Official Suggestion Thread for 5.20 or later

[Narmio]

Fuel storage is already a non-military module. Plus I don't think a somehow more commercial tank would necessarily need less crew than the standard one.

If refueling took actual time then it would be possible to create a rapid refueling tank with the current crew cost and a slow refueling tank with significantly less.

Actually it'd be easier if the crew cost was lowered, refuel time was added to all tanks and a new module named something like "Rapid refueling system" was added. It would act just like a cargo handling system but for fuel. You have a base rate of, say, 10,000l/hr, but each 1HS Rapid Refuel increased that significantly. You could also have a Hangar Refueling System that acted like extra Rapid Refuels on ships in your hangar bays, so that you wouldn't have to add anything to fighters, which don't really have the space. When doing in-space fuel transfer you could either average the Rapid Refuel units of both ships or use the lowest, depending on how difficult you wanted things to be.

This would lower the crew cost of storing large amounts of fuel so long as you didn't need to rapidly refuel or transfer.  And since refueling rate is a constant, not a percentage, you'd need to same number of Refuelling Systems on a 12kton tanker like I use as on one of the ridiculously massive ones mentioned in this thread.  So the crew cost would be lower for a really huge fuel ship even with this system.

[Shadow]

Yes, refuelling, resupplying and reloading ordnance shouldn't be instantaneous. Maybe not as time-consuming as cargo loading/unloading (we shouldn't be forced to install cargo handling systems on warships!), but still. I remember engaging a speedy Precursor vessel which managed to reload its whole missile supply twice before I could keep it in range long enough for my missiles to reach it.

Now for a more important suggestion, at least in the macro scale...

Civilian Shipping Axis

I've been having some problems with the private sector lately, possibly caused by some contract that had civilian freighters deliver infrastructure and facilities to a frontier colony 4 jumps away from Sol. That's coincidentally the limit of their pathing ability, so it might be related to the central issue. That is, that those freighters aren't too intent on returning to Sol to fulfill other supply-demand contracts. Instead, they prefer to carry out mostly empty trade trips between that colony 4 jumps away and one that's 3 jumps away.

I've experimented a bit, and since clearing orders doesn't seem to work, it seems the way to get them to return to the solar planets is via contracts that have their supply end near their current location, and their demand end in or near Sol. Problem is the outer colonies are naturally much less developed, so there isn't anything that can help migrate several dozens of freighters back home (like thousands of infrastructure units). Sure, I can SM the necessary items, but I shouldn't need to resort to that.

So my suggestion is what I'd call a Civilian Shipping Axis, which would be a user-designated star system towards which all civilian vessels would gravitate when they aren't transporting contract items. The axis would be Sol (or the race's home system) by default, but could be moved if the centre of your empire moves. Freighters would still trade in their free time, but prefer to generally stay close to the axis, so they could respond to contracts within 3-4 jumps of it.

[Rastaman]

Yes, refuelling, resupplying and reloading ordnance shouldn't be instantaneous. Maybe not as time-consuming as cargo loading/unloading (we shouldn't be forced to install cargo handling systems on warships!), but still. I remember engaging a speedy Precursor vessel which managed to reload its whole missile supply twice before I could keep it in range long enough for my missiles to reach it.

A military harbor installation like the commercial spaceport that speeds up loading. The maintenance installation can have this functionality. So on planets with a maintenance base = fast refueling, out in the boonies = slow refueling. There can be a fuel/ammo/ loading ship technology, but it should only be necessary for the tanker/collier/supply ships.

[davidr]

Would it be possible to have the ability to sort more screen columns by being able to double click on the column headers. I am thinking of such screens as the "Task Force Organisation" screen where it would be beneficial to be able to sort the information alphabetically or numerically. At present this is not possible.

DavidR

[Brian Neumann]

I like the change to the reasearch que with the scientists having the most labs in use at the top and then going in descending order.  The que however is still in the same order as it used to be in.  The result makes it hard to tell which scientists are going to run out of projects qued up and which have lots still.  Could we maybe have the que order determined by the order in which the scientists are aranged in the primary list.

Thanks
Brian

[Shadow]

Magazines probably shouldn't make a ship military. After all, without a launcher, they're just missile cargo space.

Troop ships and supply ships, both military-related support vessels, can be commercial. So why can't colliers be like them?

[Narmio]

Magazines probably shouldn't make a ship military. After all, without a launcher, they're just missile cargo space.

Troop ships and supply ships, both military-related support vessels, can be commercial. So why can't colliers be like them?

If this is something Steve wants to keep - making colliers need to be military vessels and thus keep missile logistics more difficult - then maybe a way to "package" bunches of missiles as cargo? A very cheap construction task that takes a fixed amount of missiles and produces a normal cargo good that can then be loaded and transported in a hold.  The disadvantage is that it would take another (also very cheap) construction task to turn them back into missiles.

So within your empire moving missiles becomes very easy. You make them, package them up, then move them around between colonies. You could even contract civvies to move them. The construction costs should be very, very cheap so all you'd need at a remote ammo dump would be a single construction facility or engineer brigade in order to unpack.  But supplying fleets would still be complicated - you'd need a colony with at least some construction capability in order to use this system, although forward ammo dumps would be easier to set up.  

[sloanjh]

If this is something Steve wants to keep - making colliers need to be military vessels and thus keep missile logistics more difficult - then maybe a way to "package" bunches of missiles as cargo? A very cheap construction task that takes a fixed amount of missiles and produces a normal cargo good that can then be loaded and transported in a hold.  The disadvantage is that it would take another (also very cheap) construction task to turn them back into missiles.

