Ships Created for More than War

The idea has gone through several revisions now. Some of the new civilian ships could have a BIG impact, such as creating new wormhole lanes, or stealing enemy resources, while others are more fun - spacefaring tours, new terraforming options. 

We are really looking at a whole lot of ideas here with many more that could be added, and easily some taken away. The real idea is a new civilian ship class that does cool stuff (and doesn't blow tihngs blow things up). These are just some of my thoughts of what these civ ships could do. 

So what do YOU think are the best civilian ship ideas?

 My favorites are the trade mission ships and science modules. I also really like the idea of religious conversion, but I'm still not convinced on how that should work. 

Let's get a new ship class in this game!

I think you better make a forum post asking for a new civillian ship design. I also believe that "civillian ship" is not really a good name for these ship classes... it seems like it is carrying "civilians" but civilizans are... pop? These ships carry modules, not pop. I believe that if you rename civilian ships to Traveller ship designs, it would sound more pacific, and more atmospheric to the theme you are trying to create. Travellers  are a more peacefull approach of the normal military ship designs, and as the name says, they Travel across the galaxy, spreading peace (mostly) and expanding your empire as they Travel. Traveller ship designs seems the best idea for you by now. 

Also, when you say best civilian ships ideas... you mean, you want to create a new ship design, or you want to ask me what is the best Traveller ship module combination? Just to make sure :) 

Also, congrats on your Religious Conversion idea. It is pretty good by now. It almosts make me want to convert a system using influence and religious power only to expand my empire better :) 

Would feel great to put a civillian / Traveller ship on a system, place a huge fleet above them that the enemy cannot beat and guard it, and just say: La la la. Soon you will be mine! ;D 

Really liking this idea so far :D

This is an idea I very much like, as there's very limited ways to affect other systems outside of your influence, aside from blockade, and open up new gameplay options. Might even be able to repurpose models of some of the pirate ships to cut down on the work. And perhaps integrate with existing features such as trade companies, or even add whole new ones.

I do have some criticism though, and that's that some of these would be awfully micro-heavy. Planning out a trade route every time or moving an influence ship every few turns would get very tiring for players who like long games. I'd recommend adapting something like the explore command to seek out useful planets/resources/etc or just being able to set up looping routes.

Aren't behemoths like 75% of what this idea purposes? :/

Even though I didn't read absolutely everything, the couple of ideas I saw are absolutely great and should be in the game !

I personally think (sorry in advance if you said it already, I'll edit it out if you did) that ships could also be used to be stationned in systems to reduce disapproval rates, forcing them on a minimum to avoid complete rebellion.

Aside from my personnal note, it's a great idea that is sure to give a whole new dimension to ES 2 if added, which seems mandatory in my opinion, even though it would bring more micro management with the trade ships you mentionned (I guess it could do something automaticaly like giving a set amount of ressource/ luxury per turn to a fleet of trading ships and getting something else in return in a couple of turns, or even adding an "intercept trading ships" mechanic, like taking its holds or capturing them and ransoming the faction that sent them to get them back ? Maybe I'm going too far, but it could be a Craver-only mechanic)

Edit : seems like you didn't mention it, so I guess it's another idea that could get thrown in this thread !

Man, when i said to you "Your idea is good to go to be placed on games2gether" 

I srsly din't expected it became this great :D

Srsly, its amazing!!! 8D

But now i call this: Feedback time :) 

So, here are my question to improve this even further: 

In pacifist you spoken about Trade Missions. Trade missions seems like a good thing for the game but... How would they work? 

Influence Space Faring Tour... What is that? can you explain that a bit further? 

in militarist you spoken there is a specific research that enables people to... mine luxury or strategic deposists? I think that point in your military conclusion became a bit... Ehm... difficult to understand. Where you attempting to refer to the tech that enables people to harvest adamantian, antimatter, or even quadrinix for example?

You are saying that if i invade a system that i found quadrinix deposits.. i will be able to harvest quadrinix from that system if i simply blockade it even if my opponent did not researched technologies to harvest and extract quadrinix from his system? 

