1) Removed "emergency repairs" and LR providing a supply repair bonus. Ships have a base (hull size based) repair rate instead. This rate is hidden; the UI shows how many days are left instead of what % is being gained per day.
2) If a ship is either recovering CR or performing repairs, it'll consume its full logistics rating worth of supplies. So, repairs still cost supplies in this way, but a lot less and more gradually. Removed "supplies to fully repair" stat from ships.
Hmm, does this mean repairs are basically free beyond the time you spend incurring the logistics rating cost? Considering how expensive repairs are in the current version, this is a pretty major change unless ships repair really slowly and/or the logistics cost is bumped up a lot (and the latter also affects how much ships cost to field in the first place).
Yeah, repairs are much cheaper overall. This is part of balancing post-combat salvage around the deployment cost of ships, rather than trying to factor in repairs, which are dependent on playstyle and player skill. Not to say that skill isn't rewarded - it is, since repairs still cost something, if they're beyond what you get "for free" during CR recovery - but before, the gap between "no damage" and "some damage" was too vast.
3) If a ship is NOT recovering CR or performing repairs, the supply cost is 0. (Never liked the 10% rule much, anyway.) Doubled crew supply use instead.
This makes high-tech ships way cheaper to idle than low-tech ones (on account of having much smaller crews).
I don't know if I'd go with "way", but yeah, some.
To me, these changes don't make sense. One change buffs multiple ships in a fleet (The independent repair) while another nerfs them and cap ships are REALLY getting hurt by this change when they were already hurting as it was! Also Alex, you are forgetting two things about caps: They are "scary" (makes AI fleets run away) and they are slow both on and off the battlefield. The frigate's speed allows it to "feed" itself a lot better than the cap ship.
Also you never addressed my fifth question Alex
Like I said, the specific numbers bear keeping an eye on, but they aren't the heart of these changes, so I wouldn't focus on that too much. The main points are cheaper repairs, simpler repair mechanics, and more player control over supply use.
(Even so, if you're lugging around a cap ship without using it, what's the point? If you *are* using it, the deployment cost is what really matters; the
change in supplies/day is comparatively small.
Capital ships aren't any more "scary" than an equivalent number of of frigates, in terms of deployment points, btw. Being slow in the campaign map is a separate issue, and I'd rather not bring it in. I mean, yeah, it's technically related if we're talking about overall balance for capitals, but that's not likely to be a productive discussion until attacking and defending stationary targets is a thing, as that seems likely to end up being the cap ship niche.
So, it's a bit of a weird thing, where yeah, it needs to be considered in the short term, but it also isn't something that's worth spending too much time trying to nail just yet. As long as they're viable (for a low threshold of "viable"), I think that's enough for now.)