Combat and mining - reducing clicks

Have weapons automatically cycle after you activate them until either your ship or the target ship is killed.

For mining perhaps have it auto cycle for a few minutes and then stop, like EvE Online.

What do you all think?

I’m all for this, more for mining and salvage than combat, simply because you should really be paying attention in combat, but let us assume all are equal. I see 2 ways to go about it:

  1. Time-based - Each click cycles the equipment as many times as it can for 60-120 seconds and then stops requiring another click.
  2. Turn-based - Each click cycles the equipment for 5-10 actions and then stops, requiring another click.

Examples:
Time-based set for 60 seconds - A piece of equipment that has a 10s recycle time would activate 6 times in the 60-second interval (initial click, 10-second delay, would fire again at 49, 38, 27, 16 and 5 then stop since the next interval, would be at 0. A piece of equipment with a 15s recycle time would only fire 4 times (initial, 44, 28, 12). Basically a timer starts at the first click and an item will continue to cycle as long as the timer is not at 0.

Turn-based set for 5 cycles - A piece of equipment would go through its cycle 6 times (initial click, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and then stop. Basically, a counter is set at the initial click and with each cycle, it would drop by 1 and at 0 would require another click to activate the equipment.

I don’t know which would be easier to code, I’ll leave that to those who know.

Edit: This could be an account upgrade or a piece of equipment, crafted or purchased w/TSC, for the specific purpose, combat, mining or salvage. Just thought I would toss in a way to make it pay for itself.

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For mining and combat, I can see these weapons/drills being placed in either automatic cycle mode or manual mode. TO help balance the game, auto mode takes more energy so you have to be outfitted better to use that mode. Manual can be as it is now.

Since the game is not forgiving, having weapons in auto mode is DANGEROUS. It is easy to get distracted and die. I like the ability to stop fighting and have my ship leave combat on its own. This has saved me twice with lost connections and emergency situations at home.