AS-IS: Damaged (non-infinite crystals - faction/T2, that have been used at least once) laser crystals use 1…N inventory icons. The icons do not display the % remaining, and it is not possible to stack crystals with identical damage
TO-BE: When returned to the inventory of the ship, perhaps after loading a different type of crystals (i.e. switching to Scorch from Conflagnation ), crystals of the same type and same damage will stack and display the damage %.
AS-IS shown with blue-is eclipses, TO-BE with green eclipse.
Reasoning: A great deal of laser-fitted ship-flying players sometimes use Faction and/or T2 crystals. Often, those ships are using identical number of laser turrets, and have those turrets “stacked” - meaning all 3 or 5 or 8 fire at the same time, thus the damaged crystals are at an equal percentage of damage.
UPDATE: Some capsuleers objected, saying that only fully repaired items are stackable.
Therefore, I propose another solution:
Damaged crystals will not be stackable, but will still display the damage. When Sorting the inventory, crystals of the same type (i.e. Scorch M) will sort from the most damaged to the least damaged; undamaged stack of crystals will be just after the least damaged one.
Furhermore, to make it easier to see (i.e. “Do those Conflagnations have enough durability left for an another mission?”), the percentages could be coloured.
In the following screenshot, I have used red for 1-32%, yellow for 33-65%, and green for 66-99% - the thresholds can, of course, be different.
The most damaged crystal can be used as a stacking point and all other unpacked crystals are to conform with that damage when stacked.
There is a technical limitation that only packed items can be stacked as they dont have stats and that way they take way less space in DB (basically just uniqueid for whole stack, itemid and quantity).
Another solution would be to allow us to repair the damn things. I wouldn’t mind if it cost some ISK.
Damaged laser crystals are the primary thing clotting up inventories. I can’t imagine that managing so many unique items with unique states is cheap on the server either.
Being able to repair for ISK, then repackage would solve all of that.
Oh, really? Well, in that case, I stand corrected! My apologies for being misinformed.
Still: when I load the Scorch crystals into my 6 grouped lazor turrets, and hover over the group, it says “69% damaged”. So, perhaps the stack could show the lowest %. Or the average, or the median. Or a range: “68-70%”.
OBJECTION: To my knowledge (kindly, correct me if I am wrong) no ammunition is “package-able”, or even needs to be packaged. Also f I recall correctly (again, correct me if I am mistaken) ALL amunition except faction/tech2 crystals already is stackable.
At least to me it would make sense that stackage-bility ought to be for all ammunition.
I agree that dealing with piles of unstackable damaged laser crystals is annoying.
On the other hand, you kind of have to take this as the tradeoff for using an ammo that takes virtually no physical space and rarely needs to reload. Stacking only works for packaged items, and by definition you cannot package damaged items. Trying to mitigate what is realistically a performance tradeoff with a massive overhaul of item mechanics seems like effort ill-spent.
Having said that…displaying the % damage on used crystals like you laid out is absolutely brilliant. Miners and laser users would totally get behind that.
Interestingly, probes also do not become unpackaged when loaded into weapons and deployed into space, then recovered - they come back into cargo as 1 quantity stacks (vs no quantity stacks for unpackaged objects). This resets the max flight time every time they reload, instead of each probe degrading over time.
The only non-module items I am readily finding that have ‘item damage’ flags appear to be the previously mentioned crystals (mining and frequency) and the Disintegrator plasma charges, though I don’t see the mechanic by which the latter take damage - anyone with experience on Trig weapons able to say if they actually take damage during use?
Entropic disintegrator charges are like other traditional charges and don’t take damage over time. One unit of ammuniation = one weapon cycle.
But their mix of unit individual volume and high weapon capacity means that you can fire continuously for extended periods without reloading, so they function more similarly to lasers in practice from a combat standpoint.
What about making it possible to “melt them together” somehow?
You add up all of the remaining percentages and round down to the nearest 100%.
i.e. 3 crystals (50% remaining, 70% remaining, 98% remaining) would come out to 218% and therefore give you two undamaged crystals, making the remaining 18% waste.
That way, you could collect crystals for a while and then eventually just melt them together, gaining stackable, undamaged crystals at the expense of some waste.
I’m pretty sure there are more than a few OCD guys that meticulously sort their crystals and maximize their use, reprocessing them at 99% damage. It is an Eve minigame. You wouldn’t want to take that away from these players, would you?
