well, I'll comment on the campaign 1st- NO. It won't happen. It just won't. Why? Well, Sins is kind of a sandbox-style game. 4X games have a tradition of not having campaigns. Why? Well, because very time you play, you make a story of your own.

As for the super-vessels, good ideas, but overdone for the times. IMO, they would be a massive war beast costing 800-1000 fleet supply points (in other words have your max fleet supply is gone right there (GRT)). FTL speed would require a passive ability to make them slow. IMO, they should have the same FTL speed as everything else, just sublight is slower (come on, they can put a big&powerful drive to move it the same speed as a small Cobalt).

Also, there isn't going to be a 3rd XPack (or at least that's what the word around is). Instead, something, else.

The Iron Engine (which is used by Sins), to my knowledge isn't capable of supporting destructible modules. It either all goes or none of it.

Also, why would a 'super-vessel' need LIGHT cannons. This is SPACE combat. I vote for using anti-strikecraft missiles. Longer range, greater destructive potential, greater accuracy, anti-SC missiles have all those advantages, while anti-SC guns have few of them, if any.

EDIT: I see Darvin got here before me. I have to agree with that assesment, to a point. A super-unit that can be defeated by a bunch of HCs or, God forbid, support cruisers, or even worse, SCOUTS (I wonder what Amish would say about that?) is useless. However, I think a super-unit that can be defeated by 5-6 lvl5+ capital ships would be acceptable. So long as 2-3 of those capitals was destroyed in the process. Maybe four.

well, I think having very large, very expensive, and very supply-intensive ships that are very powerful would add a new dimension, SO LONG AS IT IS COUNTERABLE. That is the key phrase/word. COUNTERABLE.

If nothing has a counter, then it degenerates into rush teching to get the uncounterable units. Or spam. Like the Illums+Guardian w/ Repulse.

I don't think this is a good idea. Sins is and should stay about fleet rather than one enormous big ship imo.

Grtz,
Flipkik

I fully agree with darvin's assessment and that's part of the reason why I never really wanted superships in the game.

it would work, of course, if there were a different damage model where ships lose effectiveness with dmg, like some guns failing, lesser speed/ turning rates, etc. then, even if it still had 50% health, it would not be 100% as dangerous from a dmg or ability standpoint. such a change is not going to happen in sins, maybe in a sequel, though I doubt it (and it may even be out of place for the scope and purpose of the game), but there have been games to do it.

What if these super units required a constant resource cost?  there would have to be a lot of people on these ships, and they have to feed them somehow... A steady flow of credits, perhaps 100-500 per second would leave an ECONOMIC counter- you'd still have a super ship, but a good opponent could counter you by attacking your economic structures and planets, leaving you're empire as a whole a bit more vulnerable.

There's another way this could work though.  If the "super unit" did not have passive regeneration of its hull.  It could slowly be worn down.

The only way to repair it would be to send it back to the structure that constructed it.  Repairing would cost resources as well.  This structure would take a large amount of both logistic and tactical slots.  That could make it dangerous to construct on a front line world.

 You have your 'big' ships. They are called Caps. What you want and Im sure there are many like you, is a 'I win unit'. Its like Expermental Units in Supreme Commander. Those units are no fun. Even in SP, when I can beat the campaign using just a few Expermental Units.

IMO, a 'super-vessel', should be better than a cap, but weaker than a starbase. Give it something like a TOTAL DPS of 200, and some anti-everything abilities, (EXCEPT for anti-SC). Give it no flak, make it fairly expensive (so that it can come out around mid-game). It should be slow as hell, turn like a rock moving at 0.99c (99% light speed, in other words LIKE CRAP!), and be EXTREMELY vulnerable to bombers.

Why? Well, something very vulnerable to bombers will make you use fighters (preferably launched from the only halfway-defenseless cap carriers), and lots of flaks. I.E., it has an attendant fleet, and is therefore the fleet CENTERPIECE, and not the FLEET itself.

also, about my game engine comment- a game engine that could do a realistic damage simulation on large ships/structures (Caps, SBs, maybe planets/artificial worlds) would be cool, and then have the Sins-style damage system for smaller ships&structures.

I wouldn't mind super-vessels, so long as there were considerable drawbacks to using them.

It's big. Make it take three to four times the time to charge up to jump.

It's slow. Make it have limited cones of fire around the major weapons ports.

It's a huge target. Increase Chance-to-Hit (only applies to fighters/bombers, and flaks) to 100%

Yeah, it can have devastating firepower in the forward cone or from a broadside, but against a large fleet of smaller, maneuvering craft, it's at a disadvantage. I think the purpose of a supership would be not so much to kill fleets of small things, but to use abilities and buffs to allow a second fleet to better deal with the first. Or perhaps it could just be really good at killing large, slower targets, and have a chance to miss on everything smaller than a HC.

"But that sounds just like the capships we have now!" why yes, it does! Except caps are more maneuverable, cheaper, (heck, you could even make the thing cost four cap crews), and require much less time and effort to build.

"But then why would we get it at all?" Because its abilities are on the same scale as it is- They're big, mean, and can buff your fleet to victory or de-buff your opponents into the dirt. Not to mention the non-moving starbases can't get out of your most powerful firing arc, and even 80% chance to hit can really screw up an enemy who blunders into your broadside.

It concentrates your power and resources in one location, and can be beaten by a fleet that costs about the same without the assistance of another supership. In a 4X game, that kind of concentration can hurt you if your opponent knows how to take advantage of it. You take care of it, and it can make more of a difference than a couple caps would.

Plus, on the side of me that daydreams about batman fighting bear cavalry, two of them duking it out would BE AWESOME.

I think these units are more than possible to balance. It takes a lot of consideration, but it can be done.

Still, I don't think they'd fit in Sins at all as it is currently.

More caps is better, modding provides that. What would be an idea is costly research to upgrade your ships to level 10. The facility is there in the gamplay constants file, it's just not used (upgrade price for next level).

At the moment I'm in an epic battle with three unfair AI's on a 120 planet map. The AI hit me with 8 caps, 40 HCs, 92 carriers + 2-300 other ships - woo hoo! I slapped them with 28 caps, including 20 level 7 Marzas.