sorry to revive this thread but it's the best one based on the idea i have.
i agree with the fact that efficiency run down too fast. it's like saying "the ship would fall apart if i dont look at it".
for me the timer is the "main time between failure", the time between two possible malfunction (each time there would be a loss of efficiency). it would be possible to skip one maintenance and repair the whole thing before the second efficiency loss.
here are the ideas (in the shape of rules):
- the rooms lose efficiency (random %age or given %age) when the count down reach zero then the countdown restart (with the timer possibly reduced by a formula like : max_timer*efficiency. As the room dont operate well, there are chance that a malfunction appear sooner than initially expected).
for example : a room got a 300 seconds (5 minutes) timer at 100% efficiency and at each missed maintenance check it lose 20% efficiency.
T+ 5 minutes (at the end of the first timer) : efficiency is at 80% and the timer is reduced to 240 seconds (4 minutes)
T+ 9 minutes (at the end of the second timer) : efficiency is at 60% and the next timer is reduced to 180 seconds (3 minutes)
T+ 12 minutes (at the end of the third timer) : efficiency is at 40% and next timer is reduced to 120 seconds (2 minutes)
T+ 14 minutes (at the end of the fourth timer) : efficiency is at 20% and next timer is reduced to 60 seconds (1 minutes)
T+ 15 minutes (at the end of the fifth timer) : efficiency is at 0%, the room stop to function (if the malfunction didnt broke the room earlier, ).
- when the count down reach 0 and the room dont have full efficiency, a malfunction may appear (the less efficency the room got, the more chance there is that a malfunction appear).
- patrols can avoid the timer to reach zero but the timer reaching zero may not be fatal by itself.
- efficiency would reduce(or increase) the rooms output and/or consumption.
(like power generator with low efficiency producing less energy. life-support with low efficiency needing additionnal power to reach the same output or, the other way around, life-support with low efficiency having a lower output resulting in the contamination of the ship atmosphere over time.)
with all those rules, the crew could maintain a greater number of room by checking some rooms after a few timer rather than rushing to avoid all timer to run out.
for example, the technician could do the maintenance on the engine, then go for the maintenance of some rooms on b1 deck. return to do the maintenance on the engine again and then go for the maintenance of some rooms on B2 deck.
NB: cutting the power may stop the timer but would also disable all the electronic devices including the air pump of the air storage, the fuel pump of the fuel storage and water pump of the water storage, so at least one of each room should be powered or the next room in the cycle may suffer malfunction. ("water treatment" for the water storage, "life-support" for air storage, "engine room" for the fuel storage).
EDIT:
here is an example to illustrate the idea.
if we say that , at each missed maintenance check, the efficiency get lower by a random amount between 1 and 10 multiplied by the size of the room ( 1 for small, 2 for medium and 3 for large.) or by the number of people needed for the maintenance.(making the bridge and the engine room more prone to efficiency loss than any other rooms, explaining the need of a permanent crew for such rooms)
then a large reactor (4:55 min for maintenance) would in the worst case scenario last at least 15 minutes (with 3 time a loss of 30 efficiency)and could last, in best scenario, several hours before needing maintenance.
therefore allowing the crew to deal with incident like pirates boarding the ship without having all the ship systems falling one after the other because the pirates are blocking the only path to the generator room. (of course, as the generator would lose efficiency, it would produce less power. that would force the crew to shut down non-vital systems to keep enough energy for the main systems.)
NB: Emergency power , with it's long timer and it's low efficiency loss (count as a small room), that would be the best fail-safe generator in case of massive attack.
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