God I love reading this thread.
Okay, long time back someone suggested supplies be divided into two types (much like SE4 divied SE3's construction resource into Minerals, Organics, and Radioactives)
The two types of supplies are energy and ordinance (some military genius on this board gave me that word -- I try to insert it into everyday conversation as often as I can
Different components use different amouts of each, for example:
engines - lots of energy, a little ordinance
crew and life support - tiny amt of energy, a small amt of ordinance (food, atmosphere,reading lights)
anti proton beams - lots of energy, tiny amt of ordinance
capital ship missile, DUC, PD cannon - tiny amt of enery, lots of ordinance
Solar collectors and ramscoops may restore your energy storage containers, or perhaps advanced engines regenerate supplies when the ship isn't moving, but only advanced technology can create ordinance out of thin air (trek replicators)
So now your big bad missile ship or your inexpensive, yet quite powerful DUC5 are not so useful if you're very far from home -- it will be difficult to carry enough ordinace on-board or in a supply ship in the fleet
Of course, even energy weapons will need your ship to have some storage.
Hey, SE4 is very different from SE3. SE5 should be totally wierd by our current viewpoint. Face it, MM is working on Dungeon Odyssey and bug-fixing/minor code change for SE4. SE5 is probably a couple of years away
[ July 12, 2002, 17:06: Message edited by: Arkcon ]