Policy and/or tech inspired in "Fortify positions"... in space!

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

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LienRag
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Policy and/or tech inspired in "Fortify positions"... in space!

#1 Post by LienRag »

Oberlus wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:35 am In civilization and other games, to fortify a unit is to build trenchs and the such, that makes no sense in the space.
Maybe with Void techs ?
Doesn't the void actually digs into space itself ?

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Oberlus
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Re: Management controls

#2 Post by Oberlus »

LienRag wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:40 pm Doesn't the void actually digs into space itself ?
Well, I never thought of that...
Summing up my "knowledge" about Void:
- In general, void is empty space. Nothing to see here.
- In Starcraft and other sci-fi worlds, the Void is another dimension, actually full of nasty stuff quite horrible for beings of this dimension.
And that's it.

In FreeOrion, it seems to me that the Void is similar to that other horrible dimension. We have techs that allow to extract knowledge (RP) from the Void and techs that use the destructive forces reigning in the Void to wreak havoc into this dimension.

We could have something that allows ships to enter into the Void and shoot from there to ships in the normal dimension without allowing retaliation (you can't aim properly, focus your beams, the void disrupts missiles/fighters engines...) but I would say a priori that the worst part of that strategy would happen to the ships entering the Void for that.

If the "Void trench" is used as a barrier between your ships and your enemies... You have some control over the trench (at least, your ships are closer to it and can used it as cover, leaning out of it to shoot and then take cover again).
Oh, the same could be done in asteroid belts without fancy technologies. The Void version would be a late tech (policy, ship part, whatever) that can be used anywhere, and the asteroid belt would be situational, probably a military policy.

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Re: Management controls

#3 Post by Ophiuchus »

For me the Void in freeorion is like a different dimension but not directly compatible/very hard to reason about. Maybe it is some kind of entity one can communicate with.

It provides for "truth" for mystic beliefs. It is everywhere close in the universe. It provides for heroes doing improbable things like in scifi soap.

Cause and Effect and Probabilities work differently -> void prediction works for the improbable

I find the "its yet another place where suddenly enemies can pop out from" idea rather boring. Other typical places are neighboring galaxies, timelines, ancient ruins, space anomalies, research labs. One specific to the void is that it is supposed to be everywhere which, so it would be fitting for a threat/effect which pops up everywhere in the universe.

Gameplay wise it could make sense for some tragedy-of-the-commons elements (like the wall oberlus described). Harvesting too much void breaks down the barrier, alternatives exist but are not as efficient.

When the barrier breaks down, void effects happen. Most species dislike void effects. Stability issues for everyone.

Addressing the OP. One could provide a defense based on void knowledge - your ships need to attune to the void in order to use it (ship focus), which makes using starlanes impossible (so speed set to zero) while giving higher damage or more shots (higher if ship was focussed longer on the void). One could locally break down the barrier to decrease the normal way things work and give higher bonus.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Policy and/or tech inspired in "Fortify positions"... in space!

#4 Post by Geoff the Medio »

I assume "Void" is somewhat like the "Void Which Binds" in the Hyperion novels.

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LienRag
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Re: Policy and/or tech inspired in "Fortify positions"... in space!

#5 Post by LienRag »

I was joking when I wrote the first post...

I do believe that it may be interesting to have more use of the Void (if we collectively decide clearly what it is) but clearly "digging trenches in it" is not the more credible way to use it.

Having techs that allow strategic advantage by using the Void why not, but I don't have clear ideas about what they should be.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Policy and/or tech inspired in "Fortify positions"... in space!

#6 Post by Geoff the Medio »

I have a few other Military policies in my TODO list that are similar to the recently-added Flanking policy. I don't have the list available right now, but there was something like sacrificing armed ship strength while boosting unarmed ship strength (by protecting the unarmed ships), something to trade off defense for damage or shots or stealth, and there could be something about ships being in systems for longer getting additional shield bonuses, particularly if there is a friendly planet in the system...

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