How do blueprints work with Condors and buffalo/mudskipper/colossus mkII's? I don't imagine it'd quite make sense for them to be built from scratch like the rest of 'em?
Hacks of existing blueprints for the base hull. Presumably, such hacking is relatively common, though the results are naturally less than ideal.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
That's what I like to hear
It might also require you have both BPs but many of those "base" BP's look like the ones we will start off with. Speaking of which, hey Alex, will we need both the normal AND the XIV BPs in order to make XIV ships (and other "skin ships")? Let's say I get lucky and find an XIV Onslaught BP really early but I don't have the original BP, can I still make it?
They wouldn't require a base, no - that's too fiddly for my taste; the way BPs work is zoomed out a bit to avoid dealing with just this sort of thing.
Should XIV ships even be buildable? The description specifically says it is one of the original survivors of the battlegroup....
Gameplay-wise, I like the idea of the Hegemony, being the ancient "empire" figure that they are, have some long lost technology that no one else can ever get. Lore-wise, I think at least there should be a rewriting of the XIV description
Yeah, it doesn't say that anymore
That said, I don't think you'd be finding XIV blueprints just anywhere, if you can even acquire them at all. But in terms of gameplay, a limited supply of any kind of hull for an AI faction just doesn't work well.
Also, will battles ever cough up BPs or "parts" of one? Or will a system be put into place for modders to add something like that in?
Another thing: Will the codex list what a ship is classified as for both BPs and Fleet Doctrine?
Probably not. For fleet doctrine, I think it's fairly clear to begin with, and the "typical" fleet display can answer any questions. For whether a BP for a ship is rare or not, I don't think that's good information to show the player.
I like the plan that blueprints are learned faction wide, and aren't stored anywhere that the player has to worry about. If they were planet by planet, bound to those planets and could be lost, that would create certain incentives. I think my initial plan would involve maximized planetary defense, maximized heavy industry/shipyards, and a few expendable resource colonies in or out-system to feed it. I'd also make sure to plant several (ideally 5+) more mostly self-sufficient colonies around the system to spam more defense and patrol fleets out to bog down attackers further. I'd gamble on the fleet output by the high end planet to provide enough backbone for the spam to make the system largely self-defending, or at least enough to manage to defend itself for me to return to handle especially problematic sorts. Also, no AI Cores allowed in that system. Even in storage. Mostly because losing all my hard-gained blueprints would be an...unacceptable outcome.
I think there'll be some incentive to centralize production in any case - but then, that's part of the reason for this system, is that adding more detail to blueprint handling doesn't really change *that* much.
Speaking of, patrol fleets. It seems that larger planets don't send out patrols to aid more isolated planets in other systems where they probably should. It'd make sense, or be appreciated depending on Alpha Core RNG doing Bad Things (TM) to colonies, to be able to have one colony send patrols to another's defense (ideally to be done automatically, really, especially with same-faction colonies in the same system). Also, on that note, it'd also make sense if the player faction goes carrier heavy, factions at war with them would increase the number of anti-fighter ships in their compositions. And vice versa for capital ships, etc. Maybe something to think about for two or three releases from now since fleet composition is going to be adjustable in-game. Granted, each faction would have 'preferred' fleet comps to default to even if they change in response to enemy doctrine, but it'd increase vanilla variety especially after the AI factions have fought a few wars with each other.
The apparent continued existence of marines alongside Alpha Core administrators doing *something* to colonies leads me to suspect that there'll be a reconquest mechanic implemented on Alpha Core colonies. Couple that with a population loss during the rebellion and an immigration malus for a time afterwards, and it'd be a proportionate disincentive to simply slap Alphas on everything. Permanently losing colonies with Alphas in play on, what seems to be sold as, bad RNG just seems a bit too harsh to be plausible to me. Or I'd find a way to mod it out, because that would just be uncool.
RESPONSE REDACTED BY HEGEMONY COMSEC
So just to be clear, ALL production is based purely on credits and time? You won't need 400 units of metals and 200 heavy machinery in a stockpile to produce an Onslaught?
I dunno, part of me seems like this would be a good way to give commodities more...oomph!
From what I can gather, I think that the Orbital Works facility turn Metals and Heavy Machinery into "Ship Parts and Weapons" (seen in recent development screenshots as the little Hound symbol in the commodity list) which is in turn converted into the faction's fleets (and players' custom orders).
I also had the impression that metals, heavy machinery, and other commodities would be necessary to construct ships to give those items inherent value beyond credit price. Does the "Heavy Industry" that supplies the "Ship Hulls and Weapons" commodity require those raw materials? Or have I been stockpiling 10,000 Metals from my bounty hunting exploits for nothing? 
To put it another way, without it becoming an optimization exploit, is there any reason for the player to keep less valuable commodities (metals, ore, etc.) over more valuable commodities because it will directly improve their colonies/colony management? A "short-term loss, long-term gain" kind of scenario?
To elaborate a bit: right, production is based on your colonies' production of the "Ship Hulls & Weapons" commodity. That, in turn, requires that demand for metals, transplutonics, and iirc a few other things be filled. So, production requires either 1) that the colony be hooked into the economy and supplied with these (i.e. it's accessible enough that this stuff can be imported), or 2) that the resources be hand-delivered, but that's the much more tedious and less practical option, considering the relative ease of the first one.
Now, you *could* have a colony on the fringes that relies on the player for its supply. There could possibly be some benefits to this (say, being safer in some way?), but that's entirely speculative, and I'd want to avoid encouraging the player to do this; for the usual "safe and boring" reasons.
The more useful and reasonable thing to do with commodities like metals and so on (aside from selling them) would be to dump them into an industrial colony's "Local Resources" submarket. They'll stay there until needed to make up a shortfall, which could be caused by the loss of a trade fleet or something else affecting supply.
Aaah, I'm so excited for all of this!
Question: will the aggression rating we put in our doctrine effect the officers available for hire? I would love to have a staff of loyal officers coming from my own colony, all trained to be fearless in battle.
Yes! The hireable officer personalities are based on the faction doctrine, but with some variance - i.e. a flat chance for the personality to be anything at all. (Possibly why they're hireable now, rather than still working for the faction...)
Another question about aggression: you mention that it effects the default, non-officered ships of that faction. Will that be true for my fleet as well? So by setting my aggression all the way up I can sacrifice wave after wave of suicidal multi-D mod ships?
It will affect your fleet, yes.
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Topic: Blueprints, Doctrine, and Production (Read 62039 times)