More Variety in Hulls? (SEV maybe)
 

The standard ship hulls are pretty boring http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif We have a single line of combat ships (with the idea that bigger is better, although it's not always true) plus some support ships like transporters and colony ships.

Now let's think for a second if we had more parameters to play with in VehicleSizes.txt For example:

Max Armor Tonnage :=
Max Shield Strength :=
Max Ecm :=
Max Sensors :=
Max PD Cannons :=
Max Weapons Tonnage :=

and so on and so forth. Not too hard to code, don't you think? But now think of the variety of hulls one could have:

- really fast ships that cannot have armor
- heavily armored ships that could not have Ecm and would be easy to hit
- limits on PDC could help balance missiles vs direct fire, if ships with a PDC limit had other advantages

... and so on. Finally, the "only one component effective" could be taken away from Ecm and Sensors if all ships limited the number of these components mounted. This way you could have ships with lots of Ecm that would stack, making the ship impossible to hit. But - no PDC at all, and only light armor. So you are an easy prey for missiles. Of course you can have PDC-loaded ships in the same fleet, but those would not allow for Ecm at all and could be taken off by direct fire weapons.

I can keep going on like this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Throw in different mounts for different hull classes. If you take into accound that those hulls cost RP to research so one really needs to choose which ones he's going after, things get even more interesting.

Doesn't it look like a good way to give the game more variety and strategic depth?

Aub

Re: More Variety in Hulls? (SEV maybe)
 

I like the idea of different style ships, but, can't we already do some of that now with what we have? Example take a CA load up on weapons, no armor or shields, more weapons but also more vunerable, etc. However, you could add speed specs for specific type designed ships, example again, take the CA, since it has no heavy armor or shields, it could be possible to add extra engines for a cost. It would have speed but no armor, or even be able to add engines IF you cut back on the amount of weapons, base it on weight/space. this would give you something similiar to what I think you mean, I like the idea, would have fast but vulnerable ships as well as heavy slower powerful ships and those in between. good idea

just some ideas mac

Re: More Variety in Hulls? (SEV maybe)
 

I wouldn't mind seeing some very different traits as possible additions to hull definitions. Right now, we can have a wide variety of ship designs (e.g. "arsenal ships" that are simply chock-full of missiles -- not too practical, 'tho, once PDC V is common and ships become nigh as fast as CSMs; rammers; heavily-armored ships; heavy beamers, light beamers, et al), but there's a lot that we can't do, that might be interesting.

For instance, if there were a "stealth" hull type that hid the ship class for a substantial cost...

Or, perhaps, ships that have different maintenance and repair characteristics due to modularity or so forth.

Maybe big ships should get a flag that says that they can only be assembled at a space-borne shipyard...

*shrug*

Re: More Variety in Hulls? (SEV maybe)
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>For instance, if there were a "stealth" hull type that hid the ship class for a substantial cost...<hr></blockquote>How about copying all of the ship hulls in vehiclesize.txt, setting the names to "?", and the pictures all the same (empty starfield?). Require "super stealth tech" or racial trait.

Then every ship you build would be identical to outsiders. Your colony ships would look the same as dreadnaughts, and if clicked, be "?" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Just make your design names "?", "? ", "? ", etc http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Then, on the strategic map, your enemy will see only:
Type: ?
Class: ?
All you have to do, is put a sensor jammer on your ships so they can't tell the difference by looking at components!

You could really scare somebody by sending a huge fleet of escorts into his space after fighting with mostly dreadnaughts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>I like the idea of different style ships, but, can't we already do some of that now with what we have? Example take a CA load up on weapons, no armor or shields, more weapons but also more vunerable, etc<hr></blockquote>Check out P&N. My dad always plays with weak, wimpy, superfast ships. I like to build lumbering superfortresses http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif It all evens out in the end.