Ok, I'm trying to write my personal, comprehensive suggestion of how it could be. Wall of text incoming and still a work in progress, up to discussion. Obviously in the end Steve chooses, but I hope this can be useful.
First, let's list the subjects we have in play.
- TN ships (They do not strictly follow the conventional rules of time/space and physics)
- Non TN (Orbital) ships (significantly slower. Follow the normal rules of time/space and physics)
- Starbases/shipyards/orbital installations
- Planet and planetary troops/PDC
And the weapons
- Missiles (because of the TN engine)
- Other "beam" weapons (anything that does not have a TN engine, basically). For now I'm grouping them all together.
Now, I think we all agree that TN ships and starbases/shipyards/orbital installations have to be able to shoot at each others at a minimum. Else nothing works. Also, the premise for the change is that TN ships "travel in the Aether" because of their engines. And that the Aether is disturbed (in a lethal way!) by gravity wells. There are a few immediate consequences:
- TN ships can never land on a planet
- TN missiles cannot be launched at a planet, nor they can be directly launched from a planet
- "Orbital" shuttles and small ships deal with most or all of the surface-to-space operations necessary for a spacefaring civilization to work. This is actually quite well represented already by spaceports (although hyronically, not by dessign).
I think some goals and objectives should also be listed. I mean, what do we want to obtain here with these changes?
- A system that is more or less coherent and works in a logical way following technobabble
- A system that is also fun to play. It should give more options for tactics and variety, while not being an obstacle to gameplay.
- A system that is not unbalanced, because this is a game and FUN>>>everything else. If we come up with something where one option trumps everything else, there's no point and it's not fun. If a single ship in orbit can blast away any number of troops and PDCs, there's no point building any of those.
Now come the questions though, who can shoot at who? And with which weapons? If a starbase can shoot at a ship, can a PDC? If not, why not? If a TN ship can shoot at a starbase, can it shoot at a PDC/planet? If not, why not? How do we solve all this without creating new problems? In the current game, in my opinion, this is not done in any consistent way (sorry Steve
) A ship can shoot missiles at a planet, but railguns do not work. That does not make much sense to be honest.
So, here comes my proposed technobabble solution. It's not perfect but I think it's quite comprehensive. It has to do with the nature of the Aether (or whatever we want to call it) and Gravity
Since the Aether is basically a different, superfluid dimension in which a ship can move using a TN engine, a ship with an active TN engine is considered to be only partially in the real space. The "other half" of the ship is in the Aether. And large gravity wells are incompatible with the Aether. Strong gravity is, infact, the contrary of the Aether. You could say that anything within a large gravity well is in a "superdense" state of existance (or dimension), the very contrary of the Aether.
Basically you have the Aether (superfluid), normal space (neutral state), and large gravity wells (superdense)
Because of this, these are my proposed rules:
- A ship in the Aether (superfluid) can interact and can be interacted only by other entities NOT in a large gravity well (superdense).
- An installation in a large gravity well(superdense) well can interact and can be interacted only by other entities NOT in the Aether (superfluid).
- Anything in normal space (neutral state) can interact both with large gravity well (superdense) and Aether (superfluid)
- A TN engine can transition a ship from normal space to Aether and vice-versa, but the process takes time in which the ship is immobile and unresponsive (1 minute? time to be decided and discussed). This has nothing to do with speed. A ship can be in the Aerther and completely stopped, 0km/second, but it still "phased out". Only if the TN engine is completely shut down then the ship goes back to normal space.
- An object from a "superdense" gravity well that leaves it, like a shuttle, enters normal space (neutral space) after the same time (1 minute?). The process is basically automatic, but NOT instant.
Now, let us try to see how this pans out in all cases:
- A TN ship can shoot at starbases, orbital structures and "orbital ships" who leave the gravity well of the planet, but NOT at the planet itself because the planet is in a "superdense" state (or dimension). Even a beam from a TN ship is half submerged in the aether, so it cannot interact with a "superdense" state like a planet or a PDC or a troop.
- Likewise a planet-based weapon can shoot at orbital starbases or ships, but not at ships in the Aether, which are in the opposite state of "superfluid" and only partially in normal space.
- An orbital station or ship in normal space (outside the gravity well) can interact and shoot at both planet and TN ships, because it's in a neutral state. Only one "step" away from both "superfluid" and "superdense".
