AI colony ship design

[Tenryu]

I solved this problem and some other annoying issues to my liking by REMOVING most of the supply capacity from engines and making it an ability specific to each VEHICLE! Bigger hulls generally get more supplies.

I also give most my hulls a built in movement allowance and by limiting the number of engines per hull and using the "engines per move" field give my hulls the number of 'engine rooms' I feel comfortable with for each ship.

I feel a Gunboat should have way less engines than a Dreadnought and any one engine hit on a gunboat should have way more impact than a loss of an engine on a big ship.

So, my Gunboats have a max of 2 engines, with 1 move per engine and a built in movement of 2 while my dreadnoughts can have 12 engines, but move 1 per 4 with a built in move of 1.

The built in movement on the hulls simulates, at least to me, that putting a ship dead in the water, so to speak, forever, is pretty hard to do.The crew can usually get the ship to make some way if given enough time and the vessel isn't in imminent danger of floundering.

I left a little bit of supplies on the engines and at each level give them a little more supplies. Starting at Ion I, my sequence is: 50, 55, 60, 60, 65, 70, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95.

Additionally, I gave all my Ship Bridge components 1 extra move, I have Base specific and Ship specific bridges, if you're wondering.

You're a ship, you lose your bridge, you slow down some, even if you have an aux.




[This message has been edited by Tenryu (edited 08 February 2001).]