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[Alex]

Yep, the thought has definitely crossed my mind Another option for a control is going the same route as Neural Link, freeing up the T key entirely for a new control, something like "Special action".

[Mishrak]

I could see it doing something like giving a burst of flux dissipation and speed for 30-60 seconds in exchange for severely degrading CR during that timeframe.  An alternative to Neural Link would be kinda fun.  Install that mod and have that special ability to overclock all the systems on the ship.

[SCC]

Considering the recent writing from quests, wouldn't it make sense to make Luddic Church and Luddic Path hostile? Or, at least, neutral.

[Bungee_man]

If you stick with the can't vent aspect of SO, the vent key is free for an activated feature.  Such as putting the ship into overdrive with a risk of malfunctions as a consequence of doing so.

I'm wary of the idea of something built around making a ship very powerful at the risk of randomly losing engines and dying. The end result is something that's overpowered when the rolls are good, but results in deaths that are independent of player mistakes and skill when the rolls are bad. I remember that being an issue with the Aurora in prior builds (though maybe I've just got better at designing them).

As far as an SO rework, it's a tricky thing to design - assuming the PPT falloff is maintained (and it seems like an intuitive thing to keep), the clear tradeoff is that ships are more powerful but don't stay in the field as long, which is a calculus that tends to diverge quickly - a skilled player is almost always better off taking that trade. I do like the "second action" idea, though, and I think that can be used well. What if SO's effect was to unlock an ability that burned through some PPT (and potentially caused some flux stat losses for the remainder of the fight), but allowed for something useful, like venting with active weapons and ship abilities.

[Alex]

Yeah, similar thoughts here. But, one challenge is also making it not-too-difficult for the AI. It's really tough for the AI to make decisions about "PPT/CR vs temporary boost" tradeoffs - it's trying to evaluate things in a very long-term way, with limited/no information about what the player intends for the battle.

Considering the recent writing from quests, wouldn't it make sense to make Luddic Church and Luddic Path hostile? Or, at least, neutral.

Hmm, probably not hostile, but neutral, perhaps! I think the recent writing makes it clear that the Church is not a monolithic entity.

[Grievous69]

@Alex

Off the top of my head, a simple idea. Active ability that when used, halves all weapon ranges, increases base speed by x/y/z and doesn't enable always zero flux boost. But increases flux dissipation and maybe even fire rate. The downside would be that ship takes 2x damage EVERYWHERE while the ability is active. So shields, armor, hull, everything. Give it a cooldown so it can't be spammed and abused by skilled players.

Don't even have to bother with CR and DP shenanigans, these ships will be dangerous but also pop like flies. The true meaning of turning off all system limitations.

Details can obviously change a bit but I believe something in this spirit to be the key. The ship MUST have a clear downside when using this ability, not just logistical and PPT penalty for example.

Also a visual effect would be needed to make it clear which ship is going ham.

[FooF]

@Alex

Off the top of my head, a simple idea. Active ability that when used, halves all weapon ranges, increases base speed by x/y/z and doesn't enable always zero flux boost. But increases flux dissipation and maybe even fire rate. The downside would be that ship takes 2x damage EVERYWHERE while the ability is active. So shields, armor, hull, everything. Give it a cooldown so it can't be spammed and abused by skilled players.

Don't even have to bother with CR and DP shenanigans, these ships will be dangerous but also pop like flies. The true meaning of turning off all system limitations.

Details can obviously change a bit but I believe something in this spirit to be the key. The ship MUST have a clear downside when using this ability, not just logistical and PPT penalty for example.

Also a visual effect would be needed to make it clear which ship is going ham.

I said something along these lines in another thread, where SO’s advantages/disadvantages are a function of flux level. The higher the flux, the more range is reduced, but RoF increases (with a commensurate reduction in weapon flux generated). Speed increases as well. Basically, Nu-SO forces a ship to get closer and closer to danger in order to operate at peak effectiveness but it does nothing for defense. Might be mutually exclusive with any range enhancers like ITU, like a berserker mentality. “I don’t taste blood: it’s victory wine!” :laughs maniacally:

[Mishrak]

I feel like a system like that would super bonus phase ships that can straight up avoid the damage by phasing, and any AI ship that uses that would get completely nuked by the damage increase.  It would have to be kept it off capitals (as SO already is).

I think gaining the same type of effects that current SO yields would be really ideal but the drawbacks are easy enough to mitigate in its current iteration that fight is usually over before it's a problem.  Change the drawbacks and the duration/activation method, but let the player still get the effects: ability to run flux heavy weapons/move fast/have super tanky shields.

[Grievous69]

I never liked the fast that SO made ships more tanky, that literally makes zero sense in my head. Your ship is in constant unga bunga mode and you're telling it's tougher to take down than usual, blah nonsense. AI ships getting nuked with the system is precisely the point, the safeties are off (haha get it).

You could just make it unusable on phase ships, make up something about "it would make the phase thingies so unstable that such a ship would explode before even reaching the enemy".

[Mishrak]

The way I see it is you've turned off all the safety protocols in the ship.  Like overclocking a computer CPU.  Now your ship has issues because you're cooking all the components to have hyper flux dissipation and fast speed and you're range limited and you can only do this for so long before the ship burns out and malfunctions.  The same reason it's tanky is the same reason it can also run the big weapons. 

I think the tank synergy is pretty fun, especially with new field modulation/s-shield stab bonuses.

The ship just doesn't even come close to burning out before the fight is over right now.

[Thaago]

Having ill advised modifications become a part of SO rather than something to pay credits to remove would be a conservative step towards balancing it.

[Nettle]

Waltuh, no more hallf measures, Waltuh.

[Brainwright]

Having ill advised modifications become a part of SO rather than something to pay credits to remove would be a conservative step towards balancing it.

At the minimum, permitting the reduction to malfunctions in Systems Expertise to apply to this would be needed, as Ill-Advised Modifications is so *** that you're stupid if you don't restore it away.

[Thaago]

Sure, that makes sense. Ill advised could also be toned down if its too much.

I just like the idea that when the safeties are removed things break. It gives a reason in game for the safeties to be there in the first place.

[Mishrak]

Thematically it makes sense but the gameplay having stuff randomly malfunction constantly is not really fun.

I always remove the malus hullmods on the special ships as soon as I'm able.