I for one, was incredibly excited when the idea of capital ships started being tossed around by
Schine in the Q&A. I think that factories and shipyards should be able to be built on ships, with some caveats. Here are some of my assorted thoughts and reasonings:
1) Drone ships with real factories: Being able to construct a rack from an interior shipyard, move it in to place, and fire off drones without having to go back and forth to a station. On a smaller scale, the ability to build fighters, bombers, or just scout craft that are more “disposable”. I started my space-sim career with the first Wing Commanders, then Master of Orion and homeworld. Having these systems on a ship has always offered a spot for a tactical, mobile shipyard to reinforce main lines.
2) Keeping them from being OP: I am 100% on board with limits to these kinds of systems. Since shipyards and factories were built off of station code, a “mothership” (for lack of better terms, ANY ship with station systems) would have to have a “stationary” mode, where it basically becomes a station before any of those systems could be used. This should also come with a steep recharge time, of at LEAST 5-10 minutes (reload time based on the number of “station” blocks like factories/shipyards you have installed, like a jump drive would), before the ship’s reactors could heat back up to “active” and allow it to move again. This forces you to think about where to set up for a battle at, all while not having to completely re-code things like shipyards or undeathinators to have to work with a moving object (a slight tweak to reset the spawn location to the new spot without having to physically activate it would be the only real code change, something similar might exist for the core dock on the shipyard, but not nearly as big as having a moving ship with an undeathinator). No parking in claimed territory unless you’re allied with them. You wanna park on the very edge of an enemy system and reinforce? Go for it. You wanna use that drone factory right next to their homebase? Get outta here.
3) They don’t get ALL of the buffs of a space station: I don’t think they should EVER get homebase protection. The fact that you can stash it in an unclaimed void space system is more than enough protection for when you log off. I fully support that they don’t get any bonuses that a normal ship could get, since the bonus is the systems themselves. They also should not be able to claim territory. Your presence may be a claim on that spot, but only a space station or planetary base can provide the access to mining bonuses.
4) Increased weight costs for station systems: I’m all about this. These systems are massively intricate (at least in an RP sense) and require quite a bit of dedication to them. Instead of having to code separate power costs, just increasing the weight by a good margin will make them take a tactical back seat while not impacting station code or logic. You want a car factory in a ship? Be ready to dedicate quite a bit of weight to all those construction arms and spare parts bins. Carrier ships, ESPECIALLY those that can manufacture frigates, aren’t going to be fast, at all, ever. This also encourages tactical diversity, where your carrier isn’t going to also be loaded with destroyer guns, and if it is a jack of all trades, it will be a master of none.
5) The same goes for simple factory ships: Factory enhancers should be the biggest in terms of weight. A small ore-processing plant in a salvage ship is one thing, able to deliver capsules to the trade guild after mining, or spend some of that power that’s not being used while traveling to the next asteroid. But a full-blown processing facility that can take raw asteroids and turn them in to thousands of advanced hull every cycle is quite an undertaking, and the weight should be evident.
6) Capital ship movement: This is the big one. I wouldn’t suggest any changes to how thrusters work with a capital/mothership, since a.) thrust is already going to change soon, no need to further complicate, and b.) as discussed, with weight being the main drawback, thrust compensation would have to be tremendous, which brings with it power consumption.
7) HOWEVER, the real question in this category is long-distance movement: This I am on the fence about. The first option, super jump drives or warp drives or timey-wimey-spacebending drives SOUND cool, and LOOK cool, and are a part of many big-ship-space operas, BUT, does the capital ship REALLY need more advantages, or would another disadvantage be prevalent here. I’m talking the SAME jump drive mechanics as other ships. We can already have more than 1 drive, so if you want to jump halfway across the galaxy you can still do it with a dozen drives that all have 1 block on them. Sure, they take forever to charge, but that’s determined by you, and how you build your ship. This all goes back to tactical balance. You want your giant supercarrier factory to be able to jump as if it were a nubile young fighter? That jump drive (and power source) would have to be equally massive. However, if you are a tactical carrier meant to show up, bunker down, and reinforce the lines in a game of attrition, then jump drives would be charged pre-engagement, used, and left alone while battle commenced. This would also make them vulnerable to jump inhibitors, but balanced due to the (probably) pretty good size of jump drive.
8) Oh the RP: Once crew are in, having REAL capital ships, with crewed fighters, fleet support, and all manner of sweet interior spaces dedicated to crew quarters, barracks, training simulators, weapons bays, engineering, the list goes on. I love this game for the RP aspect, and am glad it gets to shine. But it is true that in many genres, the big, scary, moving factory base is both a sight to behold and be feared, and I think it should be part of the game. Yeah, this point is basically "I want it because of
the rule of cool"
9) You still have to build it, AKA, there’s always a bigger shipyard: You STILL need some kind of home base that has the capability to PRODUCE one of these suckers if you want one. Not to mention the resource cost. You probably want that homebase protection while you work out the finer bits. Nuff said there.
10) Smaller ships have fun too: A frigate or cruiser could still make good use of the nomad lifestyle. Maybe you’re a trader and buy up crystals cheap at one shop, then park, make some computers, and travel to the next shop to sell for a profit, all the while buying what you need to make your ship bigger, better, and more badass. Maybe you have a small 10x10x10 construction bay for making planetary probes, or stealth ships to spy on your enemy while having a close spot to respawn at if you get caught. Mercenaries, covert operatives on the other side of the galaxy even medium sized minelayers or (if they’re ever fixed) warhead launchers that can replenish a dedicated supply with a very small integrated shipyard would be something that is tactically appealing, without too much in the area of added weight, especially if it still relied on buying or reloading component parts (blocks) instead of integrating another layer of factory onboard. Retreat from battle, reload your torpedoes, and by the time you’re done making and docking them you should be all charged up and ready to become a ship again.
11) Bonus thoughts: discoverable on the system map, just like a pirate, trade station, planet, or shop. For all intents and purposes you’re big enough to be seen on the galaxy map, even as an unidentified station, and can be found by anyone who’s really looking for ya. Yeah, that might need some tweaking, but still. Being as big as a trade station means you show up like one when ya park.
So there, ten (plus a bonus) disorganized thoughts on capital ships, and why I love the idea but know that it needs to be implemented properly. The advantages of being able to move around with station parts are primarily tactical and RP based, so should come with no other advantages. To keep everyone from making every ship this way, they should have distinct DISADVANTAGES that keep the idea of stations, planetary bases, and ships WITHOUT these systems a viable and desirable option. Without them, the idea that every ship becomes a capital will spread, if there’s no downfalls to doing so.
