Post by: sloanjh on November 10, 2007, 09:42:49 AM
Well, I'm almost done generating my first NPR race, and it's produced some thoughts. Basically, I'd like to pile onto an idea I saw someone else post a few weeks ago - it would REALLY help role playing decisions during NPR set-up if Aurora provided a page of race-specific decisions (editable in SM mode). What I'm looking for is very similar to the design strategies page in SA, but with the addition that the entries on the page should also affect the random tech generation phase of racial setup. For example, this NPR has researched gunboat engines, but none of the other "small" systems (engines, fuel, etc.). Here are some suggestions for possible entries:
- Tech philosophy: What percentage of research will the race devote to the various tech sectors (logistics, sensors, defense, ...)?
Primary Weapons system: e.g. lasers vs railguns vs. fighters vs missiles vs .... This should heavily influence the random tech generation decisions, i.e. if a race's primary weapons system is fighters, then it should also be researching missile tech.
Secondary Weapons system: maybe this should be a generation behind primary. An alternative would be to have "long range weapon system" and "short range system"
Planetary defense strategy: gunboats vs. missiles vs. fleet vs. fighters vs. ????
Uses gunboats?
Uses Fighters?
Typical enemy speed: How fast do we think the bad guys might be when we're designing fire control. This should be some multiplier (either fixed or random) of the typical speed of this race's best engine tech (probably something like 1/2 the power/mass ratio of the engine - I think power/mass for a ship is its speed). This will affect fire control and tracking speed tech probabilities.
Sensor reach: How far away do we want to be able to see things?
Academy training level: I always crank my player race up to 5; I would think NPR should have a random level affected by militancy
Warp Sophistication: What stage is the race at in terms of warp exploration. Example levels:
- Ignorant - no Jump Theory tech.
Aware - has Jump Theory but none of the 3 techs required for jump engines
Surveyed - has Jump Theory but not engines, has performed WP survey on home system
Capable - has Jump engines and has performed WP survey
Exploring - multi-system NPR
Picket Strategy: For races at "Surveyed" and greater warp sophistication, how much attention do they pay to their WP. This should be related to militancy and xenophobia (high xenophobia wants pickets; high militancy wants them armed). Suggested levels would be "Ignore", "Picketed" (cheap non-combatants with sensors at each WP), or "Defended" (warship(s) at each WP).
Combatant Ratio: What percentage of the fleet's build points (or tonnage) should be non-combatants?
Fleet Training ratio: What percentage of time would the race like its fleet to be training (again related to militancy)? It would be nice to have a starting training level for all TG as well (related to this), but that would require allowing SM mods of ship TG training levels, I think.
Industrialization strategy: Does the race want to focus on increasing construction capacity (includes mining), research capacity, naval capacity (SY + academies), .... with its construction factories? Probably expressed as a ratio between sectors.
That's all I can think of right now - you get the idea. I think this idea is tightly coupled to random tech generation, since it gives more direction to the randomness
It looks like you're already doing some of this in tech generation - I noticed that the NPR had two levels of Plasma Cannon researched, so I assume they decided that was their primary weapon system.Thanks,
John