Semi-Official 7.x Suggestion Thread

[Paul M]

The fighters assigned to a mission are launched from a mothership, the game knows which mother ship that was.  The carrier crew grade I assume speeds up re-arming and repair.

As to how to give out the points...base it on the fact the fighters were in combat and then give a flat point value per fighter reflecting the "ground crew" pre-launch and post-recovery activities.  Basically something like a CV launches 60 fighters in a strike...they launch missiles and damage something or another and return to the carrier to rearm.  The carrier gains (on landing) 60*(x) points of crew grade.  What (x) should be I've no real idea. 

[Sheb]

Is loading/rearming fighter in combat any different than doing it and then having the fighter fire on note live targets?

[bean]

The fighters assigned to a mission are launched from a mothership, the game knows which mother ship that was.

But we don't have 'missions' per se.  What if the fighters weren't assigned to the ship they launched from?  What if I had a specialized FARP carrier that cycled fighters through?  What about the ship they recover to?

The carrier crew grade I assume speeds up re-arming and repair.

I'm not sure of that, actually.

As to how to give out the points...base it on the fact the fighters were in combat and then give a flat point value per fighter reflecting the "ground crew" pre-launch and post-recovery activities.  Basically something like a CV launches 60 fighters in a strike...they launch missiles and damage something or another and return to the carrier to rearm.  The carrier gains (on landing) 60*(x) points of crew grade.  What (x) should be I've no real idea.

You'd have to be careful to make sure that only fighters which actually did damage give the bonus.  Otherwise, you get slightly absurd cases where one fighter in a wing engaged an enemy and the bonus is based on the whole wing.  Also, you'd want to normalize by the size of the carrier wing so that big carriers don't overpower smaller ones.  (This is also a problem with regular ships, actually.  It would make sense to at least somewhat normalize the damage done by crew size when determining training gain.)

Is loading/rearming fighter in combat any different than doing it and then having the fighter fire on note live targets?

That's another reason not to worry about it.  It's a lot easier to simulate rearming under combat conditions than it is to simulate actual combat.

[iceball3]

Intelligence: Alien Turret Contacts.
Make it possible to determine if, how many, and how big turret emplacements are on vessels. However, to be even to see them first, they need to be visible as if they were a ship of the same size at it's position. For instance, a resolution 20 sensor would see a 20 HS turret out to it's max range, but would need to be closer to see a 10 HS turret. The game, however, won't tell us what kind of turret, how fast it goes, or it's armor based on this info, just the size and quantity.
When a turret has a contact designated as a target however, if the turret is seen by active sensors, the active sensors will report the turret's tracking speed, up to the speed of it's target. For instance, if a 12,000 km/s turret is tracking a 6,000 km/s target, intelligence will report the "Estimate Tracking Speed" of the turret to be 6,000 km/s, until it tries tracking something faster.

[TCD]

Intelligence: Alien Turret Contacts.
Make it possible to determine if, how many, and how big turret emplacements are on vessels.  However, to be even to see them first, they need to be visible as if they were a ship of the same size at it's position.  For instance, a resolution 20 sensor would see a 20 HS turret out to it's max range, but would need to be closer to see a 10 HS turret.  The game, however, won't tell us what kind of turret, how fast it goes, or it's armor based on this info, just the size and quantity.
When a turret has a contact designated as a target however, if the turret is seen by active sensors, the active sensors will report the turret's tracking speed, up to the speed of it's target.  For instance, if a 12,000 km/s turret is tracking a 6,000 km/s target, intelligence will report the "Estimate Tracking Speed" of the turret to be 6,000 km/s, until it tries tracking something faster.

Interesting thought, but how would you justify that? It doesn't feel as if Aurora sensor technology could give us that level of intelligence.  I mean, how could you know the tracking speed of a turret?

[iceball3]

Interesting thought, but how would you justify that? It doesn't feel as if Aurora sensor technology could give us that level of intelligence.  I mean, how could you know the tracking speed of a turret?

Maybe something along the lines of the fact that the turrets spin so fast, the tidal forces could register a contact signature?
Yes, very jargony and not accurate to science I guess, but...

[TCD]

Maybe something along the lines of the fact that the turrets spin so fast, the tidal forces could register a contact signature?
Yes, very jargony and not accurate to science I guess, but. . .

Ooh, the scientific realists on the forum aren't going to like that one!

[ChildServices]

The ability to flag certain characters as "important" would be nice, so that I can come back to them when I have thousands of officers to manage. I've been doing it at the moment by creating "dynasty" medals and handing them out to people I want to track.

[Sheb]

That, and an ability to see dead characters...

[Herodotus4]

How about the ability to put shipyards, fighter factories, construction factories, ordinance factories and maybe even reasearch labs on big civilian ships: I want to build a totally nomadic race.

[Erik L (OP)]

That, and an ability to see dead characters...

Ustabe there. Taken out because it was too much clutter if I recall.

[bean]

Interesting thought, but how would you justify that? It doesn't feel as if Aurora sensor technology could give us that level of intelligence.  I mean, how could you know the tracking speed of a turret?

Doppler.  Just look at how fast the turret is turning.  They can do quite a bit of this kind of stuff with radar today.  No need to get complicated.

[TCD]

How about the ability to put shipyards, fighter factories, construction factories, ordinance factories and maybe even reasearch labs on big civilian ships: I want to build a totally nomadic race.

I think it would be hard to get the game balance right on this. A lot of the game is about logistics, and ordinance factory ships, for instance, would be a dramatic change. There is no such thing as a supply line if you can move your entire military infrastructure on demand to the battlefront.

[TCD]

Doppler.  Just look at how fast the turret is turning.  They can do quite a bit of this kind of stuff with radar today.  No need to get complicated.

Really? You're the expert on such things, so I guess that's something else I can chalk up to how amazing technology is these days. In that case adding turret tracking speed to intelligence reports seems very reasonable.

[Sheb]

RE: mobile industry, we're getting there. A big bottleneck was the way to code was stuctured in the VB6 version, but the new  C# version should let Steve do it. Also logistics will always be an issue, unless you want your mobile factory to be shot down.