like the great harbor ship of Bentus! (from Homeworld)

Well he used the word "cusp" so he gets at least one brownie point.

My reasons:

1. OH CRUD MOMENTS: Moments in a game where you just go "Oh crud." I had sent out an "expeditionary force" of about 3-5 capital ships into a new solar system. I figured it could explore around a little bit, maybe capture a planet, establish a foot base.

It did way more then that. I captured like three planets and just caused general mayhem in the enemy solar system until all of a sudden we were trapped in a system with a jump inhibitor when the enemies entire fleet shows up, including their flagship. I order all of my five ships to attack their flagship in a desperate last ditch move to destroy them completely. I was devastated as I watched ship after ship of mine slowly being destroyed. My whole fleet was wiped out. Their flagship was on fire and severely crippled but managed to escape, not to mention the ships I lost were all leveled up ships.

Now that's what I'm talking about, classic moments in a game where you just go "Oh crud. This is bad." Imagine having one massive space ship flying through space pinned down by an entire enemy fleet as you desperately try and escape. Or imagine a campaign that you, the user create, as you go about meticulously chasing through systems for the enemies massive capital ship in an attempt to destroy it.

2. THE OPPOSITE "HECK YA MOMENTS": You've spent half the game pouring all of your resources into building on massive space ship, or heck just six or seven massive/really really big space ships. The enemy instead, has spent the game investing in a normal sized fleet with various ships. As they close in on your homeworld, you finish building your massive space ship, deploying it just in time to counter attack the enemy fleet, just barely managing to wipe out the enemy fleet. I also imagine this massive space cruiser would have the capability to produce smaller ships, so perhaps as you go about on a campaign of destruction with this massive ship it would slowly churn out smaller ships enlarging your fleet and a slow modest pace. There is nothing more epic then a huge space battle relying on just one space ship to hold the line.

See, it wasn too hard to creat a legitamite response

@Inert
While I'm not a proponent of Megashipsofdoom I don't think adding them to the game would be entirely w/o strategy. IMO it's the old problem of turtling with access to enough resources to reach the highest tech level. Probably the gameplay would have to be balanced and tweaked to avoid the cold war tech race you describe but I think it could be done.

However, I prefer something similar to the approach Silent Shade took...increasing capital ship hp, sp, abilities, etc so as to make them a significant improvement over frigates (while keeping their numbers in check with increases in cost, build time, etc).

Something like the Colossus in Freespace 2 would be cool.

I think if it's implemented right Super Dreadnought (sounds better then Super Mega right?) can add a lot of strategy and provide some spikes to intensify the game at certain point.


The only bad thing is when they make those too powerful while too easy to access and acquire.

Making the flagship unique from any other built ship would be a step in the right direction, it doesnt even have to be mega if some people think megaships would cause issues(inert). Atm having a flagship that is just a normal ship is quite shallow.

I can see it all now... A ship that you must build in parts, that orbits one of your planets and must endure all the hazards that go along with it while it is in development. Each section would have to be added on to another one, so whether you choose to build it once you fully research everything or build it in stages once you finish the last tech research so you can take it out on its "trial run" ASAP is up to you.

A sample simple time table should be something like the following:

Super Structure - 15 minutes
Weapons - 5 - 15 minutes (based on the total number of systems)
Shields - 5 minutes
Critical Systems - 5 - 15 minutes (based on the total number of systems)
Modules (upgrades systems) - 10 - 30 (based on the total number of systems)
Crew training - 5 minutes

I believe such a time table with a continuous drain on empire resources throughout the entire process would really facilitate a sense of grandeur and accomplishment when one of these bad boys is finally commissioned for the player.

well, for game like this it's actually easier to control the limit of Dreadnought. In most game, it's the matter of chunk it out, and once you can make one, it's a matter of time before you can make a dozen, and we end up with Dreadnought exclusive game.


But from my understanding (don't have beta) SOASE has an unkeep system is it not? (Surprise nobody has mentioned it or I'm getting the wrong impression). It can make Dreadnought an important and must have asset but too much to maintain in large number.

@Satt - you are correct there is an upkeep system in place. It however needs to be tweaked from its current configuration as well as the resource system.

@mom - From what I can tell about the current graphic system that type of thing is simply not possible.

im thinking something like this.
the ships that you build can be used by themselves... but lets say you combine 5 scout frigs and 5 flak frigs and a carrier to create a specialized megaship. technically, it would be like a very tight formation (that would look like 1 ship, and all 11 ships would act as one. the downside is you can't break them apart without penalty. the upside is, less costly ships used properly can defeat larger and more expensive ships.

and i'll personally have to pass on the siege canon

inert... are you the inert from cata?

i'm sure momo's suggestion is possible, it'd most likely be a question of how hard would it be to program/design

i wouldn't mind a ship with a pop cap that's a class above capital, but i wouldn't want it to be any more effective against caps than caps are against frigs

i'm personally more interested in specialized ships (not customized, specialized) than i am in adding more or less powerful ones, i sat down and tried to list the things i honestly thought made cata such a fun game for me and i realized that specialization was one of the keys to the dulce dynamics of that beloved game - the ships with special actions (e.g. missilytes, mimics) and frigs with weapons suited for attacking a certain ship class (i.e. multibeams, ion arrays, hives, rammers) made for some fun strategizing and tacticizing

right now the only difference i'm really seeing b/n ships (b/n frigs and caps, and b/n different types of caps, and potentially b/n this megaship and other ships) is simply firepower, and the fire is all the same, we have what, 2 weapons? lasers and autoguns right? oh ya, missiles too i guess, but they all act the same; what a laser can hit, so can an autogun, and for the most part, so can a missile

ya, thats what i meant by a pop cap (ship # limit), i think 5 or less caps (just pulled that number out of my hat) should be able to take out the megaship

and

rofl... you beat me to the punch