Bobucles

[quote]Don't know if you know this, but Advent get a tech where all capships roll out at level 3.[/quote]Is that entrenchment? Because last I checked, the tech causes ships to creep up to level 2/4 after a couple of minutes, on top of getting a bonus to all XP. It's a great tech, but that's because training is an absolute money pit at best, and completely unavailable at worst. Level 4 is still a bit on the low side of being useful for its place, but the XP bonus makes it quick to catch up, an

Capital ships don't live long enough to suffer from decay. The Battlestar is a ship built from a long dead empire. There is no high end infrastructure left to support and maintain it. A SoaSE capital ship is funded and fueled by the mightiest space empires around. If anything, a Veteran ship is going to be filled with personalized mods, the design is going to be worked over a hundred times with the kinks all worked out(those fixes may find themselves in future ships), and ther

Capital logistics should increase the maximum limit of purchasing crew training, while reducing the cost at the same time. That way, an early game fleet may be unable to purchase levels. A mid game fleet will spend lots of money to get fleets to a moderate level. A late game fleet may spend a decent amount (the cost of an extra cap?), but end up with a level 7-8 ship. Training should be worth the cost, which it currently is not, except for a few RARE cases. Players will

[quote]i get the distinct impression that he's playing almost entirely rush maps and his games end with a GG/disconnect as soon as one player loses a good chunk of his fleet to the other in the first major encounter.[/quote]It would seem that the goal of Entrenchment is to allow players a better fallback plan for that first catastrophe. So that the first loss isn't an instant GG event. I think the biggest issue with caps is that the game focuses on major tide turning fleet battles, an

[quote]What serious online player can afford to cripple himself early in the game? Plenty of games are won/lost/decided in the early phases.[/quote]Do you even play the game? The first cap, counting the factory, is half price. The first cap also has plenty of opportunity to safely gain levels in the early asteroid capping stages. Pirates will give it levels. It also has a HUGE health reserve, so that you dont' have to lose ships in the early planet capping stages. What serious online pl

[quote]But Level 1 capships, in an objective analysis, suck. And that sucks.[/quote]Fixed. Low level cap ships are not worthwhile in terms of initial and concurrent costs. Level 10 cap ships are great. They have powerful abilities, much better endurance, and a much more deadly combat skill. The problem is, few capital ships will ever get that far. Low level capital ships have an even tougher time endgame. Frigate counters are on the field, XP gets split up, and few s

No, not really. Also, making a "competitive" difficulty level is an extremely high challenge in terms of programming the AI behavior, and balancing it against a very diverse playerbase.

I think an issue with cap ships is the triple growth curves they have on levelling up. Cap ships, when they level up gain: - Extra shields and hull. Basic health. - Extra max mitigation and armor points. Two health multipliers. - Extra shields, health, armor, and maybe mitigation through research. Multipliers on top. - Extra base weapon damage. Basic DPS. - Extra weapon fire rate. More DPS Multipliers. - Increased weapon damage from research.

Wow! It's remarkable that a strike craft, who's entire survival depends on its ability to EVADE fire, can simply sit still, unload all its weapons endlessly, and not be turned into insant slag. Don't count on this "feature" staying in the game for long.

Capital ships didn't need antimatter for their squadrons before. They don't need squadrons to chew up antimatter now. They'll be unaffected. If a squadron has to dock after a single volley or because of some strikecraft ammo box, then that just turns them into giant boomerangs. This would destroy the carrier's DPS, as the ships will now be spending time flying back and forth, useless but highly vulnerable. The reason I picked the cruiser as the source of the limitation is beca

[quote]Ugh...carriers are do not need a nerf. [/quote]So what you're saying is that if flak is unavailable, carriers should have unlimited control over the skies? It's quite sensible that squadrons shouldn't have have an unlimited deployment time on the field. They are a low risk, highly adaptable, and difficult to counter form of damage. Even with a direct flak counter ready ( LFs are currently a SOFT counter to all antimatter units), a carrier ball can still cut a swath through gravity well

