Stealth mechanics proposal
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 4:19 pm
Stealth mechanics proposal to couple with the weapons rework proposal
Related thread: Stealth as Defense
Basic assumptions:
Balance observations:
(*) If at some point we decide to introduce a species trait that modifies detection strength (current system only affects detection range), all this shall be reformulated so that late game keeps balanced.
(**) Actually, some hulls could have more than +2 base stealth, but such hulls shall not be able to mount stealth parts that could rise their stealth strength over 8. Mi plan for now is to give bio hulls max +2 base stealth and +6 part stealth from bio-exclusive stealth parts, give some asteroid hulls some stealth capabilities but forbid stealth parts for them, and provide a general stealth part line that can be mounted on most hull lines without stealth capabilities to a maximum of stealth 6. Nothing in stone yet.
(***) Current stealth mechanics nicely avoid using the equal condition (which has some ambiguity: was it detection greater or equal than stealth or was it the other way around?) by giving detection the 10, 30, 50, etc. values and stealth the 0, 20, 40, etc. values (sort of). This suggestion could do the same, but for simplicity during design I'm talking about "tiers" here, so that unlocking the next tier detection/stealth tech gets you +1 detection/stealth strength.
Thoughts?
Related thread: Stealth as Defense
Basic assumptions:
- N tech tiers (currently I think of 6) for both detection and stealth.
- Each tech level gives a +1 to detection/stealth strength (that is, linear growth).
- Base detection is able to detect base stealth (which is zero).
- Galaxies can have a special that provides the equivalent to +1 detection strength (upping the maximum to N+1) (*).
- Maximum stealth a ship can gain by installing ship parts would be N.
- Certain hulls with stealth capabilities (that will pay a toll in their research and build costs) will add up to +2 extra stealth, to a maximum of N+2 (**).
- Detection equal(***) or greater than stealth: normal combat, all ships are targettable from start (combat round 1), and are visible in the galaxy map.
- Stealth greater than detection (stealth-detection=H>0): +H combat round before being targettable, ships are not visible in galaxy map.
Balance observations:
- To to get full advantage of the stealth+CR weapons combo, you need stealth>detection+3. For example, from being one tier above enemy detection tech and using +2 base stealth hulls (not easy, certainly, so does not seem OP, but we shall see). For the stealth+SR combo (which is itself less powerful than the stealth+CR combo), you'll need stealth>detection+2. And +1 for the stealth+LR combo (that is itself not very appealing).
- Late game (i.e. all empires have maxed out stealth and detection techs) without stealth hulls means there is no stealth combat (max stealth not greater than max detection). Using stealth hulls an empire could get part of the advantages provided by the stealth combos, at the expense of not using the more powerful non-stealth hulls.
(*) If at some point we decide to introduce a species trait that modifies detection strength (current system only affects detection range), all this shall be reformulated so that late game keeps balanced.
(**) Actually, some hulls could have more than +2 base stealth, but such hulls shall not be able to mount stealth parts that could rise their stealth strength over 8. Mi plan for now is to give bio hulls max +2 base stealth and +6 part stealth from bio-exclusive stealth parts, give some asteroid hulls some stealth capabilities but forbid stealth parts for them, and provide a general stealth part line that can be mounted on most hull lines without stealth capabilities to a maximum of stealth 6. Nothing in stone yet.
(***) Current stealth mechanics nicely avoid using the equal condition (which has some ambiguity: was it detection greater or equal than stealth or was it the other way around?) by giving detection the 10, 30, 50, etc. values and stealth the 0, 20, 40, etc. values (sort of). This suggestion could do the same, but for simplicity during design I'm talking about "tiers" here, so that unlocking the next tier detection/stealth tech gets you +1 detection/stealth strength.
Thoughts?