[Beck]

I think the current system is fine. It is after all an abstraction, and to what gain would requiring additional consumation of resources? One, as mentioned you are paying maintenance already and two, there is a limit to what can be repaired as the repair components can only work and repair a certain number of components depending on the level. The main reasons for requiring an outlay of additional resources is to provide a limit to how much can be repaired which is already in place and realism. But even damage is an abstraction. The component may not be in fact be totally destroyed, the marking it as such only means that is not functional and the game doesn't allow the use of its abilities. If you remove all the spark plugs from your car, in game terms the engine is destroyed as it will no longer function but the repair of it would hardly require much resources. In repairing, the biggest limiting factor is the presence or not of a ship having a repair component. If ships could simply repair at will or there was no limit to the number of components that could be repaired by a repair component, I could agree with your suggestion as then it would be needed to serve a function, limit repairs. As it is, it would be somewhat redundant. If you feel something needs to be done, then simply increase the cost of the repair component thereby increasing your maintenance costs and making repair ships rare. Due to its cost you wouldn't have one or more in every fleet.