SE4 Advanced brainstorming

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, it really isn't doable without mounts.

You could mix it with the P&N style "budget" "normal" and "premium" component mounts if you wanted to... that would hide the scale mountness of it.

[Urendi Maleldil]

Are there any bugs in SE4 that you'd like to see corrected in SE4 Advanced?

Obviously I can't mess with the .exe, but there are a lot of things I can do by stretching the data files.

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, if it is just in the datafiles it probably isn't a bug per se.

Intel and mines are the biggest issues, IMO. Too much of an "all-or-nothing" system there.

For mines, I suggest removing minesweepers completely, and then limiting mines to 15 per sector and enough damage per mine to deal no more than 5% damage to a ship.
That way, minefields have to be spread around in a system, along common paths, and in rings around high value locations, rather than just piling them all up on warppoints and colonies.

The mines won't vaporize fleets, but they are guaranteed to at least do some damage and slow the enemy down when they're in your territory.


Intel...
Definitely have a "saboteurs" tech area which is disableable in the game setup. All offensive projects should require this tech, which starts at max level.
Then turning off damaging intel is one click away for the game masters who don't want it.
Sticking with just spying operations makes intel less overwhelming, but still useful.

Counter intel will also need to be reworked, eliminated or converted to "intel sabotage" projects so that you can't just make a magic wall against spies.

Having helpful intel projects to use on your friends is also a nice idea. For example:
- Officer Exchange Program: INCREASES the target ship's experience by +1%
- Polluter sabotage: INCREASES the target planet's conditions rating by a small amount.

Increasing the target's happiness is a good one too. Propaganda project maybe?
There aren't too many intel projects which actually work in reverse. Supply drain for example can't be negative, unfortunately.

[Urendi Maleldil]

"No percentage damage" for mine fields is a good example of a hard-coded bug that can be worked around by altering the data files.

I think that mine sweepers still have to be there. But instead of limiting mines to 15 per sector, I'm simply going to take away their inherent cloaking ability. That way when an enemy sees the mines with their own eyes they will have to stop and navigate around mined sectors. That will slow them down.

Maybe stealthed mines will come in later techs, but they will still be detectable with some level of sensors.


Those are also some good ideas for intel projects. I agree that Sabotage needs to be its own area. Also, instead of the defensive intel projects I have facilities that decrease "bad intel" chance in systems. I haven't tested them yet, but they might be a good replacement if they work.

[Suicide Junkie]

The problem with sweepers is that they all hit before any mines attack. So if you have sweepers, minefields go pfft.

You just bring enough for the max mines, and then you can fly full speed ahead without fear.
If you increase the maximum mines per sector, then the mines all get dumped on the warppoints... and if you don't bring enough sweepers, your fleet gets vaporized by hundreds of mines... if you do bring enough, you take no damage at all.
At warppoints, you can't see the mines on the far side anyways.

With no minesweepers and a low maximum on mines...
Your fleet moves, and takes a couple hits to armor. Each mine hits a random ship, so the damage is spread out. The low maximum means your fleet is not going to get vaporized.
A bunch of ships will lose a couple armor plates, and if you're unlucky, one of your ships may take two hits.
You can press on if there is low risk of counterattack while you are weak, stop to repair, or send unlucky ships home.


In any case, mines should definitely be a disableable tech area.

[Kana]

AT was talking about this in another thread.

Mines could be satellites or more than likely drones that have a combat move, cloak, with a kamakazi attack, and a warhead. You emplace them in a sector, hidden, when combat is initiated, they will seek the enemy ships, they have armor, and % chance to be hit or missed. Make appropriate 'minesweeping' weapons, and have these defend your fleet, once the mines or the enemy are destroyed, or combat turns run out, your down. Lather rinse repeat. I guess the only problem I can think f right now is if a cloaked sat will initiate a combat with out specific orders, IE automatically. Also they would be nasty if defending a WP, due to the close proximity to the WP.

If they are drones, I don't know if they will require supplies, and have their automatic self-destruct when they run out of supplies, but it could be considered a good form of maintenance on the minefields, by having to replace them occasionally.

[Suicide Junkie]

Combat only starts if a non-cloaked object can see an enemy.
But if you weren't planning on having minefields be stealthy, that would work.

Just launching zero-move drones (with afterburner ability for combat move) into a sector would work fairly well.
Having the monthly supply use until they fizzle would be quite effective at preventing an unlimited number of them from being stashed in a sector.

It will still result in piles instead of system-spanning fields, but that's not too bad.

You should probably include the option of cloaked dronemines; they would be useful around planets and at defense bases...
- Once combat starts with the enemy attacking your planet or base, the dronemines would activate and go forth to kill.

[Urendi Maleldil]

I like the idea of giving kamikaze satellites combat movement. I don't however like the idea of removing mine sweepers completely. I think it would be better to make them more cumbersome to use. For example, make them 100kT each, very expensive, damage first, remove a maximum of 2 mines per turn, and have a large combat to hit defense minus.

This way you couldn't just slap a few mine sweeping components onto a combat ship. You need some sort of dedicated ship. That ship would be large and expensive since you'll probably want to put more than one sweeper on it to be worthwhile. Therefore it will be slow to build, very weak in combat, and take up a large chunk of resources that could be better used for combat ships. And if the max mines per sector is 200 and a typical sweeper ship has 5 or 6 sweepers on it, the most it could remove per turn is 10 or 12 mines. Meaning it will take about 20 ships to clear a single maxed out mine field. And that's not all.

If the mines are not cloaked, it will be possible to force your opponent to choose which mine fields to clear and which to leave in place. A nice new strategic tool. Too bad the AI won't be able to use it.

[Suicide Junkie]

Combat accuracy does not in any way affect the number of mines a sweeper will kill. Every point of sweeping ability is a guaranteed mine kill BEFORE you enter combat.

[Urendi Maleldil]

I know that. The combat minus is to discourage putting mine sweeping components on combat ships.