Nebula/Storms woes (and a suggestion)

[Pocus]

I don't think the solution here is to tweak the tech tree and associated data so that it is easier to have ships brush aside this "galactic terrain".

For one, it makes said terrains too easy to ignore. The 2nd reason is that you can't guarantee a player or AI will not have stranded ships at a given point. And is that a good thing to have a ship permanently stranded? I don't think so, it is frustrating, unfair and a permanent money sink, unless you use the game editor to delete it. Which is somehow the admission something is off here.

I would propose that a ship has always a small chance (10%) to not be affected by a nebula/storm "cycle/burst". This gives it a few extra seconds, until the next episode, to trigger its warp drive and get the hell out of the area.
Bonus, some drives can ignite faster (already, that's in the tech tree). Makes it so that these drives make the ship capable of warping if they succeed one roll. Makes it so that the others regular drives needs to roll for success twice in a row to have enough time (and 10% chance twice is 1% chance).

Basically, that's a code edit, not a data edit. You are not always affected by the terrain when it triggers, this is probabilistic.

It would also need a little QOL polish, which is to not cancel the current order when you are affected, so that you can set a destination, and after some time and luck, you know your stranded ship will manage to get out.

[Emperor0Akim]

I would propose that a ship has always a small chance (10%) to not be affected by a nebula/storm "cycle/burst". This gives it a few extra seconds, until the next episode, to trigger its warp drive and get the hell out of the area.
Bonus, some drives can ignite faster (already, that's in the tech tree). Makes it so that these drives make the ship capable of warping if they succeed one roll. Makes it so that the others regular drives needs to roll for success twice in a row to have enough time (and 10% chance twice is 1% chance).

I concur with your analysis and would add to your suggestion that the unprotected hyperdrives work slower to get out of the nebulas.

[zgrssd]

That ships can loose their mission if ioned hard enough is a giant bug. And without that one, they would get out acceptably fast.
Soemthing they need to fix some day, but it is not high on the list due to the rarity of cicumstances.

Luckily pathfinding will avoid nebulas and the advisor will never ask for missions to go there, unless you got resistance.
And ion resistance would avoid the bug with mission loss.

Plus a rework of the designers part with not installing enough resistance is on the current Roadmap.

[Miravlix]

The game pathing and neb zone problems does create situation where a ship will get stuck in a neb. I had one game ruined by a neb in the middle of my empire and my entire private fleet getting stuck.

Maybe they can fix pathfinding, but the real problem is that ship get perma stuck, maybe make the time between the neb effect long enough that a ship can activate warp and get out. Or make all nebs deadly and kill ships.

We have find an issue where an automated ship will keep paying for being upgraded, every time it manage to recover from the neb effect.

[OrnluWolfjarl]

I would propose that a ship has always a small chance (10%) to not be affected by a nebula/storm "cycle/burst". This gives it a few extra seconds, until the next episode, to trigger its warp drive and get the hell out of the area.
Bonus, some drives can ignite faster (already, that's in the tech tree). Makes it so that these drives make the ship capable of warping if they succeed one roll. Makes it so that the others regular drives needs to roll for success twice in a row to have enough time (and 10% chance twice is 1% chance).

This is possible now, under certain conditions. If the hyperdrive winds up fast enough (depends on tech, but I've done this with the un-upgraded Gerax), and the ship is close enough to the border of the nebula disturbance, then it's possible for it to escape. You'll notice that (at least in Ion Storms and Gravity Storms) the effect is applied every few seconds, and not constantly. If, after getting disabled, you immediately click the ship to get out of the nebula somewhere, at some point it will manage to jump. Just be careful not to keep clicking. Only click once, and only after it gets disabled, then repeat.

If the hyperdrive is offline, then ships just stand still doing nothing, which is actually half the reason of what is causing them to get stuck in nebulas. The other half reason is that in order to get out, they need to execute a jump, and to execute a jump, they need to rotate to towards their destination, and to rotate they need to be able to move. If they try to hyperjump, then they'll start by rotating, and the nebula effect will hit. If the hyperdrive or reactor goes offline, then the ship cancels its mission and stands still. By clicking again on the same spot as before, you restart the rotation (and you remove the delay in the ship deciding to go do something by itself). Eventually, the ship will get alligned and will start winding up the hyperdrive. From then on, with some luck, you can eventually get it to jump. It might get stuck mid-way out of the nebula, but you can usually get it out.

Another possible fix to what you suggest would be to allow ships to use impulse engines when their hyperdrive is offline.

A quicker fix would be to unlock the "Scuttle" option for all ships, not just ones with the Disabled tag.