SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Kana]

Atrocities said:
I had an idea for adding something to combat both space and ground.

In war troops are injured. During any combat in space or on the ground people are hurt so why not have an injury system in the game.

Nice idea...will defintely add some more micro-managment. But it would force the use of other resources, and make for different components, and some good role playing type elements...

Kana

[narf poit chez BOOM]

As long as I don't have to do anything because of it's inclusion, sure.

[Aris_Sung]

I think that 3-4 resources should be enough. I mean when you start adding different elements into the game as resources, we'll eventually end up adding the entire periodic table.
Although 1 resource I would like to see is some facility that actually makes ship crews(for those not using Master Computers). I think it would be cool to have to build academies where it turns out a standard amount of graduates or it's based on population size. That way you would have to make a balance between the number of ships you build and how many people are actually part of the navy.
So everytime a new ship is built, the amount of crew needed for the ship would be deducted from the 'pool' of crew. And if you build too fast, and you don't have enough crewmen, then you're ships aren't going anywhere, which I think would happen in real life. (Imagine asking a ship to depart without its captain, only 1 engineer, 1 chef, and only a couple of red shirts . That just wouldn't happen...would it?)

[Aris_Sung]

I like Atrocities idea about having troops and ship crews having crew health and being injured. That way the need for a medical ship wouldn't just be when a plague or two happens to break out somewhere.
As for making unit groupings for troops, this is my idea that I got from another game:
For infantry: Unit Component Units Total Strength
Squad - 7 troops
Platoon 4 Squads 28 "
Company 3 Platoons 84 "
Battalion 4 Companies 336 "
Regiment 4 Battalions 1344 "
if you want to go further than,
Brigade 3 Regiments
Divisoin 2 Brigades

For armour: Lance - 4 tanks
Company 3 Lances 12 "
Battalion 3 Companies 36 "
Regiment 3 Battalions 108 "

Also, I think that fighters should be allowed in ground combat. So if there are any fighters on the ground for the defending side or any fighters 1 grid around the planet for the attacking side, those should be allowed in on ground combat.

[Aris_Sung]

It seems to me that I'm writing a bit much. I'll stop after this and come back later.
(Note: If any of the following has already been suggested, I'm sorry that I don't have enoug htime to read all 131 pages of posts. So please just reply and tell me that it has already been discussed and if you know, please also add what the general consensus was on the idea.)

I have a couple of ideas that could be intriguing and add a small dimension to the game. (I just don't know how feasible it may be.)
1. What if ships' shields had some sort frequency code, say a 4-digit number or code. So then you could branch this idea into having a technology in the form of a 'weapon' that wouldn't really do much damage, but a successful hit would scan some of the code or all, depending on how sophisticated the 'weapon' is. Something like what the Borg uses.
Also, this could also be added into the Intel field, where a mission could be to steal the code of an enemy ship, and when you confront the enemy, you would be able to penetrate their shields like a Phased Polaron Cannon.
Another technology, would be a device that could randomly change your code. So even if the enemy got part of your code in combat, it would be useless because your code would have just changed. (I know this sounds like alot from TNG, the Feds against the Borg, but I've always hoped to play a game as a Borg-like race against other races.)

2. What if ships also had a personalized ID code. My idea is that I want to steal other races ships and send them back in to their space to spy on them. Except, that the ship would get blown into pieces once I sent it into their space. So if there could also be another Intel project where you could steal ship ID codes and then steal the ship, you would essentially have a spy ship and the enemy wouldn't be the wiser. (Of course, there may be the problem that the enemy will see us capturing the ship in combat and whatnot, so then I would have to propose somesort of 'Communications Jammer', which would prevent the enemy from seeing combat, if that's even allowed. But I think I'll talk about that in another post or let someone else describe it, if they want to.)

3. Wouldn't it be great if ship/starbase/etc. weapons had different power settings. How many times have you tried to capture a ship and only wanting to take down their shields and maybe weapons but only had Large or Heavy mounted weapons to do the job. Sounds to me like using a chainsaw instead of a scalpel to do a surgery. If each weapon had say a Low/Med/Max/Overload settings then you could choose what level of punch you want. (For the Overload setting, I was thinking that if you wanted extra punch, you run the risk that the weapon may burn out and be useless for the rest of combat.) The different power setting may or may not influence supply. I don't know.

