Another way to differentiate beams / missiles / guns

well, there is going to be a new combat system coming in 1.2 in a week or two, so I guess we'll see how that works.

Brilliant ideas, though. I love this game with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, and worship at the Temple Stardock, but I do occassionally find myself wishing for more... incentive to build specific weapon/defense combinations to create specific ship "types" or "classes". A navy of ships built to fulfill specific roles = cool.

interesting

I agree. The key to a good Navy is to have ships that specialize, and with this sort of combat system that you are proposing that would definately create more incentive to creat a Navy that is more varied, tacticle, and organized.

That's actually an interesting idea. It's simple, and yet there don't seem to be any immediately apparent problems, outside of coming up with a logical explanation that justifies the game mechanics in believable enough quasi-real-world terms. At the very least, it's an idea that sounds decent enough on paper--which is generally the best-case scenario when you're dealing with fans sharing ideas in an Internet forum.

The idea also got me thinking, and I went ahead and typed it in as the following wall of psychobabble. I seriously doubt that it will ever get anywhere, given the sheer scale and complexity of it (it is a wall of psychobabble, after all), but maybe it'll inspire someone else. Or something. Maybe.

Oh heck, all I know is that I gotta do something about my perfectionism when it comes to these sorts of things.

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Personally, I think it'd be neat to have an evasion system in place. Basically, each ship would have a maneuverability rating that factors in to whether an attack fired upon it actually connects. Naturally, smaller hulls would have higher inherent maneuverabilities, while getting a large hull to dodge something would be rare, and huge hulls would be all but impossible.

There would also be components that improve maneuverability, in the form of side thrusters, automatic evasion systems, teleporters, etc. These components would require less space than the typical defenses (I'll admit I'm not sure about cost and research), but only for tiny and small hulls; the required space and cost would increase dramatically with larger hulls sizes, as a measure to keep players from just cramming tons of components on them. This would result in the tiny and small fighters relying more on evading fired shots entirely (but being pretty much screwed when they are hit), the large and huge battleships relying on the typical defenses to neutralize attacks, and the medium-sized frigates being able to mix and match.


Of course, if you're going to have increasing degrees of maneuverability, you'll need increasing degrees of precision. While research, size, and/or cost of weapon components would likely need some tweaking as a result, a general rule of thumb would be that mass drivers would be the easiest to evade, with lasers being more difficult to avoid (due to the sheer speed of their delivery), and missiles being the most most accurate weapons (thanks to their guidance systems). In addition to that, each iteration in a generation of weapons would more precise as any earlier iterations in the same generation. For example, Laser V would be more precise than Laser II; and while Plasma I would be less precise than Laser V (due to being the unrefined initial installment of a new generation), Plasma III would be equally, if not more, precise than Laser V.

There'd also be ship components that increase precision "across the board," in the form of targeting systems, tractor beams, temporal distorters, etc. How effective these components would be, in relation to the maneuverability components, is not something that can be currently answered, though; it largely depends on how things work out with version 1.2. Additionally, the cost, size, and research for these components are probably the murkiest game-balancing issues in the entirety of the evasion system, and would most likely be figured out only through play-testing.


Now that I look back on all of that, it's likely that if such a thing is ever to happen, it would have to be through either an expansion pack (and as one of the main features, I imagine), or as part of the combat engine in GalCiv III (which is not anytime soon).

I think it'd be worth it, though: part of the appeal of GalCiv II's whole ship customization thing is not unlike that of managing each of your batallion's units (fleets) and characters (ships) in the Ogre Battle series of games. Considering GalCiv II already has your basic hitpoints, attack, and defense stats, which are common to literally every console RPG ever made, implementing a sort of "dexterity" stat would serve to augment this resemblance, and capitalize on it's appeal.

That, and we're gonna have to come up with something in the event that 1.2 doesn't solve the attack versus defense issue, or introduces any unforeseen problems itself.

And yes, I'm finally done! Thanks for having taken the time to read all that; and if you feel you just wasted your time doing so, then you can at least take satisfaction in knowing that I wasted so much time typing this thing that it's downright shameful.

I like the weapon vs hull size choices -- that's interesting. Normally, I only buy the smallest hull that my current weapon tech will fit in, preferring an extra engine, and then a second weapon. (Range enhancement is unimportant to most of my combat vessels, because they hang out near my borders.)

Why do I feel this way? because most of my games last until about turn 100~200.

guns=mass drivers...think about it a tiny hulled ship vs a large hulled ship...if you hit a car with a cannon ball and then a large aircraft carrier with the same cannon ball..which one is going to have the more total damage by the same weapon? your idea makes sense but not how you present it. the smaller the hull the more damage the bigger the hull the less total That's what HITPOINTS are simulating and why a HUGE hull has so much more HP then a TINY hull. so in essense your idea is already in the game..hence larger HP on larger ships...they can take more hits from said weapon then the smaller ships can.

this is already simulated..it's called HITPOINTS..that's why a smaller hull ship blows up faster then a big ship. because if you hit a car with a cannonball you'll destroy it much faster then if you hit an aircraft carrier with the same cannonball...a grenade inside a car will destroy it completely..same grenade in an aircraft carrier..will just make a hole. This is already simulated (as I said.)

I like it just the way it is, I would lose patheticly at this game if I was getting penelized for using beams, since the mass drivers and missles don't look like what they should. Dammit a railgun does damage by moving VERY fast, not by moving like an old lady!