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Author Topic: Overload Reduction Hullmod  (Read 444 times)

FooF

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Overload Reduction Hullmod
« on: November 14, 2020, 01:08:57 PM »

I'm in an endgame-type playthrough right now and as I was piloting an Odyssey through a rather large [REDACTED] Ordo, I got in a very bad position (my fault!) and overloaded quite spectacularly. It felt like an eternity (even with Damage Control 3) and though I didn't lose my flagship, I took quite a pounding. It was at this moment I thought, "Man, I'd pay OP to reduce overload duration."

So, a simple suggestion: create a hullmod that reduces overload duration by some percentage or, alternatively, have the hullmod cap overload duration to X seconds (depending on hull size), regardless of the magnitude of flux hit that put you over.

This could also be added to an existing hullmod, i.e., I think it would fit nicely in Automated Repair Unit, Hardened Shields, Hardened Subsystems, or even Stabilized Shields. If it was a separate hullmod, it could be a standalone, relatively large reduction (like 30%), or a smaller percentage (20%) with another added perk. I don't know if Damage Control 3 will even exist in the next patch so my working assumption is that there is some overload duration reduction somewhere and paired with this, you could roughly halve overload duration. If it was separate hullmod, I don't think 3/6/9/15 OP would be out-of-line to pay.

Regarding the "alternative" idea, if you capped the overload duration to some value depending on hull size, you could know for certain that you won't be drifting for 15 seconds, but rather only 8 (or some number), even if you raised shields to eat a Reaper. I think this route is more abusable but I could be wrong.

My thought on such a hullmod, as with many others, is that it's situational and would enable a "riskier" playstyle, albeit not as fundamentally gameplay changing as Safety Overrides.  I suppose, all other things being equal, I might risk overloading myself to overload my opponent knowing I will recover faster than they will, though I imagine most people would take it for the insurance it provides when we find ourselves in our most vulnerable state.

(I must admit, what I know about overload mechanics is limited. I know it's a combination of hull size, where larger hulls stay overloaded longer, and amount of hard flux taken to "go over" capacity but if there are hard limits built in already, I don't know them. In the example I listed above, I believe my Odyssey was out for about 8 seconds, and that's with DC3. I can't recall what put me over, it wasn't a Reaper, but it may have been a Plasma Cannon hit.)

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