Dominion prototype usefulness

posted on March 31st, 2011, 8:31 pm

I was just thinking about giving the Dominion prototypes a bit more usefulness.  If they were given the abiltiy to gain ranks, then the production ship could be of the same rank as the prototype.  Take a bug, rank it up, and as long as it is alive, every production bug you produce would be of that rank.

There would be a cool scheme of risk and reward, and balance could be acheived by having a steep learning curve for the prototype (lots of kills per level up).  There would be incentive to send the prototypes into battle with the rest of the fleet, and the risk of losing them (and setting back production).

posted on March 31st, 2011, 8:35 pm

i dont like the transfer of ranks between ships in this way as ranks represent smart crew mainly. having an experienced crew on 1 ship shouldnt affect others.

stats bleeding from the proto to the others i could get behind if balanced. if the proto crew find a way to improve the design they could email the production ships and shipyards making them telling them. like the defiant, obrien fixed design flaws and probably told everyone.

posted on March 31st, 2011, 9:32 pm

do you mean like some kind of Dominion prototype improvement research that once upgraded it would give a very slight improvement to the ships of that  prototype. perhaps make it cost lots and take lots of time kinda like the mix tech research.

posted on April 1st, 2011, 12:24 am

Improvements to the function of the ship aren't the only thing the crew would pass on - we all learn from the experiences of those around us.  Think of it as the prototype gaining the experience and passing the tactics and skills on to the future generations.  Some things can only be learned hands on, but then, this is the universe of holodecks.  In addition, since the crews are likely being cloned as the ships are constructed, it may be reasonable for successive generations of clones to be genetically improved based on previous generations.  Think of is this way - while the production ships are simply being sent out to fight and die, the prototypes are expected to survive and contribute by improving the entire class.  It actually works better from a crew standpoint - if you lose the prototype, you lose the experienced trainers, and therefore lose the benefits.

It doesn't have to be 100% transfer - the prototype could just pass on one additional rank for every two that it gains, for example.

posted on April 1st, 2011, 1:22 am

While this idea might be cool, I can see problems arise from b-5s for instance, I always put the prototype b-5 with my fleet because the fighters are just as good and if it was able to rank up with the rest of my fleet then I would get kills with that and keep decommissioning my fleet to get higher ranked up ships from production.

posted on April 1st, 2011, 5:08 am

Well I'm not really liking the ranking idea.

Here's a totally random thought though: currently prototypes have no specials, what about a change requiring first to research the special at the research station - then a research on the prototype enabling it to be used on the prototype. Then at that point with the special "installed"  the special would be available on production versions.

posted on April 2nd, 2011, 2:39 am

That would just condemn prototypes to even more passiveness, since it's even more risky to use them in battle.

posted on April 7th, 2011, 3:38 am

Allow prototypes to level up.

As they level up, have small upgrades avalible for research on the prototype or a research station (just make the tech dependent on the prototype being ranked up, a simple .odf dependency). Prehaps if it gets up to double gold bar or vet status, very hard to do as it'll be a VERY key target for your opponent. add research that allows building that type with a single silver bar rank instead.

It makes risking protos worth while as well, as you get a benefit for risking them.