Slow down construction when under attack

posted on January 25th, 2012, 12:09 am

I don't know if and how many times this has been brought up, but I think construction ships under attack should build slower. Like 50% slower or such.

A construction ship deploys small shuttles that aid in construction. A good captain would use beams or spatial charges to destroy the shuttles, in order to disrupt the build process to hinder the opponent.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 12:19 am

The construction ships would then need their defenses doubled (or tripled!) accordingly, because otherwise this would monopolize the metagame and force everyone to rush as many small fast ships as quickly as possible. Heck, the K't'inga rush would be almost unstoppable.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 12:31 am

A construction ship deploys small shuttles that aid in construction. A good captain would use beams or spatial charges to destroy the shuttles, ...

Those small worker bees are maybe easy to reproduce, so they would just deploy new ones and keep going on with the construction.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 12:36 am

I'm not very sure they could make them on the fly, it would probably need to use the resources meant for the station.

I'd keep the built time unchanged unless Workers are made targettable, since they're not being attacked as it is now.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 2:34 am

What if the ability to build was limited by Weapons and Sensors, so that if either subsystem is temporarily disabled, it cancels the construction entirely?  This wouldn't overpower early rush-lockdown strategies, but it would give a tactical option to players who are willing to take the time and use it.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 3:54 am

I'm not keen on this idea. Rush strategies are already quite strong, there's no need to strengthen them further.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 4:57 am

Well sure, but it might be worth it to see Chors with 50+ defense.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 5:28 am

Chor rush...again? 

posted on January 25th, 2012, 6:09 am

:wheelchair: Ol' grandpa Chor isn't done just yet!

posted on January 25th, 2012, 6:41 am

Isn't it already easy enough to kill a (non borg) constructor?

Remember guys, it's still a game, not a simulation. On the other hand... 

posted on January 25th, 2012, 8:29 am

In current balance rushes are strong, maybe in next patch they won't be. That means all options are on the table.

Personally I'm more a fan of a subsystem thing as tryptic said. But then gen spam could shut down all building.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 6:08 pm

As long as mining and construction vessels are relatively weak and there is a significant disparity between how quickly the different factions can bring up their first few combat vessels, rush strategies will be strong.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 7:26 pm

Actually there's a deeper mechanic at work here.  It isn't that some races can get up their early ships faster than others (although Feds and Dominion do suffer a tiny bit there) it's that some races can build midgame fleets better than others.  If you're borg against a fed opponent, you HAVE to raid them because if the two sides don't fight at all the feds WILL gain the advantage.  Often when a player uses a rush strategy, it's because he doesn't have any other option.

I expect the next patch will take great strides in the right direction, since the devs have more skilled feedback coming in than ever before 

posted on January 25th, 2012, 8:25 pm

what would be nice is if a construction ship is destroyed, or close to it, another one can come continue the construction process instead of the station being destroyed with it.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 8:29 pm

what would be nice is if a construction ship is destroyed, or close to it, another one can come continue the construction process instead of the station being destroyed with it.

would only work if buildings were targetable like in total annihilation. currently the constructor is all you can shoot at to hurt a building as it's constructing.