v2.0.0 Changes Discussion Thread

[Vivalas]

Really awesome changes. I submit a small flavor tweak that I think could be nice: perhaps squadrons could track stats like ships do? Kills, distance travelled, medals awarded, etc. To give them more of an identity and a reputation

[Agraelgrimm]

Since Steve is already putting some stuff out there for non conventional start, would it be possible to have conventional geological ground units? It would make it a blast for me to be able to make a conventional start with virtually nothing, low population, low birth rate and 0.3 research rate (Which i think is closer to what it would be in real life, considering that each research lab has a *lot* of scientists in them).
Or at least make it in a way that geological missiles can make this work for them, like it could on earlier versions of the game? (I think that in theory it should work, but i havent had any luck with that so far).

Also, and i know this would be better at the suggestions, but im already here, would it be possible to have a little more macro options? For instance, in v6 we had the option to make training exercises with a button, it would be nice to have the ships actually patrol a system or several systems, based on the decisions the player makes or the route they decide to take? That could be tied up with the idea of planet protection, which now we dont have ships sitting on orbit doing nothing, they are actually patrolling colonies and mining spots gaining some crew grade in the process. (Heck, there is even space to make the risk of the ship taking damage to systems double or being multiplied by something while doing these, so that it requires some rotation and we can RP damage from piracy and etc).

[Borealis4x]

Since Steve is already putting some stuff out there for non conventional start, would it be possible to have conventional geological ground units? It would make it a blast for me to be able to make a conventional start with virtually nothing, low population, low birth rate and 0.3 research rate (Which i think is closer to what it would be in real life, considering that each research lab has a *lot* of scientists in them).
Or at least make it in a way that geological missiles can make this work for them, like it could on earlier versions of the game? (I think that in theory it should work, but i havent had any luck with that so far).

Also, and i know this would be better at the suggestions, but im already here, would it be possible to have a little more macro options? For instance, in v6 we had the option to make training exercises with a button, it would be nice to have the ships actually patrol a system or several systems, based on the decisions the player makes or the route they decide to take? That could be tied up with the idea of planet protection, which now we dont have ships sitting on orbit doing nothing, they are actually patrolling colonies and mining spots gaining some crew grade in the process. (Heck, there is even space to make the risk of the ship taking damage to systems double or being multiplied by something while doing these, so that it requires some rotation and we can RP damage from piracy and etc).

I'd like to see conventional geo-survey be ground-team only. Makes sense you'd have to rely on good-ol' boots-on-the-grounds geologic work to prospect research before you unlock the secrets of the magic rocks.

Speaking of ground geo-survey, is it a gamble? I'm pretty sure they can actually find LESS of a resource than previously scanned, reducing the accessibility/maximum amount of a resource. Strange thing is if you just left well enough alone I don't believe you'd lose those resources in the first place; the cosmos are just punishing you for being too nosey.

[nuclearslurpee]

Speaking of ground geo-survey, is it a gamble? I'm pretty sure they can actually find LESS of a resource than previously scanned, reducing the accessibility/maximum amount of a resource. Strange thing is if you just left well enough alone I don't believe you'd lose those resources in the first place; the cosmos are just punishing you for being too nosey.

It will only ever add resources; if the new survey result would be worse it is simply discarded.

[Marski]

Will we see an option in the allocation of ingame funds that permit us to set the budget for military academies and thus increase/decrease their annual output of officers as needed?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Will we see an option in the allocation of ingame funds that permit us to set the budget for military academies and thus increase/decrease their annual output of officers as needed?

Currently, you can build additional academies if you want more officers and use commandants to affect the types of officers produced.

[Migi]

Can you make squadrons a different colour to sub-fleets?

For v2.0, the accommodation formula above remains in place but it will use a minimum value of 3 for planned deployment (for the formula only).

Doesn't this change mean there is minimal benefit to having deployment times lower than 3 months? I've had fighters with deployment times in the region of 0.5 months in the past.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Can you make squadrons a different colour to sub-fleets?

Sub-fleets only appear below fleets or other sub-fleets while squadrons only appear below ships. It shouldn't be confusing in practice.

For v2.0, the accommodation formula above remains in place but it will use a minimum value of 3 for planned deployment (for the formula only).