4. Finally, I think that there should be ship acceleration in combat mode, and planetary gravity as well. From what I've heard, the new combat screen will use hexes? If that's so, then when you start off combat, you should start a little slower and build up speed. Also, when you turn, depending on your turn radius, that should affect how many movement is used. So if you turn on the spot after going full speed, you will definately use more movement then if you were turning on the spot from rest or if you took a turn of a couple of hexes. About planetary gravity: if you're out of engines within so many grids of a planet, you should fall towards the planet and crash unless saved. Also, if you use a repulser beam, you should be able to push ships into the planet. This would prevent people sticking ships all around their planet to defend it with their ship weapons and WPs unless they want to see ships falling from the sky.
(On another note, do you think different ship speeds would work in normal mode, say Flank/Full/Half/Quarter speed to get from one destination to another. And going at slower speeds would mean using more movement for less distance but also saving on fuel and lesser chance of getting damage by storms/etc. then if you were traveling at Flank speed.)

I think I've wrote a bit much, but after not being able to post for a while, ideas just seem to build up and you got to spill them up.
Comment? Ideas?

Thanks for reading,
Aris

[Fyron]

Noone is going to bite your head off if you repeat a suggestion that was already made... It just means that it is a more popular suggestion (marginally, but still ).

1. What if ships' shields had some sort frequency code, say a 4-digit number or code.

Damn that Star Trek for perpetuating so much junk science... There would be no such thing as shield frequencies in reality. There is no reason for an energy field to have to shut completely off and back on again so many times per second as Star Trek implies. Certainly, you could design your shields to do this, but it would be monumentally stupid... Read this site for more information: *link*

From what I've heard, the new combat screen will use hexes?

I believe that was the system screen. The combat screen will probably be floating point, as the combat engine will be "real-time."

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

TWO things (and yes I'm bloody persistent):

1. MORE THAN FIVE RESOURCES!!!!! Ok, 3 standard ones would be terriffic, but I want the ability to make a LOT of resources. If I want to make a Trader Game Mod with few weapons, many types of freighters and less (or perhaps more) intel, I watn to be able to make trading actually IMPORTANT... i.e. you have lots of Rads but you need min and orgs. Another player has many Biocrystals (which count as a resource of their own AND as min/org crossover) but little Rads, you could trade a lot of your rads for his biocrystals... Example 2: you need Chronosteel for the repair of the temporal armor on the warship you bought off a Temporal race, but you don't have the appropriate ability... but you DO have Psychic and Crystallurgy. You propose a trade with the empire you've bought the ship from: you get the Chronosteel you need to repair the warship, and they get Psychic Crystals they can trade with another empire to buy a much needed battlecruiser... and so on. Please?

2. You need to have the ability to build Resource Freighters or at least be able to mod them in. Small increments (say 5000 or less) will automatically be transferred, but if you have a Heavy Space Yard that can use 10000 per turn and builds a Super-Hyper-Ultra-BattleMoon of 100MT you will be restricted to half the build time... unless you build a large Freighter and set it on auto-shipments of 100000 a time from the production/storage hub and the Heavy Space Yard.

3. The ability to mod Vehicle Types. I mean, what you've got now is OK, but I want to be able to build ships not just as Ships but, say, for example:
-Generation Ships (massive vessels capable of carrying population etc, like a mobile planet)
-Capital Warships (the largest ships - save for the Generation Ships - you can build, with sizes reaching into the 30MT range and above, capable of fielding entire arsenals capable of blowing up a planet without use of a Tectonic Bomb)
-Civilian Capital Ships (diplomatic vessels, massive freighters, Exodus-class Relocation Transports, etc.)
-Deep Strike Craft (small warships capable of attaining great speeds to strike deep within enemy territory to harass soft targets to draw ships away from the front line, and then to dart back again - the cavalry of the skies)
-Front Line Warships (slow, lumbering behemoths with copious amounts of intrinsic armor, used for fighting in the front lines against other warships)
-Destroyers (fast warships with intrinsic Scanner capabilities - the only ones capable of penetrating the highest cloak levels)
-Warships (your standard run-of-the-mill craft reaching approx. from 300kT to 5MT)
-Small Civilian Craft (hospital ships, freighters, yachts, official craft, small freighters, etc.)
-Carriers (ships from 500 kT to well into the 20MT range, capable of carrying massive amounts of fighters into combat)
-Colony Ships (various types and sizes of vessels used in the expansion of your realm, from simple craft capable only of building a small automated colony (no pop but you can build facilities/units, you just can't use them) to massive ships, similar to Generation Ships, capable of taking a small Empire to a new destination far, far away - especially useful in massive maps)

