It would say, that PCs can of course repair their ship outside of an encouter, but not via damage control.
The 500 creds are, in my opinion, work time and material. As the mechanic of the group hasn't to be paid I would just lower the cost, not make it completly free. At least they need parts to repair the damaged parts of the ship.

Sorry for this very short answer, but I am supposed to work at the moment

I think it's assumed the material cost for new hull plating is base 500 credits per hull point. So players could purchase the hull and then fix the Starship themselves with the right tools and time. If time is an issue I'd have them make a simple mechanics check to see how many hull points they repair in a day. If they wish to rush, add two setback and make it a simple mechanics check to see how many hull points per hour. If the facilitates are downgraded or they are missing tools then add additional setback dice in either situation.

If the players don't want to or have better things to do with their time then they can hire a repair crew, with an additional cost, at the more equipped Starports to do the repairs for them.

If they're not in a spaceport or location with at least some repair functionality (e.g. on some abandoned world, scavenging hull plates from crashed ships nearby) then adjust the difficulty check from simple as required.

As I'd make the above about speed rather than difficulty this is also a great time for the group to work as a team. Perhaps the 'face' characters are out securing the services, tools, hull plates for the group. The more technical/mechanical players are working as a team to hastily fix the ship up. On more remote worlds the explorer is helping locate and scavenge parts in place of the 'face' character. All of the above could be defined in a couple of rolls and you move the adventure right along to some of your more interesting encounters.

Edit: Page 245 seems to have better guidance. I'm going to combine the information on that page with my idea above and publish a blog post on it. Will link back once I have it done.

Edit 2: Blog post as promised. http://nashable.net/?p=260

My opinion would be, as said by Nashable above, that the 500 credits is for material and renting a maintenance bay at the port they're in. Then let them use Mechanics to fix the hull with the same difficulties as with Medicine and wounds: Easy for less than half the threshold, Average for more than half and separate rolls for Critical results.

There is a second option with a dice check that I read in the core book just the other night. I'm at work right now but placeholding here. I'll find the page tonight if someone else doesn't answer this afternoon.

My opinion would be, as said by Nashable above, that the 500 credits is for material and renting a maintenance bay at the port they're in. Then let them use Mechanics to fix the hull with the same difficulties as with Medicine and wounds: Easy for less than half the threshold, Average for more than half and separate rolls for Critical results.

Now that makes good sense, as does Nashable's post. I'm sort of surprised the book doesn't say that, but perhaps the designers intended it to be read in order and so assumed the players/GM would know to apply those rules here.

So would that interpretation be pay 500 credits per day and roll to see how much you fix (which, IIRC, is 1 for a base success plus 1 for every two added successes)?

So would that interpretation be pay 500 credits per day and roll to see how much you fix (which, IIRC, is 1 for a base success plus 1 for every two added successes)?

Well, the rules do specify this as being 500 per hull point .

Assuming the entire crew is working on repairs and at least one of the characters is an accomplished mechanic (high int, a rank or two in mechanics), I don't see any need to make rolls or take more than a day. There's no stress, no time issues, no combat. Charge them the 500 per point (or less with the proper negotiation/obligation). You could rule two days for extreme damage, but why bother? Critical damage I'd say would take a roll, and I'd probably only allow a few tries per day.

I'd think the 500/point is parts and labor. Parts alone would be less (just hull plating for the most part right?). There of course would be docking/refueling fees.

At 500/point I'd see my players running out of money fast unless they are finding caches of hutt gold everywhere they look.

Assuming the entire crew is working on repairs and at least one of the characters is an accomplished mechanic (high int, a rank or two in mechanics), I don't see any need to make rolls or take more than a day. There's no stress, no time issues, no combat....

...(snip)...

I'd think the 500/point is parts and labor. Parts alone would be less (just hull plating for the most part right?).

Sounds like a bit of a mundane way to approach it. E4 introduced us to that fastest piece of junk called the Millenium Falcon, and the only time it was ever in great shape was the beginning of E6. Keeping the ship working, making mods, etc can be a great part of the story.

Never mind that you couldn't repair an airplane in a day, it would probably take several.

As for "just hull plating", that's ignoring all the systems that make space travel possible. It's not a featureless tin can. The ship has fragile systems, wiring about to fray and short, pipes ready to leak from being shaken up in the last battle, a comm dish about to fall off... And yes, running a ship is expensive.

So would that interpretation be pay 500 credits per day and roll to see how much you fix (which, IIRC, is 1 for a base success plus 1 for every two added successes)?

Well, the rules do specify this as being 500 per hull point .

OK, but is that for parts alone or parts and labor. IRL, the labor is usually the more expensive part.

Assuming the entire crew is working on repairs and at least one of the characters is an accomplished mechanic (high int, a rank or two in mechanics), I don't see any need to make rolls or take more than a day. There's no stress, no time issues, no combat....

...(snip)...

I'd think the 500/point is parts and labor. Parts alone would be less (just hull plating for the most part right?).

Sounds like a bit of a mundane way to approach it. E4 introduced us to that fastest piece of junk called the Millenium Falcon, and the only time it was ever in great shape was the beginning of E6. Keeping the ship working, making mods, etc can be a great part of the story.

