Thoughts on Ships

[Taikei no Yuurei]

I recently went back and rewatched all the videos for Game 4, and I couldn't help but put most of my focus on the ships.  Virgilw said that the ships were made up of individual components, and he seemed to mean that in regards to how they are damaged, with small 'block' sections being destroyed at a time.

However, I couldn't help but think how awesome it would be to be able to rearrange the blocks, to design your own ships.  I mulled over how it would work for a little while, and I think I've come up with something that would be fairly doable, and highly entertaining.  It wouldn't be a quick slap together thing I imagine, but it might be worth considering.  Alright, on with my idea:

Instead of collecting ships with preset weapons and such, when you do a ship pickup, you would gain a Hull Matrix.  Each Hull Matrix can support a single actual ship (thus maintaining the current fleet limits as seen in the game).  The Hull Matrix has a particular hull design, such as the blocky design of the wolf, but is otherwise bare.  A ship could be built from a bare Hull Matrix, but it would essentially be a big metal block instead of a proper ship.  While that'd generally be silly, there might be times you need a cheap wall you can put up somewhere, and a bare Hull Matrix might be a great way to do that.  So, what to do for a proper ship?  Simple, add components to the Hull Matrix.  Components would include things like engines, energy storage, weapons, special devices (relays, lathes, etc).  Components would be limitless (though perhaps some missions would be limited, much like how they are in CW3 at times, and perhaps with a handful of exceptions for particular components), but each ship could only fit a certain number of components, based on how large the hull is.  The Wolf for example can hold a fair bit more than a cruiser, but you better devote some of that to extra engines if you don't want it crawling along.

This allows you to build specialized ships for various tasks.  If you need a ship to do a deep strike operation, give it extra energy storage so it doesn't need to return to base.  Need a ship that's just going to protect the home front?  Drop most/all of the engines in exchange for more firepower.  Need something to take out those emitters?  Load something up with armor (or shields?) and a lathe and get to it.

You could also introduce a slightly more complex tech tree that would grant access to higher grade engines that give more speed, but perhaps cost more to build, or take up less space for the same output.  Maybe get thicker armor which can withstand more punishment, but adds more weight or takes up extra space.  Lots of little things that could be fiddled with there if desired.  Of course, could always just go with the upgrade system that is already in place and just give blanket upgrades to the ships.

I understand that there are potential problems with this.  Implementation could be fairly difficult, and the array of possibilities could make pacing and balancing the game difficult.  It might also turn out that it doesn't add as much as I think it might, with people just using the heavy weapon boat 99% of the time or something similar.

[Helper]

I don't know the impact that might have on the programming side of things, but it seems a fairly significant change at this point in the development. Virgil does discuss this concept in his 'Myth' thread.

[Karsten75]

great minds and all that...

[Taikei no Yuurei]

While I can't say for sure absolute certainty on the programming side without seeing code, I think implementing variable ships would be relatively easy, as he already more or less has with the way his verity of ships and the way they take damage works.  It would require tweaking, and likely more than a little work, but it should be very manageable.  The harder part, I think, would be creating the tools required to allow players to dictate what they want their custom ships to be.

As for being a significant change, I think it could have some fairly strong impacts, particularly on balancing out levels, but that is one of the very last things that would be done anyway.  The basic elements of the game aren't really changing.  You're still using a limited number of ships which can bring a limited amount of firepower to bear in a limited area.

Oh, took another look at the thread, and I think it was his words there (or the memory of them) that really sparked my thoughts, which in fact are more or less exactly what he says.  Looks like he even said about the same thing as I was thinking as far as the difficulty of different aspects.  Making ships on the fly like that wouldn't be difficult, giving people the tools to do so would.

Hmmm... could actually be done similar to how he currently has energy production spot upgrades.  You just build an empty hull, and then build various weapons, energy storage, engines, armor, etc.  That would actually be really easy to implement (it basically is already in the game) while still remaining quite powerful.  Different hulls could have access to different options, and some options could possibly be unlocked through research/story.

[dudecon]

Now that custom loadouts have been demonstrated, I wonder if custom ship designs are on the table?

I also like the idea of customizing the loadout of the mines and mire (mire generators?) A mire is basically a blue particle emitter on a landing vessel. It should be cheaper to build non-mobile mire generators. Then (conversely) one could imagine an energy generator on a mire-style mobile platform, so you could bring the generators with you instead of leaving them strung out along the path.

And those energy shuttles! Could you customize their loadout as well? Maybe it's better to have them larger and slower, with a few lasers and cannons, to keep your retreat path clear.

In short, I love the idea of customized ship loadouts, and would like to see how well the principle applies to other units as well as to components themselves.

[ShadowDragon7015]

Now that custom loadouts have been demonstrated, I wonder if custom ship designs are on the table?

I also like the idea of customizing the loadout of the mines and mire (mire generators?) A mire is basically a blue particle emitter on a landing vessel. It should be cheaper to build non-mobile mire generators. Then (conversely) one could imagine an energy generator on a mire-style mobile platform, so you could bring the generators with you instead of leaving them strung out along the path.

And those energy shuttles! Could you customize their loadout as well? Maybe it's better to have them larger and slower, with a few lasers and cannons, to keep your retreat path clear.

In short, I love the idea of customized ship loadouts, and would like to see how well the principle applies to other units as well as to components themselves.

There is already custom ship designs. In a couple threads Virgil made custom designs for people. You can also look at my current icon.
On the mires I don't think Virgil will make those customizable. Personally I see no reason to make immobile units like you said, considering the game is always changing.