Do civilian ships currently serve a game design purpose? I fear you could just as well delete all freighters/tankers/transporters from the game, give the combat ships more cargo/fuel/crew space - and literally nothing about the gameplay would change. Am I wrong? I'd like to be, cause I loving having civ ships in the game for their contribution to, well, feeling like a proper space captain! But if all they are is decoration, that's quite unsatisfying.
Spoiler
I tried to come up with ways to give them meaning for some time now. Thinking: how to make the logistics part of the game into a fun challenge? Maybe tone down the Bulk transport skill, maybe make civs more vulnerable to environmental hazards? But in the end that is all irrelevant annoyance if civs are not a part of Starsector's combat, of it's main appeal.
There were of course attempts to give them a more participatory role in combat, the hullmods Assault Package and Escort Package. But that didn't really work out, they could never shine in an active combat role, the hullmods are now removed. Just the anemic Nav Relay survives, but is more fit for back-line combatants than proper civilians.
I think the only fun part of civilian ship combat participation can and should be this: to protect them. Retrospectively, to hunt the enemy's. But, aside from the early game escape scenario, you never have to do either.
That in turn leads to ideas about special combat scenarios where civs are involved: in the campaign, ambushing and raiding the civilian part of the enemy fleet. In combat, running your fast ships through the enemy border to get to their civs. But if these things are done to you, if your civs are forced to fight while your combat fleet is made unavailable, that seems super frustrating.
My suggestion is this:
- Encourage civs to enter the battlefield by introducing logistic support hullmods with enormous fleet stat bonuses.
- Scale the hullmod bonuses on cargo/fuel/crew space of the ship that carries them, linking them organically to civilians.
- Prevent those ships from just hiding (boring) by only applying the bonuses when they are near an objective (Nav Buoy, Sensor Array and Comms).
- (optional) Prevent the loss of civ ships from being super frustrating by introducing a milder defeat option for them (besides disabled/destroyed) called "surrendered". At 0% hull civilian ships don't explode, but are briefly invulnerable and signal surrender by shooting white flares all around them. If you win the engagement, your surrendered civs will have a high chance of not gaining d-mods and lose less crew and CR then disabled ships. If you lose, they will be recoverable from the battle debris field and contain their crew. (As a side effect, enemy surrendered ships increase loot when you win and so enable a less bloodthirsty pirate playstile.)
I believe these factors should make it the best tactical decision to deploy some civs, make them visible in combat and have fun defending them. While simultaneously upping the importance of combat objectives. I imagine it would also be really entertaining to hunt enemy civs behind the lines to stop their bonuses from applying. And, hopefully, this would be relatively easy to implement.
What could these logistic support hullmods look like? Here are some examples, but they are just that - examples. In the end the actual effects could be anything, as long as they make the deployment of civs/hunting of enemy civs a sound tactical decision in most combat scenarios.
Combat Logistics HubScales with base cargo capacity. Gives a combat readiness bonus (1-20%) to all ships and increase peak combat readiness time of all ships by 10-100%. Only applies when adjacent to a friendly objective. You can operate up to two CLHs simultaneously, the weaker one has its effects reduced by 50%.
Rescue Operations CenterScales with base crew capacity. Makes your disabled ships always recoverable with (+2-20%) CR, reduces crew losses of all ships by 10-90% and reduced overload duration (5-50%) of your ships. Only applies when adjacent to a friendly objective. You can operate up to two ROCs simultaneously, the weaker one has its effects reduced by 50%.
Infernium Interference FurnaceScales with base fuel capacity. Selectively destabilizes the hyperspace bubble surrounding the battlefield, allowing your reinforcements to enter the battle from the sides. The higher the relative bonus, the farther towards the enemy your ships will enter. Reduces the enemie's ability to enter from the sides by the comparative difference of their Infernium interference. Allows re-deployment of retreated ships. Only applies when adjacent to a friendly objective. You can operate up to two IIFs simultaneously, the weaker one has its effects reduced by 50%.
Of course there already exists a hullmod that is supposed to encourage civs to enter combat, NavRelay.
"When deployed in combat, increases the nav rating of your fleet by 2/3/4/5 percent, depending on this ship's hull size." The bonus it gives is so small that it's not really worth risking the loss of a logistics ship for it, though - and were it bigger, you had better put it on a military ship.
