The Campaign

[LunaIsBestPony]

So as of right now, the amount of reasons we have to fight and have wars right now are:

• Diddly-squat.
• Did you expect something to be here?

I wish to address that. In most wars in human history, wars have been fought for control of territory and their corresponding resources. My plan is relatively simple, but it requires a visual reference to be fully understandable, which is below.

By the way, if any of you reading this find something glaringly wrong with my suggestion, be it a typo or a major balance error, please tell me and I will venture to fix it.

So here's your bog-standard barred spiral galaxy, pretend the galaxy in-game looks as good as this.

My plan requires that the galaxy be split up into sections like so:

As a result of those divisions, there are 32 sectors of the galaxy in which to propagate resources. My plan is basically to make each of the 16 "common" resources(Rammet, Nocx) spawn in 16(config)(If a number has a "config" after it, it is a value that is able to be changed in the server config) out of the 32 sectors with a few rules attached.

1. All sectors shall have roughly the same amount of resources(Up to 15(config)% variation)
2. All sectors shall have at least 3(config) of the common resources.
3. Rammet shall not not spawn alone in a sector(this rule is for servers which have set the minimum of each type of resource present in each sector to be one).
4. Pairs of adjacent sectors which both have Rammet in them shall be rare.

The reason I say that Rammet should not spawn alone in a sector is thus: For example, a sector may spawn with 10000(example number, not representative of actual amounts) resource. If only one type of "common" resource generates in that sector, then there will be 10000 of that common resource. If 2 types of resources spawn in that sector, then there will be 5000 of each resource.

I do this because there has to be a tradeoff for controlling a sector with many types of resources; there is correspondingly less of each type of resource. This also increases the value of sectors with few resource types, giving reason to fight for systems with larger amounts of fewer resource types.

I've been saying "common" resources a lot, so far. This is the main reason I have the different galactic "phases", for technological progression. There shall be no proper tech tree for a few reasons.

1. Having tech trees being specific to one person would probably make player files on servers unnecessarily large.
2. Having technological progression being locked to specific factions would cause one major problem: People would simply join whichever faction has unlocked the most advanced tech.

Instead, everything is technically available to everyone to build, but requires certain resources that are in different galactic "phases" or "tiers".

All new players start off in the Galactic Core, the center of the galaxy. Here, only common resources spawn and low level hostile NPCs that reward credits and very small amounts of Tier 2 blocks that operate at a lower capacity due to them being plucked off the destroyed wreck of an enemy ship. Common resources have all the capability of building a good spacefaring vessel, but lack in complexity and strength. Ships built entirely of Galactic Core materials(tier 1 materials) are quite weak and only have access to limited block types:

Spoiler: Tier 1 Blocks

• Engines-
• Ion drives- low acceleration, decent top speed. Fuel efficient.
• Chemical rockets- midrange acceleration, high top speed. Not very fuel efficient, but very cheap.
• Armor-
• Steel- Heavy, but strong and cheap.
• Solar plating- Generates power, but fragile and hard to manufacture.
• Shields-
• Electromagnetic Force Screen(EMFS)- Prototype shielding, expensive and uses a lot of power, but at the same time, output is able to be changed, weakening the shield generator's output and greatly decreasing power usage. Optimal power efficiency to strength ratio capable of deflecting(gameplay wise, negating) glancing blasts(10(config)% of shots hitting the ship).
• Power-
• Nuclear Fission Reactors(scalable multiblock structure)- Very cheap and simple to build. Decent power output.
• Weapons-
• Laser Cannons- All around decent weapon, midrange power usage, and accurate at high range. Excellent point defense.
• Ion Beams(Just the name, not the effect)- Not terribly efficient beam weapons, but 100% accurate and long range. 10(config)% damage boost against shields.
• Kinetic Driver- Accurate and high speed kinetic weapon. Very high punch, but takes a while to reload. Ineffective vs. shields. Uses ammo.
• Cruise Missiles- Slow and incredibly long range. Huge damage against exposed hull. Uses ammo and takes a very long time to reload.

So there you have all the Tier 1 blocks. All the weapons and shields are effective against one another, not higher tiers. For example, the Tier 2 cruise missile equivalent is far more powerful then the tier 1. Armor also scales.

 

[NeonSturm]

I like it, but you should probably re-write this post.

• Put the pics in a quote and refer to them as (L), (R) or (1), (2). Putting pics in quotes reduce their size and they appear horizontally 1-3/4 usually.

I don't know the current, exact resource distribution for optimal ships, now after the power update, respecting different ship-types.
But I appreciate the idea of 2 blocks per function. (fuel, no fuel or just being crafted from different materials).

However: It would be far better if

• you were able to replace connected parts of a single block type without changing the design (easy to do)
  
• being able to define the favoured places for stronger outfit when you mix it (currently not possible without gaps between these parts).

 

[Wolverines527]

I like this idea

 

[nightrune]

The big thing I can agree on in this thread is that we should have a bit more diversity in the rarity of materials.

Minecraft has diamonds and it makes you excited when you find them because they are rare, but there are two kinds of rare we can use.

One is its rare because we need so much of it, or its rare because we only need a small amount but its hard to find.

The in game shops should reflect this as well. As much as people hate arbitrary limitations this forces you down a path.

I can also agree on different parts of the universe only spawning different materials. This encourages exploration, and sector claiming, and trade.

The specific way you've laid it out isn't the way I would do it though. I may write it up in a different thread.