Off Topic Thread

[Ed Kolis]

Yes, that's the plan As a matter of fact, we were discussing docking at yesterday's meeting... seems like we came to the conclusion that without "sectors" in the game, the easiest way to implement repair in a fair manner is to require the ship being repaired to dock at the repair ship, or vice versa!

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by Baron Munchausen

...does this mean we can finally have a distinction between "jump ships" and "system ships...

They were forced to eat Robin's minstrels... and there was much rejoicing.

[jars_u]

Saw Flotilla on Steam today - never heard of it or http://www.blendogames.com/ before and while it has some obvious limitations it for me is also intriguing enough to put money down on it. Thought it would be of interest to the SL thread on its own merits but also very applicable to the SL ship design/combat discussions.

Review: Flotilla, or Ender’s Game: The Game

FLOTILLA gameplay

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by Ed Kolis

...if capital ships had little or even zero maneuverability, while fighters could zip around like crazy... would put more emphasis on the fleet formations and strategies...

I think that sounds like an excellent implementation. Would also allow firing arcs for capital ships to have meaningful repercussions for both design and combat strategies. Also if capital ships didn't "dog fight" as much as ships generally do in 4X games having a system where ship Captains are able to grant minor benefits (as sometimes seen in RTS, +1 defense, etc.) could help further tailor a players style.

[Astorax]

Ed, that makes sense. A question though: Would repairing a ship take resources or would it basically be dock + time = done? What I mean is would your repair ship need to construct components with resources and then repair the ship? What type of model is being used for this?

[Ed Kolis]

We were discussing that issue too, and it seems the consensus is, since we're going to use the "build an empty/broken hull, and fill/fix the components" model (like SE3), it would make sense for repairs, like construction, to use resources, since the two are basically identical.

I know SE3 didn't do it QUITE like that - you paid the entire cost for the hull and all associated components up front, rather than just paying for stuff as it gets built, while repairs were free - but this way seems more consistent

[Astorax]

Hmm, so is having the resources modeled? What I mean is would the repair ship physically have to pick up the resources and carry them to the damaged ship or site to build a new whatever and build components from resources in-ship?

It would probably be easier to abstract that to just -resources from your Empires total but it is cool to actually model it.

[dumbluck]

I don't know, astorax, that sounds a bit like micromanagement hell to me.

[Astorax]

No, that part would be automatic. It would require, however, that there be all available resources needed on the world to begin with.

Meh.

It would probably be easier just to abstract it all, I suppose.

[Xrati]

EASY is always better!!!