Bug or Feature: Multiple Ship Training Facilities

[Fyron]

Multiple Ship Training Facilities on a planet do not stack. However, there is a way to get more than 3% training (ignoring the Psychic equivalent) from them per turn.

Take a planet, say Xerxes, that has 2 moons. Build a Ship Training Facility III on Xerxes and each of it's moons. Now, move a ship in orbit of Xerxes. Each turn, the ship will be trained by all three Ship Training Facilities, for a total training of 9% per turn.

This may be a bug exploit because building 3 Ship Training Facilities on a single planet does not result in 9% training per turn. Multiple facilities do not stack on a planet, but they do stack with multiple planets in one sector.

However, one could argue that it still takes time to get ships to the training center, and then to the front lines. The mooned planet may be in a location far from where you need your ships to be. So, in some instances, it will save you time. At other times, it could take longer to train your ships at a mooned planet and get them to the front lines.

The same thing can also be done with Fleet Training Facilities.

So... is this a bug exploit or an intended game feature? Either way you answer, please explain why. Thanks for your time.

[Captain Kwok]

I'm going to call this a bug because the training facilities were specifically designed as a "only one effective" facility. Plus, how would it be possible for the three training centres on separate planets to simultaneously train a ship's crew?

[Fyron]

The crew could be sent to different specialized facilities. They could have one for the command crew, one for the engineering crew, etc.

[Rollo]

IMHO, that is not a bug exploit, but I wouldn't call it intended either .

I'd say it is a clever way to stay within the rules of the game.

[Fyron]

Rollo, go on the IRC chat if you can.

[geoschmo]

I would say there is nothing wrong with someone doing this in a game. Calling this a bug and someone doing it as a bug exploiter is incorrect IMHO. The description clearly says "only 1 facility per planet effective", not one per sector. As Rollo says this may be unintended by the designer simply because it didn't occur to him, but that doesn't mean it's wrong to do. If he decides to change it in a future patch that's fine, but until then it should be fair game.

Geoschmo

[Captain Kwok]

Yeah, but you don't think MM intended this kind of use for the facility do you? How can a ship be able to train at 3 planets at the same time to get this experience? I think it should be changed for sure...

[ July 08, 2002, 02:24: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[geoschmo]

I don't know if MM did or didn't intend for this. I would guess not, but I don't know that. If the description of the facility was "Only one per sector effective" then I would definetly say it was a bug and should not be exploited.

You can remote mine three planets with a single miner component. Is this a bug exploit? Was it intended? I don't know. I see it as the same thing.

This is different I think than a more obvious bug such as the mines per sector thing that is causing so many headaches lately. That is a little more cut and dried than this (although it's still a pain to try and enforce ).

Another example is the accelarted ship construction via retrofitting. Did MM intend for this to be allowed? A lot of people do it, a lot of people think it's cheating. It's a grey area. MM has addressed it a couple times. First in reducing the retrofit percentage to make it take longer, and making it more expensive. In the next patch there will be a prohibition against retrofitting to add a space yard or colony comp through retrofitting. All well and good, it won't be doable anymore. But does that mean anyone that did it before was cheating? I guess it depends on your point of view.

Geoschmo

[Spuzzum]

Just because something lets you do something, doesn't mean it's right. If that wasn't the case, then I could go out right now, get a ferry ride to Vancouver Island, and shoot Premier Gordon Campbell (our Liberal provincial moron/leader). I sure as heck could do it (and believe me, I really want to!), but I wouldn't because it isn't the right thing to do*. ;-)

Likewise, just because this is possible doesn't mean it's a legitimate thing to do. I wouldn't nominate this in a "bug" Category, but I would definitely nominate it in an "exploit" Category. I would indeed consider the player so-doing a cheater.


* Well, that, and the fact I'd go to jail because of it. =)

[Captain Kwok]

Well, as long as all players in the game can do this, then it cannot be considered cheating. I would personally like to see this fixed in the next or a future patch.

However, when playing the AI only, I would consider this one an "exploit"