Pop Limits?

I think its just maintenance

although this is a good question

There is no hard cap on ship numbers.  The limit is emergeant based on maitenence costs and fleet command capabilities. Depending on what you are doing, its possible it doesn't make sense economically to field a massive fleet.

I remember this discussion. Even though Blair already answered (he's a fast one, that), it basically boils down to the number of planets you have.

it's a good and realistic system, but Blair's wrong about one thing though.
it's ALWAYS good to have a massive fleet

it's a good and realistic system, but Blair's wrong about one thing though. it's ALWAYS good to have a massive fleet

that is where you are wrong though....if its making you lose a alot of money just to keep the fleet in exhistance through just maintenance...then its not cost effective to keep such a large fleet unless you are actually making progress with that fleet. militarily...large fleets are loved....but economically.....they just arent warranted unless the end outcome is for the better in the near or immediate future.

fleet command capabilities

So there is some kind of logistics thingy? Commmand ships that increase the number you can have in one fleet or something?

yes, fighters hvae to be launced form a cap ship, but there is a limit to how many fighter 1 cap ship can carry

it's ALWAYS good to have a massive fleet

as law said, creating a massive fleet rather than a moderate sized one will probably only slow down your expansion

as I always say, though, technology hath no maintenance cost   

Maybe orbital buildings do have a maintainance cost. That way you coudln't spam labs.

The way it is done is for every planet you have you earn more cash and resources and wat not... it takes money to manage your fleet and resources so the more planets the more fleet... just think of it as you need bodies and the way to get bodies is go party on other planets
and yes this was on the old forums since i was the oen to bring it up even though i am not active on these forums

I'd love to see a way to mothball a ship like in the real world.

You basically seal hatches, remove ammo and other supplies from the ship and give it a maintenance crew or even have one crew that takes care of 10 ships.

The US Navy has many ships mothballed, it's cheaper to refit a mothballed ship then it is to build a new one.

That would make having large fleets really cool, just mothball them in between wars. That way you don't have to recycle an old ship, this would really come in handy for capital ships.

That way you can have a cheaper maintenance cost when you don't need vast fleets.

or... just put them in non-upkeep intensive orbit and ship the crew away?

Maybe there could be a ship storage orbit or something...It would be a good idea. However, restarting them should be time instensive and a decent cost, to prevent using them defensively.

ah space, the infinite storage system

of course, if that were an option (which it isnt, I'm pretty sure, although it would be a cool one) then you should get nominal support from computer automated guns.
actually, that would be a pretty sweet tech upgrade

That would make having large fleets really cool, just mothball them in between wars.

It's an RTS wargame, not an empire building game.
There is no "in between wars"

though the storage idea might sound strange, unfitting and unbalancing, it has been done before in RTS. I believe it was Empire Earth (correct me if i'm wrong) that you could build a Fortress to store units in. It could take 50 troops or 25 horsemen, which would not count towards your population cap while inside. They can't be removed from the fortress if that would exceed popcap. Also, it took some time to ungarrison them.

It's not such a bad idea, especially when using HUGE fleets, it pays to have a reserve, but then again, you risk slowing down the game.

There would have to be some kind of penatly for having more active than you can support. Maybe units firepower and health is degraded, or reasearch slows, or some combination of things to prevent that.

There would have to be some kind of penatly for having more active than you can support. Maybe units firepower and health is degraded, or reasearch slows, or some combination of things to prevent that.

its a realized economic soft cap

aka, if you go over you start to lose money.

What penalties are there for having a negative treasury then? Thats more of what I meant.

well... aside from losing your whole treasury and being completely incapable of repelling any sort of invasion, the excess ships might glow up.

Yeah. They'll be a giant glowing target.

But, maybe something like not being able to build. . .

I prefer the pop limit to be when malloc()/new() return NULL.

Yeah. They'll be a giant glowing target.

woops, typo

meant blow up, although it would sound to me that general deterioration (from lack of maintenance) would make more sense.