|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/13/2017
|
Orbital Megastructures are not available to be created yet, but they are in the game now for testing. I will put some up in Luyten II because that's where my Serendipity Corp is. I also handed 1 of each to Machina Morituri who is in Gulyaev (Hes a top founder).
As players you will be able to use the Warp Gates, but the other ones are more for us to play with to work out the bugs and see if they need to be adjusted
Warp Gate - When making a move order you cannot set to use a warp gate if available. Your unit needs to already be on the warp gate location for this to work so you need to move to the warp gate first, then make another move order and declare you want to use the gate at any warp available at the gate. The gate will boost your movement speed by 1x - 100x depending on its level and what warp you asked for. Your unit keeps that boost of speed until its move order is completed, the boost if for that one move order, however you should be able to edit your destination mid-move and you will still be ok.. Using the gate costs credits that goes to the owner and it costs more if you use a higher warp. The cost is currently 1k credits per unit size multiplied by the warp factor (1-100). Warp 1 on a freighter (size 5) will cost 5k credits and the freighter will be moving double speed (+1x). Warping 10x (level 3 gate) on that same freighter will cost 50k credits and the freighter will be moving 11x normal speed.
Starbase - The starbase acts as a giant Shipyard in space that builds 2x normal in addition to another 2x normal at level 10 like a normal shipyard does.It also gives an attack bonus to all your units on the planet depending on the starbases level multiplier (1% - 100% increase). A level 10 star base will literally double all the firepower of all your units on the entire planet Itr also would cost 25 billion credits and a equally scary upkeep. This bonus shows up on the top of battle reports now. This bonus actually is applied to ALL units in YOUR SIDE of a battle. If you show up with a scout to an attack with 12 other corps, your starbase will boost everyone on the attacking side and vice versa.
Orbital Guns - Similar to the starbase the Orbital guns will show up in ANY fight your units are apart of, attack or defense, they cannot be damaged in these fights (their "size" is zero) but they cannot attack or defend alone. Your units needs be present at the fight. Like all orbitals, they can be attacked at their location above the planet and they will defend and take damage as normal in that situation,. They hit as giant Rail Gun defenses at x10 firepower.
Spaceport -- The spaceport is purely a commerce orbital. It gives the owner a small percentage of all sells on the planet. (from 0.1% to 10% depending on their level multiplier. It also gives a small structure cost bonus to every structure on the planet of 1 to 10% (like tech does) depending on the spaceports actual level (1 to 10). This shows up as "other" in your tech bonuses when looking at a structure.
These effects are subject to change, that's why we are testing them in a limited way for now. If all goes well we will release them for everyone next week. We're looking for bugs, please report any
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Vulpex Posts: 390
8/15/2017
|
A few extra facts about these structures:
The four locations where you can put up a megastructure are (2:2) (2:22) (22:2) and (22:22) - it does not work anywhere else (yeah I tried that). (Again - this information is not available in game - it might be useful if it could be included in the ACP description or something similar)
The ACP of each structure is 5000 in size to carry it around - scouts are not going to be able to move these things (however this particular tidbit of information is not obviously available anywhere)
The structures seem to be destroyable - it looks like they are not the type to be capturable. (This was something that was discussed back and forth). Oh and... repairing damage to the structures gets expensive fast. My guess is that an attack on a lvl 10 structure down to 10% hps will result in something like a 1-2 billion repair fee. Yeah.... maybe repair cost for these things could be reduced a little or it is going to be an easy way of griefing people...
Still running more tests but I can confirm the following:
Warp Gate - bonus works, also the cost works. (1x warp bonus seems to give double speed, will check this again though)
Starbase - have not tested this much yet. A lvl 1 starbase does build at the speed of a lvl 10 shipyard so that is good...
Spaceport - confirmed that it gives a small income (about 50k / tick right now on Gulyaev - yeah way less than the upkeep of the other four megastructures...) it also does provide a 1% bonus to production to the entire planet as a 1% reduction to the production costs. (YAY! - Grandor would be soooo happy someone should let him know)
Orbital guns - they join battles and go BOOM BOOM as expected.
If anyone has ideas of crazy stuff they want to see tested add it on here and we'll make it happen.
|
|
|
0
link
|
Guest
8/15/2017
|
Perhaps their should be a check-box to suspend repairs. That much repair could send a corp spiraling into debt that they can never climb out of because they are shut out of buying components.
A percentage bonus to existing units strikes me as over powered for the starbase. Sorry to chime in on this so late in the design, but let me propose a different mechanic. A starbase should be helping you project power over the entire planet rather than doubling your strength on a particular spot, right? What if units stationed on the starbase, (including aircraft, ships, and other ground units hangered in ships) could be ordered to defend the entire planet? Or all guild resources or a particular corp over the whole planet? Including the planets orbital space, so it would also be protecting other orbitals if ordered to do so. I think that more accurately represents the utility a starbase would provide to a planet.
