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HOW THINGS ARE:
Currently, O2 duration is 5m33s per tank.
So at 5m33s a tank, a stack of 8 oxygen tanks used to last you 44m24s.
Add the 1 in the suit and you get 49m57s total dive time without having to sacrifice another slot for more tanks.
This is pretty decent balance, and what we know and love.
IMO, you have to micromanage tanks a bit more than I'd prefer, but the time per stack is pretty decent.
HOW THE DEVS ARE ABOUT TO SCREW US:
I just went on the unstable version yesterday, O2 tanks now last exactly 10 minutes 6.6 seconds.
(Yes, I went to the lengths of recording it and literally cutting the video, frame-perfect, so I had an exact frame count at 60fps.)
But let's just say 10m7s for simplicity's sake.
So at 10m7s a tank, a "stack" lasts only 10m7s. Add the one in your suit, and you get 20m14s.
They just nerfed your time while diving with 1 spare stack of tanks from ~50min to a measly ~20.25min!
We're only getting 40.5% the time we used to!
HOW ABOUT OXYGENITE?
Even Oxygenite got a nerf per stack of tanks (and percentage wise, it used to last 300.3% longer, now it only lasts 219.1% longer than regular O2), though IMO this part isn't as big of an issue.
Oxygenite is now 22m10s per tank.
It used to be 16m40s a tank, so 150min0s (2hrs30min0s) per stack (plus the one in your suit when you left).
Now, you get 22m10s a tank, so 44m20s for the same space. That's just seconds shy of the original time for a stack (a stack of 8, not counting the one in the suit) of regular no-refill-cost oxygen tanks!
I don't mind Oxygenite being more of a "only use this when you need the movement speed boost in combat" resource than a viable alternative to O2 tanks for just regular breathing, but they're effectively making you PAY OXYGENITE just to get your original dive time back!
Sure, that gives a bit more Oxygenite time per unit, but it's still a MASSIVE loss for actual sustainability if you're more than a a few hours into the game and have a decent stockpile for when you need it.
HOW CAN WE DO BETTER?
Simple.
Have each O2 tank last 16m40s and stack to 2 in your inventory (with shelves stacking them to 8).
A stack of 2 tanks plus 1 in the suit would give a total of 50m0s at 16m40s a tank.
That would keep it at current oxygen per trip (well, 3 seconds longer at 50min exactly instead of 49m57s).
Three birds, one stone!
With that, we would:
Have FAR better inventory management for tanks on ships.
Maintain our pre-established timing balance.
Have less annoying tank management for short excursions. Bonus to that: We also have better realism! Divers don't usually go out with more than 2-3 tanks IRL. (Granted, that's usually a pure O2 tank, an N2 tank, and in some circumstances a small backup. But that's a bit TOO much for the game's realism so I digress.)
And as an added bonus, that would synergize REALLY well with the 3 tanks stored below each suit in the tank refill slot built into the base of suit lockers.
With the 2-stack 16m40s tanks, we could swap out our 2 empty tanks as well as the partial tank in our suit all from the relative comfort of the suit locker, and it would feel like the 3-tank capacity was purposefully designed to be that way!
To keep up balance, Oxygenite needs only to last about 30min. a tank. You're taking a decent hit on duration per stack, but the added time per chunk is more than enough to balance it out IMO (because usually you'll be using it for combat, rather than staying down longer).
At 90min per 2+1, you're still able to stay down for quite a bit longer, but the majority of it's value comes from the movement speed bonus.
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