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Author Topic: D-mod Disparity  (Read 4600 times)

Gwyvern

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D-mod Disparity
« on: July 27, 2019, 05:01:53 AM »

To the best of my understanding, D-mods are supposed to be things you have to work around, only being able to remove them at great expense.

In this capacity however, some are just way too strong.

Degraded Engines, Increased Maintenance, and Unstable Injectors are all pretty much instant deal-breakers, seeing just one of these on any ship is enough for me to write it off completely, or if it's rare, stow it until I can afford to restore it.

Asking around, it seems everyone has slightly different opinions on which D-mods are the worst, but almost everybody has at least one or two D-mods who's malus is too great to justify on its own.

So maybe their effects relative to one another could use a looking at.
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Megas

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Re: D-mod Disparity
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2019, 05:36:48 AM »

Increased Maintenance on the biggest ship I can support.  It eats too much, and player probably will not fight enough to make up for the savings.  +50% would be more reasonable.  On a destroyer while I have multiple capitals, it is annoying but not too bad.

Erratic Fuel Injector on a capital means it gets boxed at my colonies where I can pull it out to destroy pirate bases that spawn literally next door to my system.  Without Navigation, my fleet already burns a lot of fuel going long distance.  It does not need to leak even more fuel.  On a small ship while I have capitals, it is a drop in the bucket and can be ignored.

Degraded Engines may be a problem on the biggest ship.  If it slows burn speed enough to drag the rest of my fleet down, I will either box the ship (if I get to base quickly) or scuttle it on the spot.

Glitched Sensors is a no-go on Paragon.  It needs maximum shot range (especially against battlestations), and Glitched Sensors kill that.

Phase Coil Instability is crippling on all phase ships except maybe Doom.  (Doom is slow enough and can attack while phased.)

Faulty Power Grid is one of the more crippling ones, especially to ships that rely on energy weapons.  That said, I generally do not dispose of those.  Such ships are generally disposable meat that I do not care if they die or not.
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Serenitis

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Re: D-mod Disparity
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2019, 08:42:10 AM »

As a mostly 'junk' player, I probably have some non-standard priorities:

Spoiler
Increased Maintenance
On it's own, with no other considerations. This is a horrible thing for a ship to have.
With all the various skills etc. to mitigate it, it's essentially an almost free cost saving with no combat downsides.
Early game - do not want.
Otherwise - not too concerned.

Erratic Fuel Injector
Similar to above. But slightly less attractive as fuel is both harder to come by and used more quickly than supplies.
Prefer ships without. But will consider it if the ship fills a need I have.
No combat downsides, but harder to live with than IM.

Degraded Engines
On a frigate or destroyer - don't care.
On a cruiser or capital - don't want. (The lowered speed and turn rate is especially horrible for cruisers and capitals.)
On anything with a native burn of 7 or less - scrap.

Glitched Sensors
Don't care.

Phase Coil Instability
Don't care.

Faulty Power Grid
Not nice, but I can live with it.

Compromised Storage
Don't like this. It undermines the entire purpose of having a transport ship. And cargo space is very precious when salvaging on the rim.

Compromised Armour
Structural Damage
It's not going to stop me using a ship, but it will likely end up getting swapped for another ship without when possible.

Compromised Hull
Don't care.

Unreliable Subsystems
Depends.
On a non-combat ship or something that isn't going to be in the direct battle line - don't care.
On anything else - don't want.
A very unwelcome black mark for a flagship.
An absolute dealbreaker if Safety Overrides is involved.

Malfunctioning Comms
Do not want. I'll use it if I must, but I usually scrap on sight.

Defective Manufactory
Don't care.

Damaged Flight Deck
Don't care.
[close]
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Megas

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Re: D-mod Disparity
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2019, 09:06:34 AM »

Quote
With all the various skills etc. to mitigate it
If player takes Industry.  I must ignore Industry if I want enough points to take important QoL skills (like Navigation), fleets skills (EW1, LD3, and more), and still have enough points to match level 20 officer in Combat.  (I want Industry for colony skills, which makes it impossible to take as many combat skills as I want.  So if I play another game, I will ignore Industry altogether and abuse AI cores like no tomorrow.)

Increased Maintenance is a big deal for those who do not or cannot afford to take those skills.  I bet zombie characters can shrug the costs off.

I agree Glitched Sensors is generally a "don't care" one.  Exception is beam Paragon.  Glitched Sensors destroy the point of beam Paragon, which is enough range to compete with battlestations.

Compromised Storage hurts for reasons Serenitis says.

Armor and hull (D) mods, I do not care.  They are basically freebies.  Same for carrier (D) mods.
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TJJ

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Re: D-mod Disparity
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2019, 12:16:10 PM »

They could be balanced by modifying the upside; might be a little more flavourful that way too.
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Wyvern

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Re: D-mod Disparity
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2019, 05:17:37 PM »

Huh.  Definitely some different opinions here...

My personal opinions (context note: I do tend to have all the relevant industry skills):

Any logistical d-mods on a civilian vessel = trash it.  The purpose of a freighter is to carry as much cargo or fuel as possible for as low a cost as possible.  None of the d-mods are worth it here.

Increased Maintenance = if this is one d-mod out of many, it's probably okay; if it's the only d-mod, not acceptable.  Late-game, some exceptions may be added for smaller ships; IM on a Tempest isn't a big deal when you've got cruisers or capitals, for example.

Degraded Engines = Varies heavily by ship type.  On something that lives by its speed, or on something where the reduced burn is a problem, this can be a make-or-break on whether a ship gets restored/scrapped or used with d-mods.  There are some hulls where it's a non-issue, though.

Unreliable Subsystems = Varies heavily by ship type.  On a frigate or phase ship, this is a hard no.  On most cruisers and capitals, I don't care.  Destroyers vary depending on where I'm at in the game - though, okay, late game I don't use destroyers much anyway.

Structural Damage, Compromised Armor, Compromised Hull = Varies by ship type.  On phase ships, hard no.  On low-tech ship types that rely on armor, these are all probably a no.  On high tech ships that rely on shields, I'm happy to have any or all of these.

Phase Coil Instability = hard no for a flagship, don't care for AI-run phase ships; they tend to do a lot of loitering uselessly in phase, for which this d-mod mostly balances out.

Damaged Flight Deck = mostly don't care; may be worth fixing for a dedicated carrier, but it's not a big deal (at least with the way I equip and use carriers).

Defective Manufactory = Varies; this is a hard no for dedicated carriers, but a non-issue for things like a Tempest or Odyssey where the fighters aren't really the point.

Malfunctioning Comms = I'll cheerfully take this one.  Honestly, there are cases where I'd be willing to spend ordnance points (albeit not very many) on reducing fighter engagement ranges.  While there are some setups where this is a problem, there are others where I really want the carrier to keep its fighters close.

Glitched Sensor Array & Faulty Power Grid = Almost always a no.  Some ships can deal with one or the other of these (SO variants tend to not care, for example), but as a general rule I won't accept either of these.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.