Warp In idea

[Westi]

posted on April 9th, 2012, 6:12 pm

Last edited by Westi on April 10th, 2012, 2:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hey there,
I don't know whether this has been posted before or whether it is actually a good idea but after playing fleetops after a longer break I got an idea concerning the warp in feature. First of all, I am not saying that warp in is OP or something like that. It's quite well-balanced but the warp-in ships really scrapped my Romulan raiding force because two Excelsiors and a Nebula combined with Intrepids quickly destroyed my small fleet and my expansion. The next warp-in party contained an Ambassador and it was really hard to fight the feds.
So here is my idea: After you build your SFC you can research different upgrades with belong to 3 tiers - just like the chassis research-. However, you can only choose one upgrade per tier so it adapts the SFC to your strategy. More over, strong warp ins can hardly appear in early game.The upgrades could be like this:

Tier 1: So Tier 1 shouldn't be too strong but it still influences the warp in feature drastically
Upgrade 1: Long Range Transmitter: Expands the range of the distress call and allows you to warp in one/two additional vessel. The default warp in party size might has to be reduced to two.
Upgrade 2: High Priority Distress Call: Starfleet grants you new reinforcements more quickly. The cooldown could be cut down but the size of the warp-in fleet might be reduced,too. 
So the first upgrade grants you 4 ships after a some time while the second upgrade gives you two ships but in much smaller intervals. However, this might have to be reworked because Upgrade 1 seems to be a bit too strong.
Tier 2:: Tier 2 might influence the ships after they entered the battleground. Those boots might last from 30 seconds to eternity I did not think about this one that much.
Upgrade 1: Maneuver Alpha: The warp-in party reroutes the energy generated by the warp engines to the shields boosting the defensive capabilities by 30-40%.
Upgrade 2: Maneuver Beta: The warp-in party transfers its warp energy to the weapon arrays allowing them to deal a greater proportion of damage (about 20-30 %).
Tier 3: Tier 3 might be the choice between experimental units and stronger warships.
Upgrade 1: Experimental Field Test: Starfleet sends experimental Prototypes to your assistance to test their effectiveness in combat. This upgrade apparently grants you access to one prototype. This prototype might replace or add one ship in the warp-in party. Not sure about that.
Upgrade 2:Support of the Utopia Planetia Yards: One part of the Utopia Planetia Yards are used to assist you granting your access to much larger ships, such as the Galaxy, Ambassador(?) and there might be space for a Prometheus,too .

The research costs for the upgrades should also me relatively small. You don't have to spent a fortune on this upgrades and waive building some ships. While the costs are only small the research time might be a bit higher shifting the big boni to later stages of the game. This does not only strengthen the warp-ins but it reduces the early game advantage the Federation has.
Please don't stone me if this idea is crap

EDIT: I got this idea after playing ME3, Empire at War and Stock A². The choices in the tech tree of Mass Effect, the upgrades for a starbase in EAW and the "research pods" in Armada2 were to reasons for this idea.

posted on April 9th, 2012, 10:40 pm

Welcome to the forum. Nice first post.

Let me start off with the statement that i, and many others, do not believe the warp-in by itself is OP.
With the upcoming version there will also be major gameplay changes with the introduction of offensive, defensive and support profiles. How this will affect the warp-in is at this time any body's guess.

The layout you propose for the warp-in however is pretty interesting. A customization through tiers could add a whole new dimension to it.

Having said that, scaling down the basic warp-in would actually put the federation at a serious disadvantage. The upgrades may compensate for this, but even with a small research cost/time this may still make the warp-in cost-ineffective.

Currently the federation relies mostly on shield power and warp-in to hold the line early in the game against the massive advantage of the cloaking romulans/klingons and unit spamming dominion. Reduce the warp-in and the federation will have a tough time.

A skilled player can play federation without warp-in, but the majority of players online are relative novices and these changes would make it difficult for anyone to master the federation.

For now i would propose to wait until the new patch arrives to see how the warp-in will be with the profiles.

posted on April 9th, 2012, 11:53 pm

Welcome to the forum. Nice first post.

Let me start off with the statement that i, and many others, do not believe the warp-in by itself is OP.
With the upcoming version there will also be major gameplay changes with the introduction of offensive, defensive and support profiles. How this will affect the warp-in is at this time any body's guess.

The layout you propose for the warp-in however is pretty interesting. A customization through tiers could add a whole new dimension to it.

Having said that, scaling down the basic warp-in would actually put the federation at a serious disadvantage. The upgrades may compensate for this, but even with a small research cost/time this may still make the warp-in cost-ineffective.

Currently the federation relies mostly on shield power and warp-in to hold the line early in the game against the massive advantage of the cloaking romulans/klingons and unit spamming dominion. Reduce the warp-in and the federation will have a tough time.

A skilled player can play federation without warp-in, but the majority of players online are relative novices and these changes would make it difficult for anyone to master the federation.

For now i would propose to wait until the new patch arrives to see how the warp-in will be with the profiles.

Thanks for the kind reply. I read through this forum quite some time and I think I used to have an account some years ago.
I also thought about the balance aspect because those warp ins are essential to the federation at the beginning. A fast individual tech up might solve this but it's hard to determine.
I did not know about the changes in the future patches so I will rethink my idea after the release.

posted on April 10th, 2012, 7:37 am

I believe this idead would soften up warpins, which is exactly what the fed needs!

posted on April 10th, 2012, 1:36 pm

I believe this idead would soften up warpins, which is exactly what the fed needs!

Agreed on the former, disagreed on the latter.

@westi: Check the news section for sneak previews of the new profiles, new map objects/nebula's and changes to Romulans/klingons

Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - News