Posted by: alex_brunius
« on: July 05, 2017, 02:54:25 AM »One can probably use SM to make new commanders, then rename them and maybe even give them the same attributes, but this would be a lot simpler.
AFAIK you sadly can't SM commander attributes
AFAIK you sadly can't SM commander attributes
Posted by: superstrijder15
« on: July 04, 2017, 03:43:54 PM »In my opinion this is a good suggestion, although probably not the very first thing that needs doing. As an addition, it would also be nice if it was possible to SM commanders to not die. The reasons are twofold: First of all, obviously this would make things a lot easier on newer players, as they can keep good commanders alive to help them. The second reason is a roleplaying one. Suppose I was trying to roleplay the Perry Rhodan universe. In this universe, there are 20 high leaders who can't die of old age due to a special device they have. It would be nice if I could tell my game that I don't want these persons to die of old age, but just let them age on forever.
One can probably use SM to make new commanders, then rename them and maybe even give them the same attributes, but this would be a lot simpler.
One can probably use SM to make new commanders, then rename them and maybe even give them the same attributes, but this would be a lot simpler.
Posted by: Titanian
« on: July 04, 2017, 08:07:16 AM »The problem is mostly the set of officers created at game start having mostly the same age. You can replace your whole set of officers in sm mode based on an amound of time passed, which usually results in more proper ages for the higher ranks.
Posted by: Barkhorn
« on: July 03, 2017, 03:12:15 PM »Ideally I suppose we'd have percentages we could use to "draw" a curve that the ages would roughly follow. Something like X% of R1 officers are age X, Y% of R2 officers are age Y, and so on, similar to the commander naming themes. This way players could RP whatever ages they like.
Maybe use different percentages for each kind of "officer" as well. It's more believable for instance that a really charismatic 25 year-old could end up ruling Earth than it is for a 25-year old to be a fleet admiral.
Default curve could be whatever the real US navy, army, and government has. Should be relatively easy to get rough estimates.
Maybe use different percentages for each kind of "officer" as well. It's more believable for instance that a really charismatic 25 year-old could end up ruling Earth than it is for a 25-year old to be a fleet admiral.
Default curve could be whatever the real US navy, army, and government has. Should be relatively easy to get rough estimates.
Posted by: obsidian_green
« on: July 03, 2017, 02:16:09 PM »I don't know about other players, but twenty-something planetary administrators, brigadier generals, and naval captains somewhat break my sense of immersion. On the naval side, I can ... sort of ... remedy this by changing the initial rank (in the scheme I'm using) from lieutenant commander to lieutenant, but that's no help for that twenty-three year old ruler of Earth nor for the young scientists in charge of 60 labs (nor for the first initial crop of naval officers).
An easy "solution" (I grant that the current setup might actually appeal to some players) would be to make initial commander ages early 30s instead of early 20s. I can better stomach 30 year old lieutenant commanders (or even lieutenants if they're senior enough to command ships at the game's level of granularity) or head scientists ... colonels would still be a stretch, but beggars can't be choosers.
Less easy, but probably not difficult to code would be a dynamic means of establishing initial age at world/game generation, so that those (especially, perhaps exclusively military) commanders that get/would get auto-promoted in the initial commander crop are aged appropriately for their (maybe soon-to-be) rank. If colonel is to be the R1 rank for ground troops, perhaps their initial ages could be set separately---they should be (or I'd like them to be, at any rate) significantly older than the navy's lieutenant commanders.
A slightly related "problem" are the brigadier generals commanding Marine companies, which might fit a Star Wars-esque imagining (Han Solo didn't look like he could fit an entire battalion, much less any larger formation into that stolen shuttle), but doesn't quite fit with what I'm imagining for a force structure in my game.
It's all really minor stuff, but should be fairly headache-free to address if my suggestions appeal.
An easy "solution" (I grant that the current setup might actually appeal to some players) would be to make initial commander ages early 30s instead of early 20s. I can better stomach 30 year old lieutenant commanders (or even lieutenants if they're senior enough to command ships at the game's level of granularity) or head scientists ... colonels would still be a stretch, but beggars can't be choosers.
Less easy, but probably not difficult to code would be a dynamic means of establishing initial age at world/game generation, so that those (especially, perhaps exclusively military) commanders that get/would get auto-promoted in the initial commander crop are aged appropriately for their (maybe soon-to-be) rank. If colonel is to be the R1 rank for ground troops, perhaps their initial ages could be set separately---they should be (or I'd like them to be, at any rate) significantly older than the navy's lieutenant commanders.
A slightly related "problem" are the brigadier generals commanding Marine companies, which might fit a Star Wars-esque imagining (Han Solo didn't look like he could fit an entire battalion, much less any larger formation into that stolen shuttle), but doesn't quite fit with what I'm imagining for a force structure in my game.
It's all really minor stuff, but should be fairly headache-free to address if my suggestions appeal.
