Ships Created for More than War

Ships for Peace – not War!

Civilian Ship - Gradan Hull Class

Ships should have a greater versatility beyond military. There are certainly any number of reasons I could think of for space explorers to build ships that don't involve blowing things up, but there is currently no game mechanic for ecologist ships that are built to terraform planets, or religious ships that spread the gospel (playing someone other than Vodyani).

What if industry ships could mine asteroid belts and return to fledgling systems with a haul of raw materials (industry) – or science ships research black holes and provide a big one time science time boost? Or they could orbit around an interesting anomaly and provide a small boost until the anomaly is completely understood (+x science for x turns while actively researching).

Influence based ships could traverse the known galaxy touting the virtues of their civilization– A spacefaring tour, if you will, for the greater (Religious) good, with amount of influence based on distance traveled and/or other major and minor factions encountered on the trip. In similar fashion, pacifists could conduct trade missions. Return home and boom! Mega loot! Get destroyed on the way? Sorry about your bad luck and lost booty.

If a political affiliation was attached to each of these actions / modules, this would also offer an easy and straightforward way for players to directly influence the desired political party, and I for one, want more options to do this.

Module / Political Affiliation Overview

• Pacifists - Create Wormholes Lanes / Trade Missions  
• Militarist – Steal Resources
• Scientist - Research Special Nodes & Anomalies 
• Industrialist – Industry Transport / Planet & Node mining 
• Ecologists - Minor Faction Propagation / New Terraforming Options / Food Harvest
• Religious – Religious Conversion / Main Faction Propagation / Spacefaring Tour

Different special nodes could have different bonuses for mining, similar to planets. An uncolonized system could be mined for luxury or strategic resources, providing you have the right tech.

A significant strategic element could be added by ‘stealing’ resources from a blockaded system, or linking two faraway places via wormhole! Don’t just stop your enemy from producing Orichalcix… take it! 

These modules would be standard support modules and added to a new buildable civilian ship - gradan class. Additional research options should be added to upgrade the number and/or effectiveness of the modules.

I realize the ideas above have some game balance issues. They are just a starting point and could use tweaking. The point is, there should be more reasons to build ships than just destroying your enemy (mid to late game)

Special Ship Modules Expanded:

Modules for each of the following actions would be available through a module that is added to an existing technology [For example Research Special Nodes could be added to the Prev-scale Accelerators technology]. I’ll use the following format for ease of reading.

[Edit from Kitkun comments] - To reduce potential micro with some ships below a Route Planner feature could utilize the Trade Scan view to make preset routes that could be selected instead of using movement selection. An auto explore type option should also be available.

Module / Action Type (Political Affinity) ­ Technology Quadrant [tech level] - 

Description

Trade ship missions (Pacifists) Empire [2] – 

A ship would ‘launch’ from a system with a planned route, selected ahead of time. Trade mission modules could be loaded with luxury and/or strategic resources, and dust is earned for visiting major factions in cold war, peace or alliance and minor factions with positive relationships. The amount of dust increases based on distance traveled, resource tier (Tier 1/2/3), resource Qty, and relationship status (Alliance>peace>cold war). Additionally, the amount of dust earned from each faction stop depends on the distance away from the launch point of the trade ship (farther is better). 

Cargo will be sold automatically at each stop point so the ship will return with the cargo modules empty. Depending on desired complexity, minor races could have pre-set resource preferences and major races could provide the player with preferences for resources, depending on in-game needs. Destroying a trade ship would grant the attacker 1/2 the dust carried resources still on board.

Create Wormholes (Pacifists) Empire [4]– 

two ships would be able to create a wormhole between them. Each must have the module, and the larger the distance, the more modules required. It would take a minimum of 5 turns to create, with x turns added for distance. Trade networks could be established through these wormholes to bypass hostile factions and pirates. 

