Imo 'buying' s-mods with story points is fine. It's how the system actively encourages you to do the exact same thing with them every time* which is the problem.
* build in the 'largest' modS-modes should be rare spice no staple food.
Then the system fails at the first hurdle, since s-mods are the direct replacement for the Loadout Design skill in previous versions, which was a 100% manadatory pick because many ships don't have enough OP to be fitted 'properly' without some kind of assistance.
Resulting in the same problem, just in a different location.
If you really
really wanted to use s-mods as a credit sink, you could do that with a little thought.
Eg:
To build-in a mod you'd need a Heavy Industry somewhere in your control (or access to one via a contact).
You'd need a pile of credits, and some resources - Metal, Transmetal, Machinery, Volatiles, Organics.
Every mod has it's own costs.
Armour and hull mods want lots of metal and a bit of machinery, but little else.
Complex devices would prefer machinery and organics.
Engine related stuff would prefer volatiles etc etc.
Take ship to port, pay the asked sum of credits + resources, recieve built-in mod.
The problem with this is that it's a lot more effort than just pressing a button, and soft-locks early game players out of s-mods because of the extra (and expensive) hoops that must be jumped.
Not sure this would be an improvement, but I'm fairly sure it's possible.
If I'm ever in a losing battle or in a situation where I'm forced to retreat, that's an instant reload. Because there's no way in hell I'm losing ships with s-mods.
Exactly this. I'm 100% not interested in 'playing through' a loss, especially not one as big as that.
I don't care about picking up pieces after the fact, but I am either going to win or reload + avoid.
About the whole ship orientation thing on tactical map discussion, I'm positive that would reduce the readability even more. The last thing we need is even more clutter. It's pretty obvious which ship you're looking at a glance, seeing them in all kinds of positions compared to your view would be pure chaos.
Sort of agree.
Could be accomodated in options with a "Rotate ships in tactical view" setting, so people could choose. (I don't think I'd ever use it tbh.)