If a cylinder in your engine breaks, do you replace the cylinder or the entire engine? If your windshield cracks, do you replace the windshield (or repair it depending on the severity of the crack) or replace the frame the window was sitting in? Same thing for future space engines, if a small part breaks (or need regular replacement) it shouldn't cost the amount of the entire component to fix a small part of it. Hence why for larger components it gets more efficient to maintain.
They don't. His point (which I got at the time, and ignored as irrelevant to what I was trying to point out) is that the distribution of minerals required for maintenance has shifted somewhat. Previously, if you had a very fast fleet, maintenance required lots of Gallicite. Now, a fleet costing 50,000 BP requires the same amount of Gallicite if it's really fast or made of orbital defense platforms with no engines.
Under the new system, maintenance cost is only based on build cost, regardless of the size or other attributes of the ship. Part of me doesn't like that, as I tend to run expensive ships, but it's reasonably realistic.
Its little bit more than 5% -> 6.25%, but you misunderstood. I was not referring to the quantity but the makeup of MSP, previously it was 5% of the mineral cost of the ship design, now its 6.25% of a fixed number. So if before, you built a ship which was a huge engine block, it would cost you a lot of Gallicite to maintain, but now it doesn't meter what the make up of the ship 1 MSP is constructed the same.
Regardless, I don't think its problem, the new system is superior by FAR, IMO.
I did get that, but it was not relevant to what I was trying to say. In my defense, I was on my phone at the time, so typing was much more difficult.