Doesn't this change mean there is minimal benefit to having deployment times lower than 3 months? I've had fighters with deployment times in the region of 0.5 months in the past.

As explained in the rest of the post quoted above, the crew is reduced instead of the deployment time, with the same net effect on accommodation requirements. As this is also rounded down, small ships with minimal deployment times will save space.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg158366#msg158366

[Migi]

For v2.0, the accommodation formula above remains in place but it will use a minimum value of 3 for planned deployment (for the formula only).

Doesn't this change mean there is minimal benefit to having deployment times lower than 3 months? I've had fighters with deployment times in the region of 0.5 months in the past.

As explained in the rest of the post quoted above, the crew is reduced instead of the deployment time, with the same net effect on accommodation requirements. As this is also rounded down, small ships with minimal deployment times will save space.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg158366#msg158366

I don't understand, as far as I can see the accommodation requirement has a new floor of 3 months, meaning the same tonnage is used for accommodation even if deployment is reduced.

Could you explain how crew and accommodation are related?

[nuclearslurpee]

I don't understand, as far as I can see the accommodation requirement has a new floor of 3 months, meaning the same tonnage is used for accommodation even if deployment is reduced.

Could you explain how crew and accommodation are related?

You'll want to carefully read the next part of his post:

For v2.0, the accommodation formula above remains in place but it will use a minimum value of 3 for planned deployment (for the formula only). In addition, if planned deployment is less than 3 months, the formula below will be applied to the final crew (once all components have been included).

Crew = Round Down ( Crew * ( (Planned Deployment ^ (1/3)) / (3 ^ (1/3)) ) );

This effectively reduces the crew to the point where 3 months deployment would be the same in accommodation terms as the full crew with the original planned deployment. In other words, the accommodation requirement is the same in both cases but now the crew is smaller. As this is rounded down, it will have a slight beneficial effect for ships with small crews and very short deployments. The minimum crew is 1.

Basically, instead of reducing the required accommodation directly, for deployment times below 3 months the actual crew requirement is reduced which reduces the required accommodations indirectly. The effect is roughly the same, but it is a slight buff to small craft due to rounding down and otherwise it is a minor flavor addition only.

[Desdinova]

Speaking of academies, is the bug that causes an officer's homeworld to just be the academy they graduated from gonna be fixed?

[Jorgen_CAB]

Steve.... now when you started working on Strike Crafts and managing them... when is the time to start go over the mechanics for ground fighters. As this mechanic simply does not work well. They don't seem to work well with ground forces in general and they are a pain to manage?

If you find some time to change this for the next release would probably be quite appreciated as I don't think many people are using them at present time.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Steve.... now when you started working on Strike Crafts and managing them... when is the time to start go over the mechanics for ground fighters. As this mechanic simply does not work well. They don't seem to work well with ground forces in general and they are a pain to manage?

If you find some time to change this for the next release would probably be quite appreciated as I don't think many people are using them at present time.

I know they don't work well. Its unlikely I will fix them for this release, but it is on my radar as a problem.

[Earthfall10]

With the Limited Research Administration and slower research speed options allowing for longer tech eras and ship classes remaining relevant for longer I think it would be really nice if there was a way to mothball military ships so they could be used later without consuming as much maintenance supplies.  I find this especially useful for scout ships now that geologic sensors are a military item, as often I make a few scouts in the beginning to explore sol, but then when I want to spend a few years developing colonies on the moon or mars before heading out I wind up having to scrap them to prevent wasting a bunch of MSP for years or decades.  Having an "Overhaul into Reserve" and "Overhaul out of Reserve" button that slows or halts the maintenance clock on ships would be really neat.  Having there being some cost associated with it, like an overhaul, would mean it would only be time and cost effective for long duration pauses, and you would still need some ships on standby using maintance capacity to respond quickly to threats.  But the option to have a reserve fleet I think could be tactically interesting and very useful, especially in slower research rate games. 

[Kiero]

... I wind up having to scrap them to prevent wasting a bunch of MSP for years or decades.   

And that's the way to go .
I on other hand would love to see some kind of max life to a ship. So that you are forced to scrap it after let's say deployment x20 or AFR and IFR will increase over time...

The oldest US operational ship is 50 years old...