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Author Topic: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically  (Read 1591 times)

geminitiger

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Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« on: January 19, 2020, 11:53:49 PM »

Simple idea and honestly doesn't seem like it would take a lot of coding to implement..

You know sometimes I'm just on the wrong side of the sector with a bunch of preplanned tasks/agreements.

So I think it would be great if whatever ships we leave behind at a colonly were able to help defend it in case of an attack,
ideally it could have a toggle feature like "use stockpiles during storage" / "use docked ships to defend from attacks",
because it seems sometimes the ships would be lost.  ;D

This would have a great side benefit of giving a reason to collect the b-team ships for such a purpose adding a bit more depth to the game.

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Morbo513

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2020, 09:28:25 AM »

Sounds like a simple and effective idea. I think there should be a third tab to the fleet menu dedicated for this - "Defence fleet". So the player can choose to keep their own ships in storage, and stock the defence fleet from ships they don't want to use themselves - or even directly from custom production.
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Shadowkiller

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2020, 12:36:26 PM »

Big fan of this idea, and was kinda disappointing when it wasnt a think already, by the time i have a colony iv gone through a few sets of ships as i upgrade, so i always have a massive fleet in storage, generally many times more powerful then my own in sheer number XD
of course there would need to be a cost or requirement of crew being in storage as well but its a good idea to cut down on the babysitting of the game, and just logically makes sense. you cant lug around a 80 ship armada when exploring, so why not leave your ships in the capable hands or an officer do defend your home, either through that storage system, or by building and setting up a patrol to guard your system when your gone.
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Schwartz

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2020, 02:35:14 PM »

This would make it trivial to defend against any fleet attack. Earnings and excess ships are plentiful later in the game (and therefore devalued). Projected fleet power is not. You're suggesting to take a resource that is essentially valueless later on and funnel it into another system. While it sounds like a cool idea on paper, it wouldn't work.
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Thaago

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2020, 03:20:18 PM »

Yeah... its unfortunately just very easy to have a half dozen 'rustbucket' capitals sitting in storage. They aren't good/efficient to haul around with the main fleet but would be just fine to defend against everything.
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Megas

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2020, 03:42:47 PM »

I would not mind having more autonomous fleets do things on your behalf in your absence and take some of the workload off.  It would mean more time doing fun things like exploring and raiding than running around frantically to put out fires everywhere that only I can deal with before something burns down.
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Morbo513

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2020, 03:56:52 PM »

This would make it trivial to defend against any fleet attack. Earnings and excess ships are plentiful later in the game (and therefore devalued). Projected fleet power is not. You're suggesting to take a resource that is essentially valueless later on and funnel it into another system. While it sounds like a cool idea on paper, it wouldn't work.
So you're saying it'd make sense if ship purchase/upkeep were still a non-trivial consideration by the point you've progressed past your first colony?
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Schwartz

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2020, 04:02:28 PM »

Sure, if keeping and maintaining extra ships continued to be an investment well into late-game, then having stored extra ships help in colony battles would be okay. But for that to happen, the game would have to play out a lot differently.. basically the whole salvaging thing, the whole industry tree, the fact that stored ships have zero upkeep or logistical cost.. all these things would have to be changed.
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bobucles

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2020, 04:04:28 PM »

I'm not sure if it'd be a good thing. Players stash their ships to protect them from random losses. If that prize Legion 14 suddenly vanished as a result of enemy invasions, it'd be very frustrating indeed.

Schwartz

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2020, 04:29:55 PM »

How about a compromise:

Player is able to grab a selection of ships from his storage, kit them out and hire officer(s) to send that fleet out as a permanent system patrol until it perishes. This could incur a monthly cost based on fleet strength.
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geminitiger

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2020, 07:22:30 PM »

I'm not sure if it'd be a good thing. Players stash their ships to protect them from random losses. If that prize Legion 14 suddenly vanished as a result of enemy invasions, it'd be very frustrating indeed.
...the fact that stored ships have zero upkeep or logistical cost.. all these things would have to be changed.
As mentioned earlier in various ways the defense could be optional, and if it was a third tab deal, ie, not storage, it could be/should be a defense fleet that uses some upkeep to keep it combat ready, although the cost of that upkeep should be credits at the end of the month and it shouldn't be too high unless they could actually be an additional patrol or something like you suggest in your next post (before this post).

Unfortunately the more complicated it gets the harder it would be to make it a thing coding wise obviously. I think ultimately I'm just annoyed that the player faction I'm stuck to one fleet while the other factions can literally be all over the map.
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ASSIMKO

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Re: Let docked ships in storage help defend automatically
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2020, 04:02:41 PM »

How about a compromise:

Player is able to grab a selection of ships from his storage, kit them out and hire officer(s) to send that fleet out as a permanent system patrol until it perishes. This could incur a monthly cost based on fleet strength.


Okay. I really liked the observations, but now I want the mod with the observations made by both of them to test it, and decide if it's worth it or not, because I have the same feeling when towing ships and ships to collect it and then disassemble or sell them. The ones I like always walk with me ¬¬.
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