Instead, compare 1 Reactive Plate -vs- an Armour Plate /or/ a Armour Repper... I'm sure you'd agree the comparison changes drastically.

Like you said, reactives are better for those with only one slot to use, but honestly I'd rather save my pg/cpu for something else and just equip a basic plate or armor repair instead. The best suit to use reactives with is the commando as the skill bonus helps give that module the extra boost...but then again just a single complex plate or repair would work better...

Reactive plates and ferroscales suck due to their fitting costs.

*shrug* I'll still use Reactive Plates when I'm building a suit that needs CPU/PG mods and only has 1 low slot left over. I favour Shields over Armour so having some Armour reps and some additional Armour on my loadout is better than more reps but less health or more health but no reps IMO.

If I have 2 low slots I obviously fit the plates and repper, but the duality of the module is at least useful in fittings (unlike the comparison of shield recharger -vs- shield energizer).

Reactive plates are not meant to be used as an alternative to regular armor plates. They are supposed to be used instead of a repper, on mostly non Gallante suits.

Why would anyone choose to use a reactive plate instead of a repper? the fitting costs are high, the repair rate is low, and HP gained from using a reactive instead of a repper is very small.

Lower the fitting stays to a normal plate. Ferros too.

They already have up quite a bit to have no penalty, or a dual purpose.

Bam. Nothing more.

Lots of people buying the reactive plates now?

Still UP

This is with new numbers and bonuses:

A)
2 x Complex Reactive
66 hp, 1% speed penalty, 2 hp/s repair @ 36 CPU 16 PG
=
132 hp, 2% speed penalty, 4 hp/s @ 72 CPU 32 PG

B)
1 Enhanced Plate
117 hp, 3% speed penalty @ 20 CPU 6 PG
&
1 Enhanced Armor repairer
3.45 hp/s @ 35 CPU 5 PG
=
117 hp, 3% speed penalty, 3.45 hp/s 55 CPU 11 PG

A.----vs.----B.
132 vs. 117 hp
2% vs. 3% speed penalty
4 vs. 3.45 hp/s repair
72 vs. 55 CPU
32 vs. 11 PG

Results?
Reactive plates give you 15 more hp, 1% faster move speed, and 0.15 more repair at a cost of 17 more CPU and 21 more PG.

For reference the total PG of a MLT Gallente Frame is 25 PG; so, just the surplus PG needed to operate the plates is about the same as the entire PG allotment on a MLT suit.

How popular would a low slot module that gives 15 hp, 0.15 repair, and subtracts 1% from move penalty be at 17 CPU 21 PG I wonder?

Sort of... it gets better:

SP cost:
A) requires Armor Plating 5
Total: 932,760 SP

B) requires Armor Plating 3 and Armor Repair Systems 3
cost 205,200 SP x 2
Total: 410,400 SP

You get:
15 more hp, 1% faster move speed, and 0.15 more repair at a cost of 17 more CPU and 21 more PG
AFTER you spend 522,360 MORE SP. You have to spend over twice as much SP for plates that are notably worse than these ADV modules.

Make Reactive Plates do what their name says it does..... "React".

Give Reactive plates a range of armor healing speed depending on how much fire they come under.

The more damage sustained the harder they rep, when not under fire, their rep speed gradually slows to a stop.

What I would like to see are some more low slot items that we want to use. We'd use more of the low slots up with other modules so the reactive plat starts to look good with 2 stats instead of 1.

Reactive plates are not meant to be used as an alternative to regular armor plates. They are supposed to be used instead of a repper, on mostly non Gallante suits.

Then they suck at that job, too. Due to the limited slot layout of amarr suits I've tried to use them quite a few times.

The loss of a whopping 4.3 HPs (compared to complex reppers) reps is in no way worth the extra 66 health.

It is nice to be able to fit a regulator onto a suit instead of both a plate and a repper - but the RPs just cannot keep up with a repper.

I'd use these plates if they followed this approximate tier system.

basic reactive has 65 hp and 1 hps regen (equal to a militia plate and lower than militia reps)

enhanced reactive has 85 hp and 2 hps regen (equal to a basic plate and basic reppers)

complex reactive has 117 hp and 3 hps regen (advanced plate plus advanced reppers)

They would keep their rather insane fitting costs and due to the fact that the armor rep skill's passive bonus does not apply to reactive plates they would still be inferior to reps.

Even on suits with few low-slots like STD Amarr Assaults, these still seem like a bad option. I'd like to emphasize that it's not just the complex reactive plates that have issues - all of them do. These need a look before they're viable options for suits. It's possible the high damage output of everyone right now makes them look even worse, and the reps aren't really appreciable and don't get any skill bonuses... so...

A militia repper outperforms any equivalently oriced RP on a standard Amarr suit...

