SFTC Lite

[Phoenix-D]

No, I mean there are three components. No subtlety at *all*, but it works. The reason I did it like that was the Prototypes. They're there to give the player an idea of what he'll get when he researches a field, and they actually show up before that's researched.

Say, Laser Weapons:
Research Physics 1, and you get Laser Weapons tech area and the Prototype Laser.
Research Laser Weapons and the prototype goes up to the next level, and the standard laser becomes available.

I could probably do a similar effect with mounts, but I haven't tried that. The tricky part is getting them to respect the level formulas.

By saving designs, I mean do this:
Make a hull. Cram one of every component that fits onto it. Copy that hull and lay it out as you like when the time comes. It actually won't work as I was hoping, because you couldn't add additional old components to it.

[Suicide Junkie]

Antique designing?

Can't you pick up one of the low level components and Shift-click to duplicate more of them?

[Slick]

I don't think there is a way to pick a low level component unless it is already in a design, hence the dummy designs.

The right answer here is a change to the design screen to allow picking not-the-latest components.

edit: you are also severely limited on what you can do while you are "holding" a component.

[Phoenix-D]

SJ: you can, and that makes the concept workable. Thanks.

Slick: True, but I can't do anything about that.. Thus, emailed MM about it, then set to finding workarounds.

Kind of like how Pirates and Nomads really needed point generation from components, but SJ found a workaround that did what was needed until those abilities were added.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Ahh, that's a cool concept and neat way to approach the problem. It also avoids the problem the SFTC has. Which is every version of every component is listed. Saving the design then clicking to copy and change the layout is much closer to what I have in the SFTC. The only diffrence I see between the two is that you have to save the "generic" design for every size ship. Even then I don't see how that will work if you want to create them on hulls that will be developed. Isn't the ship layout stripped clean when you reselect a new hull size? Wouldn't that also have the effect of stripping your "generic" design clean preventing a retro-build? I can't think of a reason why you would want to retro-build a more advanced hull but you can still do it in SFTC. Maybe you want to make an opponent think you have a higher tech ally that is building the stripped hulls for you. I like the approach you took P-D. I also like SJ's term for it; "Antique Designing", as opposed to "Retro-Construction". As I mentioned in another thread we are pioneering new ground here. We get to coin the terms that players in future years will throw around as standard vocabulary. What a wonderful privilege! This is like a Golden Age for us modders.

[Phoenix-D]

You can't change the ship size, so you have to do it for every hull size as well. Messy. Copying a hull does NOT clear the components though, so it works.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Sorry about the confusion it is my fault. I didn't mean when you copy I meant when you change hull sizes after selecting the copy button for the generic design. When you do that it clears the design. So your idea will only work if every possible hull that can be built is available for building from the very start. Otherwise (using the SFTC as an example) You wouldn't be able to place a Missile Launcher on a Battleship because the Missile Launcher will have been replaced by a better version before then. You see in SFTC you can take any hull you have developed and create a new design using any component that you have ever developed. So you could take a High Tech Level 16 Juggernaut and fill it with Missile Launchers even though that is a starting weapon.

That is what I am calling Retro-Construction. What you are describing is what I think SJ's term is best suited for. Antique Designing. You have the antique (the old saved design) and now you are just making changes in it. You aren't creating new construction (newly developed hull sizes) with retro components.