Resource division

posted on May 27th, 2011, 7:38 pm

There's already a button to pause construction in shipyards, and it's not a reach to add it to constructors.  "Oh, I'm using resources too fast - I'll pause the least critical projects."  If it was possible to pause construction without losing what you started, it's all beneficial because you can start sooner and take as long as you want.  In TA, if you cancel a construction project, it slowly deconstructs while refunding your costs.  Either way, you don't lose anything unless you're just not paying attention.  You can create the same sort of resource drain now by having too many ships queued up while you're trying to build a station - you have to pay attention 

Maybe there could be a middle ground, too - up front payment on ship constructions, graduated construction costs on stations?  Even better, make it player optional whether the costs are taken up front or not.

posted on May 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

I would support making it optional, such a compromise if often best.

posted on May 27th, 2011, 7:46 pm

It's not skill to leave only 2 things building and wait before building something else. There's more luck than skill, unless you count exactly how much you had when starting, how much was mined since then and exactly how much has been used so far.

'Produce less' doesn't say much, the current method forces that anyway by not allowing construction. Current doesn't mean you'll have to cancel ships and lose a few secondas when ambushed, though.

Some people get through it with math skill, but it's luck for most.

that's thinking about it from fleetops point of view. where each single ship is more important. thats another reason such a resource system might not work for fleetops, because in games like ta you had multiple factories making stuff, and could have constructors help build. hence if u werent getting enough resources you could take a constructor away from a factory. a2/fo is much more rigid, with each ship being more important.

to get a dynamic resource system working in fleetops would require a lot of changes. but i still think its more fun.