4Game

So I really Like Elite's Loadout and engineering system. for the most part.

However there are some logical components that seem to be missing from a high tech universe.

Here are the things I have Identified that I think Make sense, and How I would implement them:

Disclaimer, this is not intended as an overhaul. My goal with the Implementations was to work within the existing framework and design these in the most Elite: Dangerous way I could.

TLDR:

• Ammo storage, exactly what it sounds like, why cant I have a few extra round of Multicannon ammo in reserve?
• Gyro / Reaction Wheels, for maximizing rotational control, and perhaps saving your bacon if the thrusters go out
• Heat vanes, for a small amount of passive heat removal
• heat sink rework in line with Ammo storage

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Idea 1: Ammo storage.

It does not make sense to me with ships of the magnitude that we throw around in Elite that there are no internal modules for carrying Bulk Ammunition for things like Multi-cannons.

My Idea being that you would be able to put in a module that would allow for additional reloads for ammunition based weapons, this includes: Cannons, Railguns, Point defense, Flak, Ideally Heatsinks as well, but more on that later, does not include AFMS, or Shield cells.

Now I considered many ways of implementing them, and I do prefer options other than the one I am about to suggest, But I was trying to be realistic with my expectations of what FDEV would do.

upon equipping the module, all ammunition based modules effectively gain double ammo capacity. however this ammo can only be called upon if weapons are retracted, and the existing clip is empty, the weapon is then locked for a short time, unable to be extended for use again, before automatically extending after the time period, with a now full clip and ammo reserve.

this puts it in line with weapons like multi cannons that cannot reload a partial clip until the existing one is spent. this also balances the use of the ammo because large ships, using large weapons, have longer transition times between extended and retracted. this also means that weapons that have been engineered to have additional capacity will not be invalidated, instead of holding the traditional 50 – 100% additional ammo, they will hold 100-200% ammo,

finally On the issue of module size, since larger ships have more guns, I think the easiest way (for the developers) would be to restrict the module to the size of the Military compartment (M.C.). this gives Military compartments more of a use, as well as military compartments are already somewhat scaled for the size of the ship they are in. (IE: a Corvette should not be able to use a size 1 M.C. to refill all of its weapons once, in the same way an Eagle with a size 1 M.C. can refill its weapons only once)

Ideally I would like some ammo management system, and make it less clunky than "one reload for everyone" but Im managing my expectations, and personally I would like Ammo Cookoff but I dont expect everyone prefers that

Engineering options:

• shielded (power draw +, integrity +),
• re-enforced (mass +, integrity +),
• stripped down (mass – , integrity – )

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Idea 2: Gyros / Reaction wheels

Just because it is 33XX doesn't mean old school tech has no place

I would Imagine this as an Optional internal (though I could see it being a core internal)

this one is quite simple, Install the module, gain a Rotational speed bonus, module consumes power proportional to its size. Retain Rotational bonus if thrusters are disabled / damaged.

engineering options :

• shielded (power draw +, integrity +),
• re-enforced (mass +, integrity +),
• Beefy wheels (mass + ,rotational bonus + ), and the opposite "Stripped down wheel"
• Beefy motors (power draw+ , rotational bonus + ), and the opposite "Efficient motor"
• X / Y / Z focused (wheel Priority is shifted around to give focus to Yaw / Pitch / Roll and reduce the others)

I could see this being useful for some combat builds, especially for PVP where losing thrusters means instant death, this might give a fighting chance to turn around.

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Idea 3: Heat management improvement

Part 1: Utility slot "Heat vane"

much like how large ships have separate heat vanes that disable them, these would be attatched to ships and give a flat percentage improvement to heat management, at a cost: they have incredibly low intagrity, being mostly an exposed copper mesh.

Engineering:

• shielded (power draw +, integrity +),
• re-enforced (mass +, integrity +),
• stripped down (mass – , integrity – )

experimental effects:

• actively cooled (power draw ++, heat dispersion +, mass +)

I envision these as quite low power devices, with only a few Percentage improvement per Heat vane, otherwise it could be quite broken if ships could get their temps very low

Part 2: Heat sink rework

first, I think it is dumb that heat sinks can only have up to 4 charges per use max, (which is why We should be able to carry more in an internal reserve such as Idea 1)

so we add more capacity through internal storage, this would result in no reason to equip multiple heatsinks, so, finally. we reduce the heat output of heat sinks in Heat per second, so they pull out the same total heat, but over a longer period of time, this means that equipping multiple heatsinks instead of only increasing the total number of times you can do it, also increases the total heat / second.

meaning, with only one heatsink equipped, using a shield cell bank at the same time as a heat sink will almost certainly overheat the ship, since the heatsink does not beat the shield cell in heat / second. but using a heat sink a few second before the shield cell will allow the heat sink to reduce the ship to sub running temp, giving the shield cell some thermal headroom to prevent overheating

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Let me know what you think, I have other Ideas but these are a few of my favorite candidates for actual adoption. I just felt like we could use a little flexibility in our loadout options