas, but still, we shouldn't incentivise not-fun things)

[Megas]

Augmented Engines also happened to be the superior combat engine mod at the time.

+75 zero-flux speed, fun as it is, may be problematic.  One of the helmsmanship perks used to do this, but it was changed to more acceleration or maneuverability.  Combined with bonus up to 25% flux, it made ships fast (and it was great).

@ Histidine:  For now, such swapping is too painful when the destination has no friendly station in system where you can repair.  If your destination is bounties or Remnant farming, your fleet cannot exactly change configurations without taking a massive CR hit (which means more supply burn).  That said, someone less attentive may realize too late that they do not have enough fuel left to make it back to wherever, and could just swap mods for more fuel-efficiency to make it back, regardless of CR penalties.

[FooF]

Augmented Engines also happened to be the superior combat engine mod at the time.

+75 zero-flux speed, fun as it is, may be problematic.  One of the helmsmanship perks used to do this, but it was changed to more acceleration or maneuverability.  Combined with bonus up to 25% flux, it made ships fast (and it was great).

Unless there's a change on the current Level 3 Helmsmanship, the extra 25 0-flux speed would only come into play out-of-combat. Very few ships can fire much of anything at all below 1% flux. The other difference between ADF and the Helmsmanship perk pre-.08a is that ADF has an OP cost. You are "paying" for it and some ships aren't going to have the OP to spare, or perhaps more appropriately, you won't want extra speed over say, more vents, ITU, etc. Unlike the skill perks, ADF will always have competition.

Not saying that "let's be careful about adding more speed to the mix" isn't a valid concern. Most of the skill changes Alex made for this patch were directed at slowing combat down (which was a good thing, IMO).

[Megas]

Unless there's a change on the current Level 3 Helmsmanship, the extra 25 0-flux speed would only come into play out-of-combat.

Do not forget carriers.  (I am surprised, you were the one who first pointed out carriers, I think.)  The extra speed is most useful for cowardly fighters.  Okay, maybe not for AI that must raise shields.

Aside from carriers or Timid non-combatants, the level 3 perk is worthless.

Not saying that "let's be careful about adding more speed to the mix" isn't a valid concern. Most of the skill changes Alex made for this patch were directed at slowing combat down (which was a good thing, IMO).

I think slowing down combat is terrible.  AI being much more cowardly than before on top of that makes it even worse.  It was better at a faster pace.

For now, I have set combat speed to double normal speed (2f).  I sort of wish combat speed multiplier is in in-game settings, but I suspect it is not for technical reasons.

[Draconis13]

A sort of side note from playing and the juggling of mods like this from last patch. Would it not make sense to have a mix of ordnance point types? Weapon, Mod and universal. Though a little more complex this would allow more ships with some of the lesser used mods. As it seems like packing on good weapons versus situational hull mods is the obvious choice in most situations. Especially on the larger ships where stocking fighter bays and guns versus a 20+ ord mod is a tall order. With three mod types you would always have some customization choice to put on mods without the balance issue of having too many large guns or easily maxed out flux caps and vents.