Suggestions for v5.1

[Hawkeye]

As Jumping results in Significant Sensor Distortion, shouldn't there be a techline to counter that?
I'm not speaking of reducing the time, but instead having a "Jump ECM" of up to 50% that stacks with regular ECM and lasts as long as the distortion, though of course it takes some space.

I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting.

A taskgroup jumps. The effects of the jump cause all sensors/firecons to shut down, so you basicly have to reboot the system (Note: I truely think shields, PD/weapons and jumpengines should be offline too, engines may work, but nav-systems shouldn´t be online either. Of course, you can move your ship on manual control until the nav-comps come online again, so moving the ship immediately after a jump is ok).

The standard jump might induce some kind of "residential current" that has to dissipate on its own, before you can reboot your system, hence the longer delay (hey, I need a rationalization, no matter how stupid, for emergence   )

[UnLimiTeD]

Well, party^^

The Idea is to have a distortion field around the ship that makes it harder to lock onto the ship.
It was partially inspired by Jump-Cloak in Eve online, though I played that for a total of 8 days a few years back.

Initially I thought of a cloak field, but thats either a completely new system, or already there and better used permanently.
Then I thought "That jump field could realistically be used to reduce incomming accuracy.
It's already possible today to widen space by means of electric currents, though unusably limited.
But thats already there, It's ECM. Sure, it's only for Beam weapons, against missiles it just reduces the range, but Beam weapons should be the prevalent weapon system on a Jump Point Defense ship.

So the idea to keep it simple was to have a "Jump-ECM" that has a value of half the current ecm level, and ADDs to the ecm of the ship, thus reducing the incomming accuracy and making the ship less vulnerable. It would only work during the Sensor Offtime.
I think it would be comparably easy to implement.

If you wanted it complex, you could go with a fixed Acc% reduction that also increases the sensor distortion time by an equal amount and with higher tech you could increase the bonus and the time, without increasing the penalty.  --> Lot's of work for no result.

[Hawkeye]

Everything I write below is my own interpretion of the game mechanics!

Then I thought "That jump field could realistically be used to reduce incomming accuracy.
 

But that´s the thing. There _is_ no jump field after the jump. The delay time is simply the effect of the jump itself. There simply is nothing to project anywhere.
As I said in my earlier post. I think pretty much anything on a ship should be (realisticly) be offline for the duration of the distortion. Let´s face it, if my sensors electronics can´t stand a jump, but the ECM/ECCM electronics can, my next sensors will be build by the guys that did my ECM/ECCM and the desinger of my sensors will find himself up against a wall.

[UnLimiTeD]

You can make fluff to whatever, but then I ask you why it's impossible to build a sensor that can boot in 5 seconds?
Seeing how shields are indeed working, can my shield designers maybe make the firecontrol?

I just generally think it's rather boring that a jumppoint assault inevitably results in a mexican standoff between beamarmed warships, with the attacker being at a severe disadvantage, and theres nothing you can do about it.
Recent game was able to solve that with diplomacy, but otherwise it would have ended in both sides sitting on their side of the jumppoint, armed to the teeth, and he who moves first is dead.
Or in that specific case he (enemy) who has only 20% of the naval strength, but thats not always the case.
High jump displacement tech sure helps that, but it ends up the same, just that it takes mesons out of the equation and reintroduces missiles.

[Beersatron]

You can make fluff to whatever, but then I ask you why it's impossible to build a sensor that can boot in 5 seconds?
Seeing how shields are indeed working, can my shield designers maybe make the firecontrol?

I just generally think it's rather boring that a jumppoint assault inevitably results in a mexican standoff between beamarmed warships, with the attacker being at a severe disadvantage, and theres nothing you can do about it.
Recent game was able to solve that with diplomacy, but otherwise it would have ended in both sides sitting on their side of the jumppoint, armed to the teeth, and he who moves first is dead.
Or in that specific case he (enemy) who has only 20% of the naval strength, but thats not always the case.
High jump displacement tech sure helps that, but it ends up the same, just that it takes mesons out of the equation and reintroduces missiles.

From another thread just recently answered by Steve:

The psuedo code is as follows:

Code: [Select]

   Bonus = 1 - (Int(Sqr(GradePoints) - 10) / 100)
   
    If Squadron Transit then
        Delay = (10 + Random Number(20)) * Bonus
    Else
        Delay = (120 + Random Number(60)) * Bonus
    EndWhich means that a squadron transit will cause blindness for 11-30 seconds and a regular or jump gate transit will cause blindness for 121-180 seconds. This affects both fire control and active sensors. The delay is reduced by the grade bonus of each ship.

Steve

You are blind for a maximum of 30 seconds in which time the hostile ships have to come to action stations (or maybe NPRs don't use crew training yet? cant remember) and that can sometimes take up to 30 seconds for my own partially trained crews.

