Move Moons

posted on January 16th, 2011, 11:29 pm

Just throwing this crazy idea out there, give something the ability to move resource moons. there is the verteron array from enterprise which moved comets, and the enterprise could have moved that planets moon back into stable orbit when q was made human if the stupid gas things hadnt attacked them to get to q. that was a 1 ship not designed for the task and fleetops is decades later, so the tech can advance.

maybe a ship high up the tech tree for the iconians/ciadans could do this. move a moon, it would have to be expensive and slow, maybe it gives off an easily detectable radiation so that a warning appears telling players that a moon is being moved. miners cant mine this moon when towing.

so on duel II v1.1 you could move your main base moons closer to your main base to make them easy to protect. you could move expansion moons closer together so one turret could guard both. or if u had plenty of time, move expansions closer to your main base and turtle up like mad in 1 place.

posted on January 16th, 2011, 11:33 pm

Sounds good, especially for the Iconians.

The Feds should be able to do it for the moon right by their base since canon says they can, though Iconian only would be an acceptable gameplay compromise.

posted on January 16th, 2011, 11:56 pm

The Feds should be able to do it for the moon right by their base since canon says they can, though Iconian only would be an acceptable gameplay compromise.

yeah i just think the feds already have enough going for them. ideas have to be kept away from them feds can already place cheap and effective turrets at their moons anyway so i think they are good on moon play.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 1:02 am

Interesting idea.  How would you move the moon's footprint?

posted on January 17th, 2011, 2:23 am

Interesting idea.  How would you move the moon's footprint?

The Devs may find a way to bind the footprints to the moon-object, so if you move the moon you automatically move the footprint.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 2:27 am

Don't the footprints move with the moon in the map editor?  If not, maybe it should stay put until you inspect the area and find out where it went, updating your minimap's info.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 7:46 am

I really dont see how this would be balanced at all, unless it were set so only a low number of moons could be moved.

Otherwise you could literally have all of the maps resources.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 12:31 pm

The Devs may find a way to bind the footprints to the moon-object, so if you move the moon you automatically move the footprint.

That would require hard-coding the footprint.  I think.

Don't the footprints move with the moon in the map editor?  If not, maybe it should stay put until you inspect the area and find out where it went, updating your minimap's info.

Currently, when an object (like a station or a moon) moves, the footprint stays where the object was until you reload the map.  I think we'll all agree that that's out of the question.

I really dont see how this would be balanced at all, unless it were set so only a low number of moons could be moved.

Otherwise you could literally have all of the maps resources.

Not unless all of the factions could move a moon.  However, it would be interesting for once you set up a mining operation, to have the resources taken away from you.  Your freighters could end up right at the enemy base.

[Anonymous]

posted on January 17th, 2011, 12:34 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on January 17th, 2011, 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I really dont see how this would be balanced at all, unless it were set so only a low number of moons could be moved.

Otherwise you could literally have all of the maps resources.

i suggested ways of balancing it, making the 1 ship that can move it cost a lot, be slow, give a map ping warning when towing is happening.

some other balancing tools: have the ship be weak and easy to kill, have it require special energy that runs out before you can tow too far, cap the towing ship etc. these would limit the towing. yes you could get all the moons in one place, but it would be a lot of effort. you can build a fleet of 30 sovvies/neggies which are really strong, but its a lot of effort.

if a player spent money on towing, they would have a lesser fleet and the enemy could outbuild/expand. if they can get a slow weak ship into your base and take your main mining they deserve to keep your res and you deserve to lose them for being careless lol.

@tcr: miners cant mine when the moon is being towed, so if you took an enemy moon while their fleet is distracted their miners would presumably stop and stay still awaiting orders. its not their job to go stop the enemy running off with a moon.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 12:59 pm

If the moon is not a valid "target" for mining when it is being towed, then the freighters will go to the next valid resource and mine from that.  If in tow, the moon is a valid "target," then the freighters will try to mine from it regardless of where the moon is being taken.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 1:01 pm

If the moon is not a valid "target" for mining when it is being towed, then the freighters will go to the next valid resource and mine from that.  If in tow, the moon is a valid "target," then the freighters will try to mine from it regardless of where the moon is being taken.

thats how it is now, but if they could code a moon to be towable they could probably fix it so that any miners mining from the moon receive a stop order.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 4:27 pm

I like the idea, but I think that towing moon could be a passive weapon. cause if a moon is moving, you cant mine there.

I have an idea:
Every race gets a moon-movable-ship-class.
Change the radius of mining stations. It will get 2 radia. one is green the other one is red - all moons in the red radius could be moved into the green one. If a enemy freighter want's to mine a  moon in the green area the mining-station will "attack" it with a weapon disabling effect.
Mining-stations will only attack enemy freighters and no other ships.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 4:29 pm

mining stations should attack everything or nothing.

As for moving, I suppose myles has a point, the tech and ship are expenseve AND it moves slow and it'd be fair as you'd have a chance to stop it.

Seems to me it'd mostly be useful for moving all of your own moons into a tight area near your base.

This should be fairly high in the tech tree tho.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 5:01 pm

agreed for high in tech tree. Definitely mid-late/late game. The warning on the map of towing would make it extremely hard to take moons you dont already control.

posted on January 17th, 2011, 6:09 pm

How about implementing a "tug of war" think into this?  It would allow two ships to simultaneously try to move the moon, but neither ship would make progress and you risk destroying the resource.