Engine Movement bonuses

[Thy_Reaper]

You're welcome.

And now, since I haven't rambled in a long time, I shall ramble about my ideas concerning engines...

When my not-quite-started mod is in production, I plan on making each higher engine less efficient than the previous design. For example, TL1 Ion consumes 4 supplies per move, whereas a TL1 Quantum engine consumes 7. As an incentive to continue research, engines get more efficient at higher TL, where TL10 is 2 supplies/move cheaper than TL1.

I also toned down supply storage to make efficieny more important and to make supply based weapons make more of an impact. In my first test game with this method, it had the exact effect I wanted to have: Early on, low efficieny/low storage engines restrict the maximum size of the empire; Afterwards, the choice between long distances or fast ships differentiates empires. It has a very nice feel to it, in my opinion.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Are you talking about a bell curve sort of deal? Where you start out low movement low supplies then climb in movement and supply consumption and finally supplies fall but movement stays unchanged. Ok maybe a bell curve on the supply side would be more accurate. I only ask because there would be a point on any bell curve where future supply consumption and movement provided make it not worth the expended cost of additional research. So players would lose incentive to develop the higher levels.

[Thy_Reaper]

Hmm... that shouldn't happen. Basically, researching an engine decreases the supply consumption per move, whereas moving to faster engines increases the supply per move cost. The way I set it up, without too much research, dropping a single engine to add supply storages should increase your range by 20-30 moves, so space and storage become vital.

This is especially true with the faster engines, since a Quantum Engine cosumes more than twice what an Ion engine does, when both are at max level.

I did some quick math based on my numbers, and noticed that at equal level, Putting 7 Quantum engines on a ship instead of 10 Ion engines would cost no more per move, give the same speed, and give the ship 30 more kT to use, so I have to rework the numbers a bit.

I'm thinking more like:
Ion = 4 s/m at TL1, 2 s/m at TL10
C-T = 6 s/m at TL1, 4 s/m at TL10
Jkt = 8 s/m at TL1, 6 s/m at TL10
Qnt = 10 s/m at TL1, 8 s/m at TL10

That should make all engines relatively balanced, and make it possible to outrun a fast fleet if you have a decent lead to begin with.

Btw, my goal with this design choice was to limit an empire's size to begin with, and to make supply-based weapondry have more of an impact on storages without increasing numbers.

[President_Elect_Shang]

I see what you are aiming at now. No I had you going in another direction. I thought you were trying to start out at low supply per (single) movement point. Then climb in tech which would demand more supplies for the same movement point. Thus slowing empire growth by making mid-game empires shift to higher research to make more efficient engines and slow growth by making empires focus more on supply and supply runs. Finally you would have engines swing back down in supply demands once again for the same movement point. So a bell curve for supply for the same or little return in movement didn’t sound fun to me. Doing it that way could slow later games as the empires try to reclaim land no longer needed to generate the supplies to feed those engines.