Mumblefratz Mumblefratz

One aspect of Terror Stars I'd like to see in DA

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One aspect of Terror Stars I'd like to see in DA

from GalCiv2 Forums
Never did really understand the need for thread necromancy. No need to dig up a dead and buried thread, just start a new post about the topic. So instead of tacking this on to the freshly dug up Terror Stars thread, I thought I’d just start a new thread.

Anyway, I never played GCI so I've only read about Terror Stars in old posts. From what I read they were totally unbalancing. But there is one aspect of them that in my opinion would be a good addition to the game.

As they are now influence and military starbases are of limited usefulness. They can be useful in a particular area for a time, but after a planet or two has been flipped or once the battle has moved on to a new area they become useless. If these starbases could be towed then their usefulness would be greatly extended. Clearly, these things shouldn’t be flying around the galaxy like a top line battleship, but I think it should be possible to slowly move these at great expense, perhaps requiring some new tech or new type of ship to accomplish this.

Adding this feature to the military starbase in particular, could very well fit in nicely with the speed reduction that’s coming to DA. My personal expectation of the speed reduction will be that instead of WWII type blitz tank battles, wars in DA will become closer to WWI trench warfare. There are interesting aspects to each type of battle, but stalemate and a static battle line are far more likely once speed is reduced. Military starbases that could slowly move to follow the ebb and flow of battle could enhance the dynamics of what may otherwise become a rather boring game of attrition. Just my opinion.
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Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, I consider that pretty useless.


I admit I was fishing for details in addition to wanting math folks to talk up about what the influence base AoE does to empire influence. On the latter, I suppose I need to root in old threads b/c the short answers here are short and I'm curious about why/how this % influence bonus doesnt' remain in effect for all your colonies in the AoE.

What if instead of destroying a starbase you could disassemble it back into the constructors it took to originally build it, or at least a reasonable portion of them.


Now that's *fresh* stuff, Mumble! I can't see how your dissasemble-to-constructors notion would be all that hard for the starbase code, but in sympathy with Jeff I wonder if the AIs could handle thinking about the given placement of starbases as potential fleets of constructors.

Tugs would be swell too...
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
olks to talk up about what the influence base AoE does to empire influence

I haven't used these very much, but AFAIK it's exactly as Marshall described them. They increase your influence in the SB's Area of Effect (AoE), but if this is deep inside your influence area they effectively do nothing.

I can't see how your dissasemble-to-constructors notion would be all that hard for the starbase code

Brad is probably the only one that *knows* what this would entail. I suspect that from a defensive point of view it would be indistiguishable from an opponent building a sequence of SB's closer and closer, as long as movement was sufficiently slow. Getting the AI to use this functionality as part of an attack strategy is probably the biggest issue.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
L Ron Hubbard. Mission Earth


Now I feel like an idiot.   The decology is sitting on a bookshelf behind me. Haven't read it in a while though.
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
L Ron Hubbard. Mission Earth

Never read it, I guess I was afraid of turning into a head case like Tom Cruise.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Since this idea has, to my knowledge, virtually complete approval from the posters on the forum
I can only assume. It has been my experience that if the good citizens of this forum don't care for an idea, you tend to hear about it PDQ.

What if instead of destroying a starbase you could disassemble it back into the constructors it took to originally build it, or at least a reasonable portion of them.
I was thinking about this earlier, and wondering how to make it work. It could be handled like the planetary shipyards are now. One module buys one constructor. A new tab would have to be added into the starbase screen, 'Deconstruct'. Highlight the starbase, click 'deconstruct', and a list of all the installed modules comes up. Highlight the module of your choice, (keeping in mind the precursor techs), and click 'deconstruct'. Or whatever. At the beginning of the next turn, the module you selected,(and it's bonuses), are gone, and a new 'cookie cutter' constructor is waiting for you. There should be a limit on how many can be done at once.

Also I did like (I think it was Evil's) idea to allow more than a single constructor module per ship.
This would fundamentally change the game. Starbases can be pretty powerful right now. Allowing even one more module would double the number of bases you could build in a given time; and adding even more would compound the problem. After the colony rush, there would be a 'constructor rush', civs would build static lines of bases, (since they can't move), and free movement would be severely restricted. It would be like WW1 trench warfare. Which, now that I think about it, might be fairly interesting. New strategies. Is there any way to mod the number of constructor modules a ship can carry?

Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
if the good citizens of this forum don't care for an idea, you tend to hear about it PDQ.

No doubt that's true.

Highlight the module of your choice, (keeping in mind the precursor techs), and click 'deconstruct'.

I don't think it needs to be this complex. Just another button that says "disassemble". Press it and next turn you have a stack of constructors instead of a starbase. I don't see the need to be able to take it apart module by module. I also think these would have to be default "core" constructors and not the player's current custom constructor.

