Ophiuchus wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 1:59 pm
LienRag wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 1:55 pm
It is my opinion that the ability to scrap buildings at will with little to no cost is a problem as it limits the consequences of choices made earlier and as such makes many things a no-brainer that wouldn't be otherwise.
Burned earth is much too easy currently. It is almost impossible to keep your spoils (surprise attack mostly). I would not mind if the "scrap the building" functionality was removed. The infrastructure concept is not interesting anyway.
In
this discussion I alluded to an Influence Upkeep mechanism that would tacke spamalot problems, and partially scrap-and-rebuild being too easy. Combined with scraping taking a few turns (and having a cost) it could help alleviate the "scorched-earth tactics being a no-brainer" problem that we have now.
Ophiuchus wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 1:59 pm
One way to redo the lighthouse could be a speed-vs-damage tradeoff (although hard to write fluff for that). One could also make the lighthouse add an "enlightened" special to the system, so one cant remove it at will (fluff: you do something to the frequencies sent out from your sun).
I'm not sure that I fully understand nor agree with the first proposition, but the "enlightened" special could be a way of making it work, indeed.
Ophiuchus wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 1:59 pm
Against spam-a-lot also making this centralized would work: add the speed effect IFF supply-connected to an allied Interstellar Lighthouse (fluff: it does something to the starlanes). Make the lighthouse much more expensive for that - at least ten times as it is now. Cutting the connection would slow down your fleet.
I really like the strategic implications of slowing down enemy fleet by cutting their supply lines...
It is my current opinion that there are too many centralized mechanisms in FreeOrion, though. I understand how it was necessary to avoid spamalot (and avoiding spamalot is a sound design choice) but my proposed Infrastructure Upkeep mechanism gets rid of spamalot if it is adopted, leaving way for more diverse kinds of geographical effects from buildings, beyond the supply-wide one that is now hegemonic.
Maybe I'm wrong since anyway Stargates will remove their usefulness, but I'd like to have a "railroad-like" mechanism if we get rid of the way the Lighthouse works right now : maybe have "Space Corbetite Terminals" that have a bigger effect (mostly range-wise) but that due to their Infrastructure requirements cannot be build everywhere.
I'm thinking of something like +60 to speed in the system itself, +40 one hop away, +20 two hops away, +10 three hops away. All these boni only for allied ships.
This would make for one or two "speed lanes" in the Empire that one would need to carefully plan, making for fast military movements along these lanes, with all the strategic effects and polarization of space that it entails.