Steal Resources (Militarist) Military [3]– 

As said by velorace “If you invade a system, you will "drain" from your opponent [or pirate / minor faction] all the resources he is producing on the planets he already colonized and is producing resources [from], but you will only drain those resources from that system your invading (whit specific militarist module) if he has the research for that strategic and is able to harvest it. Consider this as opportunity to harvest quadrinix in key situations even if you don’t have the research to do so. This would open opportunity to a deeper strategical gameplay in the game!” – perfect. This is exactly what I meant

Research Special Nodes / Anomalies (Scientist) Science [2&4]– [Tech 2] 

Special nodes can be orbited using a ship with the research module to further examine the unique properties of that node, and once completed, it provides a single large science boost. The length of time depends on the number of science modules present and the science boost depends on the quality of the node (a new quality that would have to be added to the nodes). Nebulas might provide more benefit than asteroids, for instance. Anomalies can be studied for a small continuous science boost to the system for x turns, where x is based on the anomaly (some can be researched for a long time, and some are simple, thus have shorter durations). 

[Tech 4] Anomaly Upgrade -Great idea velorace! – advanced science modules can amplify the anomaly benefits by combining a ship (or multiple ships) with terraforming and science modules to upgrade its effects permanently! The module should cost tier 3 resources and be expended upon use.

Industry Transport (Industrialist  Economy [2&3] – [Tech 2] 

The module would have a max industry capacity, similar to manpower, which would be filled as a percentage of the total industry of a system (Or a new build option could be implemented to fill the module instead of producing ships / buildings). The ship could travel to another colonized system or an ally system to deliver the stored industry. Multiple modules can be combined to increase total stored industry. If the ship is destroyed, so it the industry. [Tech 3] Total Storage capacity increased.

Node / Planet Mining (Industrialist ) Economy [2&3] – [Tech 2] 

A ship with a mining module could orbit a node or uncolonized planet and extract luxury and strategic resources at a rate of ¼ that planets output / turn per module to a max of ½. A module can hold a maximum of 10 resources (luxury and strategic) combined. The proper resource tech must be researched to extract it, but the planet does not need to be colonizable. The ships must return to a colonized planet for the resources to be received. When multiple resources are available, the player may select what to mine. Industry may also be mined but must be combined with an industry transport module. [Tech 3] Resource capacity is increased to 20 and a max of ¾ total output from a system is available (3 modules total). Industry mining rates for nodes and planets are increased.

Food harvest (Ecologists) Empire [2] – 

Similar to mining for industry, except it could only happen on planets with food production. Food could then be transported to colonized systems.

Minor Faction Propagation (Ecologists) Empire [3] – 

An upgrade to the food harvest module, selected foods specialized for specific minor factions can be harvested. Each minor faction would have a preference of which planet type the food came from, and when delivered to a system would increase the chance a member of that minor faction would be produced next.

Increase Terraforming Options (Ecologists) Science [3] – 

ships with this module would be able to terraform planets backwards and with more options than the current system allows for. Ship must remain in orbit for the duration of construction. Multiple modules may be required.

Spacefaring tour (Hero Point Generation) (Religious) Empire [2] – 

Mechanics work the same as for the trade ship mission, except instead of dust, influence is earned. Additionally, hero points are gained relating to the factions visited (you are inspiring their heroes to come to you).

Major Faction Propagation (Religious) Empire [3] – 

Must have at least 2 colonized systems. One influence per turn is accrued (regardless of # of modules) while in orbit to a max of 5 per module. This influence is received when the player moves the ship from one system to another, and the likelihood of producing a major faction population in that system is increased relative to the amount of influence gained.

Religious conversion (Religious) Empire [3] – 

This works like a combination of siege and colonization. A ship must orbit a system for x turns (somewhere between 10 and 30), spending influence to slowly convert its citizens. If the ship leaves orbit, conversion progress reduces at twice the speed it is gained. As a boost, spacefaring tours can dump their influence on the system under conversion, and if the orbiting ship is hero led, a boost is also applied. Religoious heroes get the biggest boost. 

A colony that is converted becomes fully under control (not rebelling) of the new owner in ½ the time as normal and starts at 30% happiness, rather than 0%.