- A TN ship can shut down its engine to enter normal space. If so, it is immobile (no engine) but CAN shoot at a planet. And be shot at from any PDC/orbital ship. Doing so is a risk though because the ship is immobile and unresposive for the time aforementioned, vulnerable to either TN fleets ambushes or planetary defenses.
- Or the TN ship can, after cleaning up the orbital installations, blockade the planet safely from the Aether. It can shoot at anything that arrives or tries to leave, but it cannot shoot or be shot at from the planet defenses.
- An object that leaves the gravity well of the planet (superdense state), like an "Orbital" torpedo fighter, can attack a TN ship but only after the aforementioned "transition" time to "neutral space". It can move (because the process is not artificially induced by a Tn engine), but still very risky and not ideal. Before it can shoot, it has to survive until its state is "neutral".
- TN missiles can be shot from TN ships to orbitals, or from orbitals to TN ships. Conventional missiles (or bombs) can work either from orbitals to planet or from planet to orbitals.
- Other weapons always work (because they do not have TN engines), but since they inherit the state of the ship/installation that uses them (laser "phased in the Aether" or "Phased in the superdense"), "superfluid" cannot shoot to "superdense" and vice versa
- A TN fleet can of course carry around "orbital" fighters and the like, to use specifically against planets. Planetary assault carriers, yo! Also of course one can design specific ships whose objective is to exit Aether and duke it out with planets. Planetary assault cruisers, yo! Of course these super specialized TN ships would suffer gravely or be useless in normal engagements, because of the design differences (a planetary assault cruiser would need a TON of armor or shields, thus likely being extremely slow and having little space for weapons).
I think this solves all the problems, more or less. A TN fleet can exit Aether and shoot at planets, but this is slow and dangerous, and PDCs have the tonnage advantage too because they don't need a lot of the necessary systems for a ship. Likewise, planetary fighters can exit the gravity well and shoot at TN ships, but they have to survive long enough to do that! A TN fleet cannot just slag a planet from the safety of the Aether, nor can planetary fighters shoot at said TN fleets without taking a great risk. And ground troops are more relevant and can be more varied as well (like Steve said, AA troops for example)
Regarding other issues, here is how I think they would pan out
- All TN ships are assembled in orbit, including TN fighters. You cannot even test a TN engine on a planet, so you have to do it in orbit
- Components can still be prefabricated on the planet. Extreme modularity is supposed here. The parts are then assembled in the Spaceyard.
- I am undecided about missiles. To be honest, I think it would fit more if they were fabricated in space as well. As in, you could make it so a TN engine cannot even EXIST in a gravity well.
- Since people live on planets, not on shipyards (consider how many MILLIONS of people are working there. So no, they live on planets), you need an adequate amount of "orbital" shuttles. The same is true for any spaceport you have, they also need shuttles. So my proposal to solve this is that you need a number (let's say X) of "Orbital ships" factories for each shipyard and each spaceport. For example, 1 of these factories for every 2000 tons of a slipway and 5 for each spaceport. These factories are considered to be always working to build and do maintenance on all the "orbital shuttles". And this abstracts the entire process. Want a new shipyard? Build 3 or whatever more factories and the like. They are, basically, similar to maintenance stations for shipyards and spaceports.
- Additional "Orbital ships" factories above the required number can be used to build "orbital" fighters and crafts.
- Minerals are stored on the planet carried by these shuttles to orbit when required. You don't want to bloat the already huge and frail Shipyards with mineral storage.
- About mass drivers, they still work. Yes, the mineral that is shot and then caught suffers the extreme shifts from "superdense" to neutral to "aether" and vice versa during the trip. But who cares? Even if a chunk of mineral is blown to shreds in the process you are still going to melt it eventually.
- The Cargo Handling component, given the changes in lore, should be renamed to "cargo transfering shuttles" or something similar. Maybe made more bulky as well.
- I think PDCs should have a maintenance cost, albeit lower than ships, for balance purposes. Filling a planet with PDCs should have some cost.
This is it, hope you liked the read. I think it's pretty consistent, it makes sense, and it also provide a decent balance between new functionalities, fun and sound strategy.
EDIT: to clarify, the process to change "state", for example turning on a Tn engine or leaving a gravity well of an orbital ship, would be much akin the jump engine we have now. A period in which the ship cannot do as it pleases, and has limitations.