Random civilian ships and civilian starbases

Howdy, first post on these forums, so Hi.

P5y, your idea in the context you'd( and I would want it) would probably take some doing. However, if you would accept modular desgins(think interchangeable parts but with ship hull sections; custimzied in the style of empire they are from) I don't really see much problem with it, just a little more work by the dev team which I am sure they be up to. Now as for numbers, another comprimise would be small convoys. This is some I would do i nthe game I am designing right now(about 10 more years and maybe I can transfer it from thought to something more permenant )

I do remember seeing some where on the SoaSE site( I believe it was in their gameplay section) that (in this one players game) the TEC(controlled by the player) sent a fleet to attack a Vasari system because that system was the staging point for Vasari raids on the TEC(players') trading lanes. It would seem that by that description, either there will be shipping lanes created by npcs that need protection or a player(s) will end up having to create shipping lanes for the transfer of goods and what not from planet to planet and system to system. Again, something a-kin to what I would do for my game.

Lharrs

this one's true

Tradeships fly ingame from one planet to the other to generate income for your empire. It's unknown if this is standard or if you need a speciic buidling, or need to invest in trade lanes or vessels.

we do know that these tradelanes are disruptable and thus need some protection.

it also indicates that you can stay a pretty big distance from a planet and not have to worry about the inhabitants of said planet (implied by the fact taht the vasari raids are occuring, they probably wouldnt occur near a heavily fortified, or any fortified planet)

The trade routes are made through treaties if they are intergalactic(to other empires), and i think other trade routes you have to invest in(but again im not sure), or maybe theres a special freighter unit that you just send off to a planet and it creates the 'original' path for other ships to follow.

I would like to see civilian ships even if they're just there for eyecandy.

but if that affects gameplay negatively or engine efficiency then its really not worth just the eyecandy.

Well i can see some form of civ ships affecting gameplay in a positive way, say take the trade ships that may move between planets/systems that you must protect because they provide income for your civ.
I personally would like to go with an option where you build something like a 'trade market' or whatever on a planet and then it will automatically produce trade ships that go between systems without any extria player input. This would cut down on needless micro while adding an element to the gameplay (protection of trade routs) & make the whole thing seem more like a galatic civilisation.

Hello all,

In respose to Ridinghood, that is a good idea, but take it a little further. Example. You could create (like you said) a market of sort, in this case and Commerce shipyard. Allocate "X" amount of funds from your tresury to be taken out...insert detail info here... and with those funds commerce ships will be constructed for convoys or what not. Now once one of those are created at your military shipyards and option lights up tha alows you to create Escort ships. I would assume that the TEC would be allowed to construct these at there Commerce Shipyard since they live on commerce. These Escort ships be it DDs or CAs, are cheaper then standard warships due a reduced offensive potency, mind like WWII they arent ment to stop a fleet, just raiders. Of course, the option to construct Hvy Escort ships would always be availible, these would have more guns, that is it. and deffensive measures. But again still be cheaper. even with heavy escorts, 1 on 1 a stadard warship of hte same tonage and outfitted for the same mission will prevail. Two main keys are important to remember why. Since these are mainly convoy escort, they are made with some expedience to keep up with convoy escort demand, this means less of everything goes into the ships. In addition, the crews are merchant marines. They are not standard naval personnel which means that on average, they are not as high of a quality as standard Naval personnel. Perhaps the TEC would have this adjusted some for them given the importance they place on trade.

My two cents
Lharrs

The surface of your home world looks a lot like corsucant in terms of little ships flying around.

So to answer your questionk, yes, there are a ton fo civilian ships in the game.

Hint to the release date of the beta Frogboy?

wow that sounds great will they keep shuttling around when a battle kicks off? imagine a space taxi driver confronted with a battleship!!

LOL!

Guy in the Backseat "Do I have to pay extra for that?"

it will be somthing like the usual taxi driver rant "those bloody invaders taking our jobs and clogging up the traffic!"

They toook maaa jeeaab!

The cars are flying around the planet, they don't actually go into orbit. One can only imagine the insane video card you'd need to render thousands of tiny cars alongside a massive space battle.

ah cool, i suppose your keeping the battletaxi idea in reserve though

this starts to worry me.
at what point do your ships avoid a planet? take for instance SotS, the ships could not be ordered within a safety radius of the planet (although they could fall into it if their engines got blown off)
how will planet proximity work?

Not sure I understand this...

Schematics, I would hope AI will take care of your ships getting to close to a planet. Once its to close the AI kicks in and moves it away for you, or at least something to warn you that its about to head to the bone yard.

I think he wants to know what happens if a ship gets to close to a planet. Can it be pulled in by the gravity and crash? Or will the ships have a minimum distance they always keep from a planet.

I prefer that I have the option of getting as close as I want to the planet, if I'm stupid enough to go TOO close, so be it. but I prefer full range of motion, inwards and out.

And I would hope that your ships would automatically hold a minimum safe distance from the planet. No point in maneuvering your ship closer to the planet than that because it could only be destroyed that way.

I agree. While I like to have as much freedom as possible I don't want to see ships destroyed because I clicked a milimeter too close to the planet.

Your ships aren't able to get that close to the planet. There's a minimum distance away from the planet that limits how close your can build orbital structures or get ships (i.e., it's impossible to crash into a planet with a ship).

impossible? or just really hard.
for instance what if my engines get blown out on an approach run to a planet.