Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm... I think it's time to make my favorite observation about the SE tech system again.
D'ya ever notice how techs in SE always start at a given size and stay at that size but become
more powerful (more range, more damage)? While techs in other games, like MOO, will stay at the given level of effectiveness (range, damage) and
get smaller and/or cheaper? Have you ever considered the different effects that these different approaches have on game play?
If you
know that a weapon you have just researched is going to get more powerful do you use it immediately at the level you have researched, or sit on it and keep researching to the next level? You have a pretty strong incentive to research to the end of the tree before using a weapon, don't you?
The reasons for this are pretty clear. Because the later generations of that weapon will have greater range and do more damage, so you'll just end up refitting the old ships with the newer weapons if you build now. If a weapon doesn't have enough range to match some other weapon your enemy is using until the third or fifth level or whatever, you're not going to benefit much from deploying it, are you? So it ends up being more like you are researching
several new weapons rather than one, because the operational qualities of each level of that weapon are truly different.
In the MOO model, on the other hand, you know that the weapon will not become more powerful, except for special mods like heavy mount or whatnot becoming available. Well, at least we have mounts already in SE as soon as the weapon becomes available.
Anyway, a weapon system in MOO has a discrete level of ability and it doesn't change much. Your ability to build the system improves and it become smaller/cheaper.
I think that the MOO way of tech development makes more sense. It doesn't require you to cover many levels of a tech in order to get the weapon system to the level of ability that you need. I wonder if we couldn't solve a lot of SE IV's balance problems by revamping the entire tech tree to work more like the MOO system, with weapons immediately producing full damage and range but having high expense and large size. Then later levels could lead to miniaturization.
[ June 07, 2002, 04:16: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]