I love the idea of this!
Like the comment by "Stalwart Pachyderm", I also think there should be a tier between this and Subspace Drives so there'd be a parallel progression to Hyper Drives, but I think the attributes should be different.

I think the improvements should be in disengage chance and jump range rather than jump cooldown. Something like:
*Subspace is all vanilla values.

Originally posted by Angelic Burrito:

I love the idea of this!
Like the comment by "Stalwart Pachyderm", I also think there should be a tier between this and Subspace Drives so there'd be a parallel progression to Hyper Drives, but I think the attributes should be different.

I think the improvements should be in disengage chance and jump range rather than jump cooldown. Something like:

[Drive] [Power] [Disengage Chances] [Disengage Modifier] [Jump CD] [Jump Range] Subspace 5 0 NA -25% -50% <Tier 2> 10 1 -66% -25% -30% Subwarp 15 1 -33% -25% -10%

*Subspace is all vanilla values.

Looking at new tiers at the moment!

Subspace would remain the same as a tier 1, but I changed it's upgrade path to this one, instead of switching to the Jump drive. So, any other mods that touch the Subspace drive will probably be incompatible, unfortunately, but its something I had to do if you want to be able to use these upgrades on the exploration vehicles.

Currently, Subwarp drives will become tier 2, and scale down to that level in terms of cost and tech. It will be getting a Disengagement chance of 1, 10% more range, with reduced cooldown of -50% instead of -75%. Using it in game, the difference in usability is palpable compared to the Subspace drives. Especially since you'll be getting it sooner, after you discover Fusion power.

The tier 3 drive will be similar to the current Subwarp, but with 20% more range while wielding that -75% cooldown. Being able to jump more frequently, and shake off the debuffs before combat, makes these things actually usable in a game! That 150 day cooldown on Subwarp just hurts it too much if you keep using that past the early game!

Sounds great! Glad they're getting a disengage chance.
I first suggested not buffing cooldown because, used offensively, I think it may be OP to bypass enemy defenses with such a short downtime, but I didn't consider that since this would be an empire's only drive type (for most the game), it must also be viable defensively—which a long cooldown doesn't allow.

I still wonder if a tier 3 drive with -75% CD and -30% range would be too versatile when used offensively, but that probably just needs to be playtested.

Originally posted by Angelic Burrito:

Sounds great! Glad they're getting a disengage chance.
I first suggested not buffing cooldown because, used offensively, I think it may be OP to bypass enemy defenses with such a short downtime, but I didn't consider that since this would be an empire's only drive type (for most the game), it must also be viable defensively—which a long cooldown doesn't allow.

I still wonder if a tier 3 drive with -75% CD and -30% range would be too versatile when used offensively, but that probably just needs to be playtested.

From my tests, the -50% sublight speed and weapons damage while on cooldown was more than enough to hinder this offensively. You have to, in my tests, be very picky when choosing targets, or invest into cloaking so you can wait out the cooldown in privacy.

I'm also not very aggressive in playstyle, so others may find this to be OP and I'll tweak if its too much.

Oh, the recharge debuffs are def enough to make a fleet pretty useless. My thought was that—to use it offensively—you'd jump to a strategically important system with either weak defenses or defenses with too little range so you can sit safely for the 1.8 months you need to recharge before engaging at normal capacity; either repeat or wait for the enemy to come to you.

The number of strategically important systems you can reach is fairly reduced, though, at -30% range.

So I was thinking, with Eager Explorers getting a boost to Voidcraft tech draw chance, perhaps these tech should be categorized as Voidcraft so that Eager Explorers get a higher chance at it.