Shipbuilding limitations

posted on August 16th, 2007, 2:57 am

Just like A2, under all that graphical and gameplay enhancements that FO went through, FO still suffers from the fundamental flaw that A2 had. It is extremely easy to mass-breed a certain class of ship and swarm it to an enemy base. I think I have a suggestion that may alleviate this.

A1 as well as A2 had officers, and thus could restrict the amount of ships being built. While that cannot be used in FO due to the existence of credits, the new ODF command can (possibly) be modified. For example, you can't just build 200 Defiant classes. Say, after you research Starship chassis III, and you get the build the Defiant class. Then, you are limited to building.. say 5 Defiant classes. Then, you have to spend resources to upgrade your "Fleet Priority" which will give you more slots to build more Defiants. The resources needed to upgrade your Fleet Priority further increases exponentially, making it more difficult to create ships of huge numbers.

Whaddya guys think?

posted on August 16th, 2007, 5:12 am

I like the idea of fleet-priorities. But maybe we already make this choice by deciding for one avatar - at least in one of the future releases. (If you decide for Risner you'll be allowed to build more warships, if you decide for Mayson you'll be allowed to build more support-ships. Something like that.)

"Shipbuilding limitations" are already available, at least they will be.
You might like to check out this thread for further information about a new odf-command.
Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Upcoming 1.2.2 - A new ODF command

So there will be no ship-spam no more! 
So say we all! 

posted on August 16th, 2007, 12:50 pm

I think its a bad Idea to limit standard ships. If someone has the resources to build 50 deffiants then let them, If you can't counter that by the time they have done it then they're a better player than you are. I think the max buildable units command should only be used for special ships, e.g. flagships and semi hero ships.

posted on August 16th, 2007, 12:55 pm

i reckon if it cant be done to toggle it at a player's descretion it would be better. It would certainly add a lot more strategy to the mix, but at the same time i dont think it should be forced on players, especially since the AI will ignore those commands.

Im in two minds about this.

posted on August 16th, 2007, 1:32 pm

Just one thought:

It would be much more easier to handle this if there would be a point in the skirmish-menu before a game start where you just put it on to play with our without such limitations

posted on August 16th, 2007, 6:29 pm

It'd be great to have an option that would let us limit ships or not, 'cause I'm totally sick and tired of ppl mass-producing K'Tingas and B'rels.

posted on August 16th, 2007, 6:36 pm

It'd be great to have an option that would let us limit ships or not, 'cause I'm totally sick and tired of ppl mass-producing K'Tingas and B'rels.

Dito. But these things are going to change with V3 final. There's a whole bunch of balance-changes waiting for us. 

posted on August 16th, 2007, 7:08 pm

Dito. But these things are going to change with V3 final. There's a whole bunch of balance-changes waiting for us. 

V3 for the win!    V3 for the win!!!

V3 for the... 

V3 for the win??? 

I've embarassed myself again haven't I? Euugh... 

posted on August 16th, 2007, 8:19 pm

I think its a bad Idea to limit standard ships. If someone has the resources to build 50 deffiants then let them, If you can't counter that by the time they have done it then they're a better player than you are. I think the max buildable units command should only be used for special ships, e.g. flagships and semi hero ships.

dude even after 10 deffiant gets built they kill everything, and sometimes you dont allways know what the enemy has behind the shroud.

posted on August 16th, 2007, 8:35 pm

i like the idea of a option in the game before you start like mothership movement you could disable the limit

posted on August 17th, 2007, 12:18 am

from our current point of balancing and development we are quite happy with the unit-balancing. some major changes have been made for v3 from our latest multi player tests, but at the end of the day we do not feel the need of implementing a unit limited
we will still note down that idea and keep it in mind as an optional multi player mode or something similar

posted on August 17th, 2007, 5:46 am

Thank you! I really mean it! 

[Shril]

posted on August 17th, 2007, 6:26 am

Last edited by Shril on August 17th, 2007, 6:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yep...some mp modes that affect balancing would be a nice addition and also bring a more dynamic game with it. Would also be very interesting and important for modes like league mode, fun maps and other stuff people would make to dl the game. Imagine some sort of fleet mode where you have just 4 ships vs 4 other ships. A different balancing would be necessary for that like special weapon strength, values of each ship etc.

posted on August 29th, 2007, 10:43 pm

Ten words; No no no no no no no no no no no!!! :2guns: Or is that 11 ? anyhow; unit limitations are, I guess, a matter of opinion; but Ive played several games with a similar system and they were all horrible, despite good graphics, and well built strategy systems.
I wouldnt be averse to having it as an option, but if its not optional, to my mind, theres no point to even downloading the next version of the game.
Besides; unit limits are unrealistic, Admirals in their offices dont place an order for a defiant and then suddenly have the computer pop up all sassy mouthed and say "You have reached your defiant class limit, the Borg will arrive in three minutes, you are screwed, have a nice day!"  
Seriously though I believe that the rebalances both in cost and firepower that the FO team has made will eliminate the need for such a feature, so at the very least all discussion of this idea should be held until we have a chance to evaluate the balance of the next version

posted on August 29th, 2007, 10:58 pm

Um, we already have unit limitation, in the form of credits.  That has worked out just fine.  Agree that most mods/games that use the system suck.  However, FO has pulled it off thus far and I don't see how this will affect the game differently than credits.

I say go for it!