Hull Damage/ Repair ?

[Tex_Recoil]

Okay guys I have been bugged with this since starting the game and repeating play. I can only guess that it is a scripted part of the game. I do my 2nd jump have a full 900 point hull, land in 2nd system with 800 points. Everything is good, 2 eva airlocks running. No loss of alloys or power and I open my 3rd sections. Eva airlocks never stop running, But now Im losing hull. My two eva airlocks can't seem to keep the hull repaired even with a +16 balance Per Cycle. Is this how it ment to work or is this a bug? Even putting a 3rd Eva Airlock to work I keep losing hull. I know I will get a event about the hull lose and then the hull will start gain points again. If that how this is ment to be, all that wasted alloy spent fighting it.

[Amanoob105]

Just to be sure to cover all bases, all your EVAs are powered, no extra hours and the hull repair option is turned on?
If "yes" then that sounds like a very odd bug that it only lets you repair the hull after you get an event to do so.
I can't find any posts talking about this in the Discord so we will likely need more people on this.

Side note. You get more efficient alloy use for more HP put back up per unit of alloy used if you do actively turn off hull repair from time to time and let the HP drain down, though (bugs aside) never really more than half.

[Rekal]

The hull depletion is meant to be constant drain on your resources requiring hull repair to counteract to in essence put a timer on you. Eventually you'll run out of Fe and alloy without something changing. Each new jump not only reduces your maximum hull points, it creates a larger constant drain. Opening new sectors also adds an additional constant drain.

Some things to keep in mind. There is a +1 stability bonus for just keeping the hull above 25%. That seems like a no-brainer, but it gives you a tip on how low you can allow it to drop while you're idling in one place without taking any penalties.

Efficiency is the stat you're struggling with right now. What it effects: In my current playthrough, one EVA dock at 100% efficiency will repair 48 hull points every cycle at a cost of 4 alloys. If that efficiency drops to say 50%, that same EVA dock will only reapir 24 hull points every cycle.

Understanding how the efficiency number changes is key. If the hull is close to maximum hull points then the efficiency is going to be tanked to for example 50% with the premise being it's a lot harder to find the locations needing to be repaired so more time is spent by the work crew just traveling along the hull.

As the hull becomes more damaged, it's easier for the work crews to find damage so less time is spent traveling and efficiency goes up. The hull point drain is constant barring accidents inside, stress from traveling, or space weather outside. Eventually if your EVA docks at 100% efficiency can overcome the hull depletion but the same docks at 50% effiency can't then you'll reach an equialibriam somewhere inbetween not at maximum hull points. 100% effiency is reached somewhere between 25% and 50% hull integrity.

So with the example you provided, after you opened the new sector in the third system your constant drain became higher than the two EVA docks could repair at low efficiency of max hull points. As the hull gets more damaged, their efficiency will increase and you'll reach a state where they can continue to keep up as long as the alloy is being delivered fast enough. Adding the third dock may have produced a stockpile supply issue. Confirm they're all getting the alloys they need.

If you focus on hull repair bonuses while being willing to idle at less than 100% health points to maintain higher efficiency, you can make it to where you are currently with a single EVA dock maintaining. You'll want more docks to make spot repairs before and during movement and to build out more solar panels but typically they can be turned off.

Here's an image from my current playthrough showing the bonuses you can get for your EVA dock repairs and the expected depletion rates you'll encounter later on.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2910732365
First are the precentage bonuses from Space Specialization and the EVA Dock tech upgrades. Space Specialization is something you want to plan for T2 ASAP. In fact, you can get this bonus (and I recommend you do) before you open your third sector. Be sure to have your Fe smelter running before spending the extra alloy. Create one space dock, two probe launchers, and four EVA docks in the same sector to get the seven space buildings needed for space specialization T2. The majority of the buildings will be powered off but they still count, you won't need the second probe launcher until the late-game defensive use. This gives a 20% bonus to hull repairs. It says repairs are more "efficent" but this doesn't deal with the efficiency stat, it is a straight 20% bonus to hull repairs meaning you get more repairs for the same amount of alloy.

The EVA dock tech upgrades work the same. Up to a 15% increase in hull points repaired per cycle means extra hull points for the same alloy. These percentage bonuses will effect all of your EVA docks equally.

The second bonus types are the flat bonuses. I only know of two; one for remaining in Optimal working conditions for a flat +10 hull repair per cycle bonus. The other is for the DLS policy of setting working hours to Supported which gives a flat +5 hull repair.

