Lots of good feedback here. Let me first touch off on this, then get into Madelf's reply. Someone once wrote:
I am a casual player w/ limited playing time. and what time i do have to play, i play w/ all my heart. And by no means that anything will change. I am NOT like Flufster.
He goes on further to say he get's passed up regularly for big Capitol ships.
I sympathize with players such as these, but with Big Iron, sometimes casual players have to be cut out of the action simply because of strategic concerns that they arnt online enough. It is necessary to have a DN on the board most of the time, and thus, casual players get the shaft.
So here's what I propose to fix this. Recently, I went to this big resort place upon getting a free stay over offer in the mail. Once there I had to go thru this lengthy process by which they presented a rather simple time sharing pitch in which I pay less than the value of a permanent resort condo, but in doing so are only allowed to enjoy it a few months out of the year... The same can be done with Dreads. 'Time Sharing'.
In SG4, I think we should invoke a 'time sharing' rule in which a FM (Field Marshall, one of a select few appointed by an RM to fly a large capitol ship) must share his ship with a casual player, thus spreading around the wealth. I personally, don't want someone flying my Dread when I'm offline and then find out he killed it, but hey, if that's what it takes to make casual players happy, I'll gladly do it.
Next topic, Madelf:
Bump drone COST sky high. That way no one can just affoard top notch drones at $60 a drone. Would make the games alot more balanced between the cruisers that use their own equipment, and the races that have vast attrition units on board.
VCs for disengaging a ship that out classes you 1v1, #%$! 
Flame away, I happen to hate using AI and fast drones.
Someone said do that to PF's as well as Drone costs. Well, that doesnt impact the nutter. But the casual player, they'd get screwed. So no to that type of control method.
VC's for disengaging I agree with wholeheartedly. In doing so, however, this would discourage less skillful players from flying larger ships which is moving in the wrong direction. We want to encourage fights. There are seldom few people who tacobell leading you around the map on a boring chase then disengage at the very end when you have spent hours getting the upper hand on a larger foe. Woe unto them for wasting your time. Thankfully the majority are not like that. And the other problem, and I can already hear it, is who outclassed who? So no to that, it just isnt practical.
Now here's something really interesting:
What about incorporating the economic 'cost' of high-tech equipment into a production schedule. The Hydrans supplied the Federation with a limited number of gatling phasers, as a result, Ph-Gs were only found on Escorts and state-of-the-art fighters which were in short supply, hence only assigned to large ships like Heavy Carriers.
The cost of equipping a ship, say with fast drones, for a year, could use up one production point. Races, such as the Kzinti, would have a racial flavour, whereby more of their production is geared to producing amunition, and perhaps it only costs them half a point.
Mind you, the more accurate or 'realistic' such a system becomes, the more elaborate it needs to be.
I'd like to hear more ideas about this one. Elaborate, complex and complicated are the things it cannot be if it were to be adopted...
So "Time Sharing" is a good idea I think and should be discussed more.
Something else I am considering and have discussed with others is to allow everyone to fly what they want w/o cheese on the map all at once. I was thinking with using time sharing coupled with either limited builds of BC's (so if u pop enough they will run out till the next build) or using the 'x' number on the map at a time idea. To encourage more players to engage with BC's perhaps we should drop VC awards with them? The penalty box would then come into effect. Couple that with other combinations... But it has to be kept simple. I dont want a lot of paper work like GW 4 was.
More feedback is welcome.
Topic: You cannot avoid a cheese server without pissing off people... (Read 16679 times)