https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKV3HTmtJQ
Great tip. Keep a repair rifle (Cambio SRT) on your vehicle and you can save millions by patching up holes with it. What I especially like is that it won't restore your vehicle to pristine status, neither mechanically nor aesthetically. You will still need to take the vehicle back for repairs at some point, but it will cut 2/3rds off the bill.
You will need to use salvage material though, loaded into cartridges. So there's some complexity to it, and the patching up itself takes a bit of time, so often it'll be just quicker to pay up the full repair bill, or ditch and reclaim if the vehicle is too big and you're in a rush. But eventually all these mechanics will be nerfed and repairing will come into its own as a profession. Until then, you can repair stuff when you're trying to "1-life" a long session, or feel like roleplaying, or being stingy.
Note that in the Cult Spec, the Cambio SRT is only given to the Technician as standard, but anyone with an empty back slot can bring it, or better yet take it along in a rifle rack.
Some tips from the comments:
@mnmsdragon6499 wrote:Alt+B is to reload secondary by default, that's the button for the salvage cans for some reason. It should be the control below the normal reload in your keybindings under on foot- all for those who don't a bind for it for some reason.
@mnmsdragon6499 wrote:It's purely speculation on my part but I think having multiple reload types could be something significant to do with the FPS tool batteries that are in the game but not fully active yet. Think the maxi-lift battery or the multitool battery that are represented in the UI but not depleting as of right now, I think being able to reload multiple functions might just be a part of us eventually getting that kind of system.
@Halengar-o7 wrote:It's cool you can see a hitmarker while repairing, it shows you are repairing the hull HP in that section. These will have even more use as armor and penetration values come online.
@hwgusn wrote:You can craft full cartridges in a Vulture from stuff you've salvaged.
Hmmm, the next commenter's name reminds me of something...
@Adjudicator1 wrote:It was mentioned in a previous developer video that Repair and Salvage are two different sides of the same coin.
So in theory, a Drake Vulture could be reconfigured with different heads to do SIMPLE / patchwork repairs.
I believe complex repairs require dedicated ships that have more specialised repair tools and / or crafting stations to fabricate relays / replacement / jury-rigged components.
Conversely, Repair ships COULD be configured / modified to have salvage capability, but they will be a lot slower than dedicated salvage ships.
@pierro9119 wrote:And those clips are fairly easy to get, a Vulture or Reclaimer can craft them empty or full.
@ShadowOfMachines wrote:I usually grab one at the start of the patch and put it in the Vulture's weapon rack right next to the large tractor beam. Looks like I'll have more of a use for it now.
@nemesisone8927 wrote:You can offer your service to people to repair their ship for well half the price that it would cost them if they have to go to a hangar :) and also makes those canisters a commodity to trade with.
I like this idea! You and a friend or two gear up as Cult Technicians, and advertise your services in chat. While waiting for clients, you work your Vulture to store up salvage material, and if you bring a Starfarer along you can even refuel clients! An SRV could also be useful to bring wrecks to a safe area for the Vulture to salvage or clients to patch up and refuel. You can also stock up massive amounts of canisters in your hangar to bring into combat scenarios.
Which reminds me that the Cult Technician is a military unit, so for the above industrial scheme you should use Contractors instead.
@ArterialCanine wrote:Did a Save Stanton Phase 3 in my Polaris, by mission end had a red nose. Cost of repair 1.6m aUEC :)
@astromonkey2 wrote:If you put the RMC carts on your armor like it's ammo that helped some the clunkyness I had with the gun.
@markcritic2409 wrote:There used to be a blue medium RMC backpack... that still in the game?
@Accuracy158 wrote:There are still issues with repair prices due to "damaged weapons" no? (Not sure that's really it but people's workaround is pulling off a weapon putting it back on and that modification suddenly drops the repair price.) At least I think that's still in the game? I had a similar situation where the game was quoting me something like 108k to fix my Corsair and when I logged out and switched servers (because I couldn't repair :) the price changed to 34k or something like that.
I guess the gist of the story is that I expect a lot of issues with quoted repair prices at this time, especially being prone to change if you make modifications to the ship/relog. Not all quoted prices may be correct.
@gnaruto7769 wrote:What makes Polaris repair so expensive is if you lose weapons. The nose guns alone go for ~600k in repair.
@nemesisone8927 wrote:Sooo nice to salvage them if you find a wrecked ship I guess lol.
Another task to do with your repair crew: recover weapons and components and stack them in your hangar for client use.