The way I look at it, the defender is in a bad spot since they have to burn maintenance on the ships guarding the JP whilst the attacker can stay in orbit of their planet for a while and drop a stealthed FAC in now and then (minimum jump engine size) to see whats up. If the defender is forced to remove forces for routine overhaul then the attacker can pounce, or if the stealthed FACs are getting in and out without being detected it isn't much of a stretch to make a combat version and use them to force an entrance.

[UnLimiTeD]

Edit: I'll reply to you in chat.
This is a suggestion, we shouldn't discuss the reasons for that suggestion.

EDIT 2:
How about a techline to improve lifepods? To make them last longer.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

You can make fluff to whatever, but then I ask you why it's impossible to build a sensor that can boot in 5 seconds?
Seeing how shields are indeed working, can my shield designers maybe make the firecontrol?

I just generally think it's rather boring that a jumppoint assault inevitably results in a mexican standoff between beamarmed warships, with the attacker being at a severe disadvantage, and theres nothing you can do about it.

There is something you can do about it. Research Max Squadron Jump Radius, so you can jump in outside the beam weapon range of the defenders, and train your crews so they suffer less of a delay.

Steve

[waresky]

You can make fluff to whatever, but then I ask you why it's impossible to build a sensor that can boot in 5 seconds?
Seeing how shields are indeed working, can my shield designers maybe make the firecontrol?

I just generally think it's rather boring that a jumppoint assault inevitably results in a mexican standoff between beamarmed warships, with the attacker being at a severe disadvantage, and theres nothing you can do about it.

There is something you can do about it. Research Max Squadron Jump Radius, so you can jump in outside the beam weapon range of the defenders, and train your crews so they suffer less of a delay.

Steve

Agree on that.
Too many people wanna find trick or short easy way of life.
Space never become an Easy land.

[EarthquakeDamage]

An SM-only "add LP for selected planet" button would be nice.  Why might this be a good idea?  See this thread.

[UnLimiTeD]

The possibility to give a "system range" when creating a new system with SM functions, to give them the desired distance from other created systems without the "create system, go through point, hope you can use it, maybe delete it, rinse repeat" work style.

[Andrew]

From trying to set up a campaign
1) The ability to edit commander abilities (Sometimes you want to create the immortal God Emperor ) and prevent them from dying
2) Ground troops transferred between races should keep the ground combat values from their creating race tech and/or Allow races to build troops at various tech levels

[UnLimiTeD]

General Suggestion for the System Generation, incorporating what I said before:

1. A "Create Wreck" Button, with pop-up choice of random wreck, Precursor Wreck, and Wreck belonging to already discovered ruins (consistent tech levels).

2. A "Create Precursor" Button, with pop-up to choose strenght.

3. A "Delete Orbital Body" button, to get used of Asteroids completely devoid of minerals that clutter the memory, and for epic RP.

4. A "System Properties" Drop down, that allows stuff liek the Exodus Campaign outside of the sol system. I mean, that "Star is getting warmer" would be quite credible in a Nebula System with an evolving Protostar, and a Dieing system centered around a withered white dwarf might also be interesting.
In the same way, Super-Novae etc. will grant possibilities for the future. Would make an even more dramatic campaign if you got 30 years before the system perishes.^^

5. The possibility to give a system number range when 'creating a new system' for RP setup.

Even one of those would make my life so much easier.

PS: I didn't download the newest version yet, so apologies if I'm not up to date.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

5. The possibility to give a system number range when 'creating a new system' for RP setup.

You can already do this one. When creating a new system, it will appear within the system range of the default race.

Steve

[The Shadow]

Now that I've played around with some new Biology/Genetics research, I can see *lots* of further possibilities.

* First and most obviously, a way to raise the maximum atmospheric pressure a race can withstand.

* Racial adaptation to poisonous gases.  ie, you can produce a race that's tolerant of a higher level of chlorine.  (Though they still need oxygen to breathe.)

* How about a mod to increase intelligence?  The way it works is this:  Any research labs on an "intelligent" race's colony produces X% more research points than it would otherwise.  However, production and/or mining falls by X% - it's too boring. :twisted: Like, you can pretty cheaply produce something that will affect all oxygen-based life (or whatever), but if you wipe out a planet with it, you won't be able to use it either.

On the other hand, for a lot of research points you could develop a plague specific to a particular race, but will (probably?) leave your own race alone.

I figure you'd mostly deliver plagues to planets via missile.  But perhaps there could be a ship-to-ship version too - if it breaches armor, the plague is delivered to the crew.  Meanwhile there could be defenses like extra compartmentalization, or well-stocked sick bays.

* Reduced cost of infrastructure, or extra bang from the infrastructure you have.  Terraforming efficiency and reduction of colony cost could arguably be moved to the Biology category, too.

* Oh - how about applying different themes to different races?  Or is this possible already?  (I'm not at my home computer at the moment.)

[waresky]

edit change to SUGGESTION on 5.13