Hi, arks are unique in the ship designer, and you can't create additional versions of them, you can only ever change that one model. It would be an immense QoL improvement if we could create separate versions, like for other ships. Use case: I generally create arks with an all-propulsion-module layout. Once it reaches its destination, I'll give it a layout with a lot of production modules to kickstart its development. Later, it'll get changed to a more balanced layout. Having to edit the same one model every time is a pain in the glowy behind.

Please please?

There were some ideas similar to this (like ARK AS A SELECTABLE HULL TYPE or UPGRADE VODYANI ARKS INDEPENDENTLY) but devs said doing so was too tedious. I don't know whether devs changed their mind but I think that's unlikely.

Apologies for the duplicate thread then, I wasn't sure on thread necromancy rules. It's saddening to hear about the developers' stand on this, as it's something that keeps coming up maybe 50+ times per Vodyani game =/

terodil wrote:

Apologies for the duplicate thread then, I wasn't sure on thread necromancy rules. It's saddening to hear about the developers' stand on this, as it's something that keeps coming up maybe 50+ times per Vodyani game =/

I agree it would be a huge QoL improvement to play vodyani. In fact it's probably the number 1 thing which rebute me from playing them more often.

Dragar wrote:

It would be a huge improvement if Arks were treated like heroes for upgrading purposes, but the developers have said this is out of scope (too much micro).

This makes no sense to me - it's much more micromanagement at present, as we have to write down our Ark's loadout, update the design appropriately, find the Ark we want to update again, upgrade it, and then do the same for every ark in the empire.

Bolded for emphasis. I put up an idea on changing some vodyani mechanics as a whole a couple weeks ago and the biggest suggestion I had was making Arks "hero ships" in function because they're the only ships in the game where having more than one design actually makes sense at present.

Hi,

The stance hasn't changed on using the hero method for Arks. The micro involved to simply upgrade a module would be too great.

However we are currently doing internal tests on the balance mod with ship design unlocked for Arks. There are potential serious AI issues so we want to be sure there are no pending turns before we upload the mod.

Hi, thank you for the info, jhell! Much appreciated.

To be honest, I don't see the advantage of making arks heroship-like, as I personally explicitly like having templates ("speed ark", "production ark", "science ark", "combat ark" etc.). So I very much appreciate you looking into unlocked ship design for arks. Thanks!

jhell, are you imagining that everyone has or wants the same Ark design across their systems? Because that's rarely the case when I play. I want Arks moving out to have engines; later they can be turned into production modules. I want new Arks to have production modules;  I then change those other things once improvements are established. A combat Ark might be transformed into a production Ark after conflict is over.

Every single Ark is unique. It takes a ton of micro to upgrade a single module right now.  With heroes you double click on the ship, modify and click okay. Way faster than 'write down our Ark's loadout, update the design appropriately, find the Ark we want to update again, upgrade it'.

Have to agree with you. If arcs were treated like heros it would be way easier to micro them since as you already mentioned the optimal modules for an arc change quite often. 

Tbh i don't really get the 'micro would be too great' argument because at the moment the micro is insane if you have like 10+ arcs. Most of all if some of them are for settling or fighting.

Yeah, the Devs definitely seem to play Vodyani differently than the rest of us. 

I think an ideal option would be to:

1) Allow creating and deleting Ark templates

2) Have Arks upgrade like hero ships

3) Have a drop-down menu on the Ark upgrade screen to select a template, with an option for "None" if you want to handle that one particular Ark manually. 

Then we would have all of the options. Arks set to a template would remain on that template when the template is upgraded. However, the player would have the option of going in and changing it to a different template, if desired. The player would also have the option of handling certain special Arks manually.