Suggestion: Emergency Power Management

[Tipsy]

Currently as long as you keep your reactor upgraded, aside from the occasional plasma storm, there is very little energy management involved in the game. In order to prioritize energy management, I'd love to see the following:

a) A reactor hardpoint. The more damage it takes, the less power it can provide.

b) A battery backup to store a short burst of auxiliary power for when the reactor is overloaded or damaged.

c) The ability to "overcharge" ship components in an emergency. A set number of energy bars above the ship's current specs that are available for use at the cost of taking twice as much energy to power. This will come with the risk of overheating or damaging overcharged systems.

d) Instead of disabling damaged systems, make them less efficient and require extra power until fixed. 2x for Minor damage, 3x for moderate, and 4x for severe.

These changes will encourage the player to upgrade their reactor well above the minimum power requirements by providing a benefit for keeping additional power in reserve.

[Mataza]

While not a bad idea, this would dramatically change the gameplay. Any upgrades and zoltan crew would be way differing in worth.

Also, what do you mean with little power management? Have you never toggled your Oxygen on and off to be able to use a defense drone? If you don´t have more powerful systems then your reactor can support, in the game as it is, then what would stop you from aiming towards the new "save amount" of reactor power after this change?
Because there will be a new one, I can assure you.

You might want to take up modding to see how such changes work out. You might learn something while you´re at it^^

[Kieve]

The reactor idea was scrapped because as a system it basically became the only one worth targeting. Take down a ship's reactor and they have no power for anything. Realistic perhaps, but I'm sure you can see where it would narrow tactical options considerably. Why bother going for weapons or shields or engines when you can just knock out a reactor and de-power all of it? And your 'battery backup' idea isn't really a viable counter to this, since it would either not last long enough to be useful, or long enough to make the reactor itself pointless.

[Justin]

You know, every one of your ideas was discussed as a possibility early on in development (kinda funny to have the same thought process). We were trying to find a way to have a reactor in the game but eventually abandoned it for some of the reasons brought up. I'm not trying to say that the system we have is the 'best' but it's definitely the best of the methods we came up with and tried.

[Tipsy]

@Mataza

I realize it would have a huge impact on gameplay so it would need to be implemented carefully, but this is more of what I imagined from the game after reading the FAQ:

FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of running a spaceship exploring the galaxy (like Firefly/Star Trek/BSG etc.) In any given episode of those classic shows, the captain is always yelling “Reroute power to shields!” or giving commands to the engineer now that their Warp Core is on fire. We wanted that experience, as opposed to the “dog fighting in space” that most videogames focus on. We wanted a game where we had to manage the crew, fix the engines, reroute power to shields, target the enemy life support, and then figure out how to repel the boarders that just transported over!

When I say "little power management" I mean there are very few instances where I find myself needing to cut power to life support. The exception being while in a plasma storm (as previously mentioned) or where I've criminally neglected my reactor upgrades and deserve to die a painful death.

So far the biggest problem I've encountered in the game isn't that the reactor can't handle the load, it's that the weapon system upgrades are prohibitively expensive, preventing me from using the power I have available, so there's no point in upgrading the reactor beyond the minimum. There's almost always enough power, but the conduits can't handle it. Nothing would prevent you from aiming for the new "safe" minimum that these changes would require, it simply gives you a loftier goal to strive for and a reason to spend a little extra on the reactor.

As far as trying to make a mod myself, sadly I lack the patience and motivation to attempt it. I realize it isn't as simple as a bullet-point list, but it's posted as a suggestion, not as a fool-proof way of implementing it. I think it would increase the challenge of the game and make it more closely reflect the stated goal for the gameplay. If a mod results from it, great, if not, nothing was lost.

[Tipsy]

@ Kieve
Obviously this would make the reactor the ideal target during a fight, but this is why in any space-themed game/movie/show, the reactor is the most heavily shielded part of the ship. The reactor has to be robust and be able to take a lot of damage. Very difficult to take offline, and just as difficult to repair. Perhaps each direct hit it takes would drop its capacity by a single bar, perhaps something a little more complex, but this is most definitely not a reason to scrap the idea.

The battery backup is also not a new idea. It is essential to any integral power system fictional or in real life. I picture it as a last resort. If all you need to win is that one last hit, but you have no other way to power your weapons, this is where you would turn if you haven't already exhausted it. It's called auxiliary power for a reason. And just like any other component of the ship, it would be upgradeable and it's usefulness would scale and balance accordingly.

[Tipsy]

@Justin

Good to hear that these were discussed, though not too surprising given the goal. I guess in the end, the most important thing when making these decisions is the entertainment factor. If it sounds good on paper, but the end result is a boring hassle, then it shouldn't be implemented. I do believe, however, if it could be balanced perfectly, then that wouldn't be an issue.

[Number43]

I find myself doing quite a bit of power management in the final boss fight, when the reactor is maxed but I have more system upgrades than I can use at the same time. I'll disable my weapons to put more power into engines, shields, and defense drones while I send crew members teleporting to disable the weapon systems, before redirecting power back to the weapons to support teleporting people into the main body of the ship.

Also, depending on available scrap and which upgrades seem particularly critical I'll sometimes have more system power than I have reactor power for earlier in the game. Especially when I have a defense drone that I don't use all the time since not all enemies have missiles, but other times too such as having upgraded teleporter in case I need to pull crew back quickly or send extra crew, but not needing to do that for all fights, or having a boarding drone I don't always want to waste a drone part on. Other times I'll have just enough scrap to get the very helpful second shield bar, but not enough to get reactor power for it so I have to divert power that had been going to engines. If that never happens to you, you probably aren't using optimal strategy.

Also, don't forget plasma storms.

[DrunkenRine]

i must say, that i do a lot of power management aswell. i permanently turn my med bay on and off, or pump more or less power into it, when it is upgraded. i divert power from the engines to the weapon system when i stumble across a new awesome weapon and need to spend all my scrap on the systempower upgrade. i take power off the shields when i face an enemy heavy on missiles to improve my engines and dodge rate. at the final boss i constatly turn defense drone, attack drone off and on depending on which enemy weapon systems are still active.
generally, because i find the perfect boarding game or perfect weapon combo very rarely, i am face with so many different winnign strategies, that there is always a lot of tuning and power management going on in my games.

[BKT]

Also, don't forget plasma storms.

Always great fun!