I would like to see all ships get absolutely NO regeneration. I mean, where do they get all the extra armor plating/resources to fill in the damage?

So to repair your ships, you would have to use repair stations. Or you could use that ship that has the repair ability (it would actually be useful now)

Also, repair stations should use antimatter to enact repairs (rate of antimatter use should be dependent on number of damaged ships in repair range).

This system would actually encourage repair ships and damaged ships to orbit nearby stars to speed up repairs.

Any system that encourages competition for the gravity wells around stars is a good system.

I'm pretty sure anything that does repair consumes a fair bit of antimatter including the repair bays. If they don't its likely bugged. I'd like to see regen only in friendly culture myself and none during combat. This is a lower micro way to making sure your stuff is somewhat repairing with the rationalization that the locals are helping out in a minor way.

Hi Blair. Not to sound like a fawning acolyte, but that is brilliant.

Regen only in friendly culture combined with no regen during combat is the way to go for sure (with the exception of that one ship's special repair ability, of course). Oh, and keep the repair stations using AM as well.

I'll see what I can do for the patch.

Yeah, repairs only i friendly territory is brilliant! That makes sense. Perhaps we can remove the combat repairs? Who in their right mind would send people to repair while the ship's engaged in fleet battle?

Hi Designer, that is what Blair is saying. He is suggesting that ships can't repair during combat or when they are in hostile/neutral culture areas. Of course, the weak special repair ship that sends the little robots in still makes sense.

Ah yes, I see now. I must have completely read something else hahaha. Excellent.

Yeah I like Blair's idea as well funny how we get bombed with such a simple solution and everything makes sense....

Must be Blair's Jedi Mind Trick... just on the Forums!

From another post:

I strongly disagree with this, I think the current system is very, very good, if not amazingly realistic. If you want to justify it, say that they salvage scrap after a battle (with nanobots maybe, whatever), or have big slabs of material in storage that they then use (again, by decomposing said slabs with magical nanobots) to repair up any bigger damage. The reason why I think this repair system works well is because I think having to manually repair units is unnecessary micromanagement in a game like this, and a pet peeve of mine to have to constantly send units back and weaken my frontline forces and reinforce it with new units. Without auto-repairs, I'd just be sending in fresh units while sending old ones to be repaired, the outcome would be exactly the same, but with a whole hell of a lot more clicking and other annoying management that the game just doesn't need. This way, after a battle I can wait around a bit, attend to other things, and my units repair themselves somewhat and I can move my force on to the next objective. Without auto-repair I'd still have to wait after a battle but I'd be waiting for units to fly halfway across the solar system, having to micromanage building them and sending them back and forth.

To add to this in regards to what people were saying here: I think maybe the auto-repair speed could be toned down. I definitely think they should not auto-repair in the middle of combat. I think it would be fine if repairing drained antimatter (which it sounds like they are already doing, or should be doing), and I think that it would be good if the auto-repair rate was faster in areas with your culture or whatnot. Maybe your planets, or areas with your culture would have the same auto-repair rate as now, or slightly lower, while hostile areas had half the repair rate, and only once the ship is out of combat, maybe for a specified amount of time.

However, I strongly disagree with making them not auto-repair at all in hostile systems once they are out of combat. Having to constantly move my fleet back to repair or send in new units to replace slightly damaged ones (and I for one will waste a lot of time doing this, because it will bother me like crazy to have half my ships in varying states of disrepair) will get old and annoying really fast. I think it will just add unnecessary micromanagement.

There are repair ships and they would finally be put to good use. And it also adds more strategy and tactics to the game which is what makes the game more fun.

Having them be repaired in friendly territories make sense, but in enemy territory where there is no support they would have to lean on repair ships.

And if people still want the auto repair there, why not add it as an option. This would please both groups.

exactly at the game setup screen just put an option check box, for repairs in enemy territory.

I agree completly and nano bots are in sworms not just 1 there are millions of them so repaires wouldent take that long and there would be lots of scrap left over after a battle which can be used to fix ships. but i do think its a good idea to not stop repaires completly in battle but maby slow them down cs damage controle teames would go about the ship patching holes and stuf

The way I play, I take one hostile planet with my fleet and fortify it so that when I move to the next, it can hold off a small attack. With this I mean it has 1 repair facility, 1 or 2 hangars and some Gauss Guns to watch the jump lanes. Now the repair facility is the first thing I build in order to repair my ships as well as the orbital structures should they be under attack.

It makes sense, you fleet should only have limited auto-repair functions in enemy territory, relying on repair and supply ships to keep functioning for longer periods of time. When there's a new campaign, there's generally a fortified position from which you strike from and can fall back to if things go ugly.

Sure my way is slower and costs more money, but it does work for me. From my perspective I'd prefer a hostile naughty zone errr... I mean no auto-repair in hostile space. Adds more flavour to the game.

Check box idea is nice as well.

Battle damage repair during fighting are the most critical repairs a ship's company can make. That's why entire teams are pre-designated to perform damage control and material is carried to make critical repairs.

Having said that, to expect a severely damaged ship to bring itself to 100% readiness is not reasonable.

As a suggestion, since the "health indicator" of the ships already go from green -> yellow -> red, limit the amount of repair a ship can self-perform to:

Green -> can fully self repair

Yellow -> can self repair 75% of lost points (or to the border of green/yellow if individual ship 'current' max hitpoints aren't a variable you want to maintain)

Red -> can self repair 33% of lost hitpoints (or to the border of red/yellow)

Having a repair facility available would allow full recovery of hitpoints. Whether a robo-cruiser (with the bots available) would allow full hitpoint recovery or just moving past either the red/yellow or yellow/green boundary I leave for discussion.

In either case, hitpoint recovery rates should be significantly higher at a repair facility.