Another way you could differentiate carriers from each other is to give them each their own unique combat modifier. Something like:
Condor: None
Gemini: +50% capture rate for fighters
Venture: 50% less supplies used for fighter repair
Astral: +15 speed & +50% capture rate for fighters
and so on...
Do this bonuses stack...If I was to implement the change, I'd make it so carrier bonuses stacked with different carriers (Astral + Gemini = +15 speed & +100% capture rate), but not with identical carriers (Gemini + Gemini = +50% capture rate).
Maybe... well. If you had "Open" Flight Decks, it would improve the repair speed of ships in the occupied deck? So if you had an Astral repairing one fighter, it'd give it 100% increased repair speed (because of the two empty decks), if you had one open deck, it'd give both the occupied decks +50% repair speed.
Then we could toss in a Hull Mod that increases the repair speed of fighters, or one that adds an additional Flight Deck to the carrier to acheive the same process?
We also discussed the idea of having fighters that are "packaged" and can only be activated by a carrier's mini-autofactory. It doesn't really build that much, but mostly just activates the fighter, which is packaged in a container designed to minimize space.
So the supplies would include pre-packed replacement fighters, interesting. That might account for the fast repair time, it might mean that fighters are not immediately repaired but deactivated and replacements are activated. That would even account for the fact that fighters have the same repair times on all carriers (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=4248.0), even on small ones like the Gemini! Cool!
Well, there had to be some logistic-geniuses in my crew to plan ahead the rate of fighters in the supplies, but whatever.
Thanks for the answer :)I like how fighters aren't constrained to carriers alone. But they definitely could use a little something to make them stand out and differentiate the classes of ships. Something to make the astral an immediately better carrier than lesser ships besides just defenses and flight decks.
See the thread linked above, there are some ideas for just that. Even though my lore concerns regarding carrier differences are now eased, I still think more choice would make for more interesting gameplay.
You can hit notify to follow a topic.
Sort of OT, but I want a hull mod that speeds up repair of fighters
Haha, no way man. There is no way this mechanic could actually make real sense. It's just for gameplay. Trying to justify it is a bit of a hand wave.
For example, I buy 500 supplies from the hegemony and go blow up some tritach fighters. I get a wasp wing, then engage a carrier fleet with them. They resupply 2 times in that fight. Did I just buy wasps from the hegemony? So obviously that doesn't make sense. Carriers are the same because that's easier.
I feel like this is adding needless complexity. What about the other stats that already differentiate them is lacking?
The condor and gemini are VERY different in terms of how and where they can do their refitting This affects how long it takes to repair since fighters have to fly all the way back to your condor on the back lines when your gemini is usually in the thick of it.
Also there's the consideration or their rarity in the campaign and the difference they will have on your fleet economy.
Well we aren't at final balancing either.
I guess the whole crux of this thread is that current balance is off and how to address it.
I agree that the balance is wonky, but I don't agree that adding in new mechanics is the best way to fix it. Though I don't think the ideas here are inherently bad or anything.
When did code simplification become the issue? oO
This is not about simplification or balancing but about choice, the choice to have ships with different carrier-capabilities. It's really not very complex, in its easiest execution just a simple numerical modificator.