I just got to thinking today, how odd it is that in SE4, so much detail goes into the strategy of ship design, while facilities are just built from a list. Doesn't this seem odd, given that facilities are much larger and more complex than starships? Well, I have an idea that *should* be possible in SE5, given what Aaron has told us so far...
You know how in SE5, planetary cargo will be sharing space with facilities? And presumably since we can define our own unit types, all unit types can use all abilities, right?
You see where I'm going here? I'm suggesting replacing all facilities with weapons platforms!
Just rename the unit type "weapons platform" to "city" or something in the new Labels.txt and you should be good to go, ready to create WP components that mine minerals, perform research, act as spaceports, and do all the other functions of facilities. Heck, "facilities" per se could be removed entirely from the game and replaced with "planetary developments", a unit type that can encompass cities, facilities, and weapons platforms! The beauty of this is now you could DESIGN YOUR OWN FACILITIES IN-GAME in the same way you design ships, so for instance you could design a "city" facility that contains everything you might want on a planet, and then fill your queue with that facility, and the planet develops rather realistically with minimal effort - and if SE5 lets you refit non-ship units (which I would imagine it does, given that you can define your own unit types), you could REALLY have some fun - you could CUSTOMIZE the "city" levels found in Proportions to suit your particular needs! 8-O
Aaron (or anyone else for that matter), care to comment? See, I do truly live up to my name as the Mod Advisor, don't I?
Designable facilities in SE5!
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