and for fighters:
-Fighters (the standard fightercraft from 10kT to 125kT, not jump-capable)
-Starfighters (larger fighters, 50kT to 200kT, jump-capable but expensive)
-Shuttles (small, jump-capable craft that can fill diplomatic and exploratory roles)
-Cargo Shuttles (larger shuttles capable of carrying small amounts of cargo, also jump-capable)
-Ferries (larger shuttles, can carry small amounts of population or a diplomatic delegation)
-Landing Shuttles (think SW Lambda-class craft - non-jump-capable shuttles capable of dropping small amounts of troops on a planet

For drones:
-Guided Missiles (similar to the SEIV drones, relatively small, maneuverable things - though they can only use several types of small weaponry, and no large weapons)
-Cruise Missiles (larger drones, faster, less maneuverable, unarmed but capable of carrying larger payloads to a destination)
-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (large, slow, armores behemoths capable of carrying very large payloads to a target - however, you select a target and then you lose control over it, it cannot maneuver)
-Strategic Ballistic Missiles (similar to TBMs, but then even larger and jump-capable - the only jump-capable missiles)

Bases:
-Orbital Bases (normal bases, built orbiting a planet)
-Defense Bases (military defense bases, can be built anywhere)
-Habitat Stations (large stations that hold population - I usually create my own habitat stations with Cargo Bays now, they hold population for me to ferry to newly colonized planets so the initial buildup goes faster)
-Storage Stations (bases that do not require ANYTHING and can only contain various types of cargo bays)
-Colony Stations (massive bases that can carry lots of population and produce resources, like a colony you can construct yourself - handy if you're short on colonizable planets in the neighbourhood)

Weapon Platforms:
-Civilian Defense Battery (small and ineffective but cheap and quick-to-construct installations capable of carrying not much more that three weapons. Good for defense early in the game)
-Missile Silos (installations that can launch "drones" - i.e. guided missiles, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. They require Silo Controls, which you can also design here. How many Silo Controls you need depend on the kind of control components you use - larger, more advanced control stations can control more silos than a low-tech Missile Control Bunkers)
-Fortresses (Large defense installations with surface-to-orbit weaponry and heavy surface warfare weapons - they'll defend the planet from enemy troops. It's a good way of securing your planets from enemy takeovers)
-Defense Installations (similar to current Weapon Platforms)

Mines:
-Normal Mines
-Self-Replicating Mines (when mines are destroyed, a certain number of them are reinstated the next turn - I've posted something about this before. Check a few pages back)

I think you get the idea. I know I'm crazy.

Ok, so it became 3 things... but the first 2 I was persistent in. The third came somewhat on the fly.

[Atrocities]

Micromanagment killed BOTF and Rebellion. Micromanagment made MOO3 one of the most horrible games of all times, aside from it just being one of the most horrible games of all time.

Micromanagment is fine, but excessive micromanagment is bad.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

OK, but I STILL want the option to DETERMINE how much micromanagement I want. If I want massive-scaled Empires with fleets of thousands of Dreadnoughts, colonies in hundreds of systems and populations reaching into the trillions, I won't need much micromanagement. But if I want a more small-scale game I love micromanagement. And what's the micromanagement in the ability to add more unit types?

[Ed Kolis]

Actually, you WILL be able to add your own unit types... and I haven't read over all your suggestions but it looks like most if not all of them could be implemented as custom vehicle types in SE5!
And Aaron has said there *will* most likely be spaceborne populations on worldships and such, presumably something like the Alternate Reality races of Stars! only much more flexible in where they can put their population centers... hidden nebula colony anyone?