Posted by: Droll
« on: October 04, 2023, 12:53:09 PM »What if it was allowed to undergo maintenance failures as if it had no MSP remaining, but at a diminished rate?
I like this idea, but in the opposite direction - maintenance failures happen at the same (or even an increased?) rate, however they are guaranteed not to cause catastrophic damage (i.e., ships won't blow up from engine or magazine failures). Then to reactivate a mothballed ship requires conducting repairs using the same mechanics that already exist (Repair Yards, etc.).
This seems like it could address the build-to-mothballs issues, since fixing nearly every component on a ship is pricey enough that it's probably not an attractive means to cheat the maintenance system. Repairing older ships with less advanced, thus cheaper, components is cheaper and faster (for a given shipyard work rate), which makes mothballing more attractive for older ships that could be restored a bit quicker in an emergency.
We can assign a (reduced) MSP cost or monetary cost as Steve feels necessary to maintain balance, but since this cost is a secondary part of the mechanic it does not have to be the main balancing factor so we can set it to a reasonable value and it is probably fine - say, 25% of the maintenance cost for an in-service ship for example.
I do think diminishing the rate of maintenance failures is the wrong direction, as that seems like it would be more economical than maintaining active-duty ships which doesn't solve any problems. You basically want the ship to be an irreparable hulk after several years, after which is can be restored to active service relatively more quickly than new construction but not necessarily much more cheaply so. We can roleplay/handwave the rate of failures as due to lack of shipboard maintenance, harsh radiation environment, etc. etc. as desired.
I wouldn't even mind if the repair cost of returning a long-term mothball even being equal to or slightly exceeding the cost of a new production as the primary purpose is the speed in a ship can be brought back to active duty.