I'm not saying this is definitely athing that should be added, but it would be hilarious if boarding teams could ask for fire support to shoot parts of the ship that have enemies they need help getting past.

Quote from: Hazard on November 27, 2018, 03:12:55 PM

If anything, ship production bonuses should be based on how long it takes to build a ship and how long ago the previous ship was launched in such a case. Ships with long production times tend to get far less benefit from the builder's familiarity with the design than a ship that's build in a couple of weeks on a single slip.

I don't think this is really necessary. Ships themselves are not mass produced in assembly lines, and overall it will be just a buff to small units. They already have a massive buff that it is far easier to create small shipyards than to create massive ones. The cost of retooling already incentivises to keep building the same ships, simply increasing that cost would be the easiest way to achieve the same result instead of a complicated system to calculate when what was built.

It would also effect maintenance of the ships as well, so it would have many different applications.

As I said above it would not just give a bonus to small ships it would also give a different kind of bonus to larger hulls in a different way.

The retooling cost is sort of different. This would not really add much complexity but just be a modifier on ship cost AND maintenance. This would make expansive super specialist ships in low quantities not just expensive to build but also very expensive to maintain and this would make a different impact than just changing the retooling cost.

If anything, ship production bonuses should be based on how long it takes to build a ship and how long ago the previous ship was launched in such a case. Ships with long production times tend to get far less benefit from the builder's familiarity with the design than a ship that's build in a couple of weeks on a single slip.

I don't think this is really necessary. Ships themselves are not mass produced in assembly lines, and overall it will be just a buff to small units. They already have a massive buff that it is far easier to create small shipyards than to create massive ones. The cost of retooling already incentivises to keep building the same ships, simply increasing that cost would be the easiest way to achieve the same result instead of a complicated system to calculate when what was built.

Has loading / unloading of ground units and the implementation of drop pods already been discussed and fletched out (and I can't find it) or is it just in the works still?

There was a discussion and I have coded it. I haven't got around to writing the changes post yet. I haven't coded boarding though.

There has been allot of talk about wealth and economics and one thing I would consider going forward is to give a production efficiency bonus for building the same type of ship in high quantities. This would represent more streamlined production routines, reduced cost of mass production of components, spare parts and tools.

Smaller ships should perhaps get a slight benefit in this process but not linear to its size... so a 1000t ship should not get double the efficiency reduction for every ship build than a 2000t ship.

This would intriduce a couple of more realistic choices in ship design and compromises you will need to do. It would also not make new technology a must to incorporate accross your entire fleets. You will have to seriously consider the reduced efficiency of modifying existing designs versus keep running older models a little longer.

This efficiency should also effect maintenance costs of ships. The more experience and efficient the production of a certain ship is the cheaper and more accessible spare parts, expertise etc becomes.

Production efficiency should then be reduced by the amount a ship is changed when you upgrade them. The more you change a design them more of the production efficiency you loose.

There could then be two new technologies. One that decide the maximum efficiency rate, this could start at 150% and go down to 50% where all ships start at 200% efficiency for a completely new ship model, which meant double the production cost.
The other technology would be the rate at which you gain production efficiency.

This technology and mechanics should impact fighters, ship components, ground units and ships built in shipyards.

It would hopefully not be too difficult to code and should not be too difficult to balance either.