Semi-Official 7.x Suggestion Thread

[hiphop38]

Posted this on the "Not suggestion thread" So ill repost here:

So call me a big fat Space ####, but I often like to rp my Aurora games with Slavery not only allowed, but state sponsored. Currently they only really work as big and difficult to transport construction brigades, and thus can only build installations/PDC.

It could be nice to have further rules for the idea of slavery in general. Perhaps it could be made so that the slaves can be brought to a planet with minimal to no infrastructure and act as a disposable population. That way they can man installations (Each unit costs 10,000 population to create, why not have them be 10,000 of population for labor as well), such as mines or terraforming installations. (does it make me evil to want the filthy xenos I crushed under my Jackbooted heel to serve me in defeat?)

I do like the idea of the forced labor units in creating a rich dark rp environment, I just wished for a bit more options with them.
That being said, they do still work rather nicely as the transportable construction factory, sans the infrastructure/building/population, that they currently are. If I am the only bastard evil enough to even use the FLU then so be it and I'll be content with Slavery as it currently stands.

[83athom]

Give PDCs more use in ground combat. Maybe adding an "anti-titan" weapon module that does damage/attack equal to ground combat tech, while doing 50% or so more damage to titans. And/Or an artillery module that has a similar combat mechanic to titans. Also, maybe adding gauss cannons and such should bolster ground combat defenses against invading troops (like 1 defense per rof tech).

[TheDeadlyShoe]

PDCs are reasonably useful in ground combat.  You can't capture a population that has a PDC, and a PDC containing troops gives them a multiplier based on its armor layers against direct assaults against it. The problem there is that the entire enemy army can be directed against one PDC at a time, so for this to be useful you need to make an enormous PDC that contains enough troops to be competitive....   After putting in weapons systems, PDC barracks, and thick layers of armor, such a PDC could easily absorb several years of your entire industrial output in a contested-earth start.

Meson cannons ruin this strategy, much like they ruin gorgeous spring days and brunch.

[smoelf]

Since everything is being rewritten in C#, perhaps now would be an opportune time to replace the male pronoun in the event reports with the singular "they". Male and female pronouns would also work, but I imagine a singular they would be easier and faster to implement.

[83athom]

Since everything is being rewritten in C#, perhaps now would be an opportune time to replace the male pronoun in the event reports with the singular "they". Male and female pronouns would also work, but I imagine a singular they would be easier and faster to implement.

Actually, it should only be a few lines of code and would change very little. But I know very little of C# as I've mainly used C++ or Java.

[smoelf]

Actually, it should only be a few lines of code and would change very little. But I know very little of C# as I've mainly used C++ or Java.

True, but I just assumed that it would be easier to change a single word in the text instead of adding a line of code to check for the gender of the officer. In any case it would indeed be a cosmetic change with no impact on gameplay, but it just bugs me a little when female officers are referred to as male

[Erik L (OP)]

The table the names are generated from include a gender field. (or it's the officer table). It's just never been implemented in code.

[Marc420-2]

My suggestion today is to allow the construction of PDC's with stockpiled ship components.

Here's what I was trying to do.   I started with a group of relatively small shipyards.   All in the 7k to 10k size range.   So, its taken me awhile to build up to the SY big enough to build ships with the 25kt Cargo hold needed to ship prefab PDCs.

So, I had a bright idea that at least seemed to make sense.   I'd build the components I'd need . . .  the size 1 missile launchers, the mags, the missile fire controls, the sensors etc that I would need to build a rudimentary defense post.   Then, I'd ship them over to the planet I wanted to protect.   Then the construction factories and the construction brigade over there would dig the hole in the ground, pour the concrete, build the basic crew quarters etc, install the ship components, and I'd have a PDC over there.   Seemed to make a bit of sense.

