Adaption is the super power that permits the hero to over come his  environment and or an attack.   Against energy based attacks, this power is devastating.   Against a punch in the face, not so.

    In my game, each application of adaption costs one power.  So if a person were adapting to a fire in a building,  they would spend one power per hour to resist the heat.   They would also spend one power per hour to resist the smoke.   Also, if they were then blasted with a flame thrower while in said environment, it would also cost them one more power.
    I feel the upped power cost helps settle the added protection adaption provides.    In my rules, a zero means immunity.  So adaption provides a darn near immunity to most energy attacks. 
    To use adaption,  one declares it when I ask for defences.  They then take off one power as the body prepares itself for something.   If it happens to be an attack that they couldn't adapt to, or even if the attack misses, they lost that power point.  Better safe then sorry.
   
The second aspect of adaption, the adapting to environments I also added some rules.   First,  all you are doing is nullifying the damage you take.   So if you are adapting to space,  you don't die.  But you still can't move.
If you are underwater, you don't drown, but you still can't see, and if you can't swim, then adaption won't provide any locomotion. 
    Also each power point protects you from one aspect of your environment.   So if you are underwater, you spend one power to adapt to the lack of oxygen.  Another if its cold.  Another if you are too deep and the pressure would damage you.    So walking the the halls of Atlantis would cost you 3 power an hour at least.
   If you had a second dose of adaption, I would permit you to actually change to be better suited to your current environment.   So if you were in Atlantis,  you could then spend a point of power to grow gills for an hour, and another point to grow fins.  And yet another to see underwater.  So you would be using about 6 power an hour to check out and explore the ruins of Atlantis.
   I feel the added power cost is balanced out by the added protection that adaption gives  in a fire fight.

 

Seems a little too penalizing.  Why not just say, as an example, it cost a power point to grow the gills to breath under water, but once you grow them they are there. There would be no reason to keep taking power since you now have them.  Once the person gets back to "normal" conditions, another power is spent to get rid of the gills (since you can't breath air through gills).

I just never saw adaption as something that had to be "maintained".

While I am definitely am not one of those who think "0" was ever meant as an immunity (interpretation of the force field rules being the main support for this thinking) and would like to agree with Paul ...

... given you do give Immunity to the player against the attacks Adaption list, I'd say the upped power cost is a pretty good way to bring the overall game effects of that power back into balance.

One question: on Volcanoe - why heat and radiation aren't they the same? (Running off to do some vulcanology research )

If I had to eat shit every time I disagreed with you.  I would eat dinner at your mother's house every day!

WHOA   BURN   NAIL!

What if I had a character who was stuck in an Underwater Star Volcano?

Hey you never know.

LOL, DN.  I've had long discussions/debates with Chimaera over on Critical Fumble re: this.  Apparently both words mean the same thing (or Adaptation might be even more appropriate).  I felt vindicated that at least the intent was to call it "Adaptation", when they corrected the single misspelling (in the Powers chart) for 2.1.