Engineer Repair Preferences

[vonduus]

Sorry for the confusion, Velox, english is not my first language. (This is a nice excuse, I use it every time I get caught in a bad argument )

About my recommending only two tug types: This is just a basis for negotiations in an attempt to clear up the mess with a quick fix within the existing bounds, without requiring too much new programming.

If some other features are implemented (ie. some new code is written), I could cope with hundreds of different tug types, provided that:

1) they were nicely stored away inside the MRS when not in use (combined with a teleporting ability)
2) they could be automatically rebuilt (and stored inside the MRS) by setting an infinite build loop

[Velox]

Sorry for the confusion, Velox, english is not my first language. (This is a nice excuse, I use it every time I get caught in a bad argument )

About my recommending only two tug types: This is just a basis for negotiations in an attempt to clear up the mess with a quick fix within the existing bounds, without requiring too much new programming.

If some other features are implemented (ie. some new code is written), I could cope with hundreds of different tug types, provided that:

1) they were nicely stored away inside the MRS when not in use (combined with a teleporting ability)
2) they could be automatically rebuilt (and stored inside the MRS) by setting an infinite build loop

     No worries, thanks for being patient (I think confusion is practically my normal state of being of late, to be honest!) 

     I think your solution is rather elegant and it does seem like it could be very practical in terms of work required.  I can't come up with any situation where it would be terribly suboptimal, and I suspect such cases could be dealt with just by changing how much "real" damage the engine damage counts for.

[drum]

not sure if this is gonna throw a spanner in the works, but i find that tugs take ships to any repair station, be it an MRS or a fortress. at the moment i can leave a few tugs in a system with a fort and take the MRS elsewhere but what will happen if tugs are docking?

[vonduus]

not sure if this is gonna throw a spanner in the works, but i find that tugs take ships to any repair station, be it an MRS or a fortress. at the moment i can leave a few tugs in a system with a fort and take the MRS elsewhere but what will happen if tugs are docking?

Well, I didn't think of this particular situation. But something has to be done to the repair system.

In a game with a friend both of us had a MRS, but only he had tugs, I had none. Nevertheless, for some reason all his tugs pulled our sick ships not to his MRS (which was conveniently placed under a forcefield near the fighting, right behind the front) but to mine (which I had actually forgotten under a forcefield in the far end of the planet system), in the process insisting on running through a few enemy minefields en route. This was just so - stupid.

Why did the tugs consistently choose the most far-away MRS? When I turned off my MRS, they went to the other one, but as soon as I turned it back on, again they hauled their stuff as far away as possible.

I really believe that tugs should be closely related to their own MRS.

[Blahness]

I also noticed that tugs would prefer to pull ships across the planet to a fortress instead of to the MRS right next to it.