quote:
Tweaking the population bonuses for colonies in favour of well developped worlds would help, as would enhancing the cloak/ sensor system for advanced cat & mouse games in all those empty systems.
1% SY rate per 25M people would go a long way towards that goal. Homeworlds would get 200% @ 5 Billion, while the colonies would be nearly helpless. A huge transport full of people might be able to jump-start a colony, but every % you add has to come from some other planet.
If anybody ever fills up a Dyson Sphere, they get 2,560 %
What do you think of the cloaking system described in A Pirate's Life?
- Stealth armor gives Passive EM cloak (upto level 4)
- Scattering armor gives Active EM cloak (lev 4)
- Master Computers give Psychic cloak (lev 4)
- Hull Size gives gravitic cloak (upto lev 4)
- E-Security teams give "Hacker" cloak (lev 4)
(using old temporal ability. "Temporal sensors" scan both EM types plus some gravitic.)
That way, a baseship makes a huge blip on your gravitic radar, no matter how good the rest of its stealth is.
An escort or frigate is undetectable by gravitics, but does not have the space on board to carry all of the other cloaking devices plus engines & weapons.
With the numbers I threw out, only the frigates could be completely undetectable, but they would have only 30KT for weapons & engines.
A one-MP plaguebomber, or a 3-MP scout, and very vulnerable to minefields
