Well, I see the point in this discusion but nobody had talked about this: Why adaptation to diferent roles
(either by customization or by variants) is needed?. Some ppl talked about real Navy... That's interesting,
real Navy needs to be successfull in REAL MISSIONS. I think that the real problems of BOTH SFC2 and SFC3 are
related to the victory conditions of their missions (both Dyna and Solo). I think that 'Mission Simplicity'
problem is very frustating in SFC because single mission's lack of strategic impact on Dyna. Actually, the UBER
ship concept is that ship which can ELIMINATE the oposition most efficiently, because in Dyna is the only
strategic impact that you can have... Reducing enemy Navy.
If you want a specialized Navy you need to have different strategic 'winning conditions' or tasks.
I work as a programmer and I know that actual Dyna3 is designed to be a low-load server, that's why it is so simple
to run (compared with the hardware needed to run Commercial MMOG) but I think that with a few changes the Dyna
experience could be greatly enchanced (the following ideas are based on SFC3, which Dyna implementation is much
better than Dyna2 IMHO):
- Add a component called AUTONOMY that allow a ship to reach a number of hexes FROM THE NEAREST ALLIED BASE,
(Autonomy I (1 hex) and so on. This component could be included sacrifying ANY other weight pool. So if an empire
wish to make deep raids on enemy territory It should have LONG RANGE variants/models that sacrify some features to
be able to attack far hexes. If a Ship is in a prohibited hex (due to base destruction or whatever) it could be
instantly transported back to the nearest valid hex, destroyed or more interesting, forced to move at slow speeds.
- Make REAL scan missions where a enemy Ship/Structure can only be visible in Dyna (an arbitrary amount of server's
turns) if an allied ship performs a successfull Scan Mission on it. Maybe you can have a variant on this where your
passive structures can only detect enemy contacts and to have Specific info on size/type/load you need to perform a
Scan Mission.
- I think that's an error to have diferent independent weight pools in the customization model. Component control
should be implemented by component functionality and requirements. I mean if you have an actual hull with 4 pools
of 5000 each one, I should allow a big single pool of 20000 with ALL the components substracting from it. This of
course could allow potentially EXTREME customizations but if the components have real functionality then is up to
the user to decide how he want to play. Of couse to have this, a number of extreme changes should be made:
* Sensors Should Appear in two variants: Long range (for detecting presence of enemy), and Targeting (to
achieve weapon's fire solutions). Long range sensors should increase the detection power as they increase
in size and power requirements, while targeting sensors should increase aiming efficiency (and maybe
allowing or not subsystem targeting).
* Cloaking should be more deadly. I mean, allowing shooting while cloaked and things like that. But should be
more energy stressing. In that way, oposing fleets should always have at least a Good Recon Ship to have a
chance against a cloaked enemy. Cloaking systems simply decrease the detection distance as they increase in
size and power (of course, Enemy Long range sensors should increase that distance). Of course a cloaked ship
outside it's detection range SHOULD BE TOTALLY UNDETECTABLE but its shots NOT. Also a cloaked captain SHOULD
know when is detected (or at least targeted with fire sensors).
* Transporters should increase the transporting range as they increase in size and power. If you want to have
multiple transporters, then you have to include multiple ones, period.
* Tractor beams should increase capture range as they increase in size and power. If you want to have a
stronger grip, then equip multiple beams and target ALL of them to the same target.
* Warp Core should be divided in two subcomponents: Warp Engine (Increases warp speed or decreases warp
engaging time) and Warp Reactor (increases power output).
- Heavy weapons should have a 'prefered target' design. I mean each Heavy weapon should be more efficient
based on the kind of target it is fired at. Actually Torpedoes (plasma and photon) seem to have preference for static
targets but I'm not so convinced thet they are more energy efficient than phaser/disruptors. In that way you could
have the tactic variety of SFC2 and their specialized Heavies. Examples of kind of targets could be: Static
Structures, Shielded Targets, Unshielded Targets. And they should have SPECIAL effects beyond damage (let your
imagination fly.. Its SciFi :-)).
- The borg... Though subject. I think that they should remain THE ULTIMATE ENEMY but to balance them, a single step
needs to be done... As they are a really different culture, why they gain prestige as the others. Borg captains should
gain prestige ONLY from ASSIMILATED (aka captured) ships and from successfull assimilation missions. In that way,
the same mission will be harder for a borg because he will have to achieve a mayor degree of success and take more
risks to achieve the same prestige reward. On top of that, their production scheme is invasive, so planets hold by the
borg should decrease their production over time to force the borg to conquest (see below Construction Points Flow
Model).
- Include a Construction Points Flow Model. The actual economic system is simple but limits the players' impact on it.
I think that another simple model could be better. Each planet produces a number of production points per turn also
some harvestable hexes produce them if the correct Structure is built into it. That production points are spent on
maintaining the defensive structures, repairing and refiting the navy, and building new ships and structures. But
the funny thing is that production points need to travel from one place to another in convoys. Each structure have
a number of construction points to spend (so it could be posible that a starbase could no longer repair a ship due to
lack of building points). The ideal situation could be controlling each convoy as a Dyna entity but to decrease server
load this could be modeled as transport lanes (special hex property, amount of building points transported through
this hex per turn). So if a pirate successfully raids that hex or destroys that convoy, the receiving facility will
start to loose building points. To prevent variable overflows and things like that you could include limits on the
store capacity. If a facility that requires maintenance lack the necesary points, it could appear in the missions
damaged or even disabled (the same that could happen with a player ship that is in a starbase without enough building
points to perform a full repair or modification).
Well all of this can be in short expressed as: "If you always do the same job, you always use the same tool".
As usual, excuse me for the length and for my barbaric english.
Topic: SFC3 Ship customization vs SFC2 mega-variants? (Read 23905 times)