Components mass vs mass limitation

[emtom]

Hi all,

I was wondering... does that make any sense to have so many component slots on some of available ships if it's clear upfront that you won't be able to fit all slots without exceeding total mass limitation? It basically forces mass dampeners on the ship as there is not too much component weight variety to be able to manage mass too much. Even dampeners don't come with too much variety as lvl1 vs lvl4 give 100 mass more of dampening (medium size). So upgrading then is only useful to add to dice pools? Maybe you can get rid of small dampener by upgrading medium one if you have both in your setup?

I might be missing something but I feel there's not enough variety in components weight to allow for more freedom as to what you want to put on the ship (like 1 missile launcher or 2 exploration/salvaging boost components or similar choices). You are basically locked on the number of components you have installed, and ratio of mass dampeners to other "useful" components.

What do you think about it?

[resistor]

You can think of mass dampeners as a "penalty" for increasing jump costs on powerful ships.

Mass dampeners themselves also have some limited customization variety. For example, if you are focused on ship combat then you might want to choose mass dampeners that add Pilot and Electronics over ones that add Ship Ops and Nav.

You can often eliminate the need for a mass dampener or two by using low mass components, like having the Dual-Field Engine, or replacing Targeting Matrices or Defense Matrices with Sensor Arrays, etc.

[muddball]

Not only what was posted above, but you can often switch medium slots for low slots (depending on your need) to make the most of your mass reducing needs. I have found that low slots are also the largest in mass differences from component to component. Some are 75, some are 150. 

Mass Dampener boost Ship ops and Navigation

Mass Modulator boost Pilot and Electronics
Mass Reducer boost Ship ops and Electronics and as an extra bonus, the Alta Mesa only Hawk Mass Reducer also has pilot.
Officer Cabins (small) are only 75 mass. When you flip them for weapon (small) slots watch out you can run out of mass really quickly

[fallen]

You can think of it in reverse - those ships could just have less component slots and no mass reducers. If you don't want ships with so many component slots, look for ship hulls that have fewer!

Also, mass reducers of all kind are nice -- check their bonuses and pick the ones that work best for your ship design.

[emtom]

Thanks for your replies. Gotta think about it and experiment a bit more.