I'm still just getting started in my game, and I've done some trading, a few missions, and even managed to kill a few small Klissan ships with the help of the military. But I'm finding that I'm spending a lot of money on fixing my equipment, so I have a few questions about how damaged equipment works.

First of all, is equipment damaged in battle, or just by using it? Or both? I originally thought it only got damaged in battle, but one of the pilot skills apparently reduces equipment wear, making me wonder if some equipment is damaged just by flying around a lot.

Secondly, how important is it to keep everything in tip-top shape? If my engine's health goes down to 75%, is its performance affected at all? Or is it only affected once it breaks completely?

Lastly, I was wondering about the economics of repairs. Is it cheaper to wait until equipment is pretty badly damaged before repairing it? Or is it cheaper to repair constantly, even when it's only slightly damaged? Does the repair cost actually scale with the amount of damage?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for replying, that's good to know. I am still curious as to whether partially damaged equipment performs worse than undamaged equipment, or if items need to fully break before anything bad happens. Anyone know?

Caveat: I've played SR2 extensively, and SR1 only a little.

You won't be able to target with broken weapons, and you won't be able to tag floating stuff for pickup if the gripper is broken. The fuel tank will start leaking when broken, but is still usable with the fuel contained at the moment you jump. The engine will continue to work, but at severely degraded performance. I haven't allowed other equipment to break on me, so I can't say how they are affected when durability runs out.

Yes, I know that these things happen when items break completely. But what if they are only, say 50% damaged? Do they work worse than items at full health? Do I need to worry about keeping all my items at 100% health all the time, or do I just need to make sure they don't actually break all the way?

Also, are repair costs linear with how much damage items have taken? i.e. 10 credits to repair from 90% to 100%, or 50 credits to go from 50% - 100%? I ask because I've been spending a lot on repairs and I'm wondering if it might be easier to wait until things are more heavily damaged before repairing them.

Thanks!

Awesome, that's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks! SR1 does indeed have science and military stations. I will have to check whether the repair costs there are cheaper. I do know that I could only repair my artifacts at science stations I think. This will have to wait a little though, as I've been distracted by other games. I'll be getting back to Space Rangers later.