Having just watched the movie, it was weird to me that the Falcon suddenly has all this stuff wrong with it in ESB, despite never having had any such issues in ANH, and then in RotJ it's back to being perfectly fine again. Different writers, I guess.

So, assuming your ship only has a couple of hull trauma, it seems like it's way more cost effective to just wait until a space encounter comes along and fix the ship using Damage Control and Manual Repairs, assuming there's a character who is free to do that the pilot flies and the gunner shoots.

That's really weird.

So would that interpretation be pay 500 credits per day and roll to see how much you fix (which, IIRC, is 1 for a base success plus 1 for every two added successes)?

Well, the rules do specify this as being 500 per hull point .

OK, but is that for parts alone or parts and labor. IRL, the labor is usually the more expensive part.

It's because of questions like this that I started the thread in the first place.

Remember that an encounter need not be combat, yet it still resets the per encounter marker.

I would rule that you can't heal more hull points during an encounter than you've taken as damage in that same encounter. At least, provided you've had a chance to dock and make repairs between said encounters. Hull points from previous encounters must be repaired on the ground.

Assuming the entire crew is working on repairs and at least one of the characters is an accomplished mechanic (high int, a rank or two in mechanics), I don't see any need to make rolls or take more than a day. There's no stress, no time issues, no combat....

...(snip)...

I'd think the 500/point is parts and labor. Parts alone would be less (just hull plating for the most part right?).

Sounds like a bit of a mundane way to approach it. E4 introduced us to that fastest piece of junk called the Millenium Falcon, and the only time it was ever in great shape was the beginning of E6. Keeping the ship working, making mods, etc can be a great part of the story.

Never mind that you couldn't repair an airplane in a day, it would probably take several.

As for "just hull plating", that's ignoring all the systems that make space travel possible. It's not a featureless tin can. The ship has fragile systems, wiring about to fray and short, pipes ready to leak from being shaken up in the last battle, a comm dish about to fall off... And yes, running a ship is expensive.

First off, spending entire days of an adventure repairing the ship and spending every last bit of coinage they have doing it is mundane. "Alright, for tonights adventure, we're going to spend a week repairing the ship. Everyone erase all the credits you have, and lets start rolling dice!"

lol

I know thats not what you meant, but you also misinterpretted my post.

My take on hull damage is just that, hull damage. Critical hits are the beefy bits of damage to ship interiors that take special parts and repair efforts. Pounding out some dents and welding on a new layer of durasteel armor is child's play and simply takes the materials, a base mechanical knowledge, and some time.

Sure, if you are trying to keep the ship looking like new, add some difficulty. But if you are just trying to keep it spaceborne like the Falcon or Serenity, weld those plates on and lets move.

For straight hull damage, there's no threat. Why spend time and effort hashing out the little details to simple ship upkeep? You're experienced ship mechanic is going to fail to weld the plating on? Now if there is an issue, that's different. If you landed in an Imperial controlled spaceport and are wanted by the Imps, you better make some quick repairs and get moving. If a bounty hunter is after you, maybe you shouldn't spend an entire day scrubbing off the mynock spittle.

As I said before, critical damage needs to be addressed individually, but even then, time and parts alone should be all you really need. If the adventure lead them to a friendly planet and there is no immediate threat, why bog down the game with pointless rolls that just need to be repeated upon failure. If there is a narrative based reason for stress, then by all means, make them jump through the hoops.

As for cash, yeah, flying a ship is expensive. But a minor run in with a pair of tie fighters is going to end up costing a TON of creds to just buff out the dents at $500/point. The base adventure would send the players spiralling into debt. The poor mining community that fixes the ship for free makes no sense in the follow up adventure if it's really that expensive. If that is essential to the narrative, then by all means, suck the players dry of credits through repairs. Make them decide if they want to eat, repair the ship, or get a new blaster to replace the one that got destroyed in the last fight. I don't plan to give my players a cargo hold full of gold and jewels, but I don't want them spending hours discussing budgets and credit counselling either.

As for that airplane. If it was simply missing a few pieces of it's hull, any weekend warrior mechanic could fix that with a few tools and some parts. If half it's flight controls were ripped out, then yes, you'd need specially trained people with the right parts and expertise to handle the situation.

Looking at the rules for repairs right now...

It says repairing Hull Trauma takes three things: proper facilities, money, and time. I'm wondering if cutting some of those out would still allow for repairs but would involve setback dice. Of course, since it doesn't appear that a roll is made at all for these repairs, the point is probably moot.

The cost of repairs appears to be 500 credits per point of HT, but it then says that this is highly variable. I'm assuming that if the PCs do the work themselves the cost might drop by as much as 50%, but that's going to be a GM call.

What is weird is that the time guidelines make repairs take a LONG time. Up to 25% of HT is a matter of days. More damage than that takes weeks (5 days per week) or months (35 days per month). I've seen one space combat in game so far, and a single hit took the ship over 25% or its HT. That's going to take weeks to fix, but the cost doesn't appear to be altered by how long it takes to fix it. Weird. I'm not really feeling like weeks of repairs are very fitting to the "constantly on the go" feel of Star Wars.

