Dreadnaught sized ships

from Sins Forums
Hey guys, this is just an idea I was kicking around in the modding section, but figured it might be interesting to post into general forums as well. This is something that might be cool for expansions or even a player mod. Just thought I'd get some feedback on what you guys think.
I was just curious if there was any work being done to add new ships to the game in the form of Juggernaught sized vessels. I was thinking that would be neat to see. Basically a high level research (maybe level 6 or so military with some prereqs). Possibly triple a capital ship's weapons and size, quadruple the armor, and double the shields. Of course to balance this, they should cost somewhere around a superweapon. They could definatly turn the tide of a battle, but by far could not win it on their own. Against a fleet of focused fire, I'm sure they'd go down quick, but with a few vessels with them it could make for one hell of a match. Just seeing two dreadnaughts wailing on eachother would be impressive to watch. It's something that I'm sure would take a lot of tweaking to make cool and useable but not unbalancing for the current game's specifications.
Another thing I was also thinking of is (if it's possible to do with the game engine) to have the Mega-ships build as a structure (you gotta figure a ship that size wouldn't fit in a cap ship facility). That would balance it somewhat a little more, in the fact that it can be attacked while under construction. Another thing that would be cool to see is if they have to be built in stages. IE. Stage 1 Building- Builds the ship, upon completion it can move like a normal vessel but only has the statistics of an average battleship. Upon clicking an "upgrade" button it again turns into a non-movable object or structure type item and begins another build phase. Stage II would make it more powerful with the firepower and armor far above that of a capital ship, with Stage III completing it and giving it "special abilities" like capital ships (as opposed to the capital ship's "Experiance" based upgrade). The dreadnaughts would have to still be incredibly slow, just to keep things even. Possibly even make them half the speed in phase space so the enemy has time to react if they can see if coming (another idea that might balance gameplay a bit). Just some ideas i'd like to kick around there, see if anyone else is interested in such a thing or has some input.
23,341 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
If I remember correctly Gal Civ 2 had something similar to this with mobile space stations that had to be built in stages. I could be wrong, but I know I've played a game with this concept before and I quite enjoed it. I would love to see that added in a future expansion! You have my vote! Of course to balance all that power they would have to take of a lot of fleet capacity and I would think they would have to be very slow moving, not only in real space, but phase space as well. Perhaps even letting every player know when one is built through an alarm and/or letting their movement through phasespace be seen as well.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
it would be a very nice addition to this masterpiece.
because a want a see bigger ship. yes capital ship are big, but not enough for me. think star wars!
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Sounds like the Colossus From FS2 - take forever to build but once done you have a ship that kicksA and takes names.

Think it would be build in stages, and Researched in Stages.

In the order of
Frame Work - Space Structure
Power Plants - Anti-Matter Reactors
Primary Weapons- Main Guns Installed
Shield Installed- Primary Shield Installed
Phase Drive - Installs Phase Drive
Maneuvering Drive - Lets ship Turn In Place
Secondary Weapons- Anti-Capital Weapons Installed
Main Drive Core - Ships Main Drive installed
Flight Bays Installed -
Primary Hull installed- First Layer Of Armor
Tertiary Weapons Installed - Anti-Cruiser weapons
Secondary Shield Generators installed
Secondary Hull installed.
MainDrive Installed - Ship Can Move
Final Fittings - Ships Done Ready to take names

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
This seems like a cool idea. Having some really huge "mothership" type ship could be cool.

I was also wondering if there might be a mod out there that sort or reverses the roles of the frigates and the cruisers. I think it might be cool to have the frigates be light support vessels, but not have that much combat power. Then you could add a few new cruisers and make them more combat oriented. In order to do this you might have to put some of the cruisers a little earlier in the tech tree. In any event it might lead to a type of game with more larger ships, but fewer total ships.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Two critiques-

- Would like to see some form of huge ginormous amazingly stupendous gun which blows anything smaller than a capitol ship to smithereens in a single, impressively sized shot. The size of a fighter, or thereabouts. Very slow fire rate, and range all the way across a planetary well, of course.

- Slower speed makes no sense; slow acceleration would be fine, but slower max speed would become a logistic hassle and makes no scientific sense. Maybe it would be known to all teams that player X has built a dreadnought- Something that big would be detected by an espionage program consisting of a blind man with a pair of binoculars (exaggerated to outside of 5 plausibility units).
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
What Id do with this is perhaps octuple the volume (double all lengths) of a standard capitol ship, and scale up the weapons with it, so dealing perhaps 300-400 damage with its main guns (not abilities) However I'd only double the shields and armour compared to a normal cap ship, in fact I'd consider not increasing shields at all, This would give you a massively powerful leviathan, but with a weak jaw which a concentrated attack could deal with.

Another thing I might suggest is requiring a crew transfer from an established capitol ship (Lvl 7 or better), destroying the old ship and giving the new dreadnought a starting level of experience.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Slower speed makes no sense; slow acceleration would be fine, but slower max speed would become a logistic hassle and makes no scientific sense


I respectfully disagree. You will not see something the size or scale of the death star moving at the speed of a capital ship. The bigger the ship the bigger the guns and other support provided. Also the bigger the mass of the object the more energy it takes to move it. It's safe to assume that something the size of the Death Star will not be able to move at a high speed or that fast at all while also functioning at full power in combat.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
as long as its balanced, it sounds great
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Yah, thats the hardest part of it, balance. Having the thing make your opponent go "HOLY #@%*&" when it jumps into his/her system, but to make it balanced enough that it doesn't ruin the game.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Two critiques-

- Would like to see some form of huge ginormous amazingly stupendous gun which blows anything smaller than a capitol ship to smithereens in a single, impressively sized shot. The size of a fighter, or thereabouts. Very slow fire rate, and range all the way across a planetary well, of course
...


This exists. The Varsari have a huge cannon that will move across phase lanes and own most ships in a gravity well.