Suggestions for Space Empires V

[henk brouwer]

I did some thinking about intelligence projects, I don't really like how they work in SEIV, it seems to be too much of a all or nothing situation. Either you can not breach the enemy defenses and nothing will happen, or you can breach them and there's nothing the enemy can do.

So I tried to come up with a solution in the form of a new class of intelligence projects that could be added to the existing ones: tactical or combat espionage. This project would send spies out to study enemy combat tactics, and learn from them. When completed this project would give a small(1%)permanent combat bonus against the race that was spied upon, the project could be completed multiple times and the bonus would stack. there would be NO DEFENSE against this project, other than doing combat espionage on that enemy yourself, to get your own combat bonus. maybe the cost of the project should increase depending on how many times it has already been completed

This would make intelligence far more interesting, having a race that specializes in intelligence could be a viable alternative to a race with a high natural combat bonus, races that would be the victim of such intelligence would still have a change to win, if they compensate with more research and better sensor technology..

any oppinions?

Henk

[Suicide Junkie]

Check out the "Leaky Intel" for SE4.

The idea there, is you delete the counter-intel projects.
You make all of the projects relatively expensive, except for the "intel sabotage", which you make very cheap.

Suddenly, intel is dynamic.
You have to actively target an enemy race to defend against, and even with constant counter-intel, they can slip projects through (especially the cheap ones).

The more expensive projects are more likely to be stopped by counter intel, since they take longer to complete, and the defender gets more chances to discover and sabotage the project before it is launched.

You can team up for defense or attack, and you can't defend without the target knowing that they are under suspicion

[henk brouwer]

Suicide Junkie said:
Check out the "Leaky Intel" for SE4.

There is such a thing as leaky intel for se4? sounds very interesting, which mod?

It sounds like a huge improvement over the original system, the proposed combat espionage project would still be interesting as a new project though.

[Suicide Junkie]

I don't have a list of mods which use it, although I have implemented it in Carrier Battles Mod for one.

It is quite simple to do, although AIs will certainly have trouble.
The thing to do for the AIs is either (A) mod in a racial tech which gives the AIs stock counter intel, or (B) disable intel when playing solo.

Against human players on PBW, though, it is great.

[douglas]

That ability would also be very useful for system gravitational shield facilities.

[Q]

Some features I have seen and liked in Starfury (but may be impossible for SE V):
- long term shield regeneration (not complete shield regeneration after each combat).
- slow auto hull repair (not at least one component per turn or nothing) and retaining of patial damage to components after combat.
- side differences of shields and armor (four different sides).
- side difference/arcs for weapon firing.
- cost for repairs.
- limited/variable ranges of sensors.

[Slick]

I would like to string complex orders together to minimize management each turn. Example:

Build spaceyard,
build rock colonizer,
when rock colonizer built, transfer 1M (only) population of oxygen breathers to colonizer,
send colonizer to colonize planet X,
build spaceyard space station,
once spaceyard space station built, have it load saved build queue #3 and commence building.


or

to population transport: move correct breathing population to planets taking population only from planets >90% full. Do not reduce planet population to less than 50% full. Fill planets to no more than 80% full.


or

to ship: meet up with and join fleet ABC. (While fleet ABC continues carrying out its orders)


or

all planets without spaceyards not building anything right now with at least 1200 free cargo, build Weapon Platform XYZ.


to a carrier: pick up fighters from planet(s) [a, b, c, or d] until full then rendezvous with ship/fleet; or go to location xyz.


=============================================

I'd also like more "overall empire management" type information easily available, especially for the system and empire level. I see from the screen shots that MM is moving in this direction. Example:


Show me how many resources are being produced at each system that currently does not have a System Robotoid Factory. Sort with highest on top.


or


Overlay on the quadrant map the distribution of my "attack" ships. (This could be graphical or numeric)


or


on the quadrant map, show me all systems that have:
- system robotoid
- system grav shield
- undefended warp points
- etc.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Not just for SYs, for all components. Say, a 10kT Bridge. A weapon hits the bridge with damage 5. The Bridge component is still there, but it does not have the Bridge ability any more and as such the ship will resort to using an Auxiliary Control or will lose its movement.

Or, a component with double Crew Quarters ability and one Life Support ability - one component - and that it loses one Crew Quarters ability when it is damaged slightly. Also, you should be able to mod components to actually lose efficiency when damaged or that it does not lose efficiency or does not get damaged at all.

Plus, besides the combat gimmick of damaging all comps on an enemy ship without destroying a single one, thus capturing a ship essentially intact, it adds great roleplay elements IMO.



DS, I fully concur with what you say, though I believe that with the moddable hull definitions you could create jump-capable satellites and non-jump-capable courier ships. JOY!

I really hope we will be able to mod vehicle types in SEV.....