Revamping SEIV Ship Hull Sizes & Features

[Katchoo]

Giving the smaller class of ships a speed boost would be the biggest reason to keep using them. This could make the Patrolling option in the game more worthwhile to use (at the very least I don't use it myself).

Creating Engine mounts specifically for smaller hulls that provide greater speed over the standard engine mounts would probably be the easiest way to incorporate this. You could either have these Special engine mounts become available after reasearching Engines up to a certain point, or, you could have a whole new Technologly Tree develop just for smaller hulls (say under 350kt) after you research Battleships or Battlecruisers. The new tree could provide newer engines (call them Parallel Ion Engines, wherby for every 1 boost in speed you used to get with each Ion Engine, you get twice the boost with each of these Parallel Engines (2 for 1 so to speak). As you keep upgrading to Parallel Photon Jacketed, and so forth, the ratio keeps doubling over the original ability. This way you could end up with an Escort or Frigate that can move in 20 or more spaces! If you wanted to, you could even triple the ratio to make them even more valuable.

The Technology Tree could also open up smaller missle pods (a cross between the stantdard mounts and fighter mounts) and Solar Collectors, to name a couple.

Some of the stuff above has already been built into Proportions, but without any major penalties, other than space.

Out of curiosity, is it possible to specifiy a "squares filled" limit for ship design as opposed to a "kt" limit? If possible, this may be another way to provide new mounts.

[Suicide Junkie]

With high propulsion tech, you can get an escort flying at 20 MP, while still having 20-40 kt (depending on what kind of C&C you use) of space left over for miscellaneous components.

Most excellent as a scout or medical relief ship.

[klausD]

in standard game there are several reasons not to use the small ship hulls.

1. a small ship is NOT that much cheaper in construction and maintenance, but it is much more vulnerable. Solution: increase cost of big pots dramatically. (so they are only for big empires)

2. Mounts - they should be graded down. They are a bonus for big ships and ruin the usage of small ships. In standard game they cost in about 1.5 the tonnage but are x2 times so good. (the samll mount) This is odd. If we assume that the "normal" weapon is the standard weapon, then every change to x2 damage of this standard weapon should be x3 or more cost expensive. (in size and production) This is IMO a big problem in standard game. There is no need to use the standard sizes of a weapon, because with a mount they are better and cheaper if built in a big ship. MOO2 does this better.

In todays real naval combat there are high tech missiles which can destroy whole battleships with a single hit. And they can be fired even by an airplane. So there is not much need for big ships anymore, as long such an imparity in weapon efficiency and armor value exists.

Of course all the above mentioned deficiencies could be modded if anybody has time.

tschüss
KlausD

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, increasing hull costs for larger ships is a good way to help balance the game. Also giving smaller ships a movement bonus and defensive bonuses in combat. Or even giving larger ships defensive penalties.

I think 'QNP' (Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion) is a good way to help make ship size classes reflect real-world limitations. The other obvious way, with turn rates and weapon arcs, is not available in SE IV. Hopefully this will be available in SE V.

[Slick]

I agree with statements here and I rarely use small ships and would also like to see them more useful in late game.

Contrary to some, and using real life examples, larger ships are generally faster than smaller ones, but less maneuverable. An aircraft carrier is usually the fastest ship in the battle group.

I totally agree that larger ships should cost more. Again in real life, the cost is more like exponential than like linear with respect to ship size (displacement).

I would recommend expanding the idea of larger hulls costing more and smaller hulls getting combat bonuses (to represent maneuverability advantages).

I would also modify the larger ship mounts to be longer range, but less accurate. It makes sense that you could mount a larger Version of a weapon on a larger ship, but larger weapons would be harder to train on small targets. Larger weapons in real life are used against larger targets. This change would also make the mount choice less of a no-brainer. It would still make sense to use smaller (or no) mounts on larger ships.

One caveat, though. Again from real life: Larger ships ARE better, so they should BE better in SE4. If the end result is to make all ships somewhat equal, this goes against real life. The main difference should end up being cost.

Just my $0.02

Slick.

[PvK]

As Oleg said, this is one of the things Proportions mod does. QNP, Scale Mounts, the armor system, and changes to mount effects, as well as the changes to fighters and drones, tend to make all sizes of ships, and fighters and drones, valuable in their own way throughout the game. Large ships are the most powerful but also most expensive, and the weapons that are best against large targets are not good against small nimble targets, and vice versa in most cases.

PvK

[Atrocities]

I really like the P-Mod, but it has a lot of extra tech that can be a tad over kill when first playing the game. Too many selection for things.

I want to take the best of all the ship hull mods, add some things, and keep it all simple.