[Geckomlis]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Ok, so what I want to include is:
- Finite repairs: Drones can be launched to repair 1 point per turn, and Last about 5 turns without moving, or 2-3 turns with movement.
Allows SYs to remote-repair ships, and means you have to spend money to repair your ships.

Any other suggestions and comments?

I have noodled around with this paradigm also.
In an unmodded game, you already spend resources to repair ships via the maintenance costs of the hull + components of the repair vehicle. You pay for that capacity whether it is in use or not. To stop paying, you mothball or scrap the repair vehicle.

Using a repair drone system mod, overall costs might not be that different than a standard game. However, what a mod like that will do is force you to dedicate your shipyards to new construction or repairs. As it is, shipyards can both build and repair, but neither action effects the capacity of the other action. With this system, shipyards can perform only one action at a time. I like that concept.

In addition, you can stockpile and/or transport repair capacity (just like supplies and units). This adds an interesting twist and more depth to SEIV logistics.

Potential problems:
You can not recover drones. Drones can be prematurely launched (and wasted) due to combat. My solution was to not allow drones to launch during combat. For example:

Ability 1 Type := Launch Drones
Ability 1 Descr := Can launch drones into space. 0 drones can be launched per combat turn and 4 drones can be launched per game turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 4

Add this ability to a “Repair Drone Launcher” component.

Another issue is the “all or nothing” Launch Units Remotely command during simultaneous games. You may want to add a variety of “Repair Drone Launcher” components with different launch capacities to help the player work around this issue.

My preference would be for repair drones to have an endurance of only one turn and not be mobile. Since they can be carried in cargo, they can be mobile without being autonomous. In this case, set the Drone Supply Usage Per Turn = to the supply capacity of the repair drone.

-Gecko