It could also be used to attack all of a corporations resources on a particular planet. Not a useful function under normal circumstances where you want to bring your forces to bear against the smallest slice possible of your opponents forces at one time, but very useful if you are aware of a lone scout rushing towards your planet with an A5 Cybertronic artifact onboard.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Hutton Posts: 276
8/15/2017
|
That was me. I timed out while writing it.
Another thought, and this probably won't be very popular because people hate it when you pare back options they already have, is that Monolith's and Dreadnaughts should be taken away from planetbound shipyards and be exclusive to orbital shipyards. Maybe even seperate that function out from starbases which sound really powerful already.
Atmospherically it would make sense that the biggest ships can't land on a planet and should have to be laid down in an orbital yard. (And maybe only get a repair bonus in an orbital drydock). This would also make running a bussiness as a shipyard more viable because corps that wanted an oversized fleet would have to turn to a third party. Remember when Xenotech was trying to run a shipyard buissiness in the first month. I think that started to fall apart as everyone got more established with their own shipyards and research stations.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Hutton Posts: 276
8/15/2017
|
Another idea to make orbital shipyards a viable bussiness venture: allow ships parked at the megastructure to be mothballed. This would allow a corp that is trying to make a go as a ship builder to maintain a stock of ships to sell without getting killed by the upkeep of idle ships.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Vulpex Posts: 390
8/16/2017
|
Actually I do not find the bonus to combat to be unbalanced because it applies only to ships - and overall ships are weak when it comes to combat power - I mean yes a monolith doing double damage is impressive... but my heavy bomber does 5x the damage of a normal bomber... You also need to have a level 10 starbase for this which is excruciatingly expensive. By the time you have build that it is fair to say you have consolidated power over that particular planet and having a bonus to your ships does not to me seem to be over the top.
I would really also appreciate on this thread ideas which we can test with the structures as they are deployed now - trying to catch bugs and problems before they are fully released. They are working suspiciously well at the moment.
edited by Vulpex on 8/16/2017
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Gammalpha Posts: 2
8/16/2017
|
So starbase only give bonus to ships huh? Because first post says it gives bonus to all units.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/16/2017
|
Gammalpha wrote:
So starbase only give bonus to ships huh? Because first post says it gives bonus to all units.
Starbase should be giving bonus to all units, in the entire planet location at the moment. Including the ground forces, even the Orbital guns if you have them present. It doesn't have to be that way, that's just what they went in as. I can easily limit to be just ships, and units carried on ships if you want to make it a ship only thing. I see the starbase as sort of the recon/support/supply advantage over the entire planet. Giving attack bonus seems to be the only reasonable "bonus" it can give as a military unit that does not engage in the actual combat unless the fight is at the star base. Reducing it to just ships might be nerfing it to hard. it IS incredibly expensive at higher levels and 2x firepower doesn't even compare to someone who is coming in with a force half full of special units with artifacts all over them. The for star base money you can probably make twice as many units =)
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Gammalpha Posts: 2
8/16/2017
|
Yeah but Vulpex/Machina said above that it only applies to ships hence my confusion.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Smokey Posts: 1
8/17/2017
|
Does the starbase only provide a bonus to the owner?
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/17/2017
|
Smokey wrote:
Does the starbase only provide a bonus to the owner?
Yes and no =)
If the star base shows up to the fight on the attacker or defenders side , because one of the attackers/defenders owns the star-base, then the entire side gets the starbase bonus to all thier units. Its like your playing "support" with the starbase. Its similar to orbital guns in a way because all you have to do i bring a scout into a big fight and your orbital guns and starbase come onto the entire side your joined. As long as your unit is present, the starbase and the guns joins that entire side of the fight.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Vulpex Posts: 390
8/17/2017
|
Gammalpha wrote:
Yeah but Vulpex/Machina said above that it only applies to ships hence my confusion.
Yup that was my mistake I really thought that was the case but now I have tested it in other situations and it does indeed provide a bonus to other units.
Not 100% certain if it gives a bonus to the orbital guns though.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/17/2017
|
Vulpex wrote:
Gammalpha wrote:
Yeah but Vulpex/Machina said above that it only applies to ships hence my confusion.
Yup that was my mistake I really thought that was the case but now I have tested it in other situations and it does indeed provide a bonus to other units.
Not 100% certain if it gives a bonus to the orbital guns though.
.... Thats a good question actually. Because of the way the guns are being added after everything else is in place they might be getting excluded from the boost. That might be true for defenses and escorts as well. I will have to look at that and add them in if neccesary
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Hutton Posts: 276
8/17/2017
|
Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that the starbase and orbital gun as described are redundant. They do essentially the same thing, just calculate the bonus differently. The rail gun might be more efficient if you are spreading your forces to guard a lot of positions without allies across a planet, and the starbase will be more efficient if between you and your allies you have units concentrated at the important positions. One will probably get built nearly all of the time and the other barely at all, depending on how the meta shakes out. (My guess would be star bases most of the time).
