[Suggestion] Allow allocation of reactor power in battle

[burning_crusader1]

The game currently only allows reallocating the reactor power of a mech before a mission. Once a mission has started, it isn't possible to change the reactor power or loadout.

Often time I have found myself failing a mission because a mech was one tile out of position; because one enemy had 1 hit-point too many; because an unlocked ability which would have saved the day hadn't been enabled.

I think allowing reallocating reactor powers in battle (perhaps, once per turn?) will enable more tactical decision making (should I move 1 more tile or do 1 more damage?) and also help to smooth out the difficulty curve in the mid-game.

The delicate management of limited resources was big part of FTL and I think it would be a good addition to the game.

Thanks for reading!

[AileTheAlien]

I'd say once per battle per unit instead. Twice on easy mode. Even with that limitation, this would probably require a tonne of balancing.

[athorist]

This would be useful for when you get the mech power upgrade in the last battle. Or at least being able to change up before the second stage starts.

[wwarnick]

I disagree. The whole point of allocating power before battle is making strategic decisions that can have a huge impact on the turnout of the battle. If you allowed the player to change the allocation mid-battle, it would remove all of the risk and impact from those decisions. The game would become much much easier. If you make a mistake, it should hurt. The solution to the problem of being one square away from victory isn't to make the game easier. It's to get better at the game.

[4n4rch1st]

I must concur with wwarnick. Changing reactor allocation would make the game way too easy. And why would you want to change reactor allocation in the last stand? The only place that would make sense for this is reactor core +1 pilot skill in the final battle, but you can just travel your pilot back in time to use it.

[Treamayne]

I can see both sides of this discussion, with the proviso that reallocating power should use your turn (like healing, you can move and reconfigure, but not reconfigure and attack).

As stated, reallocating power could make the game too easy; but it could also open up different tactical avenues.

It could also make an interested pilot ability, or new upgrade (like tactical strike, a one-use equipped augment that allows redistributing power only - not weapons or moving power from one mech to another)

[4n4rch1st]

The problem is that reactor power allocation mid-fight is too good to not be balanced in some way, but waaayy too niche that if it is balanced, no one would use it. Sure, I can power up my dash upgrade with this extra turn, but that +2 damage might also be useful, pretty much making power allocation either a luckshoot or wasting a turn.

And there wouldn't necessarily be extra tactical strategies with it. It would probably just decrease the need for power cores, and create power spam. Although one quite nice thing that might happen when adding allocation mid fight is making weapons in stores actually worth buying, with less need to spend rep on power cores.

Same with power distribution based on a pilot/weapon. Why should I use it over a useful pilot or weapon?

IMO, reactor allocation in battle would either be hilariously overpowered with no proper debuff using it, but laughably useless if there is a fitting downside with it.