New feature wanted - - - Space Docking

[Ragnarok]

TUGS would be another great feature ... the ability to TOW another ship, or even starbase. Rate it for how many kT's it can move at without a loss of speed, AND give the part a once-per-ship NEGATIVE speed bonus (tugs are powerful, not fast). Every additional multiple of that rated tonnage, you lose 1 more from teh tug's speed; tugs in a fleet add their towage capacity together.

Then you can have a slew of Cruiser-sized tugs move that nice, shiny starbase -ever- so slowly into position at the WP chokepoint it was intended for ... after building it at one of your much-more-capable planetary yards.

This is a awesome idea. I would absoluly love to see this happen. Would bring into the game a whole other way of playing. Hopefully MM will add this to SEV. That'd be the bomb.

[Pax]

Tugs'd also help bring ships with extensive battle damage back to a rear-area repair base faster ... if the tug could haul the damaged ship(s), even at a speed of only 3 (at maxtech) ... that's better than speed 1, or even speed 0.

[Nebraskan]

Baron, My thinking was this: say you had 6 Escorts or Frigates in a Fleet and it is being opposed by a Cruiser. If they try to go one on one they will get creamed against the Cruiser. However if they can join together by docking they would stand an excellent chance of defeating the Cruiser. Yes my primary reason was to boost the shipbuilding capacity of spaceyard ships. I think if you look at the concept longer you may find other strategies that could be adopted. How about docking a Starbase with a Carrier and a Transport. Such a unit could have many fighters to use protecting anything. I realize this unit is limited by being stationary but the potential for adjusting it size and therfore it power is enormous.

What do you think?

[Taera]

Still i dont see much use in that.
For the six frigates, actually if they arent "stone age" against high-tech cruiser but human designed ships with moderate tech they will most likely defeat the cruiser.

By docking ships together and making them single unit you would face the 'bug' with multi-targetting, and then your 6 linked baseships could only do as much as destroy one ship per turn, as would each baseship do resulting in 6 destroyed ships, not one.

I see not a single benefit coming from the idea of docking.

Tugs are a whole different idea, i've had the same thoughts leaving my kick-*** battle cruiser to limp to nearest repair bay loosing ships one by one when the repair is so close.... moveable bases too. I'd absolutely love to see THAT implemented.

[Trajan]

Gentlemen,

I would love to see the implementation of Tugs. This would allow for moving of the many Warp-Point defenses, making it possible to advance (or heaven forbid retreat) with your line of battle.

Rescuing severely damaged ships would be a major bonus as well.

Cheers!
Trajan

[Baron Munchausen]

We've been asking for the tractor beam to work on the strategic map as well as the tactical map for a long time. If a ship with a tractor beam could just 'combine' it's mass with that of a smaller ship and move somewhat slower it'd be good enough. It's one of a zillion requests so we don't know when MM can get to it.

I still don't see much real benefit from being able to dock ships together. You give up mobility and the 'spread' of targets, not to mention the defense bonus of being a small ship, for immobility and clustering everything in one place at an increased percentage to hit. Yech...

[DirectorTsaarx]

I also like the idea of tugs (in fact, I think I mentioned it on the "SE5 wish list" thread). Anyway, the other use for tugs is adding "pallets" to the tug (I got this idea from SFB, of course). The basic idea is that the tug can tow various "pallets", each with it's own characteristics. One type of pallet is basically part of a spacestation/battlestation/starbase, another could be a "carrier" (i.e., fighter bay) pallet, another a "combat" pallet, etc. That way, you could build & store pallets, and then bring a tug in to pick up the pallet and go off to the front lines as an auxiliary carrier, attack vessel, etc. (or, as others have pointed out, put a starbase together on the front lines). I'd recommend multiple levels of tugs, just like the multiple levels of transports.