Hi lads,
I started playing my first 1.13 campaign, which is at 20% research speed and that got me thinking. Low research speed means that ships and their components stay competitive for a couple of decades without significant upgrades. This puts Aurora's space warships more in line with current naval vessels, as these take a lot of resources and time to build and sometimes serve for a generation or two. There is just a minor problem with it, when it comes to Aurora. Unlike real navies, there are no levels of readiness. What does that mean?
In Aurora, every warship is active and combat ready at all times at full maintenance cost. There are no reserve or mothballed ships, which can be reactivated in times of tension. Until reactivation, these ships would require significantly less mineral upkeep and maintenance capacity.
The disadvantage of the reserved or mothballed status would be a significant delay until the vessel is reactivated and ready for operations, during which the vessel can be engaged and surprised by enemy forces.
In terms of game mechanics, I would keep the current status and call it active service with full maintenance requirements and ready for immediate action. Ships in reserve status would have half the cost and half the crew on board, full ammunition and fuel, but would require one month for adding crew and shakedown. Ships that were in mothballed status start with 10% crew, no fuel, ammunition and MSP on board and require at least a year before being combat ready. To counter this, the maintenance would be reduced by 66%.