maybe sparking something related.
After thinking up countless flawed iterations, I have finally arrived at a solution that I like:
Each fleet gets a certain amount of
Battle Time (BT), which is prominently ticking down, e.g. in the UI element on the upper right corner of the screen.
It is a summation of the Peak Readiness Time (PRT, would be renamed) of all the ships a side deploys*. Ships don't have an individual clock anymore! Before the battle starts, the deployment dialog clearly shows the BT that would result from the deployment of the current ship selection. The player practically makes a bet how many minutes (and, as now, ships) he'll need to defeat the enemy. Betting too high leads to unnecessary deployment costs, betting too low to time pressure.
The opposing fleet would have its own BT too, likely a different amount, since it deploys other ships. I'd say you can see it only on the command UI, since you (hopefully) can't exploit it anyway.
*
Spoiler
Alternatively, BT is calculated depending on the deployment points of the ships a side deployed. DP already reflects combat strength, so civilian ships wouldn't contribute to BT so much. It would allow to scratch the PRT stat. And skills could increase DP for a solo playstile. I suspect this is the better solution, but I haven't thought it trough yet.
Once the BT reaches zero, CR degradation begins (individual for each ship). Now, or at any time before that, reinforcement could be deployed to get some extra BT. Reinforcement ships would not contribute their normal PRT though, but only a percentage of it. Let's say a flat 50%. That does mean you can correct your initial time bet, but it's costly.
Benefits:
- This is very clear to present in the UI and easy to understand. Just one number, ticking down.
- Invalidates compulsive endurance-kiting. Any light kite-ship will have far less BT than its would-be prey. (Skills could re-enable it for people who want that.)
- Makes chain flag ship deployments uneconomical, since reinforcements will contribute reduced BT. That can be balanced by the percentage of reduction.
- Makes hiding on the map pointless. Either you're weaker than the enemy, then they have more BT and can outlast you. Or you're stronger and have enough BT to wait them out... but why would you do that if you're stronger anyway?
- Allows to make the stand down mechanic less exploitable (see below).
Problems:
- It's maybe a bit harder than before to sell the lore for this. I'd say that having the advantage in combat strength reduces the stress for both crew and ships systems. Also, something about fleet wide electronic warfare networks, firewalls holding only so long, time dependent on combined fleet processing power -> BT.
- I have been finding and fixing problems with this for hours now. I'm really tired and suspect I still missed some mechanical problems. You guys go wild.
Stand Down CR recovery could be calculated by subtracting the remaining BT of your enemy from you own. The resulting time would be converted back into the CR you spent on deployment with a fixed minus of ~10%.
Examples:
Spoiler
You deploy a battleship (effective supply cost=100) which grants 10min BT, the enemy a destroyer with 5 minutes BT. You beat it after 2 minutes. Makes 8min - 3min = 5minutes remaining, which is half of your initial BT. Subtract the fixed 10%, and you get back 45% of your deployment cost by standing down (cost = 55 supplies).
For a frigate with 2min BT that would be 72% (cost = 28 supplies).
For another battleship with 10min BT it would be 0% recovery.
Another example: You over-deployed, say three battleships which grant 30min BT, the enemy is a destroyer with 5 minutes BT. You beat it after 1 minute. Makes 29min - 4min = 25minutes remaining. Subtract the fixed 10%, and you get back 67,5% of your deployment cost by standing down, which would cost you 97,5 supplies.
Effects:
- There's no point in over-deploying, you can never get back all your deployment costs .
- There's also no point in deploying reinforcements to save money, they are bad at standing down due to their BT penalty.
- The BT of your enemy (assuming it is shorter than yours) is the time you have to defeat him without further penalty to the amount of CR you can recover from standing down.