Tried it, and of course it didn't work.   I found a threat on the Academy pages that said components are added to a ship when its added to the shipyard.   Since the PDC doesn't go through the shipyard, the stockpile of ship components is left untouched and the game is telling me that its going to take 3 years to build the PDC.   

So, changing the PDC construction code to have it use any stockpiled components would seem to be a nice add.

Actually, I'd also make a second suggestion to change the way ship components and the shipyards work.   If a shipyard knows a component is under construction, they could probably plan their work such that when the component arrived they could plug it in.   So, I don't know how difficult it is in the code, but it would be nice if a ship under construction could accept ship components that come from industry after the construction is begun and still have that speed up the completion of the ship.

But my main suggestion is to have the PDC construction code at least recognize that components are available and use them.   Doesn't seem to be much harder than spotting them, raising the completion pct of the PDC in the factories, and erasing the stockpiled components.   If you cancel the PDC completely later, the components are just gone.

[TMaekler]

How about expanding the uses of PoWs. (...) Or you could return PoWs to an alien population to boost your political standing with them. Or you can store them on your worlds to eventually turn into forced labor units.

If you have 'collected' enough PoWs, you could release them as a separate colony.

Espionage Teams are actually killed when discovered. Would love to have a chance of capturing them which can provide some opportunities for RP (something along the line of 'Bridge of Spies')... .

[iceball3]

If you have 'collected' enough PoWs, you could release them as a separate colony.

I imagine one problem of using PoWs as it's own colony is that: almost all PoWs you'll get are folks who work for the military of their home-nation, one way or another. Getting a massive quantity of crewmen for the express purpose of sticking them on a colony seems... like a bad idea. Getting them to reproduce will be difficult as well, for instance, if a nation made a policy to sterilize their interstellar soldiers or use only soldiers of a single sex for the exact reason of preventing a sexual colonial kidnapping.

Another issue with using them for such purposes is that you need a -lot- of PoWs to equate anything significant in population terms.

[iceball3]

Doublepost for full suggestion:
Rather than have NPR units ignore fuel costs, how about instead having them use fuel, as normal, but rather than stopping on no fuel, they will instead run at 1/3rd speed for commercial, 2/3rd speed for military. When they run out of fuel in this state, they will continue doing what they're doing, but queue up refueling at next convenience, with a bit of extra priority.
When they go to refuel, they will have a stored amount of "fuel used below 0", an amount that will instantly be deleted from the colony in question (resetting the "fuel used below 0" value), before adding fuel directly to the tank of the ship.

This'll basically make it so that NPRs are at least penalized for operating far outside of their spheres of influence without having some attackable logistics line to show for it.

[Triato]

I think rhis could be easy to exploit.  You could make it chase you and attack once it is out of fuel. How about instead,  th npc runs out of fuelel,  perform its last order and then has to go back home.  If there is combat,  it doesnt go back.  If it detects hostiles or neutral it also cancela refuel.

Npcs should not have a fuel pool becouse they would waste it if they dont have avanced Ai.

[alex_brunius]

It would be cool if equal amount of mass-drivers was needed in both ends, so you can't have the max output of 20+ mass drivers be caught by a single one but required the same amount on the destination. This would need the warning of removing the last mass-driver to be added whenever setting a target that does not have capacity to catch the output as well.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

It would be pretty easy to accidentally detonate the Earth in that case -for instance when a CMC grows in size, or if you type in the wrong number on a logistics run.

[alex_brunius]

It would be pretty easy to accidentally detonate the Earth in that case -for instance when a CMC grows in size, or if you type in the wrong number on a logistics run.

Typing in the wrong number would obviously still give you the same warning that exists today (for removing more capacity then required). IIRC it even prevents the order from being carried out.

CMCs might need some special rules to them to prevent additional Micromanagement of building spare massdrivers when you buy their output. Logically you would also buy the Civilian means to transport the minerals back home, so their transport could be "included in the cost" ( since obviously they had the infrastructure in place to handle the minerals mined before you started buying it ).