That could work even though it could lead to some gamey tactics, i.e. keeping your fleets at strategic point but fully operational. I think it needs to be coupled with a delay timer of some sort to so that you have a drawback to the reduced maintenance.
I have to agree with Tue.
If it was just a mothball, save 90% maintenance, then turn it on for free, it would lead to a lot of gaminess. I could put all my ships in mothball and after 10 or so turns the money I saved would let me upgrade them at no real cost to me.
Talking a ship out of mothball is expensive IRL. Most have to be upgraded after a few years. Plus there is the expense of putting it into mothball and storing it. What do you do with those crews? Then when you commission it again, you have to hire/train a new crew.
I think the idea is interesting, but may add a layer to the game that really isn't needed. If it were to be included, I would want to see something like this.
1) Mothball a ship requires 3x the maintenance cost to put it in mothball.
2) It can only be mothballed at a planet, starport, or starbase.
3) To reinstate the ship, you need to pay a fee for three turns to represent getting it out of mothball and crewing it again. If you want to upgrade the ship to a later design, that is another turn perhaps and certainly an extra cost.
This would make the mothballing less likely to be gamed. However, I wonder if this all is a solution looking for a problem in the game?
