Helm Tool: Repair Mode

[Riggatto]

Upon activation:
Hull integrity takes -60% damage
All other components (except balloon) take 15 dmg/s

Sometimes when in a game, I tell my crew to go "full repair" meaning everybody stop what you're doing and repair.

So, I was just thinking this would be nice to have in that situation

[treseritops]

I like the idea but I don't know if anyone would want to use it for the reason of destroying all of your components (mainly the engines). If you get the hull and balloon up using this tool you'll probably finish the repair with no engines, turn the tool off and since you're sitting still you'll likely be destroyed.

Perhaps a limit of thrust, turning, and vertical movement would be a more fair restriction. Make the ship basically unusable while repairing.

Or just only apply to 15dmg/s to guns.

[Eukari]

What if it decreased damage to all ship components- hull, balloon, engines and guns- in return for dealing slight damage to everything? (10-15 dmg/s) That way, it's useful for a quick round of emergency repairs, but only if everyone's quick and you don't rely on it for too long.

[JaegerDelta]

Well i dont know if this would work in GoI:O.  All other helm tools simulate an action that could be taken in reality;  such as modifying the fuel or gas mix to increase output of engines and balloons respectively. (with the exception of phoenix claw its a bit silly but an increase in turning output was needed so.....phoenix claw...yeah , though an argument could be made it is influencing the pilot directly, with a boost of confidence or whatever, and as such the way he or she is turning, red lining the turning engines and thus causing damage to them).   

What would be the reason your hull in taking less damage? Like what physical act would this be simulating. if it is extra armor soaking up the damage why doesn't it behave like other armor in the game. So maybe its special armor, like extra heavy, so that is why engines are damaged, because you gotta red-line them to move, but why would they not take damage all the time because you still gotta lug this armor around with you the whole time even if its not deployed. Furthermore, why would the guns take damage? and why would the balloon not be taking damage?

More straight to the point, how is it helpful for anything beyond delaying an inevitable death, If all your stuff is damaged you cant contribute to removing the damage source. yes, it may buy enough time for your teammate to come in, but as you have disabled yourself the enemy has no reason to keep damage on you so they can team up on your ally and deal with them untill they die or disable themselves with repair mode. then they either kill your ally or team up on you when you have un-disabled yourself, not having to worry about your ally as they are dead or self-disabled. rinse and repeat until the enemy wins.

[Wundsalz]

Upon activation:
Hull integrity takes -60% damage
All other components (except balloon) take 15 dmg/s

Sometimes when in a game, I tell my crew to go "full repair" meaning everybody stop what you're doing and repair.

So, I was just thinking this would be nice to have in that situation

While I like the concept of your idea, I think it's hard to balance such a pilot skill. With the numbers you specificly suggest, the skill would be way to powerful.
Pros: There are many situation where a ship gets a shit ton of hull damage in very brief timespans. The skill would allow Junkers, Spires and to survive more than one perfectly shot flak volley while other ships could tank entire mortar volleys. Furthermore ram attempts could be countered by simply activating the pilot equipment for a brief moment and tanking the damage rather than trying to dodge the impact itself.
Cons: Marginal damage to all components. The damage should be barely noticable and fixable either by a spanner or wrench clap in a lot of situation where the skill is applicable (flak volley/ram) . You could probably even run ships like the pyramideon  having the skill activated permanently.

Decreasing the structural hull damage is a very direct and powerful bonus. If such a skill was to be introduced to the game I think the effect should be reduced significantly (e.g. to roughly 20-30% allowing certain ships to tank that final projectile of the deadly flak/mortar volley) while coming along with a severe disadvantage. Damage to compontents could be a fair trade off, but I think we effect would have to be increased significantly. Maybe something similar to hydrogen - where the effect of the skill lasts for additional 3-5 seconds or so after its deactivation. With a severely increased damage (50-100 dmg/s) this skill might be balanced. In a lost encounter you'd basicly end up as a floating wreck, rather than beeing dead right away which might grant your mate those additional 10 seconds he needs to save your ass.
Then again having a pilot skill capeable of totally wrecking your own ship might result in frustrating expericences for Sailors who scroll through their skills with the mouse wheel (absurd default binding btw)

[treseritops]

Well the "realism" argument got me thinking of a (possibly) better middle ground idea.

What if it was called "Magnetic Charge"? We know the game isn't supposed to literally be a perfect physics simulator so here goes some wild sci-fi.

When the Magnetic Charge is applied to the ships hull and balloon it creates a field around the ship that can deflect x% of rounds hitting the ship. I'm guessing it would be something low like 10-20? Even 20 seems ridiculously high. It would remain active for 3sec similar to hydrogen/bumpers. However the field either A. Damages components on the ship B. Only reduces thrust, turning radius, vertical drag, just weakens the engines or C. Applies the same deflection to your own rounds as well so that all of your guns have extra jitter.

Some cleaning up/kinks if anyone has better ideas:

The extra jitter comes *after* whatever ammunition you've loaded, so heavy clip wouldn't cancel it out.

It would be tough for the meta set-up to use since it would make a gatling gun and mortar difficult to shoot, so it wouldn't be viable as an attack strategy. However, it would be a good buff for support weapons (Hwacha, Carronade specifically) because they don't rely on accuracy but would help keep a Spire/Goldfish alive a little longer (albeit with momentary terrible maneuverability).

That same buff applied to a galleon seems very unfair. A galleon with increased hull protection, hwachas that don't care about accuracy seems very strong. Although it would pretty much have to drop anchor as well, so it might be easy prey.