Fighters should pay support! - Page 3

DirectorTsaarx · #21 January 29th, 2001, 06:44 PM

I like BarnacleBill's idea of a "fighter base" on the planet. Maybe take this further, and force fighters to be stored in fighter bays, not as generic "cargo". The planetary fighter base would be a facility (not a weapon platform) that had a specific capacity and launch rate. You could even set it up so the only place to BUILD fighters was at a planetary fighter base, and/or a specific shipyard-type component; this "fighteryard" could only build fighters (and maybe satellites), not ships or mines or WPs.

This would force us to make more strategic decisions about using fighters (instead of maintenance cost, we're using facility spaces and/or building expensive bases in space).

BTW - if we're going to force fighters to use supply every turn, we should probably make ships use supply every turn as well. As it is now, I can park ships in remote places for long periods of time, which makes just as little sense as parking fighters for long periods of time. I'm willing to accept that a base doesn't need resupply, since the base hull probably includes the ability to turn life support components into self-sustaining life support systems...

raynor · #22 January 29th, 2001, 08:11 PM

These are some great ideas.

I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense for ships to sit idle for years on end without using at least *some* support.

I missed it earlier when BarnacleBill suggested a WEP or facility that hosts fighters. The idea of a fighter base is pretty interesting.

I also like someone's idea to make the fighters land again every turn. The idea to make them die when they run out of supplies is similarly excellent.

SunDevil · #23 January 29th, 2001, 09:53 PM

What about facilities? They should cost some amount of upkeep on each planet.

raynor · #24 January 29th, 2001, 10:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by SunDevil:
What about facilities? They should cost some amount of upkeep on each planet.

That's a very interesting idea.

I think it might make the game over complicated, though. Right now, the only set of screens which show maintenance are the Ship/Fleet screens. Fighters are already listed here. So, if you made them require support it would be easy to find that on a list somewhere. But adding a maintenance cost to each facility on a planet... where would you display that information without a major change to the program?

I'm not saying it is a bad idea. It's actually rather good. But maybe for simplicity's sake, we could just pretend that each 'Mineral Miner I' actually brings in 810 minerals each turn but the other 10 go to pay for this building's maintenance.

Puke · #25 January 29th, 2001, 11:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by raynor:
That's a very interesting idea.

I think it might make the game over complicated, though. Right now, the only set of screens which show maintenance are the Ship/Fleet screens. Fighters are already listed here. So, if you made them require support it would be easy to find that on a list somewhere. But adding a maintenance cost to each facility on a planet... where would you display that information without a major change to the program?

I'm not saying it is a bad idea. It's actually rather good. But maybe for simplicity's sake, we could just pretend that each 'Mineral Miner I' actually brings in 810 minerals each turn but the other 10 go to pay for this building's maintenance.

i think facilities do pay maintnance. not from your resource pool of course, but they require a certain pop level to support a facility. thats not just people working on the facility, thats the taxes, resources, whatever, that those people generate that support that facility. its sort of abstracted, so there is not a need for further resource cost. i guess.

raynor · #26 January 29th, 2001, 11:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Puke:
i think facilities do pay maintnance. not from your resource pool of course, but they require a certain pop level to support a facility. thats not just people working on the facility, thats the taxes, resources, whatever, that those people generate that support that facility. its sort of abstracted, so there is not a need for further resource cost. i guess.

There is a line in the settings.txt file which reads Population requird to operate facility. It defaults to 50 so I think it isn't being used.

(Otherwise, those huge worlds would require 50 x 25 = 1250 Million people to operate all 25 facilities...)