quote:
So I was going to propose three things/ideas:
1) Only Gravitic and Ancient drives will get a bonus move (1 for Gravitic and 2 or 3 for ancients).
2) Drives tonnage will be reduced to half as you research better drives to help ease size constraints - this will represent better tech.
3) Agile ships (represented with extra movement) can be created with either "Agile Drives" with bonus movement or just a single component that gives bonus movement.
1) seems ok on the surface, but more engines reduces efficiency. (1 QE gives 4 (1+3bonus), but 3 QE gives 6(3+3bonus). Adding those two engines reduces the power of individual drives by half!
2) Silly, reducing size is pointless. As drive tech goes up, you increase their thrust. You get the same effect. (thust per KT improves) Also, offering
larger engines as tech goes up would be good.
EG: By the time you get up to an LC, you're putting 20 engines on your ship, but we can replace 7 10KT engines with a 65KT Capital Ship Drive. Less clicking when building a ship.
3) Rather than bonus movement, which applies to straight-line strategic map flying, add the Afterburner ability from fighters, so they only get the bonus in combat. However, like bonus movement, it is not affected by ship size, so beware large values like three.