From the general comments, it looks like most people like the idea of stargates and their varying sizes for moving around, but not for deployment purposes.
I originally said I didn't like reserves/deployment, but thought it'd be a good compromise to support empire-wide production and trading ships. So here's a chance to try and work out a system that don't require reserves/deployment.
Since the game now handles ships on a per-ship basis, trading ships can be just a matter of selecting ships from your fleets and simply handing it over. When you give an empire your ships, they just change owner, but stay in the same location. So they will have to move it to their empire, but they could use your stargates if you have travel agreement. This part won't be a problem, and will allow me to remove reserves/deployment.
Now for the hard part: Construction of ships using empire-wide production. I'm sticking to empire-wide production, so per-planet production is not an option. One reason is the space-based races that don't even have planets to produce ships from. So we will need a system where we can decide which system to produce ships at.
I could add an option for which system a ship should be built at in the production screen. However, there are several problems that I need to solve:
What happens if the ship is halfway built, and you lose control of that system to an enemy? Is the progress lost? This would make sense because if a factory is destroyed by a bomber, the progress there are lost.
Should systems that have planets owned by you, but are being orbited by enemy fleets not output any production, research, or commerce because they're blockaded? This again, makes sense, and can really cripple you if the planets there are rich in resources. If it's your last system, then you're doomed.
Should the list of systems available for a ship to be built at be determined by the fact that you have a fleet or own a planet in those systems? Fleets are mandatory because of space-based races.
If you guys agree to the above approaches to the problems, then I will remove the "reserves/deployment" totally, and have stargates be just a tool for moving around the galaxy.
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I agree to the above approaches to the problems.
ReplyDelete-Walloping
(Off topic) Do you eventually plan to set a website? and official pre-orders?
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who said he will set it up... The address is www.zeraan.com, but it just redirects here. As the game nears completion, I will ensure that there is an official ordering system and a nice website, not just this blog.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with the 'built ships appear in any empire owned system' with ownership being defined as having a fleet or planets there is we go RIGHT back to forward bases providing effortless reinforcements right to the front lines. Possibly with only a bit of lead time if you can't change the destination planet for in progress construction and thus the Compensator class space dreadnaughts will need longer to start appearing at the frontline.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't object to stargates if you must do empire wide production. They at least solve the forward base of doom issue by making an expensive thing you must build to have a forward base.
I forgot about that problem, thanks for bringing it up!
ReplyDeleteThere are two possible solutions:
Make the stargate required for building a ship in a system. Can't build there without a big enough stargate. This can be confusing since stargates would serve dual purposes.
Or this new solution (I think I like this better)
Require a system to have a construction platform for assembling ships. They can be in varying sizes. The bigger it is, the more expensive it is to build. Then stargates would just serve as a transportation method. Stargates would be cheaper than if it were to serve dual purposes. Construction platforms would be very very expensive, more than the stargates, to encourage fewer platforms.
What do you think?
Well it sounds like a step towards planet-ish based production. Seen as we now have these fixed position shipyard stations in orbit in systems, the only difference is they're in space so space based races aren't limited from making them as well.
ReplyDeleteBut I have no objection to such a step. I say go for it.
While it's true that it's similar to a planet-based production, the difference is that you can be building a ship at one location with the entire empire's production behind the effort, instead of just that planet.
ReplyDeleteI'm going for the Construction Platforms (or Incubators for space based races) as a separate item from Stargates.
Alright, sounds like we have this all sorted out!
Funny, I was about to post about the exact same idea :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry about commenting on such an old post.
ReplyDeleteI like the construction platforms idea. (Probably a good thing, because at this point I probably have no sway in the matter.)
I think it would be nice to be able to split empire wide production between multiple planets. If you are defending on multiple fronts, you don't want All of your new ships to be built on one side of your empire.
Also, how do planets build upgrades/buildings? Do they use local production or empire production? If empire production, then couldn't a forward base just construct a construction platform and then have an entire empire's production producing a fleet at your enemies doorstep? - I agree there are enough intermediate steps to balance things a little and give the enemy some time to react, but the "problem" still exists.
You can assign different locations for construction projects. For example, you want to build 2 scouts at Planet A, you set the production to add a new project at Planet A. Then you want to make a colony ship at Planet B, so you add a new project to build a colony ship at Planet B. So that way, you can "split" the empire-wide production.
ReplyDeletePlanets do not have buildings/upgrades. The only upgrade that you can build at a star system is a Stargate. Stargates can be built with the empire-wide production.
Yes, I will try and make sure that "forward bases" be balanced. Right now, I'm focused on getting it all working, tweaking will come later.