Fuel in a 4x game

[Arkcon]

What I'd like to see is the removal of supply storage from the engines, and replacing it with some sort of fusion reactor that created energy stores for all components to use. That has been done in some SE4 mods, IIRC. It just makes more sense to me, but it really doesn't add much to the game.

What I'm thinking is a ship built by a technologically advanced race should never "run out of gas" and be stranded. They should always be able to jury rig something and get themselves home. But how to balance that so its not abused?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Reduced speed.

Like, maybe, 1 square a turn?

[aegisx]

Arkcon said:
What I'd like to see is the removal of supply storage from the engines, and replacing it with some sort of fusion reactor that created energy stores for all components to use. That has been done in some SE4 mods, IIRC. It just makes more sense to me, but it really doesn't add much to the game.

What I'm thinking is a ship built by a technologically advanced race should never "run out of gas" and be stranded. They should always be able to jury rig something and get themselves home. But how to balance that so its not abused?

Reactor driven was the way I was leaning too. This opens up some possibilities with technology, as components can all be given a power requirement. This requirement can be altered as the technology advances.

[Suicide Junkie]

If the ship says "hey boss, that's beyond our maximum range" but you decide to try and fly to Andromeda anyways, its your own fault!

That said, consider a system for SE5 in which you have:
- Capacitors (supply storage)
- Fuel tanks (ordnance storage)
- Reactors (scripted)

Each turn, the script will check the storage levels on each ship and convert fuel to energy based on the number and level of your reactors.
Various power and efficiency ratings are possible, of course.

Flying or fighting too long without a break would drain your capacitors until you start taking out of supply penalties. Resupply depots would provide ordnance/fuel, while all facilities could provide some amount of supplies/energy to passing ships.

System defense ships would max out on cheap energy storage, since they have lots of places to recharge from. Scouts would go with just enough storage and reactors for a turn's worth of movement, and carry lots and lots of fuel for the long hauls.

[Arkcon]

What SJ suggest is more what I had in mind, a reactor that powers a ship ...

Consider old WWI era navy ships, they could carry a limited amount of diesel fuel, and the militaries and politicians of the world were pretty much driven by securing refueling depots. Nowadays, there are nuclear fueled carriers, miniature floating cities, that can go anywhere, worldwide, do anything, and keep the crew fed, and entertained, for years at a time. Of course, they are frequently visited by resupply ships, for foodstuffs, personal mail, etc. But I doubt the Captain of a large modern nuclear warship spends his day wondering, "Is the reactor full enough to get us home?"

This of course flys in the face of the standard SE5 resupply method, where every couple years, a scout ship has to return to empire controlled space, just to get fuel. Or is that intended to model the restock/recharge atmosphere/rotate crew needs, in which case, we already have what aegisx was asking for.

Way back in the SE4 days, these was a suggestion the we should try to model not only crew experience (i.e. more effective do to repeated won battles) but also crew morale (i.e. less effective due to being stuck guarding a warp point endlessly, recharged by having them return to a friendly port for R&R,) but it was struck down, as too much micromanagement.

Furthermore, we haven't considered yet the possibility that an alien race might not need food, atmosphere, R&R, might be composed of hull subunits, et cetera. But we could always make choosing that race consume racial points

[Suicide Junkie]

You could do that...

For each ship, if it is in orbit of a colony, boost experience up to a value that is some combination of the planet's population, conditions and the highest level of entertainment facility present.
If it isn't in orbit of a planet, reduce experience by 5% of its current value.

Adjust XP levels and descriptions as applicable.
Fleet XP would be the combat experience, while ship XP would be morale.

[Xrati]

XP's should be based on the entire battle for a percentage of the base points of that specific battle (planet, base or open space, etc.)with different values for each.
1) enemy ratio ships to yours.
2) enemy ship size vs yours.
3) damage taken.
4) ships destroyed.
5) ships captured.
6) ships lost.
Each catagory would provide a percentage of the base XP cost of a battle. Where the total might not add up to 100% of the XPs awarded for that battle. (I hope this make some sense?)

I beleive what they tried to do with the scout ships returning to a supply point is to reflect the food/perishables that might not be found in any other form. Unless you have replicator (STNG) tech, you will need food and water along with necessities.