The flat bonuses occur immediately if you meet the conditions and have at least onee EVA dock operation. This makes that single EVA dock MUCH more productive which allows you to rely on it alone for much longer. Regardless, the flat bonuses are litterally free hull point repairs.

All of these bonuses are shown in the image above. Focus on getting these types of bonuses and your alloy drain will slow considerably.

[GD]

Waste is your saviour ... especially regarding Alloy.

[TsPok]

Hull integrity might be gowing down if there are broken buildings at the station. If there are some with green wrench, hull would not be repaired until all buildings are at good state.

[Alex]

4 opened sector's, 3x jumps. 2x Eva's are enough to get between -7 and +2 for hull per cycle. Don't forget to research faster hull repair, it's one of my first upgrades.

[Tex_Recoil]

I would post picture of my screen, showing the hull info but dont know how to do it on this forum. Anyway when I saved my game to finial post about this hull damage this is what it showed when mousing over the hull part of the display.
590/800
+16 Balance Per Cycle
-64 Hull Depletion
-40 From Vohle Jumps (2)
-24 From Open Sectors (3)
+80 Hull Repair
!st sector +35 From Active Eva Airlocks (1) (74% Efficiency)
+5 From Optimal Working Conditions
2nd Sector +35 From Active Eva Airlocks (1) (74% Efficiency)
+5 From optimal Working Conditions

So from that I should be gaining points to my hull, I jump into system with 900 point hull. Took Vohle damage to 800 points. I'm not worried about the alloy being spent as I am good on alloy's. Its that I went from 800 points to 590 in a very short time period with both eva Airlocks runniing non-stop repairs. Even now with a +16 balance over the hull damage being done. I'm still losing hull. I have -40 from jumps, plus -24 for sectors open = a total of -64 damage being done. I'm repairing +80 to hull giving me +16 over and yet I'm losing hull.
I have no damaged inside any sectors, no homeless, no starving. I have trust at +3.0% and a Stability of 2 in each sector with a dls being built in both. I cant explain why it happening but this is one of the "I call bugs" that ruins the game for me.

[Alex]

If u have +16 how u can lose? That's sound impossible or a bug.

I will post later my stats. Optimize work balance is important too.

[Aouregan]

Generally, repairs get more efficient, the worse your hull is off. It is explained nicely in the game along the lines of "IF you only have two holes to plug, the team has a rather hard time finding them, if you have 500, well, they can patch whenever they set foot out of the hatch".
So the repair value is not an absolute.
BUT, if you are in positive, and see alloys being transported to your EVAs effectively, the repair counters moving, and you having a positive value, then there is no reason (unless you go over a certain threshold upon which repairs become less efficient as mentioned above), then it sounds like a bug to me. And that threshold crossing will be visible in your overall repair stats on top as going into minus. I would report it as bug.

[Tex_Recoil]

Well started over, glad I have save right before jumping and getting that bug. So far haven't gotten the bug yet. Paying close attention the hull to see if it happens again and what might cause it.

[Skull]

Anyone know of a way to change the rate in a config file or something? I just find this a tiresome mechanic and want a more casual experience.

[Alt0153]

Originally posted by Skull:

Anyone know of a way to change the rate in a config file or something? I just find this a tiresome mechanic and want a more casual experience.

afaik when you start a new game you can set the rate of repair and degredation in the custom settings

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Alt0153:

Originally posted by Skull:

Anyone know of a way to change the rate in a config file or something? I just find this a tiresome mechanic and want a more casual experience.

afaik when you start a new game you can set the rate of repair and degredation in the custom settings

On top of the those same settings can be changed, at will, at any point in an ongoing game.

[orgin]

I completely lost interest in this game due to the constant hull integrity management. Doing hull maintenance all the time instead of getting time to actually play the game.

The game has very little automation so after a while it all becomes an absolute micromanaging nightmare.

If you are someone considering buying this game then my recommendation is to forget about it and move over to something else.

[ShinZed]

Originally posted by orgin:

I completely lost interest in this game due to the constant hull integrity management. Doing hull maintenance all the time instead of getting time to actually play the game.

The game has very little automation so after a while it all becomes an absolute micromanaging nightmare.

If you are someone considering buying this game then my recommendation is to forget about it and move over to something else.

You do know you can turn hull degradation off right? If it doesn't float your boat, the option is there.
It's not even a huge deal on normal mode when it's on.