[quote]The main point is choosing an appropriate drain rate, just enough to make them balanced.[/quote]A good drain rate would likely give carriers nearly unlimited combat with one squadron, but around 10 minutes with two squadrons. Keep in mind that it gets boosted through research, parking, stars, and, synergies, but gets reduced through jumps, combat, antimatter drain, and flak. The main idea is that the carrier is a support cruiser, and its support should be taking antimatter just

[quote]I stopped here. They have what...?[/quote]Answers.com says: [quote]Modular: Designed with standardized units or dimensions, as for easy assembly and repair or flexible arrangement and use:[/quote]The carrier's weapon is the squadron . Squadrons come in two major flavors: Fighter and Bomber. Entrenchment adds something too, but I'll gloss over that. When I say the weapons are modular, I mean that the carrier has two or three empty squadron slots for its

Carriers have it all. They have a modular weapons loadout, the longest range in the game, and can heal their fleet while staying unharmed themselves, all at the same time. Supposedly, they are balanced against their antimatter stores, but this doesn't work out in game, even against direct antimatter counters. So: Have strike fleets drain antimatter while fielded. When the antimatter is gone, the strike ships are no longer considered under "carrier support". They may decay, they may ru

[quote who="CommanderAdama" reply="4" id="2054314"] Quoting Bobucles, reply 3Does Pervasive economy give the resource benefits before or after the cost of fleet upkeep? Because if it's after upkeep, it's a very small piece of the pie. u get a percentage of the money spent. Obviously the higher the fleet upkeep the less money spent by the enemy, but even at full fleet upkeep that's 47% income lost, and that amount of ships isnt needed unless you're playin

Does Pervasive economy give the resource benefits before or after the cost of fleet upkeep? Because if it's after upkeep, it's a very small piece of the pie.

How about having planet bonuses give more effect on the gravity well, or local systems? For example: - Increased/decreased shield/hull/mitigation/armor/healing rate. - Increased/decreased X weapon type damage. - Deals damage to nearby frigates/fighters/caps/structures. - Increased/decreased ship speed/acceleration/mobility/range/fire rates. - Unable to build starbase. - Unable to build mines. - Provides a planet bound crystal/metal b

Damaging the hull kills ships. Damaging the shields doesn't. This ability seems to be REALLY powerful. It'd be more dangerous to run from a starbase than to take it on!

Have the Vasari siege laser act as an anti-structure weapon. It's the most fitting of the 3 races.

[quote]Nothing short of fifty plus anti-fighter frigates[/quote]See, what no one seems to realize is... 50+ anti-fighter frigates are pretty damn cheap. Both in terms of fleet supply and resource cost. They're FAR cheaper than the amount of resources needed for carriers.

[quote who="Hack78" reply="4" id="2048395"]Trade ships are fairly weak actually...[/quote]Individually, yes. However, players tend to build a LOT of trade ports, as they're the #1 "filler" structure to get. As a cargo fleet, the numbers add up very quickly. Add in the respawn power of all the trade ports(game files say 12sec), and it will take you a MASSIVE arsenal to consistently KEEP the ships dead. 500 hull points(+ upgrades), every 12 seconds, for every trade port is no joke, and you'll h

It's a dense molten core, which has been devoured through by enormous planetary scavenging behemoths. How the planet is habitable at all is a mystery in of itself.

You get money simply for having the trade port's cargo ships in existence. Trade ports have a high spawn rate, and ships have a good deal of health, so it's extremely difficult to put more than a pitiful dent in someone's economy by killing his cargo ships.

[quote]"Hi, I'm looking for someone to spend a lot of time doing work for me. I want them to do the models for me AND I want them to also make the entire mod according to my exacting specs. Of course, I am likely to be the only one interested in the mod I envision. Once you are done, you willl be reward with the knowledge that I am pleased with your work."[/quote]Is there a Dilbert comic about this?

The units take some time to phase in, from wherever they were at.