Chriss wrote:I don't see why every hull line needs to fit every use case. Why does a hull line need to have a hull which can fit the same (or similar enough to not matter) role as another hull in another hull line?
Well, I don't see wanting the Scattered Asteroid Hull to have a certain minimum base speed that is mandatory for it to be useable for its primary intended purpose (act as a flagship, which means being able to be used for normal fleet operations) as it "fitting every use case", "fitting the same or (similar enough to not matter) role". I don't want to reduce the speed difference to the point where it does not matter anymore, I just don't want to cripple a hull beyond usefulness for the sake of having an even greater speed difference, when less difference sufficiently distinguishes the hulls already.
Then what's the point in having different hull lines? So yeah, I see no issue with having a "flagship" hull which (and the whole hull line as such) can absolutely not fill a role which is comparable to the flagship hull of another line.
The point of having different hull lines is that each hull line has it's specific strengths and weaknesses, which will require the player to resort to different strategies/approaches when applying his ships to the various types of tasks his fleets need to cover. This means that each hull line must be able to cover
all essential roles at least basically, so the player isn't forced to more or less research all hull lines to be able to cover all that needs to be covered.
Otherwise I'd ask the question: What's the point of having different hull lines, if I, as a player, have to get all of them to be able to compete? Consequently I
do have an issue if a hull line can "absolutely not" fill an
essential role. It might be
very bad at some roles, but not utterly incapable. Were the latter the case, there would be no strategic decision for the player to make when it comes to chosing hull lines, as he'd have to research all of them anyway.
There can (and should!) be special purpose roles that can only be filled by some (or even one) hull lines. And each hull line probably should have some special hulls that can do things no hull of the other lines can. But there's a certain set of core roles all hull lines must be able to cover at least basically.
But yes, engines. They stack! A Scattered Asteroid Hull can gain a lot of starlane speed with engines. As you said, it's a huge difference for the gameplay.
Right. And as speed
is one of the major weaknesses of the asteroid hull line, it definitely
should cost a price to alleviate those weakness. It just shouldn't be
absolutely required to make them useable at all. Otherwise, just take away the slots you'd have to fill on each design anyway, raise the costs for the hull by the costs for the parts you'd have to put in, and you get the same end result, without forcing the player to have to slap on those few extra parts each time he makes a new design with this particular hull type.
But, both is not an issue with this particular hull. It's more another area where the game could need some improvements. Larger empire means later in the game. We could introduce some additional techs which increase starlane speed.
Agreed, that sounds like a good idea. We already have some of those, but can probably use some more.
Find a way so that stargates get used automatically.
Definitely. Exactly what I've been thinking how they should work. Stargates should basically create a "network of wormholes", where each of your stargates is connected with each other of your stargates, and the pathfinding algorithm takes those in account automatically. Which will result in your fleets being able to jump from stargate systems to other stargate systems without delay.
But that requires changes to the C++ code, we can't do that with FOCS.