So within your empire moving missiles becomes very easy. You make them, package them up, then move them around between colonies. You could even contract civvies to move them. The construction costs should be very, very cheap so all you'd need at a remote ammo dump would be a single construction facility or engineer brigade in order to unpack.  But supplying fleets would still be complicated - you'd need a colony with at least some construction capability in order to use this system, although forward ammo dumps would be easier to set up.  

I like this idea.

John

PS - In Starfire, this suggestion was actually in the rules for fighters - it's called "crating".  Funny how convergent evolution works :-)

[Shadow]

On second though, I think that for colliers to become commercial, first ordnance reload should stop being instantaneous in general (I'd add refuelling and resupplying to that while I'm at it). Otherwise colliers would essentially provide a substantial magazine expansion in the heat of battle, which may be how they work right now, commercial or not.

The "crating" idea isn't that bad, but it seems like a needless complication for missiles. As far as I know, unlike fighters (Starfire's case), missiles needn't be disassembled for transport. Modern supply ships in real life can reload magazines at sea (though obviously not in the middle of combat), so it doesn't make sense to have our space warships require a whole forward base simply to replenish their stores. Given how artificial it feels, doing that for "gameplay reasons" would strain plausibility from my point of view.

[Shadow]

Something I came up with in the shower...

Spinal Mounts

Applicable weapons: Pre-designed Lasers, Particle Beams, Railguns

Spinal Mount Size vs Damage

• Spinal Mount 2x Size / 2x Damage
• Spinal Mount 4x Size / 4x Damage
• Spinal Mount 6x Size / 6x Damage
• Spinal Mount 8x Size / 8x Damage

Spinal Mount Size vs Reload Rate

• Normal Size / Normal Reload
• Spinal Mount 2x Size / 75% Reload
• Spinal Mount 3x Size / 50% Reload
• Spinal Mount 4x Size / 25% Reload

- Range remains untouched.
- Crew scales with the total size of the mount, using the original weapon's figure as a base.
- Total power requirement scales with the damage setting. Power recharge per 5 secs naturally scales with that and according to the reload rate setting.
- HTK would scale with the mount's size or damage to some extent, I guess.
- I'd say final cost scales with the total size, but I don't know how that works.
- The Spinal Mount base tech and settings may be individual, separate research projects, like Fire Control Tracking Speed, Missile Launcher Sizes, etc.

So it'd go something like this...

Base weapon
30cm Railgun V6/C8
Damage Per Shot (4): 7     Rate of Fire: 15 seconds     Range Modifier: 6
Max Range 420,000 km     Railgun Size: 9 HS    Railgun HTK: 4
Power Requirement: 21    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 8
Cost: 219    Crew: 90

Spinal mount (maxed damage, minimal reload)
240cm Spinal Railgun X8-R25
Damage Per Shot (4): 56     Rate of Fire: 30 seconds     Range Modifier: 6
Max Range 420,000 km     Railgun Size: 288 HS    Railgun HTK: 32
Power Requirement: 168    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 28
Cost: 7008?    Crew: 2880


Am I too insane?

[UnLimiTeD]

Yes, you are.

The balance problem with your proposal is that it allows not only for damage by more size, but due to how Aurora calculates the damage, it will also result in a lot deeper armor penetration, which is what right now the weapon pays for in lower DPS.
It would be easier to just allow for higher weapon calibers, and make those techs cheaper, then add a new tech line that slowly decreases the effect of size to reload, thats way easier to implement.

[Thiosk]

If a ship has a spinal mount, that should be the only weapon the ship can mount.  A ship built around a gun is a hella-specialized ship.  It is supposed to sit at standoff range and emit energy at big ships, cooking off their magazines before their missile crews can load them.

[EarthquakeDamage]

The Auto-Turn setting should persist.  I shouldn't have to muck about with the System map (which I actually only use when I need it -- my preference is the Population/Production and Events screens) whenever an NPR gets an interrupt.

It'd also be nice if the Min Inc box were available on the Population/Production screen.

Also, you should find a different way of changing the theme for the Galactic and System maps.  They still stick occasionally, and not just when the program crashes.  I hate having to redo my Windows theme settings after playing.

[Shadow]

Also, you should find a different way of changing the theme for the Galactic and System maps.  They still stick occasionally, and not just when the program crashes.  I hate having to redo my Windows theme settings after playing.

Yes, that's been annoying me as well ever since I started playing back in 4.9x.

[voknaar]

It would be good if armor could be placed and taken off in sections. Say at a base of 5 days per section added or removed modified by damage control rating.. Since armor has layers it would still take a while to do. My thinking is its just an improvised form of repair only able to cover the outer layer leaving any lower layers breached alone leaving those section hallow. Using EVA suits crew can get at armor panels which can be welded on to give some form of protection, as well as removal of damaged sections. Naturally movement in space is at insane speeds so the ship would need to have its engines off and not moving while armor repairs are taking place.

A base of 5 days then damage control rating subtracts that time and perhaps a flat 100 supplys per armor covering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_suit


In my mind I still think EVA is still nessesary as part of maintaining ship and for maintinence when things do eventually break down. Theres sensors, escape pod hatches, possible windows, ship enterences, supply/cargo/hanger bay doors etc. So field re-armoring while impractacle should be possible in my humble opinion.