There is something about the current fleet supply mechanic that doesn't make a lot of sense. Everytime you research a supply upgrade, you get taxed more and more, even if you don't have the any ships to use all of that maintenence money. I know some people cling to this old method for no reason other than they are used to it. I on the other hand had some ideas cobbled together.
Fleet Supply Capacity is controlled by your empires population level, but its not that straightorward This is how it works .
First the fleet supply is not the actual limit. You can build more ships than the supply allows, but it starts to cost you extra money from OverSupply Tax. The cost depends on how much over your fleet supply you are at any time. It is a variable that shifts with every ship created or destroyed. But it only applies if you build over the supply limit.
(Assuming 100% allegiance for simplicities sake)1 planet population = 1 fleet supply (this can be tweaked to make the base level 2 population = 1 fleet supply, for instance)
Say you have 300 population on all of your planets. Your fleet supply is 300.
If you have 300 supply worth of ships, you pay no extra taxes, all of your income goes directly into your resource pool.
If you have 450 supply worth of ships, you have to pay 50% of your income, you get half of what you earn.
If you make 600 supply worth of ships, you are paying 100% of your income and get nothing. Not a good thing. Also you are capped out at twice the population fleet supply. No new ships can be built at that point.
This scales up, so a larger empire with 1000 population fleet supply needs to make 1,500 supply worth of ships before they get to 50%
This is also affect by planet allegiance. A planet with 50% allegiance will only give you 1 fleet supply per 2 population. You get less supply per population on planets furtheraway from the capital.
How this changes things.
Raiding planets to kill population is more damaging than ever. You are directly decreasing their fleet supply. If this causes them to suddenly have more ships then their limit, then they begin losing money to the OverSupply Tax. Also, their lose the planet's income, its a double whammy. Terran planets become extremely juicy targets. Colony pods in the vasari space station become really useful because they aren't affected by allegiance. But grabbing colony pods limits the starbase's hull and weapons capabilities a tiny bit.
Destroying an enemies high population planet is more important than defeating their fleet in the long run.
Protecting your terran planets is paramount. Planetary shields finally important enough to build.
New techs to increase fleet supply per pop, or a tech to decrease the OverSupply Tax ratio(50% over supply only costs 45% of income. The last upgrade in that chain lowers this all the way down to 50% over supply costs 25% of income) These techs could be in the fleet logistics section, repurposed from the existing fleet supply upgrade techs along with their prices
Supply Pacts work the same, you get free supply while in that pact.
Population doesn't grow instantly. Fleet supply gradualy builds up slowly, as long as you are claiming new planets.
Vasari's returning armada only spawns free ships if your used fleet supply is lower than your population allowed fleet supply.(It won't continually spawn ships to eventually cost you 100% of your income)
Building over the supply limit costs you extra taxes. But the extra firepower is a tactical choice. Should you ruin your economy to send out 20 extra ships? Thats up to you.
Comments, Critisms and Flames, Proceed.