I'd use the my MLT Armor Plate BPO or MLT Armor Repper BPO before pretty much any of the reactive plates.

/sigh

Well of course MLT equipment is meant to seem vastly preferable to PRO gear. How would you bother changing Reactives then?

15/4 - 50hp, 2%, 1hp/s
30/10 - 70hp, 3%, 2hp/s
45/17 - 90hp, 4%, 3hp/s

I'd be more likely to use those.

I'd definitely run those, as long as they are affected by the amarr logi/armor rep skill.

I'd be more likely to use those.

I'd use these too.

The PRO version has just barely more hp than a STD/MLT plate, the reps are "ADV", the speed penalty between ADV and PRO. It seems like a fair set of tradeoffs. It's possible they'd want the CPU reqs slightly higher since the PRO reactive is the same CPU as a PRO repper.

I would prefer it if the Reactive Plates benefitted from both the Armor Plate Skill Bonus and the Amor Repairer Skill Bonus, combined with the OP.

And yet the only bonuses I can see are from the Armor Plate Skill

It's like the lottery, a penalty on people that can't do math.

Reactive plates give you 15 more hp, 1% faster move speed, and 0.15 more repair at a cost of 17 more CPU and 21 more PG.

For reference the total PG of a MLT Gallente Frame is 25 PG; so, just the surplus PG needed to operate the plates is about the same as the entire PG allotment on a MLT suit.

Seems to be working as intended then, the MLT frame is not meant to be a powerhouse, it is meant to be food for the grinder.

Small Fitting Tip.

As a general rule of thumb when fitting a Drop Suit a module of the same level as the suit will allow you to place modules in each slot of the same level. This can at times not be entirely accurate when fitting Proto Suits as the CPU/PG are dependent on various other skills in the tree than just your DS skill level.

What this means.

For someone who has skilled there Dropsuit Upgrades, Electronics, and Engineering skills to LV5, their MLT Dropsuit would have more than the base PG/CPU and certainly have more room to fit the reactive plates.

If 1.8 is a big infantry update, perhaps it can be properly inserted there.

This is with new numbers and bonuses:

A)
2 x Complex Reactive
66 hp, 1% speed penalty, 2 hp/s repair @ 36 CPU 16 PG
=
132 hp, 2% speed penalty, 4 hp/s @ 72 CPU 32 PG

B)
1 Enhanced Plate
117 hp, 3% speed penalty @ 20 CPU 6 PG
&
1 Enhanced Armor repairer
3.45 hp/s @ 35 CPU 5 PG
=
117 hp, 3% speed penalty, 3.45 hp/s 55 CPU 11 PG

A.----vs.----B.
132 vs. 117 hp
2% vs. 3% speed penalty
4 vs. 3.45 hp/s repair
72 vs. 55 CPU
32 vs. 11 PG

Results?
Reactive plates give you 15 more hp, 1% faster move speed, and 0.15 more repair at a cost of 17 more CPU and 21 more PG.

For reference the total PG of a MLT Gallente Frame is 25 PG; so, just the surplus PG needed to operate the plates is about the same as the entire PG allotment on a MLT suit.

How popular would a low slot module that gives 15 hp, 0.15 repair, and subtracts 1% from move penalty be at 17 CPU 21 PG I wonder?

Sort of... it gets better:

SP cost:
A) requires Armor Plating 5
Total: 932,760 SP

B) requires Armor Plating 3 and Armor Repair Systems 3
cost 205,200 SP x 2
Total: 410,400 SP

You get:
15 more hp, 1% faster move speed, and 0.15 more repair at a cost of 17 more CPU and 21 more PG
AFTER you spend 522,360 MORE SP. You have to spend over twice as much SP for plates that are notably worse than these ADV modules.

Edit:

Here's some potential Reactive stats I was brainstorming with a few pages in. These would require both Armor Plate and Armor Repairer skills for each rank:

15/4 - 50hp, 2%, 1hp/s
30/10 - 70hp, 3%, 2hp/s
45/17 - 90hp, 4%, 3hp/s

Seem more useful?

They don't need more Hp they need the same PG/CPU than Normal Plates.

As it standing the fitting cost is prohibitively high for inferior defense/regeneration. As they currently stand either the bonuses need to go up or the fitting costs need to go down, like way down to below current plate costs, for me to consider them a viable method of defense.

Remember these? Imagine if people wanted to use Reactives...

I say raise the PG cost on them. Nobody should ever use them.

Totally original (stupid) idea: Reform reactive plates to resistance plates

Shield builds are virtually the only use I see for Reactives. Slightly higher health + repair of their lower stat = Use. Armor Builds/Scouts = garbage with reactives.

BORK BORK BORK

So does that mean you've given up?