| Author |
New ship setups on old game mechanics |
Okkam
Marshal
Joined: February 06, 2008
Posts: 157
From: Dorset
|  Posted: 2011-06-05 16:01
Few things I would like to mension in regards to the current game mechanics and how they should be addressed before the new ship varients arrive.
--== Depos ==--
While there has been some recent major changes to the way the game works and the mechanics involved in ship combat and in planetary warfare there is still a hole that needs to be addressed prior to the now beta coming out in a patch on the main server.
Ignoring the name and the fact that I do complain a lot, I would like anyone who reads this post to consider that the ships are getting an overhaul and some ships are now extremely powerful compared to what they were before. If you put those super powered ships in orbit around a depo planet (if you are UGTO for example) then you have a problem.
While we're on the subject of changing the game mechanics and the ship layouts it might be considered to add in a simple line of code to reduce the amount of depos being able to be assigned to one person at a time.
I am unaware if this has already been put into the game (after a brief look through of the patch notes on previous editions) but situations like EAD vs Siphon, Siphon, Hive, Hive, Mandible and the EAD winning should never happen. I do mean NEVER HAPPEN.
Energy issues aside, that EAD can defend forever, while you may consider dropping infantry and capturing the planet, note that his presence and hostile infantry slow down the process of capturing and while you are attempting to capture the planet the EAD is still shooting you while being infinately re-supplied from the planet.
--== Resources ==--
There comes a time when a lack of mining means that a planet can no longer sustain itself. Barracks and shipyards require constant injections of resources to maintain themselves. While nearly all players (I would assume) understand this, the problem arises with that a planet can only have 32 structures. With this limitation on the current requirements of buildings it is hard to produce a planet that can mine and actually defend itself.
Taking a joke from another game and putting it into this context:
mining / defence / shipyard ... Pick ONE....
Anyone who builds on a regular basis (a lot of people don't like to) will understand that trying to get a planet to have some form of any defence while still having enough population, tech and power to sustain a shipyard AND then trying to get it to be able to mine is near impossible.
While there are other planets used to get minerals and ship these to the shipyard planet using a starport it must be said that no one builds mining planets outside of the starter server because they cannot sustain defensive power or that people who build planets do not realise how important resources are.
A suggestion towards fixing this, not knowing about some of the game mechanics when saying these suggestions, is that a planet with a shipyard and a starport will not let you take resources from the planet through trade or otherwise but will allow resources to be given to it. This means that if you have 4+ starports in a system, it wont allocate a silly amount of resources to the barracks planet in the corner because it is trying to be even about it.
Another suggestion is increasing the amount of resources mined from the advanced mining structures. At this point in time, if you make a fully functioning shipyard planet with tech 3 mineral structures you find it hard to see the gain. 3x teir 3 mining structures and 2 factories will give you a net of around 200 resources whenever it feels like ticking over. Considering the amount of large ships spawned and respawned in the metaverse this is unsustainable to the highest extent.
If you consider the following suggestion also, making some structures naturally mine resources while doing a half assed job at something else. Instead of having a barracks, you can have a barracks mining colony, it produces infantry slower than normaly but it also produces resources. Not enough resources to make itself sustainable, but enough to show a difference.
Previous editions of the game do not have alot of these resource problems from my memory when you include more planets in clusters. This means that you can have one planet in the cluster designed to mine pure minerals without having to worry about it being utterly useless to defend itself in any other manner other than barracks. Making the lone barren in the corner of the system a mining planet is more sensible than making a terran the mining planet and then making the barren the SY but it does mean that if the enemy attack the outer lying systems before the core or even just the barrens then you lose all chances of being able to make a stand as you cannot spawn.
Last suggestion towards resources on planets and shipyards would be to reduce the requirements of a shipyard so that you free up more slots on the planet to be built to use for mining.
--== Recap ==--
Depos are a joke, all the administrators are aware of it, most of the players are aware of it and a large amount of people aren't finding it entertaining to watch a single ship repell 6+ hostiles in similar class vessels. This needs to be addressed before the new ship updates come in or it will get silly.
Resources in the game in terms of mining and output should atleast be looked at in terms of sustainability and or their ability to defend themselves. While planets have given up their ability to cause huge damage to people they still have an issue with not being able to commit to a role without severe resource issues and if you build a resource planet then the enemy can just starve you out by taking it.
This may seem like a rant and i'm fairly sure it is but these issues have been underfoot for damned too long now and i'm getting sick of it. I enjoy playing this game, but running into a single muppet standing on a depo stopping you from proceeding (in a team game) makes me want to not play it any more. Add that to the fact that no one seems to understand that you need a few resource planets in a system (even if they cannot be defended properly) and you have a problem with reinforcements and attack. At which point you are confined to defend leading to a stalemate.
Thank you for your time.
I would appreciate it if you posted with small references to my text and not the entire thing (because that's silly) and your comments be constructive and/or showing calculations towards repair/resources.
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2011-06-05 16:06
As I, and other members of the dev team have stated numerous times, we have plans to fix depots in the next patch. Telling us about the problem for the nth+1 time doesn't make use hear it any louder or work any quicker than we already are.
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Okkam
Marshal
Joined: February 06, 2008
Posts: 157
From: Dorset
| Posted: 2011-06-05 16:08
That may answer part of the depo problem but not the issue with starports, shipyards and resources.
Also, there is no bulletin on what exactly there is or going to be done with the depo changes. I don't want to play a game, regardless of how decent the ships may look or play, if a single moron can orbit a planet and win.
I believe fixing depos should be a higher priority than changing what a ship uses.
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When the universe collapses and dies there will be 3 survivors; Tyr Anasazi, the cockroaches and Dylan Hunt trying to save the cockroaches...
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2011-06-05 16:11
If you have a shipyard planet without a resource system to support it, then you're going to have problems. We're not going to make any changes to the current resource system, as it works as intended.
In terms of fixing depots, we've stated quite openly for a long time that it's on our list of things to fix. However, fixing depots requires code changes, and changing ship layouts does not.
Myself and Faustus are the only two with enough knowledge of the game code to make the change, and even I am struggling with trying to get what we want into beta in the best possible way. Hence, I had to move it onto Faustus, who is a very busy man. Since beta is in no way going to be rushed to release, and requires Faustus' approval to do it, when he has time to add the depot fix into beta, it'll be there.
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