It is now the second day of Alliance, and, from what I've seen, upgraded greased & mallet are the only tools you need to do well. Oh yeah, and armor kit + loch exists, too.
The nice thing about PvE is yeah, you don't have to worry too much about things being too op, but you have to make sure everything is op in distinct ways from each other so that we actually have to choose between them. Right now, most of the tool upgrades are just simple buffs to their numbers, which leads everyone trying to find the tools with the biggest numbers so that they can use that. A few simple, and other probably very not simple changes to upgrades that aren't simply bigger numbers would help make tools more distinct and solidify their roles.
Let's start with the Pilot tools, because most of these tools were already distinct from each other, and I love the upgrades that were made on two of them.
Drogue Chute & Impact Bumpers:
I really love the upgrades for these. They're examples of helping to solidify a role for a tool without simply buffing the numbers. Drogue Chute is now an obvious counter to balloon poppers, while Impact Bumpers have the reduced explosive damage taken, making it great for those oh-shit moments when you're taking too much damage.
Kerosene & Moonshine:
These are the only two pilot tools I have a problem with. One damages the engines less for a little less thrust, while the other damages the engines more for a little more thrust. Great! But now you have the nightmare of trying to fudge the numbers so everyone doesn't just take kerosene.
For Kerosene, instead of simply increasing thrust when it's upgraded, have it slowly give more thrust the longer it's used. This way, it's good for those long-distance marathons where you need to quickly move to the other side of the map. Moonshine upgrades should just simply flat out increase thrust while keeping its engine damage; this way it's the tool for when you need to quickly change directions or run that quick sprint that means the difference between getting a face full of mercantile laser or barely getting out of arc long enough to survive.
Helium, Chute Vent, and Claw are in good places, they're already distinct enough from all the other pilot tools that simple boosts to their effectiveness are good enough. The reduced impact damage from Chute Vent is a nice touch, however.
Let's move on to the gunnery equipment, because the whole "this ammo is good for this gun" or "this ammo is great for this range" shtick leads to everyone taking greased because it's awesome at all ranges and great on all the guns.
Heavy Clip:
Have upgrades give a boost to on-hit damage that gets calculated as shatter damage. Now it's a great ammo to use for when you want to try to focus down specific components on a ship, such as the shoop da whoop laser on the mercantile ship or the mini shoop da whoop flame weapons on a mercantile ship. This also meshes perfectly with the jitter reduction, as it helps gunners actually aim at what they want to disable.
Incendiary Rounds:
Have upgrades cause this round to give a debuff that blesses hit components with increased repair and rebuild times. Perfect for ruining an engineer's day. Also for making sure that mercantile laser beam actually stays down when you tell it to. This fits perfectly with the general feel of the ammo, as it's supposed to help, y'know, sow chaos and stuff.
Burst Rounds:
Increased damage that gets calculated as explosive damage, with an increased effect on damage that's already explosive damage. Now this ammo is great for finishing off ships that have no armor, and it actually makes sense to use explodey rounds on the explodey guns. Now I can make sure that stupid laser doesn't hit me by making sure it stopped existing in the first place.
Charged Rounds:
Increased damage that gets calculated as piercing damage, with an increased effect on damage that's already piercing damage. Now this ammo is great for helping ships take off all that heavy armor to expose all that sexy hull, and I no longer have to explain to someone why charged rounds actually cause a gat to do less damage. Making that laser more prone to being exploded is also a nice side effect.
Lesmok Rounds:
Increases damage the longer the projectile flies. Now the sniping ammo is actually good for, y'know, sniping. Getting to show off how far you can pump a mercantile laser full of lumberjack is a nice touch, too.
Greased Rounds:
No damage change, reduce the clip size boost so it doesn't give the heatsink 3rd shot, but keep the increased refire rate. Now it's an awesome ammo for engis who want to fire a clip really quickly so they can get back to putting out those fires from that stupid laser.
Heatsink Rounds:
Completely extinguishes a gun when loaded, and reduces incoming damage to that gun by 50%. I'm shooting this gun, no matter how many lasers you throw at me.
Loch is weird. Let it do loch stuff.
Now we can get to the Engineering Equipment, because it's supposed to be a mallet, not a pipe wrench that pipe wrenches better the pipe wrench.
Mallet:
Remove the rebuild power buff. This tool is for whacking things back into place, not for trying to fix them when I can't do that anymore. Instead, maybe also keep the cooldown, but allow other tools that aren't mallets to be used during a mallet cooldown. Now it's even better at what it does best, which is keeping things that aren't bork'd from being bork'd. Also, I no longer have to worry about that stupid laser setting fire to the hull literally RIGHT WHEN I MALLETED IT.
Spanner:
Parts that were freshly rebuilt with a spanner within 10 seconds of being destroyed take no damage for 2 seconds. Now the spanner is an awesome tool for making things that are bork'd by a certain laser less likely to be bork'd again.
Pipe Wrench:
Adds a chemspray effect that lasts about 10-20% longer than its cooldown period. Now the jack of all tools really IS the jack of all tools. Also, who doesn't want a swiss-army pipe wrench? Uhh, something about lasers not setting your guns on fire here.
Chemspray:
Allows for non-fire tools to be used during its cooldown. I shouldn't have to decide between not being set on fire by a laser and repairing the damage done by a laser.
Fail-Safe Kit:
If upgraded, allow it to be used without removing an armor kit. Otherwise, why would I use it if I can use an armor kit instead?
Buff Hammer & Armor Kit already seem to be in good spots. Leave them.
Changes like these allow for more varied gameplay, as they'll force players to ask what effects would work best with their team, over what effects are just simply the best. Also, this may be the solution to the boring old triple engi crew that just about *every* *single* *ship* seems to work best with.
