Shipbuilding limitations

posted on August 29th, 2007, 11:10 pm

I think for now the unit limit odf command would be best suited for hero's ships and that the actual limiting should be in time and resources this command would be used for people that cant balance their ships but for FO team they are good so they should not need to use it but if they did I would definitely have it be optional

posted on August 30th, 2007, 1:37 am

I agree with Meredith on the Hero ship part.  I also believe that it would best be used in advanced balancing.

[DOCa Cola]

posted on August 30th, 2007, 7:44 am

Last edited by DOCa Cola on August 30th, 2007, 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

the unit limitation is not intended to be used everywhere on every vessel. in our current dev version we haven't used it once yet. at one stage of development we will have a use for it, but it doesn't mean, now that we have a new command we are going to use it everywhere we can

posted on August 31st, 2007, 10:26 pm

of course what are we thinking the FO team is....  modest they will use it where needed so NVM 

posted on August 31st, 2007, 10:27 pm

I want to be able to build a thousand sovies so you better not take that away goddamit!

posted on August 31st, 2007, 10:44 pm

hoohoo, ambitious now, are we? 

posted on August 31st, 2007, 11:13 pm

we do not plan a unitlimit besides supplies for "normal" units you will however find more possibilities to spend your credits in future versions, like mercenaries and the like but the basics wont change

posted on August 31st, 2007, 11:21 pm

Will certain races have different factors in dealing with mercenaries?

I can't imagine the Borg ever hiring mercs, and I doubt the Federation would stoop that low.

However, the Romulans I could see actively pursuing all types of mercenaries.

The Klingons depend on who's in charge.  If they're in an honorable mood (i.e. Martok or Worf or any other good-guy honor-bound Klingon) is in charge, they would never hire low-lifes to do their dirty work.  On the other hand, if they are in a less honorable mood (i.e. anyone from the house of Duras is in charge), the Klingons will have no problem hiring every merc in the quadrant and sending them on a suicide mission to distract their enemy while the actual Klingon fleet attacks their undefended homeworld.

Will these tendancies reflect themselves in the gameplay?

posted on September 1st, 2007, 1:31 am

I'd imagine that the Borg wouldn't so much hire mercenaries, so much as "commandeer them"

Feds could integrate them into their democratic-ish/utopian "empire" perhaps...

posted on September 1st, 2007, 2:11 am

The borg would only assimilate them if they had new technology or some other thing the borg seek.

[NCC1701Z]

posted on September 1st, 2007, 8:32 am

Last edited by NCC1701Z on September 1st, 2007, 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

Theoretically in the present PR3.0 version, a person without much of a life can fill up an entire 999999x999999 map with Borg Cubes. According to FO doctrine that I read a while back, 1 map square/rectangle is an approximation of 1 sector in the Star Trek universe. If I remember my Star Trek trivia correctly, 1 sector is a 21x21x21 lightyear cube.

21 lightyears is a long distance, even in Star Trek standards. The amount of ships required to "fill up" a sector would be amazingly large, and thus not feasible. in FO, at the end of every match, you have at least 100 ships. Press "K", and wait till they spread out. Then, the whole map, regardless of size, becomes pretty much "filled up"

FO should focus on strategy, not numbers. Strategy is all about using limited resources and manpower to accomplish an overwhelming objective. If we have abundant resources and unlimited manpower, FO becomes a number game, and not a strategy game.

Limiting ships to be built, or at least making the ship cost gradually more expensive (as games such as Rise of Nations, where 100 metal is needed to build the first missile silo jumps to 9000 metal by the construction of the 30th silo) would make impossible, or at least discourage players from building up huge fleets and just storming them into an enemy base.

posted on September 1st, 2007, 1:22 pm

If someone remembers Ground Control II, he or she will also remember the unit-limitation they used there.
Actually the whole deployment-system was diffrent. Well, as the word already says, your units were deployed and not built which supported the argument that you were to command the troops which are actually disposable and not needed elsewhere. Since Armada is a strategy-game based on building the consequence is quite clear: You are only limited by resources.
In Ground Control II the idea was a different one so the argumentation could be different, too. But in FO, since you have to build everything from the stations to the ships, you are of course free to build as much as you want to.
If this is to be changed there's one suggestion I'd like to make:
Maybe you could give all races something like the Fed's warp-in Station. That's closest to the system eg in GC II and would allow justifyable unit-limitation.
Of course we won't need yards anymore and the same goes for research-stations.
Anyway this would make FO a totally different game which I don't really think is intended. But maybe it's worth a thought.. or two.

posted on September 1st, 2007, 4:06 pm

Well from what Ive read this 'filling up a map' wont be possible in V3, or at least not nearly as easy, due to changed costs etc etc. And besides, the Borg EASILY have enough resources to fill a dozen sectors with cubes

posted on September 1st, 2007, 7:44 pm

If someone remembers Ground Control II, he or she will also remember the unit-limitation they used there.
Actually the whole deployment-system was diffrent. Well, as the word already says, your units were deployed and not built which supported the argument that you were to command the troops which are actually disposable and not needed elsewhere. Since Armada is a strategy-game based on building the consequence is quite clear: You are only limited by resources.
In Ground Control II the idea was a different one so the argumentation could be different, too. But in FO, since you have to build everything from the stations to the ships, you are of course free to build as much as you want to.
If this is to be changed there's one suggestion I'd like to make:
Maybe you could give all races something like the Fed's warp-in Station. That's closest to the system eg in GC II and would allow justifyable unit-limitation.
Of course we won't need yards anymore and the same goes for research-stations.
Anyway this would make FO a totally different game which I don't really think is intended. But maybe it's worth a thought.. or two.

I totally agree with you on the "warp-in stations" suggestion. It takes several years to build a starship, but it is condensed down into a matter of minutes in the A1/A2 series, as well as its subsequent mods, including FO. As we've seen in the Dominion War arcs, ships are not built in the battlefield. Ships are sent to the battlefield. But like you've said, it would make FO a totally different game..

posted on September 1st, 2007, 8:19 pm

Tiny nitpick:  a sector is actually 20 x 20 x 20 lightyears.