DevTracker: About Ship Modules

So first of all, yes, we understand the frustration some people suffer when looking for ship modules. We've made a fairly significant under the hood change that should reduce the churn of module availability, and hopefully this will work with our other rules (some module types *are* more likely based on economy type and government type, for example).

On the other hand, we don't simply want a static placement of modules, especially for rare items – some randomisation can be a good thing.

We're going to keep an eye on things and see how this plays out. We don't always have time to respond, but we do look at your feedback and act on it where appropriate. As with many things in the game, it's a balancing act.

It's worth noting that some modules cannot be sold if there is no stock to replace them with because they are mandatory for the space ship to function (you wouldn't get very far without modules like power plants, life support systems and fuel tanks).

However, you should be able to sell any non-essential module.

About Best Modules

The top end modules are not always the best in every department. They are "on average" better performers though.

Also, we are considering moving all scanners to become internal modules (which would amongst other benefits remove this issue). Such a significant tweak, however, requires a lot of thought and presents plenty of technical challenges, so no ETA for it.

Auto field maintenance

It is able to repair all modules except a ship's power plant. The AFM will not be the way to repair hull damage.

Only power plant will go boom

The only module that's Critical (will make your ship go boom) will be the power plant - which is usually pretty tough. Loss of the FSD, thrusters or sensors, which would previously either have been immediately fatal or just leave you stranded are all now recoverable. Assuming you have enough healthy modules to cannibalise of course! (or a field repair module).

Heat Damage

Heat damage now damages modules when ship heat reaches 100%. Whilst heat remains above this value, modules may randomly suffer small amounts of damage every few seconds.

Should ship heat rise above 160%, the ship’s hull will start to lose integrity.

BE AWARE, when your WEP capacitor is low, more heat will bleed out from the weapon’s cooling loop and increase your ship’s temperature.

Repair, Fuel scooping and heat

Regarding concerns with fuel scooping and heat damage: this is just to let you know that the actual timings for when you take damage should actually be a little softer. You will have a little more time before you start taking damage - but the heat values reported should feel more sensible.

The time it took to get to 150% is now the time it takes to get to 100%, more or less, so your scooping to heat ratio should be the same, or even better. This, coupled with the fact that heat damage to modules is generally cheaper, should mean that scooping is actually a little less expensive overall, and definitely safer - you really need to scorch your ship to start taking hull damage.

The results you used to get from scooping should remain intact - if you could scoop without taking damage before, you'll be able to scoop without taking damage now. And the damage you take from messing things up now should be generally less than what you would have suffered before.

There's another motive for this change which I hope will also be good - people will be more likely to be flying around with some module damage rather than hull damage. Module damage, as well as being cheaper to repair, increases the chance for malfunctions to trigger, which can create interesting game play.

Also, in general, modules are cheaper to repair than hull damage (although we've *significantly* reduced hull repair costs as well).

Sensor Rating

All sensors do is resolve contacts on your sensor. There is no link between them and weapon tracking at all. The only affect sensors play is to allow you to target the contact in the first place so tracking weapons can track.