I think if you gave batteries mass, let them live up to their names, we might see some people using light and medium batteries. It's worth a try, at least. Take these numbers for starters:

Free battery: 1000kg
Light battery: 500kg
Medium Battery: 1500kg
Heavy Battery: 2000kg
Fast Charge Battery: 2500kg
Ultra Charge Battery: 2500kg

Maybe multiply all of those numbers by .5 for better answers. I'm not sure, nor am I particularly caring about the exact numbers. I just care about the idea in general.

I always assumed the battery mass was included in ship weigth.

The various battery kinds are just because of the quality of material.

If you add weigth to ship mass, we'll need to bring down overall ship mass first or jump up the thrust, because some ships are slow enough as it is.

[Stamp O' Approval]

mgl_mouser, I think you're thinking of engine weight. Batteries are bought separately.

That would require completely changing all the ship masses, since it would be like adding 2500kg to the light ships and about 800kg to the SC prom.

I don't think it's worth the amount of time and difficulty it would introduce to the already long balancing process.

Tyrdium: yeah I know batteries are bought seperatelly but there's no way to leave without a battery, nor can you actually transport them.

Therefore, for any ship to be usable, there's always one (and only) battery. Thus, ship weigth includes battery mass.

One AA Battery included.

The problem is, there is currently no incentive whatsoever to use light or medium batteries. Fast charge and heavy batteries hold advantages over these in virtually every category (except cost, and please, who are we kidding?)

My take on battery masses:

Free Battery: 400 kg
Light Battery: 300 kg
Medium Battery: 800 kg
Heavy Battery: 1200 kg
Fast Charge Battery: 1100 kg

phaserlight, I agree that battery diversity would be nice, but I don't believe it's worth the work it would create in balancing.

If there is no real incentive to use the lower batteries, then why even have them?

Just slap a bat in every ship by default, and call it a reactor. I've already mentioned that this would speed up the balancing process as it would reduce the number of possible configurations on each ship. You could set the battery for the Cent to be like a medium, etc..

All the current battery system does now is punish the n00bs.

Even with massive mass differences, I don't think the light & medium batteries would be at all worthwhile. They just suck, there's no way around it.

And I agree with Eldrad, even if it did create more battery diversity (which I don't think it actually would), it still wouldn't be worth the devs time to implement.

@Furious:

your point touches on a larger issue, namely that about half of the technology currently available to VO players is not actually good for anything. it's not just batteries that punish n00bs, but weapons as well.

one statistic i'd like to know is what percentage of the active player population has access to one or more nations' special ships.

I propose making the light, medium, and heavy batteries all charge at 45 e/s. Then give them different masses (300,600,900)

the fast charge and ultra charge should have a mass of 1200.

This way the difference in the battery is more in line with energy stored than energy generated, and the fast charge batteries have a reduced effectiveness in the lightest ships, after all, infinite turbo should come with a downside.

And nerf light ships even more?
Definately no.
Also all the scores on the race tracks would be impossible to achieve.

I fail to see the reasoning behind this. Even if it made my Moth lighter, there's no way I'd strap anything other than an FC on it, Infiniboost trumps anything else.

Also, my Hornet's cumbersome as it is; last thing I need is to have the ship perform even worse if I use anything but the light battery.

Bad idea, very bad.

*scratches head*

I fail to see your logic, jexkerome... a) your moth would not become lighter if batteries had mass, and b) first you say that the Fast Charge trumps everything, then that your hornet would perform worse with anything but a Light Battery...

/me points to Furious' post

Do you use anything except Fast Charge or Heavy Battery right now?

Do you agree that each piece of equipment should have its place in game?

If you answered yes to both of these, then obviously something should be done to the light and medium batteries because no one ever uses them...

Every bit of equipment should come with tradeoffs, and in my mind the most simple, straightforward way of balancing the batteries would be to give them mass... the mechanism is already in game for equipment and cargo to have mass, the only thing that would take time is balance.

Besides, does it make sense for something which powers your ship's engines, weapon systems and warp drive to have negligible mass?

I'm inclined to agree with roguelazer... the power cell of your ship ought to be a significant portion of its overall mass, and the light battery should be significantly lighter than the heavy and fast charge batteries (duh). Then the light and medium batteries might actually see some use, and then infiniturbo might not always "trump anything else."

To compensate for the additional mass, perhaps the thrust on all ships could be given a 10% increase across the board. The bottom line is that right now putting a fast charge battery on your ship is a no-brainer, whereas batteries with varying masses like every other piece of equipment in game, would throw some consideration into the mix.

I rarely worry about mass. It's more the time it take to recharge that concerns me when it comes to batteries, once you have the FC why WOULD you want to use anything else. Even if it were the heaviest in the game, the added infiboost that it give some ships is more then worth the extra weight. I doubt that this would have a signifigent impact on battery choices. And this would ultimately lead to more complaints.

Considering the recent update, I thought I'd bump my old thread.

(This is a year old... Have patience with my outlandish numbers... )

Haha Roguelazer - yeah I think those #'s are a little off.