I have to admit, my first game with CR ended as a disaster and almost soured me on it until I realized what it had done. It shifted the play paradigm away from being able to successfully operate on a hyper-risky, razor thin margin. My first game was my usual grab-medusa-ASAP kind of game. I jumped in to the Medusa, eating most of my 24k at the time after I was done fitting.
I had no support, just a solo (high-tech, tempermental, touchy, etc.) ship. My first combat, I was, perhaps a bit cocky. Took a bit of damage and was eating repairs. I quickly ate through my supplies. I didn't suspend repairs, thinking I could duke it out and grab a lifeline. But with my supplies dwindling down to nothing, my CR shot from bad logistics and my hull not fully repaired; I couldn't quite make it. I ended with 63 credits, a beat up destroyer and my tail between my legs.
At first, I was miffed, I always played that way. But then I realized, that I was finally playing a game where the survival mechanic wasn't toothless. The game defeated me on logistics alone! Only reality itself tends to do that these days.
In the end, I had to learn new tricks to survive and CR is what makes it happen.
Now with my newly minted mini-fleet (Medusa, Sunder, a couple Lashers and the support of a Freighter and three tugs) I am sitting pretty. I have a strong infrastructure that can eat a little bit of disaster. I have the flexibility to either deploy overwhelming force against my usual targets or give chase when they realize they are over matched. I now have reasons to hold bits and pieces back other than personal challenge. And awesomely, I have reason to not always deploy in my flagship.
I find play a lot more varied and interesting now and it no longer feels like a headlong rush toward grabbing a capital ship and soloing things from there.
Hell, I'm even finding myself keeping a lot of ships in storage for reasons other than "bored of flying that".
I'm loving the whole support-fleet angle as well. A game that has me taking freighters and utility ships before there is even a trade system in place is definitely interesting.
I'm definitely enjoying the new paradigm. It makes play feel more organic and it fits my sense of verisimilitude a lot more. Looking at my logistical situation really pulls me in to the game and puts me in the frame of mind of a fleet commander instead of keeping me at a distance. The sense of immersion it has given me is excellent.
I'm sure there are still tweaks to be made to it, but the overall idea and implementation are excellent. It will go quite well with any kind of trade mechanics when those roll around as well. Having to gauge the cost of supplies and fuel needed to ship things from point A to point B (especially with a dynamic economy) will but some actual risk in to the act of trading that isn't tied to roving pirate fleets. Taking a loss because the expected margin trading food between Sirius III and Tau Ceti II was lower than projected against the cost of fuel and supplies to get there is just plain awesome (and something few games like this will ever simulate).
Can't wait to see how this proceeds from here, that's just a great bit of design that spider webs to so many other bits of play. As a basic mechanic, the general idea is a winner.
