New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
Moderator: Oberlus
New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
This idea is inspired by the Eaxaw, which has ultimate weapons, and I thought: "Why couldn't we have species with good/bad defenses?" It could work similar to the ground troop modifiers. What do you guys think?
Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
When I recently reorganized how the defense tech Effects were specified, part of that included setting them up so it would be easy to specify species as having "Good_Defense" etc, so it will be quite easy to do. (Though the only Macro for it I actually made so far was "Average_Defense" since that's what everything is currently; the Acirema defense is handled separately as an extra boost since it's a flat value, not a multiplier like the "Good_X", "Bad_X" things usually are.
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
I think a flat value has to be considered, otherwise there will be no bonus in the early game (or for natives). Detection Range and Stealth also use a flat bonus (and i think they work quite good this way).Dilvish wrote:the Acirema defense is handled separately as an extra boost since it's a flat value, not a multiplier like the "Good_X", "Bad_X" things usually are.
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
Perhaps a combination of a multiplier coupled with a flat boost might work best for these. As you note, the multiplier is meaningless without tech, but the flat boost would either be overwhelming at the beginning or rapidly become near meaningless. The multiplier would let the defensive bonus still be notable after the species has been incorporated into an empire.Sloth wrote:I think a flat value has to be considered, otherwise there will be no bonus in the early game (or for natives). Detection Range and Stealth also use a flat bonus (and i think they work quite good this way).
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
Alternatively, all planets could start with a small amount of defense by default. There is also the protection focus which is available from the start of the game, and which would be be enhanced by a multiplier boost to Defense.Dilvish wrote:Perhaps a combination of a multiplier coupled with a flat boost might work best for these. As you note, the multiplier is meaningless without tech, but the flat boost would either be overwhelming at the beginning or rapidly become near meaningless. The multiplier would let the defensive bonus still be notable after the species has been incorporated into an empire.Sloth wrote:I think a flat value has to be considered, otherwise there will be no bonus in the early game (or for natives). Detection Range and Stealth also use a flat bonus (and i think they work quite good this way).
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
I agree, Protection Focus should be shifted to a combination of flat boost and multiplier. Actually, the main reason I had done the defense Effects restructuring was to change Protection Focus over to a multiplier on Shields and Defense as well as troops, but that's left it starting out weak until some Defense Tech is researched. At the time it hadn't crossed my mind to make it a combination flat boost plus multiplier, but I think that would be good to give it a bit more immediate value.Bigjoe5 wrote:Alternatively, all planets could start with a small amount of defense by default. There is also the protection focus which is available from the start of the game, and which would be be enhanced by a multiplier boost to Defense.
So right now, Protection Focus doubles the 3 planetary combat meters. What if for shields, defense, and troops it were 2*base+10, 2*base+5, and 2*base+2
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
I also agree.Protection Focus should be shifted to a combination of flat boost and multiplier
I'm not sure what 'base' represents. Say I had 100 shields, would the equation then be 2*(100)+10? In that case, then the protection focus won't have any use early game when the base values are 0: 2*(0)+10.So right now, Protection Focus doubles the 3 planetary combat meters. What if for shields, defense, and troops it were 2*base+10, 2*base+5, and 2*base+2
Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
I'd say 10 is significantly better than 0, particularly in the early game.unjashfan wrote:I'm not sure what 'base' represents. Say I had 100 shields, would the equation then be 2*(100)+10? In that case, then the protection focus won't have any use early game when the base values are 0: 2*(0)+10.So right now, Protection Focus doubles the 3 planetary combat meters. What if for shields, defense, and troops it were 2*base+10, 2*base+5, and 2*base+2
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Re: New species attribute: Good/Bad Defense
"Why not?" isn't the question that needs to be answered.unjashfan wrote:"Why couldn't we have species with good/bad defenses?"
The relevant question is "Why?"
Shields/Defenses seem more like the outcome of technology to me. It seems more of a stretch to have certain species naturally good bad at these meters which you would expect to require little "human" interaction.
If we wanted a starting species to have better Shields/Defenses we can grant them starting techs.
Protection focus boosts the troop meter which is non-zero for almost all species without tech boosts. It doesn't need to boost all 3 to be a valid focus choice.unjashfan wrote: In that case, then the protection focus won't have any use early game when the base values are 0: 2*(0)+10.