I think your missing an opportunity to make star bases a real tool for planetary sovereignty rather than just a higher end orbital gun.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/17/2017
|
Hutton wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that the starbase and orbital gun as described are redundant. They do essentially the same thing, just calculate the bonus differently. The rail gun might be more efficient if you are spreading your forces to guard a lot of positions without allies across a planet, and the starbase will be more efficient if between you and your allies you have units concentrated at the important positions. One will probably get built nearly all of the time and the other barely at all, depending on how the meta shakes out. (My guess would be star bases most of the time).
I think your missing an opportunity to make star bases a real tool for planetary sovereignty rather than just a higher end orbital gun.
The orbital gun is an actual unit that shows up to the fight, every fight, a giant x10 power railgun at level 1. The starbase doesn't show up, its just boosts whatever units you already have. I realize that in theory they are both just combat boosts to "all combat" and I do see where you're coming from.
Planet Sovereignty is something I am actually looking at because its a popular idea. It probably wont require any orbitals to achieve but of course since its a threat of force mechanic having the combat orbitals would definitely help. I'm looking for a good way to declare soverignty on a planet and it will show up very clearly to anyone zoomed in on it looking to move a freighter to sell etc. that they will be attacked on sights. Youcan declare it for your corp or your entire guild.
It would engage the type of blockade mechanics we've discussed before where anything that isn't you or your guild will be auto attacked. Or perhaps "auto attacking" becomes more of an attack order option that is similar to guard but is , well, "Attack" anything that isn't corp or guild in range, or planet location etc.. The units will auto move to and attack any hostile. This would essentially be adding the "chase down" mechanic that doesn't exist yet. It was dependent on the whole "move then do your next order" implementation that I put in months ago so now it should be a lot easier to do a chase down and attack. You would be able to attack a specific ship if you wanted and your units will Move and attack as that target moves. then of course I add the "If you destroy something, all the cargo becomes yours" and you can literally chase down the freighter carrying the AX artifacts and take them =)
This is where orbitals and star bases could be very different. you can have fast scouts on the planet that auto engage and when they do , they bring in the orbitals to actually fight off freighters and such. It also makes "fast" ships worth something as they can essentially outrun blockades. We can even make you declare an entire star system soveriegn =)
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Vulpex Posts: 390
8/17/2017
|
Ok will see if the bonus applies to defenses.... that is easy enough to check, will have the results by tomorrow.
I do not quite understand what you are getting at Hutton - how would you use the star base as a basis for sovereignty as opposed to the elections (specifically emperor)?
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Hutton Posts: 276
8/17/2017
|
If it was used as a platform to project power by deploying your forces to protect the entire planet at once, that would be a tool an Emperor could use to exert control and assert sovereignty over a planet. The Emperor would still have to maintain a powerful force on the starbase because it wasn't getting a bonus from the base (although a bonus would be had if orbital guns were deployed in a different quadrant) but they would be able to use that force to either defend the entire planet, as opposed to stationing a few units in every city they wanted to protect. Alternatively, if there was a trouble maker bouncing around the planet, the emperor wouldn't have to guess what city they where going to harass next and could just attack that corp on the whole planet. The Emperor could also intercept artifacts of mass destruction if they knew a certain corp had a ship barreling towards their planet with one on board by ordering units on the base to attack that corp over the entire planet. (That mechanic right there could be the blockade mechanic if you could apply it with a checklist of corps instead of only being able to attack a single corp or guild. Rather than a chase down mechanic you just let the units stationed on the base attack and defend as if they occupy the whole planet coordinate, which I assume would be easier to implement than a chase). The utility of that force would still be limited by how much damage it could absorb under normal circumstances, because even though it might be intercepting a lot more threats it would still be taking the same damage from all of them.
Assuming good the Emperor is the one that owns the star base. It might be an ally of the Emperor or a private corp building it as part of their campaign for Emperor. I'll reiterate another proposal I had that offices like Mayor or Emperor get a pool of military logistics to go with them. The office holder can transfer units into that logistics pool, but if they lose the office the units go to their successor. That way you can end up with assets like starbases or fleets that essentially belong to the planetary government.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Vulpex Posts: 390
8/18/2017
|
Checked - starbase bonus applies to defensive structures such as the fortresses and such.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Aywanez Posts: 64
8/18/2017
|
Hutton wrote:
I'll reiterate another proposal I had that offices like Mayor or Emperor get a pool of military logistics to go with them. The office holder can transfer units into that logistics pool, but if they lose the office the units go to their successor. That way you can end up with assets like starbases or fleets that essentially belong to the planetary government.
That right there is a plus-good proposal.
|
|
|
0
link
|
|
Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/18/2017
|
Having units station in the orbit or some other location like the starbase and be able to teleport or attack anywhere from that position doesn't really work well. It does for Orbital guns but not for fleets. I would rather have them do the chase down. Having units auto chase down bad guys is something I need to implement anyway so I can have bad guys chase you down =)
When I mentioned Sovereignty I was talking about declaring a planet "yours" without the election. Like going to some moon with a fleet and declaring "this moon is mine, everyone else is going to be auto attacked". You and your Pirate Guild can take over some rogue planet as a base.. You can even do that inside a system with a star lord. Or even a city.
|
|
|
0
link
|