This would fundamentally change the game. Starbases can be pretty powerful right now. Allowing even one more module would double the number of bases you could build in a given time

Not necessarily. Costs could and should be adjusted so that a two module constructor would be twice the cost and hence take twice as long to build. This is really just an attempt to not have to deal with so many individual ships from a micro management point of view. I don't think it's an intrinsic feature of being able to somehow move starbases.

AFAIK the limit of one module per constructor is hard coded.
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess I was afraid of turning into a head case like Tom Cruise.


It's not anything to do with scientology, it's a far out sci-fi story.
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
it's a far out sci-fi story

I know.    To quote Foghorn Leghorn, "It's a joke son, a joke".   

Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All in all a good idea Mumblefratz. I like the thoughts put into the theory as well. In my opinion, the easiest way to implement any of this would be to allow a starbase to move one, maybe two spaces max. A simple addition of a special "starbase" drive of some sort should be suffice. As was pointed out, there would be no need to keep upgrading a starbase or add weaponry, since your fleet should be doing this. "Tugships" would work, but then that much more would have to be added wouldn't it? More modules and deconstructing, renewable modules would also seem to be more effort than result, no? Just my opinion.
Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top
A simple addition of a special "starbase" drive of some sort should be suffice.

Sure, any of these ideas are fine. I think we're all just throwing out suggestions. In the end whatever is the most straightforward to implement is the best, and only the devs have the basis to know what that would be.
Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"It's a joke son, a joke


heh Sorry bout that, it's hard to tell at times how serious someone is with just text.   

I know virtually nothing about programing anything as complicated as this, but aren't the starbases classified as a ship type, or something similar by the game.
I'm sure modders have tried to get the SBs to move, but maybe someone will have a breakthrough.

Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
but aren't the starbases classified as a ship type, or something similar by the game.


Don't know the answer to that one. Maybe they are classified like a planet or anomaly?
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Never read it, I guess I was afraid of turning into a head case like Tom Cruise.


Cruise isn't a headcase because of Scientology. He's a headcase because short people got no reason to live.

Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
He's a headcase because short people got no reason to live.


Heeeeeeyyyyy now...  
Reply #40 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They got tiny little hands, tiny little feet, tiny little cars that go beep, beep, beep.
Reply #41 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it's hard to tell at times how serious someone is with just text.

Yeah. It is.

I'm sure modders have tried to get the SBs to move, but maybe someone will have a breakthrough.

Actually, I think someone did get an SB to move. IIRC it was Master U. It involved upgrading all freighters to constructors which also upgraded freighters on trade routes. These freighters retained the ability to construct starbases which if you did resulted in starbases moving along the trade route.

I managed to dig up the thread, there's a screenshot and everything. Very Cool!

Moving Starbases!
Reply #42 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
One way could be through a 'maneuvering thrusters' module that could be installed, giving the base a velocity of 1 pc/week. In the pilot for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the space station orginally orbited a planet, and it was moved through its maneuvering thrusters to a more stategic location to protect a wormhole. It was suggested in dialogue that the procedure was somewhat dangerous over long distances, and could possibly cause significant damage to the station since it wasn't designed for such operations.


indeed. It was a travel across a single star system. We are talking about a multi-light year travel..

however, in one of the books (Section 31 : Abyss) they do make a starbase travel acriss many light years, but it was at very, very low speed an required about 30 starships to hold the warp field.
Reply #43 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They got tiny little hands, tiny little feet, tiny little cars that go beep, beep, beep


And don't you start!    
Reply #44 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And don't you start!

It's a joke son, a joke. By the way carrying the joke between two threads at the same time is getting confusing for poor old grampa simpson.
Reply #45 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess this thread has degenerated into smalltalk...
Reply #46 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess this thread has degenerated into smalltalk...

Perhaps, but make sure you check out the screenshot of the moving starbase in the thread that I linked to in reply #41.

Also, smalltalk is preferable to some of the other alternatives.
Reply #47 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess this thread has degenerated into smalltalk...


I think it was a joke, ahem.  
Reply #48 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess this thread has degenerated into smalltalk...


Yes, it was a joke, as in "small" talk - tiny hands, etc.

Sorry if you thought I was... selling you short! Hee hee!

Now the idea of the trade route freighter turning into a constructor that can build a starbase is interesting. Has anyone tried this recently? If you'd built a starbase this way and then went to war with your trade partner, would the starbase disappear?
Reply #49 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry if you thought I was... selling you short! Hee hee!


Not at all. Just looked like Mumblefratz wasn't catching it... whereas my being vertically challenged gives me the power of observation when dealing with such "little" issues.  
Reply #50 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for digging that up Mumble. You know Master U has been back around a little, under a different name. Not sure if hes still modding GCII or not though. Maybe him or someone that knows his work could shed some light on how possible some of the things we're talking about is.