Secret of the 89 Movement point BaseShip

[Drake]

quote:

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Originally posted by AJC:
Self repairing was just a thought - if the limit is 1 EP component per ship it would make sense.

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Argh, don't say that! My point was that it never makes sense to make it self repairing. Even if the limit was 1, if you had it self repair, what would be the point of calling it an emergency propulsion component in the first place? It would serve the same function as the solar sail, by allowing more movement each turn. The only difference would be that it wouldn't carry over into combat, and you'd have to go through the annoying process of manually activating it each turn.

(mini-rant on) Manual activation under your suggestion would reward people who put them on every ship, and took the time for each ship to use the component, which would be restored for the next turn. Basically you're encouraging micromanagement, which I consider to be A Bad Thing. I seriously think a good strategy game should reduce pointless micromanagement as much as possible. Otherwise instead of a strategy game, you have a micromanagement game. Much as I liked Stars!, that's the kind of game it turned out to be for me after a while. I found myself able to compete well on a strategic level, but had to resort to brutal MM to optimize things, or risk losing to ppl who were willing to put more time in. SEIV is a little better in that regard, but not by that much. The TG contest drove home that point to me when the ministers proved woefully inefficient for what I needed to do to optimize my score. I eventually caved in at one point and settled for a less efficient execution of my plan in order to save what was left of my sanity.
(mini-rant off)

Anyway, I think it would make more sense to have the component completely destroyed and made unrepairable without retrofitting at a SY, IMO. Then maybe people would only use it in an emergency.

Since I would be surprised if the change could be made without other potential problems being introduced, either a component limit should be introduced, use of the components causes damage to the ship because of the stress on the hull, or it should be an all-or-none thing. I'd prefer one of the first two, as the all-or-none solution gives the possibility of wasted components. If someone won't ever get the benefit from 4 (actual number may vary) EPs because they have to use all 4 at once and there is a max movement for the ship, don't let them put 4 on the design in the first place. Limit it to 1/2 the number of engines or to 1 or something.