[Suggestion] Space Suits

[meathelix]

How about space suits that enable characters to enter vacuum without taking damage? The suit could take time to put on, and would slow the character down to discourage players from just always leaving them on.

Not certain how this would be implemented with the current interface. Maybe a suit room or something? Maybe add interactive options to the characters when you click on their names, or little toggleable icons next to their names?

[the_draconian]

Ive thought along the same lines.
Usually I think of having a limit of one crew member with the suit that has unlimited O2 (for simplicity's sake.) Its main purpose would be to repair the oxygen room when it has a breach. (Admit it, that has happened to you at least once.) The limit of one makes it so that a hull breach in O2 with low oxygen is still a lethal situation but it is (relatively) no longer a agonizing game over.
Not sure how the mechanic for entering a suit would be. Perhaps one of the airlocks would have a suit and you would need to get a crew member in an airlock it to put it on. Seems like a logical spot to find a space suit.

[CaptainQuirk]

Usually I think of having a limit of one crew member with the suit that has unlimited O2 (for simplicity's sake.) Its main purpose would be to repair the oxygen room when it has a breach. (Admit it, that has happened to you at least once.) The limit of one makes it so that a hull breach in O2 with low oxygen is still a lethal situation but it is (relatively) no longer a agonizing game over.
Not sure how the mechanic for entering a suit would be. Perhaps one of the airlocks would have a suit and you would need to get a crew member in an airlock it to put it on. Seems like a logical spot to find a space suit.

This is a cool idea. A suit (maybe the option to buy one or buy more than one) stored in an airlock with a timer to put on and penalties to speed and attack and maybe a small bonus to repair while wearing it. Then it'd be a rush to get the suit on and get the breach repaired before the rest of your crew suffocated and there'd be no motivation to keep a crew member suited up (unless you had a lot of crew members).

It would also make more sense in a non-lethal hull breach situation. In the videos I've watched it always seemed a bit silly having to march your guys into a sealed room with no O2 to repair a breach, watching their health go down, and then marching them to the med-bay. In a real situation you'd be putting on a vac-suit before heading into that room (yes I know it's only a game, lol).

[Samson]

This is acutally what the Repair Drone excells at. Since they aren't affected by trivial things, like oxygen or fire, they can run around in the high hazard areas and get things fixed. Since they only cost one drone and stick in your ship till they are destroyed (even across jumps), they are a fixture in my ships when I get the chance. Breach in your 02 room with the system down, you seal the doors, send em in and let em work.

[LillithMenarra]

If the Repair Drone didn't exist, I'd say this is a grand idea.

However, these situations are EXACTLY what a repair drone is designed for, hell it's most of it's purpose in the game, so adding space suits would trivialize choosing a repair drone.

[angelocire]

I think the suits are a great idea- they don't supplant repair drones' role unless you play them that way. Suits just make it so when my ship is full of holes and on fire, I don't lose guys to asphyxiation when they should by all rights already be in a self-contained protective environment.

I mean, it makes perfect sense to me.

[Gorlom]

How about making the suits act as personal shields versus environmental damage like fire and lack of O2.

They wouldn't help in a fight at all but would act as additional health (that can be reduced to 0 in which case the spacesuit breaks and you have to get a new one from the shield room or wherever) to buffer fire and O2 damage

[Tagichatn]

I think a new race that doesn't breathe O2 would be better than a completely new mechanic. I don't know if it's worth adding the complexity of hitting more buttons to use space suits and monitoring space suit hp and whatnot just so that you can ignore oxygen.

[angelocire]

...worth adding the complexity of hitting more buttons to use space suits and monitoring space suit hp and whatnot just so that you can ignore oxygen.

I don't know- I would love that added level of complexity.

[timaeus]

I think a new race that doesn't breathe O2 would be better than a completely new mechanic. I don't know if it's worth adding the complexity of hitting more buttons to use space suits and monitoring space suit hp and whatnot just so that you can ignore oxygen.

... Like a repair drone?