C# Suggestions

[Sebmono]

RP suggestion: optional ability to assign parts/tech Company Names to individual scientists and then any equipment that scientist completes research on is automatically given that company name.

Would use the same functional bits as the 'Company Name' but in the part design form but removes chance of forgetting to name something and makes it easier to maintain thematic continuity, especially with the new limited research option encouraging use of more scientists, can make sure that e.g. all my engines are produced by the same group of Propulsion scientists and therefore the same set of company names.

[nuclearslurpee]

removes chance of forgetting to name something

FYI if you don't know, you can rename a component to have the desired company name if you forget to add it during the design step. No need to ask me how I know this.

This aside, I would at least appreciate the ability to save and re-use company names, as once I have a couple dozen it can be hard to keep them all straight without an external file or Google sheet.

[cdrtwohy]

Can we have titles back? im currently using medals to signify peerage in my empire but would totally like something else, maybe something a little less manual too? Maybe make a title system kinda like the Naval admin system not sure just spitballing here.

[Sebmono]

removes chance of forgetting to name something

FYI if you don't know, you can rename a component to have the desired company name if you forget to add it during the design step. No need to ask me how I know this.

This aside, I would at least appreciate the ability to save and re-use company names, as once I have a couple dozen it can be hard to keep them all straight without an external file or Google sheet.

Yeah that's a good reminder, in my case though I probably should've described it as "too lazy to remember or go correct" 

[alex_brunius]

RP suggestion: optional ability to assign parts/tech Company Names to individual scientists and then any equipment that scientist completes research on is automatically given that company name.

Id prefer to have the company name saved to a specific component type in the design dropdown ( all engines are named with company name X, all active sensors Y, all launchers Z and so on )

[wedgebert]

What I thought would be interesting is if you can either configure some companies ahead of time or the game would spawn them like civilian shipping lanes.

Then when you go to design a tech, you have the option of sending out an RFP instead of directly researching it. After a certain amount of time, some of those companies would return with their version of the component, but each with slight variations. Company X's engine might get a +2% fuel efficiency over your specs, but cost 3% more resources. Company Y might provide a little extra engine power at the cost of being a little more bulky.

As time goes on, those same companies could produce civilian designs (where applicable) that the shipping lines would use in their ships. And maybe even automatically design newer models as compete for business. So after a few years of use, maybe they develop a Mk2 engine that get's an additional 0.05% fuel efficiency or whatnot.

None of the bonuses or maluses would be very big, but it'd be a nice little bit of variety. The corporations could have finances like shipping lanes, pay taxes based on sales to those shipping lanes, and have a small wealth cost when you use a design in your ship. Maybe they could even build the components for you at a higher cost, freeing your industry up for other things.

Plus it'd add a nice RP bit in. Especially if corporations had headquarters/facilities on other planets/moons/etc where they'd demand their own PPV and be possible targets for enemies/pirates.

Also, you'd get some minor choices in terms of things like "Do I bring these ships in on their next refit and replace their sensor arrays with the newest model for an extra few thousand km of range?"

[Sebmono]

I really like this idea, although imagine it would be complex to implement and would require a rebalancing of all research since we'd essentially be relegating our Scientists to only theoretical work and farming out the application research. I do love the idea of making something like R&D less deterministic and feel like this could create good stories.

I could even see it being fun to extend a bit into ship construction itself, where everytime a ship is built there is a chance for "Quirks" to occur, just small things like 1% more fuel efficient or 'fearsome' which would increase policing points more than usual, etc.

[KriegsMeister]

Perhaps a new "Name List" category for component companies like ships, systems and officers. Could maybe have one for shipyards as well thats or may not overlap

[wedgebert]

I really like this idea, although imagine it would be complex to implement and would require a rebalancing of all research since we'd essentially be relegating our Scientists to only theoretical work and farming out the application research. I do love the idea of making something like R&D less deterministic and feel like this could create good stories.

I suppose you could always do the research yourself, maybe even with the same modifiers, but you'd be stuck with what you got. That way you could RP a communist or other centrally planned economy where the government is doing all the work. The advantage of doing it yourself would be not having to pay the extra wealth cost to buy/license it from the corporations.

I could even see it being fun to extend a bit into ship construction itself, where everytime a ship is built there is a chance for "Quirks" to occur, just small things like 1% more fuel efficient or 'fearsome' which would increase policing points more than usual, etc.

Careful suggesting ship quirks. You might trigger some people's (like me) disappointing memories of Sword of the Stars 2

[Garfunkel]

I'm sorry but ship quirks are a terrible idea. I know it's an extremely popular trope of both naval fiction and sci-fi that ships develop quirks over time but for a strategy game it's a really bad feature. I don't want one DD to be 1% faster or one BB to consume 1% more fuel for no reason. It's a bit of good fluffy fun for a story focusing on a single ship, but annoying for a story focusing on an empire with dozens or hundreds of ships.

The saving and automatic re-using of companies is a good idea and having them to the applied research can work as well, as long as it is optional - as you said, some players will RP different types of governments and races, where outsourcing component development would not fit.

[Drakale]

I think quirk could work if they are applied to a whole class, but this would require a whole new mechanics where a ship need to be researched/engineered after the initial design is completed. Rule the waves has a system that works kinda like that and I find it interesting. When you get a quirk that is unsuitable you can always call for a redesign of the class. I agree that a per-ship quirk system is terrible.

