ah, ok. yes, that sound about sensible.

since its a general ideas thread, here two more by me:

limited stealth: maybe have some of neutral territory impair sensors so that not all of the grav well can be seen and the enemy is able to hide a fleet from casual scouts. if ts only one type of terrain that can do this, its fairly obvious that that particular grav well just has to be properly scouted, but it would still prodive a little bit more variety and some kind of nebular seems predestined for this kind of thing (think of star trek II wouldnt such a fight be awesome?)

stealth II: would be possible in a few more systems, engine shutdowns. you basically give your fleet the order to shut down engines and the become almost undetectable to all but the closest obervers. that way you could lay a nice trap or deceive someone on where your fleet is stationed. it should take a short while of powering up before the ships can move and fire again, just to give it some downside.

idea 2: uncircular graw wells for "non planet" planets: in short I mean to say that while a circular grav well for planet is plausible, this does not apply to astroid fields/ belts, nebula, clouds and so on. they could well be elliptical or even long and stretchy or even completely awkwardly formed. just to have some more diversity again.

Giving the game some sort of sensor system could be interesting. Stars, nebulae, line of sight/proximity to celestial objects could affect it, perhaps. You could have research techs to increase sensor strengths in those environments, and the scout could become useful in an attack fleet as, logically, it would have the most sophisticated sensor systems.

Just, for the love of god, don't give grav wells fog of war It's far too common in games and it feels very artificial in space. It's one thing in land-based RTS games to not know what the terrain looks like until you explore it, but space is space, there's no terrain and not being able to detect anything on sensors doesn't mean the skybox should be all blacked out. Currently if you try to zoom in on a planet you have no presense in it will gradually fade to darkness and you won't be able to see inside the grav well, but you still see what the planet looks like, or asteroid, or whatever it is. That's as far as it should go, I think



Two thumbs up for varying grav wells idea for spacial anomalies/asteroids. There are some planets with lower/larger grav well properties, but it would be much more interesting to have a non-uniform well, then even the jump-in direction might matter

A more or less "easy" way to implement diversification is via doctrines. Similar ideas have been used in C&C Generals and Company of Heroes as already said.

Doctrines:

Flexible: The standard doctrine. This would be like the TEC as it is now.

Firepower: Your aim is to concentrate large amounts of firepower in one spot. Ships weapons are stronger, speed and defense are a bit weaker. Utility ships cost more.

Fighter: Fleets prefer to remain at stand-off range and let their wings do the job. Wings are stronger, all other ships have weaker firepower and defense. Heavy combat ships like Kol's and Kodiaks cost more.

Raid: Fast strikes with flotilla's of small ships are the centerpoint of this doctrine. Frigates are faster and can jump faster if they jump alone or not with a capital. They are also slightly better than usual frigates. All other ships are more expensive.


You can choose your doctrine from the start for free. After that you can change via the Military Research screen. There are buttons for each doctrine with probitive costs to change. You won't need any structure to change your doctrine.

Enemy doctrines are shown with an icon next to the diplomacy screen icon when you encounter them. They can also be indicated on the ship datacards. An enemy's doctrine change will trigger a message.



If you want to implement doctrines but change even less you can also simply make certain ship types significantly more expensive, not available or available through research. With this model you have to choose the doctrine from start and cannot change it (or choose to have none).

E.g: You choose Fighter superiority doctrine: First of all you start with a Carrier capital ship.
As your doctrine wants dedicated carrier groups with escorts you still need all the frigates but LRM firgates. These are more expensive.
You also won't need cruisers unless they are carrying wings, so all but the carrier-cruiser are more expensive. Maybe the command cruiser is not available.
Every fleet will be led by carrier capitals so all the other capitals are significantly more expensive. You may need one or two other capitals fro bombardment or utility but you have to pay alot more for it.

Not to nit-pick at the idea, but since the command cruiser 'paints' targets, it would be of more use to a carrier-based fleet than a repair cruiser, so I'd say the Hoshiko should not be available instead.

But anyway, that was pretty well put! There could probably be another doctrine type or two since those 3 don't quite cover everything, but in general I think the 'doctrine' idea is the one that's most fleshed out currently

Maybe we'll see something like it!

Yes you're absolutely right about the Command and Repair cruiser. Good point on that.

Another doctrine could be one that sets a focus on utility. But this one would be clearly harder to balance and to play.

Doctrines could also focus on cruisers and capitals. But as the Kodiak isn't available for a good portion of the game a cruiser doctrine comes down to build alot of carrier-cruisers.

Unless the doctrine reduces the research requirement... a lot.

That might be an idea. I noticed that many other (like me) would like to have access to the Kodiak earlier. But it would require more work to get the whole idea to the game.