View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0015571AI War 1 / ClassicSuggestion - New Unit Ideas - Bonus ShipsJul 27, 2014 10:29 am
Reportermalkiel Assigned To 
Severityfeature 
Status newResolutionopen 
Product Version7.045 
Summary0015571: new ship type ideas
DescriptionSometimes, reading someone else's thoughts on here can be inspiring.

Cascade- when a mk(x) cascade is destroyed, place a mk(x-1) cascade where it was. if the lower mark is at cap no new cascade will be generated. mk1 cascades do nothing upon death.

morphic- no unique ability aside from it's different marks having different statline setups and possibly different intended roles. Was originally thinking mkI= fast attack ship, paper armor, short ranged. mkII= slow, slightly tough, midrange (very similar to MLRS) markIII= melee ship with nothing special, Mark IV= very similar to Armor(minus the engine damage portion)
downside to that idea is a multiple roles with one unlock could be disbalancing.

Growing- cannot build marks higher than 1. if unlocked ships will eventually go up a mark. thinking 30-60 seconds from 1 to 2, twice that from 2 to 3, and twice again from 3 to 4. upgrades will be paused if a higher mark is full, and only full health ships will upgrade. If combined with cascade could make an interesting phoenix effect. In fact, if you do that please name it the phoenix.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal Weight

Activities

crawlers

Jul 16, 2014 10:23 pm

reporter   ~0038715

Phoenix ship just sounds awesome :), but how would ai know what is the limit that it can "grow" to, if theirs grow at all? Also, what about core fabs, giving the player only mk 5 and not any bellow it ?

malkiel

Jul 25, 2014 2:25 pm

reporter   ~0038752

Discussion has dropped morphic idea and is focusing on the growing/cascading (phoenix) concept

core fab would produce mark V ones. As any mark you cannot build is expressed as a cap of 0, if the mkIV is not unlocked it would basically me a dead ability due to cap of 0 whenever a mkV is destroyed. I'm okay with that but to be fair I hardly use my core fabricator fleet ships when I play past roaming defenders.

It might be possible to set up the cascading effect to check a player's total number vs cap if unlocked, let them downgrade from mkV as they get blasted but don't let them re-upgrade to any non buildable ranks.

also, would want to make sure the replication effect did not work on scrapping the ships so that if someone really wants a full marks flight from their fabricator they have to work a little harder for it.

another point to consider: this might have strange effects if inside a carrier

AI just builds them at the mark of the world it is reinforcing to. I would honestly say let the AI ones growth cap be mk IV _or_ just give the AI nothing but mkIV versions to save on computation.

I'm a bit leery of giving the AI an entire ship type that could turn into mkV within the first hour of gameplay, mainly due to things like standard core immunities (EMP, nuke, etc.) but I don't feel mkIV would be a balance breaker.

motai

Jul 26, 2014 11:26 pm

reporter   ~0038755

Last edited: Jul 26, 2014 11:28 pm

as a note i like the idea but turn it around.
mk 1 ships just breed mk 1. mk 2 and higher breed down instead of up. so you only need to keep the mk 3 alive for the fleet to regrow in the field. would work wonderfully with mk 5 unlock gvining you all the other marks over time.

given field attrition it would be cute if they had a mechaninc that they gain xp from kills and go up a mark when it accumulates. something like reverse leech. unlikely to make a big long term difference tho.and being a ship design i could see having only a sinlge mark unlock requring you to work hard to get into the higher marks.

malkiel

Jul 27, 2014 9:32 am

reporter   ~0038756

Last edited: Jul 27, 2014 9:38 am

---not sure I follow motai, but am trying---

First interpretation:
motai.. when you say "something like reverse leech" I think "more similar to viral shredder" in terms of accumulating points to mark up?

a large part of what I like in the idea is being unable to build marks higher than 1. we all know how expendable mark 1 ships become late game, if you lost the phoenix fleet and they had to fight to level up, you basically just lost a ship type if it happens late game.

mark 1 wouldn't be able to "breed" anything, because it's an on death effect to spawn a lower mark, and if mark 1 died and spawned a mark 1.. invincible ship.
sounds groovy until the ai sends 2k of them in a wave at your homeworld.

Second interpretation:
 When Motai said "breed" he meant "every X seconds, this ship spawns a [mk-1] copy of itself so long as that spawning does not exceed ship cap." wherein mark1 ships spawn mark1, as there is no mark 0 variant?

When motai suggest a levelup by combat thing he meant "this ship gains charge as it damages enemies, much like a y Firefly, and when it dies if it has enough charge it comes back as a higher mark than when it died"

If the second interpretation was your intended meaning Motai, I think that is also pretty cool, but for that version I would def. make marks above 1 buildable from spacedocks if using your take on the ability.

I would also make a few more points on if a ship of the second interpretation was made:
1) death upgrade is still limited by ship caps
2) cannot upgrade to a mark you wouldn't _normally_ be able to build
3) if blown up as a mkV, it's just gone - to a better place.

if neither of my interpretations was accurate to your intended meaning Motai, I apologize and request clarification.

anyways, I'm heading to bed. too tired to think coherently.

motai

Jul 27, 2014 10:29 am

reporter   ~0038760

well that went a few different directions.

first yes i suppose like the viral shredder its building a higer mark with damage idea. this is separate but ideal with the concept that the ship breeds itself rather than the shredder needing to harvest enemy. yes unlike shredder this would be subject to unit cap but given that if you can keep the higher marks alive its very hard to slow the rebuilding of the firepower.

cascade was the one that would die into lower marks so i think your second look was mixing ideas :)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jul 16, 2014 1:10 pm malkiel New Issue
Jul 16, 2014 10:23 pm crawlers Note Added: 0038715
Jul 25, 2014 2:25 pm malkiel Note Added: 0038752
Jul 26, 2014 11:26 pm motai Note Added: 0038755
Jul 26, 2014 11:28 pm motai Note Edited: 0038755
Jul 27, 2014 9:32 am malkiel Note Added: 0038756
Jul 27, 2014 9:38 am malkiel Note Edited: 0038756
Jul 27, 2014 10:29 am motai Note Added: 0038760