Re: Does the AI use mothballing?
There are already some disadvantages that you haven't thought of for mothballing. A mothballed ships DOES exist on the map. If the place where it sits is attacked it will sit there and do NOTHING to defend or protect itself. And once you mothball ships, you often end up paying "maintenance" in the form of upgrades to keep them comparable to your active ships. So, there is a cost of sorts. I think that this "penalty" could be added but it ought to be a very gradual sort of thing. Maybe one component per year of game time that it was mothballed could be damaged and require repair when it is unmothballed. Alternatively, just disallow retrofits for mothballed ships. Your "investment" would quickly decline in value during any game that was not "max tech levels" from the beginning.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 06 February 2001).]
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