I think I'd prefer if a Mechanics roll were made each day and the results of that roll determined how much work was completed (and how much HT was repaired) that day. I'd use Table 6-11 (page 220), substituting Mechanics for Medicine and HT for WT. The credit cost would be a base of 500 per point of HT, but reduce by 10% per Advantage and increase by 10% per Threat rolled. Adjust the cost based on the quality of the facilites used for the repairs.

Superb Facilities (3 Boost, +60% cost)

Very Good Facilities (2 Boost, +40% cost)

Good Facilities (1 Boost, +20% cost)

Basic Facilities

Poor Facilities (1 Setback, -10% cost)

Very Poor Facilities (2 Setback, -20% cost)

Terrible Facilities (3 Setback, -30% cost)

Note that a good mechanic with Gearhead can overcome the Seback of sub-standard facilities and still enjoy the cost reduction.

Modification to the above, with cost based on Damage to HTT:

Current Damage equal to half or less of HTT = 250 credits per point of damage

Current Damage equal more than half of HTT = 500 credits per point of damage

Current Damage exceeds HTT = 1,000 credits per point of damage

This is based upon the cost for repairing damaged equipment found on page 159.

So a YT-1300 (starting HTT 22) that had taken 14 damage would pay a base cost of 500 credits per point for the first three points then 250 per point for the last 11. The difficulty of a roll is based on the total points of HTT suffered at the time of making the roll. Advantages reduce costs if the PCs are doing the work themselves.

Im just finishing up a detailed blog post with some suggestions. Will be posting soon(ish)

500 credits is cheap. Real cheap. If you've ever been in a bad car accident you can attest to that. As stated, it is not just hull that is damaged. You would have to rewire, and replace other parts. Also, there is only so much you can do with a welding torch. Do you really want to cut corners where your breathable atmo leaking out in a hyperjump on your x12 backup?

As to the Falcons condition in ESB, Han and the rebellion were hiding from bounty hunters and the empire. It was probably hard to get parts let alone take the ship knto a bay. During RotJ, the fleet was gathering for a final assault and would make sure every ship was functional.

As promised here is the blog post: http://nashable.net/?p=260

When reading it keep in mind the design behind these rules is to be quick but make repairing a ship expensive, to drive the players to more desperate acts, to perhaps get involved with a loan shark or owe a favor to a rich benefactor. It also allows you to throw a few more credits into adventures so players have clear choices, do they keep an emergency fund for repairing the ship or blow it all on a new heavy blaster rifle. While the rules may look detailed written down, the system is resolved at max with two skill checks, which could be reduced to one if the players decide to hire someone to fix their ship instead.

As promised here is the blog post: http://nashable.net/?p=260

When reading it keep in mind the design behind these rules is to be quick but make repairing a ship expensive, to drive the players to more desperate acts, to perhaps get involved with a loan shark or owe a favor to a rich benefactor. It also allows you to throw a few more credits into adventures so players have clear choices, do they keep an emergency fund for repairing the ship or blow it all on a new heavy blaster rifle. While the rules may look detailed written down, the system is resolved at max with two skill checks, which could be reduced to one if the players decide to hire someone to fix their ship instead.

Your repair times don't seem to reflect that in Star Wars 1 week = 5 days.

As promised here is the blog post: http://nashable.net/?p=260 When reading it keep in mind the design behind these rules is to be quick but make repairing a ship expensive, to drive the players to more desperate acts, to perhaps get involved with a loan shark or owe a favor to a rich benefactor. It also allows you to throw a few more credits into adventures so players have clear choices, do they keep an emergency fund for repairing the ship or blow it all on a new heavy blaster rifle. While the rules may look detailed written down, the system is resolved at max with two skill checks, which could be reduced to one if the players decide to hire someone to fix their ship instead.

Your repair times don't seem to reflect that in Star Wars 1 week = 5 days.

I thought that was retconned by the EU at a later date. Happy to modify that though.

Edit: Made the whole thing days so that way whatever calendar you and your players use it will work.

I think I'll be using the "cannot repair more than has been suffered in an encounter" rule. Since only one of these can be done per encounter, that limits it to 1 less than the total damage taken (unless they have a skilled Mechanic, which takes it to up to 4).

As an alternative, I may have the ship just "owe" some repairs after the first Damage Control action before docking. Kind of that "Captain, we really need to replace that actuating capacitor soon. I don't want it to blow in the middle of a fight."

You get one Damage Control free, but if you use it again (at another encounter where you take damage) before finishing the previous repairs in a proper facility, then the cost of the damage repaired by that second Damage Control is owed to the ship in repairs. Until they are made, any piloting difficulty is upgraded once (increasing the chance something blows out).

So say you are in a fight, and take 5 points of hull damage. You Damage Control 1 away during the fight (or right after) and everything is hunky dory. On the way to a planet, you are ambushed and take another 3 points. You Damage Control 1 point away from that 3, but since you didn't get to that original 4, you now owe 500 credits for this DC action, and the pilot upgrades difficulty by 1.

Pretty good Nashable