[wedgebert]

At least in SotS2, it wasn't that individual ships developed quirks, it was the design itself worked better (or sometimes worse) than anticipated. However, being a 4X game, those quirks were a lot more powerful and drew from a fixed list. Less 1% faster and more and more +25% range with ballistic weapons or -10% turn speed and thrust speed.

I agree though that ships themselves probably shouldn't have those kinds of attributes. But I would think that a related thing would be possible, that of ship reputations.

If a ship either did well in a particular battle, survived overwhelming odds to escape, or even sacrificed itself to save a civilian fleet, that ship could gain a reputation and gain a small crew morale bonus because that crew is serving the THE HMS Victory which is a prestigious posting.

You could even go as far as something like from the Honor Harrington series where these ships have their honors passed down to the next ship such that there's always an HMS Nike in service, so even 300 years later, it's still THE battlecruiser everyone wants to serve on. But to do that, you have to decommission the first ship and transfer its name and honors to the next.

Now to make the code simple, maybe just let the player decide which ships have these reputations. I'd hate to try to figure out what counts as a heroic sacrifice or anything. Just limit the player the number of distinguished ships the player can have before some sort of penalty is applied. After all, if all ships are special, then none of them are.

[Migi]

At least in SotS2, it wasn't that individual ships developed quirks, it was the design itself worked better (or sometimes worse) than anticipated. However, being a 4X game, those quirks were a lot more powerful and drew from a fixed list. Less 1% faster and more and more +25% range with ballistic weapons or -10% turn speed and thrust speed.

I assume this was added because the devs wanted to make ship design less predictable and harder to converge on a single powerful design. It echoes the semi-randomised tech tree. The problem is that it compounds unpredictability and punishes the player for bad luck.

Now to make the code simple, maybe just let the player decide which ships have these reputations.

Then it's a case of "player applies small bonus to ship (or ship class)" which is frankly not an interesting game mechanic.
You could apply it via conditions/milestones like medals, but that's still not very interesting.

In any case balance is still an issue, it's very easy to be too large and overpowering, or too small to be interesting.
None of the proposals acknowledge the existing systems of commander bonuses, crew training and fleet training, so it just becomes an extra thing bolted on top.

I'm not convinced that Aurora has any business trying to be unpredictable via 'quirks'. Most of Aurora is deterministic, you can calculate the exact missile hit chance if you know 3 parameters, the missile speed, MR, and target speed.

[Droll]

At least in SotS2, it wasn't that individual ships developed quirks, it was the design itself worked better (or sometimes worse) than anticipated. However, being a 4X game, those quirks were a lot more powerful and drew from a fixed list. Less 1% faster and more and more +25% range with ballistic weapons or -10% turn speed and thrust speed.

I assume this was added because the devs wanted to make ship design less predictable and harder to converge on a single powerful design. It echoes the semi-randomised tech tree. The problem is that it compounds unpredictability and punishes the player for bad luck.

Now to make the code simple, maybe just let the player decide which ships have these reputations.

Then it's a case of "player applies small bonus to ship (or ship class)" which is frankly not an interesting game mechanic.
You could apply it via conditions/milestones like medals, but that's still not very interesting.

In any case balance is still an issue, it's very easy to be too large and overpowering, or too small to be interesting.
None of the proposals acknowledge the existing systems of commander bonuses, crew training and fleet training, so it just becomes an extra thing bolted on top.

I'm not convinced that Aurora has any business trying to be unpredictable via 'quirks'. Most of Aurora is deterministic, you can calculate the exact missile hit chance if you know 3 parameters, the missile speed, MR, and target speed.

I think having ships be differentiated in an emergent way through their history is a much better way. We kind of have that through the way the game tracks history.

However, it might be a cool idea to be able to award medals to ships themselves, like the USN service stars or whatever they're called.

[wedgebert]

Then it's a case of "player applies small bonus to ship (or ship class)" which is frankly not an interesting game mechanic.
You could apply it via conditions/milestones like medals, but that's still not very interesting.

In any case balance is still an issue, it's very easy to be too large and overpowering, or too small to be interesting.
None of the proposals acknowledge the existing systems of commander bonuses, crew training and fleet training, so it just becomes an extra thing bolted on top.

I'm not convinced that Aurora has any business trying to be unpredictable via 'quirks'. Most of Aurora is deterministic, you can calculate the exact missile hit chance if you know 3 parameters, the missile speed, MR, and target speed.

Except Aurora markets itself as a story generator first and 4X second. That's why we have fluff like commander medals or political reliability. Neither aids the player in running their empire, they're there to help with roleplaying.

Yeah, I'm talking about adding small bonuses that would probably go unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, but they're all meant as a way to make the narrative aspect stronger. Or in the case of the civilian corporation designing components with minor variations, adding a bit more flavor to the world.

Giving an individual ship a 5% morale bonus (or even ground formations, picture a well known formation like the 101st Airborne Division compared to the lesser known 82nd) isn't going to change much. Or maybe it's a 5% crew training bonus to reflect that only the best crew members get assigned to that ship. What you have is a ship that's just a little more likely to survive. It's not much, but it can help the player get a little more attached beyond just saying "I like that ship best, so I'll favor it".

It's more interesting to the player to wonder if they lost their storied HMS Nike when it was unable to escape after an engine malfunction in enemy territory when you purposely used the Astro-Yugo Mk3 Ion Engine because it gave 3% extra power but had a 2% higher chance to break. Was it just bad luck? Or would a different manufacturer's engine have not broken down and the Nike would have escaped with the rest of its squadron?