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[Gothars]

Help me out here, because I don’t quite see it. I think the scavenging mechanic is somewhat interesting from a role playing perspective, but what is the in-game purpose? It seems like there is no choice here – if there is a debris field, you scavenge is. The "risk" is really just costs in the form of a bit of machinery and supplies, on average far below the pay out. So, if it’s a non-decision, why not just role the spoils into the normal salvaging loot screen?

You could just have salvaging as one of the post battle options – instead of harrying or pursuing the enemy, you increase the loot by "thoroughly dismantling the wreckage“, where all you salvage bonuses apply. Same with scavenging stations, what is the point of having two consecutive loot screens most of the time?
A downside of choosing the „thorough“ option might be that you can’t move quickly for a few seconds after the battle, so if there are enemy fleets nearby, you can’t escape.
If you don‘t choose the „thorough“ option, a debris field is generated and you can get away faster.

Or is there some fun to be had with the current scavenging mechanic that I'm simply missing?

[robepriority]

Yeah, spamclicking through salvage dialog is pretty painful.

[Megas]

Help me out here, because I don’t quite see it. I think the scavenging mechanic is somewhat interesting from a role playing perspective, but what is the in-game purpose? It seems like there is no choice here – if there is a debris field, you scavenge is. The "risk" is really just costs in the form of a bit of machinery and supplies, on average far below the pay out. So, if it’s a non-decision, why not just role the spoils into the normal salvaging loot screen?

I guess for times...
* When you do not have a normal salvaging screen because the nearby combat was NPC vs. NPC, and you feed on the scraps left behind.
* You just fought an Ordos (in a red system) and won, but there are several more Ordos nearby, and the game does not allow you to salvage the field left behind for the rest of the loot.

Aside from that, it gets annoying when I need to loot the likes of research stations twice.  At least it better than spamming '6' seven or so times until the debris gave nothing in older releases.  (During those releases, I had rare items spawn on the final attempt before nothing result, so there was incentive to spam 6 until no loot, and that was really irritating.)

[Alex]

* When you do not have a normal salvaging screen because the nearby combat was NPC vs. NPC, and you feed on the scraps left behind.

Mainly this, yeah! And just general flavor.

Also, scavenging/salvaging briefly increases your sensor profile, though that's more of a factor for pre-placed debris fields.

[Brainwright]

I've often thought it would be more fun if you actually had to spend resources to get more out of salvage finds.  Such as you get to skim the top first off, but subsequently, you need to pay in a certain amount of heavy machinery to get more and better stuff.  You can still recover some heavy machinery from this process, but it's definitely a matter of diminishing returns and increasing costs.

You can even add special events where you pay in exotic resources to get a chance at a better roll.  Like using metal to build scaffolding to stabilize a structure or transplutonics to restart a spent nuclear secondary reactor.  The special event stays there indefinitely, so you can come back and finish it.

As it stands, exploration is a matter of emptying out the sector, and it's a bit odd to be destroying massive space stations with our salvage crews.  So just keep the stations and Domain Motherships there and limit the amount of stuff you can grab from them.  Then add special exploration tips that note recent activity from these salvage sites, like salvaged data cores noting a ship was destroyed by phase ships deployed from an apparently abandoned research station, or detailed logs of automated ships moving to and from a survey ship you thought you cleaned out a few cycles ago.

The dead corpse of a fallen civilization is a nice backdrop, but it's more fun if that corpse is still rotting and still has enough stench to move current events rather than just being a gold rush.

Plus, hiding from Remnants in debris fields you just made out of a mining station is such a cheat.   

[Retry]

I've often thought it would be more fun if you actually had to spend resources to get more out of salvage finds.  Such as you get to skim the top first off, but subsequently, you need to pay in a certain amount of heavy machinery to get more and better stuff.  You can still recover some heavy machinery from this process, but it's definitely a matter of diminishing returns and increasing costs.

It used to be something like that, except you could also lose crew and a marginal amount of ship CR, and the yields became reduced with repeated salvage attempts.  It didn't add anything interesting to the game, and in fact caused some edge issues when multiple debris fields are on top of each other, where you couldn't actually access a salvage field due to one being overlayed on the other.

You can even add special events where you pay in exotic resources to get a chance at a better roll.  Like using metal to build scaffolding to stabilize a structure or transplutonics to restart a spent nuclear secondary reactor.  The special event stays there indefinitely, so you can come back and finish it.

The general idea of more special events associated with exploration is likely worth consideration, similar to random Officers found in pods.

[Gothars]

* When you do not have a normal salvaging screen because the nearby combat was NPC vs. NPC, and you feed on the scraps left behind.

Mainly this, yeah! And just general flavor.

Also, scavenging/salvaging briefly increases your sensor profile, though that's more of a factor for pre-placed debris fields.

Oh yeah of course, sorry for being unclear, I wouldn't want debris field and the ability to scavenge them to go away! I like the flavor.
It's just this two-loot-screens-in-a-row after a fight or salvaging an installation that seems a bit clunky. Both as a game mechanic actually, and from a role-playing view - why can't my crew disassemble that station properly in the first place? They pick it clean, blow it up, and then search the debris? That can't be the most efficient method...

The sensor profile increase could be easily integrated into a "thoroughly dismantle" option, I guess.

[Alex]

I see what you're saying, yeah, it makes sense. I kind of like the feel of it, though, both with running a bit more of a risk (to equipment/crew - not too significant mechanically, just feel-wise) to really pick it clean, and with it being two chances to get something good, and it making the salvaging feel... well, a little messier.

[intrinsic_parity]

I see what you're saying, yeah, it makes sense. I kind of like the feel of it, though, both with running a bit more of a risk (to equipment/crew - not too significant mechanically, just feel-wise) to really pick it clean, and with it being two chances to get something good, and it making the salvaging feel... well, a little messier.

I think the multiple chances stuff and the risk/reward stuff is fine, but I agree that it would be cool to have it within some unified UI/interaction rather than exiting to the campaign layer and then re-entering salvage again. It's especially annoying when you are maxed out on fuel or cargo and are having to manage those things over and over because you have so many independant salvage interactions.

I also find the same thing with the abandoned fleet things that pop up now and again. Clicking through all of the ships, most of which give basically nothing, is really tedious, but the chance of an officer usually makes it worthwhile, just annoying.