Since you let us go over the officers cap ( while we still cant use them until we send them into the void ( ... the science is leaking out )
Give us the ability to store officers ( eg. when we have our own outpost )
could be done ( spontaneous idea )
-a building ( cryochamber or something ) also possible with some upgrades to increase capacity ( and a monthly fee depending on the level of the building )
-just send them to have some free time ( but also at a cost .. you have to pay for their free time ) and therefore also available without another building but again only with our own outpost.
so this is not a no-brainer and the slots are reserved for the best of the best.
Hmm, this seems like a nice-to-have, really. Not particularly opposed to it! But definitely don't see making time for something like this for 0.9. Likely to be the sort of thing that'd only make it in if it helped solve another issue.
To me, the game is at its best when it immerses you in the world as a small business owner with a home port, small fleet, jobs to take and mouths to feed. The "fun" of the game, in my opinion, comes more from "how can I stay afloat with what I got" than "woohoo let's blow up another pirate fleet".
I think we're roughly on the same page here; these are all things that give context to the combat, give it stakes, and make it more fun. And that's how I try to look at them in terms of design, generally - how they contribute to the context of combat. The contribution doesn't have to be direct, but it needs to be there or a feature is at best ancillary to the core of the game.
That's all I really mean by "combat focused" and "funneling". It definitely doesn't mean "fight everything in sight all the time". Basically, my general approach is that stuff in the campaign should make the combat more fun, either directly or indirectly. Which is a pretty general statement, but it helps when thinking through campaign features and deciding which way to go about things. It doesn't mean that *nothing* non-combat-related makes it through, either. It's just a high-level approach to overall design.
Frequently, I see my fleet of something like 2 destroyers and 2 frigates being attacked by 3 (D) frigates.
Huh, really? That shouldn't happen; could be a bug that I've since fixed. Just gave it a quick test and a pair of (D) frigates runs away from my fleet of 1 frigate and 1 destroyer. Possibly mod-related?
In any case, totally agree that that's not a good thing and forcing the player to have trivial fights like that is not a good idea.
...
Hopefully that wouldn't be too difficult to implement. I feel it would add a good deal of dynamic difficulty to the game and keep funneling the player to battle without making enemies too easy and suicidal.
Hmm - this sort of thing sounds appealing at first, but I think would lead to weirdness and frustration from the player's point of view. There are many times where you'd like to fight a fleet, such as a bounty, and if the punishment for doing well was that these started running away from you... It's also tough to accurately estimate, since it could vary wildly with the player fleet's makeup, size, and currently chosen flagship. It's just too complicated to reduce to a single number effectively, and the benefit of being successful at it still seems questionable.
