What I propose is a change on how ships are acquired by players. Currently, you design a ship, maybe test it, save it, then go to a shop and spawn it as often as you want. That is, while convenient, not the most engaging or deep system.
Therefore, here are changes for implementing a construction based system instead:
1. No more buying complete ships from stores. Money tends to not be a problem for people, so some resort to just making a "ship" with lots of components they want to buy rather then craft and then spawn+deconstruct ad infinitum, which takes away from the new crafting system and from the "shops have limited supplies" system.
2. 3 new blocks: Shipyard "core", shipyard extender and shipyard enhancer.
Shipyards project a similiar cube as docking modules, initially being big enough to comfortably fit what is normally considered a fighter class in it, and when supplied with enough power, raw materials and a blueprint for a ship (just select from the catalogue available to you) they will start constructing that ship at a set pace one block at a time. This process can be sped up by adding enhancer blocks, with the effectiveness of each additional enhancer declining (meaning you need to add a lot of additional enhancers to build bigger ships at a reasonable pace).
For this to happen, some requirements must be fullfilled:
1. The space assigned to the shipyard needs to be big enough to fit the ship into its cube horizontally. This means that for a bigger ship to be build, you will need to add extender blocks to your shipyard core.
2. The blocks that the ship is made up of need to be in a stash connected to the shipyard core. This means that constructing big ships will become a task for a whole faction to work on, as the amount of crafting (or blowing up of other factions ships and scavenging of their parts) to get both the shipyard capable of constructing the desired ship and the materials used for the ship itself should be too much for a single person.
3. The shipyards area of construction needs to be clear of stuff, obviously.
4. Enough power must be supplied. It should only drain when actually constructing, but the drain should be noticable unless the station is vastly overpowering the shipyard. Shipyards should drain more power for each enhancer and extender added to them.
Last point: Ships under construction are not protected by the stations shields and turrets need to be added separatly. Constructing turrets along with the ship might be hard to add, but if it isnt, there should be an option for those who want to skimp on the extenders to leave the turrets off the construction and just have the core ship build.
So, this is the core idea. In my eyes, it would promote crafting, the setting up and supllying of factorys and interfaction diplomacy/hostility over scavenging or marauding players bent on constructing their factions own titan.
Now to an idea that flowed from this one:
Repair/Refit/Dismantling:
Basically using the same logic, it should be able to take a ship to a shipyard and give it the command to convert the ship into another design. The shipyard would then take the ship, rearrange the blocks already there that are relevant to the new design (much quicker than constructing from scratch), add the blocks required that are not already there and remove blocks unused by the design selected (really fast). Bonus points if there could be a Bobby AI command to send a ship to a previously saved shipyard for refit/repair/Dismantling.
By using the design the ship is origianally made off, damaged ships could also be repaired by having destroyed blocks replaced and damaged ones automatically repaired. By selecting no design (or hitting the appropriate button if available) the shipyard can also be ordered to just dismantle the ship and store its parts for later use. Same limitations as construction applies, a shipyard for fighters is not going to easily dismantle a frigate.
There we have it, a wall of text, I am proud of myself and looking forward to feedback
Therefore, here are changes for implementing a construction based system instead:
1. No more buying complete ships from stores. Money tends to not be a problem for people, so some resort to just making a "ship" with lots of components they want to buy rather then craft and then spawn+deconstruct ad infinitum, which takes away from the new crafting system and from the "shops have limited supplies" system.
2. 3 new blocks: Shipyard "core", shipyard extender and shipyard enhancer.
Shipyards project a similiar cube as docking modules, initially being big enough to comfortably fit what is normally considered a fighter class in it, and when supplied with enough power, raw materials and a blueprint for a ship (just select from the catalogue available to you) they will start constructing that ship at a set pace one block at a time. This process can be sped up by adding enhancer blocks, with the effectiveness of each additional enhancer declining (meaning you need to add a lot of additional enhancers to build bigger ships at a reasonable pace).
For this to happen, some requirements must be fullfilled:
1. The space assigned to the shipyard needs to be big enough to fit the ship into its cube horizontally. This means that for a bigger ship to be build, you will need to add extender blocks to your shipyard core.
2. The blocks that the ship is made up of need to be in a stash connected to the shipyard core. This means that constructing big ships will become a task for a whole faction to work on, as the amount of crafting (or blowing up of other factions ships and scavenging of their parts) to get both the shipyard capable of constructing the desired ship and the materials used for the ship itself should be too much for a single person.
3. The shipyards area of construction needs to be clear of stuff, obviously.
4. Enough power must be supplied. It should only drain when actually constructing, but the drain should be noticable unless the station is vastly overpowering the shipyard. Shipyards should drain more power for each enhancer and extender added to them.
Last point: Ships under construction are not protected by the stations shields and turrets need to be added separatly. Constructing turrets along with the ship might be hard to add, but if it isnt, there should be an option for those who want to skimp on the extenders to leave the turrets off the construction and just have the core ship build.
So, this is the core idea. In my eyes, it would promote crafting, the setting up and supllying of factorys and interfaction diplomacy/hostility over scavenging or marauding players bent on constructing their factions own titan.
Now to an idea that flowed from this one:
Repair/Refit/Dismantling:
Basically using the same logic, it should be able to take a ship to a shipyard and give it the command to convert the ship into another design. The shipyard would then take the ship, rearrange the blocks already there that are relevant to the new design (much quicker than constructing from scratch), add the blocks required that are not already there and remove blocks unused by the design selected (really fast). Bonus points if there could be a Bobby AI command to send a ship to a previously saved shipyard for refit/repair/Dismantling.
By using the design the ship is origianally made off, damaged ships could also be repaired by having destroyed blocks replaced and damaged ones automatically repaired. By selecting no design (or hitting the appropriate button if available) the shipyard can also be ordered to just dismantle the ship and store its parts for later use. Same limitations as construction applies, a shipyard for fighters is not going to easily dismantle a frigate.
There we have it, a wall of text, I am proud of myself and looking forward to feedback