I believe that in order to improve that militarist idea (Its really great man) you have to make it like this: If you invade a system, you will "drain" from your opponent all the resources he is producing on the planets he already colonized and is producing resources , 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 dont have the research to do so. This would open opportunity to a deeper strategical gameplay in the game! ITS AMAZIIIIING! :D

Now the last feedback here: Scientist research specials nodes or annomalies on planets. (Note, you mispelled annomalies there. look it up!). But what happens if they research a special node ? What happens if they research an annomaly? They upgrade it??? OH. MY. GOD!

Srsly, amplitude can earn money this. If amplitude makes this idea become true, it would be almost better than vaulters update. Srsly talking :D

Some other side notes: I believe that, the reward for destroying a trade ship during a trade mission... should not be only dust, but half of its total loot yield, if it has loot when travelling to another major empire system, or half its total dust if returning from the trade route (When the ship is going in the trade route to another system, it takes luxuries and resources whit it, so it can sell in those systems, right? then after he returns it only has dust whit it so...) Only half of the total amount of loot a trade ship is carrying will go to the player who kills it. :)

Velorace wrote:

But you cannot forget that WAR is also, a very , very important part of the game...

But there are currently a few issues whit your idea: You explain that we can research those technologies by going in the tech tree and adding a bunch of new technologies, in every game stage, for we to research to improve our peacefull capability... Most people, instead of spending their time, turns and research, on researching individual upgrades like create wormholes lanes whit a certain amount of research they could utilize to upgrade their medium ships, or even research a carrier... 

We must indeed prepare for war, and extra tech costs for researching these modules would make them quite a bit less attractive – especially since these mods shouldn’t be that strong. I intend for them to simply be attached to a preexisting technology, which should resolve this issue. I updated the OP with an example.

Velorace wrote:

Now another point i'd like to say: You know that, some major factions... have low amount of support modules, right? Whit all that diversity... it would make it easier for some major factions to implement in these slots some modules you refered... while others well, can't really participate that gameplay. 

I hadn’t thought about this, but I think the diversity this is actually a good thing. It adds additional distinction bewtween the major factions. The ones with more defense and weapon slots are more clearly military focused and those with more support slots have more options! I imagine coordinator ships as the main ship using these modules, and all factions have some support module slots on their coordinator ships.

Velorace wrote:

...i'd recommend you to create a custom ship design, like... a Civillian ship or... A Traveller! and that ship would be able to carry all these modules you listed, while making military ships... still usefull for military. Building these ships will naturally increase pacifist support (a little bit) because they improve peace. :) ...

I would also be totally down for this as well, if it works better. This might make it easier to implement and may the new ships easier to manage in gameplay. I like the suggestions you make regarding these ships too, if this is the better way to go.

Velorace wrote:

...I've also got an idea: i saw that only one tech you currently has is considered tier 4 to be researchble....

Don't forget about science Tech 4 - Anomaly Upgrade! (This was your idea ;)

Velorace wrote:

...In religious take over you said about a completely different method. I liked it. but i believe that, in order for religious takeover to be effective... you need to find a way that, even small ships, like scouts, can takeover systems in a significant amount of turns...  

You can also rename religious take over to Religious Convertion. Seems better ;)

For the religious takeover, I agree, conversion is better XD (changed in OP). Going with the support module model, a single tier 1 ship would be able to convert a system, it would just take a long time! Time could be reduced with additional modules, so a single coordinator ships could be loaded with conversion modules to speed up the process (and influence cost). I agree the ship should be able to leave and then return and continue the conversion process, but it seems to me the conversion progress should degrade over time, rather than remain static.

CraverGourmetChef wrote:

I personally think (sorry in advance if you said it already, I'll edit it out if you did) that ships could also be used to be stationned in systems to reduce disapproval rates, forcing them on a minimum to avoid complete rebellion.

CraverGourmetChef – I thought about this but did not add one because I couldn’t come up with a logical explanation of what that ship would be. Is it a party ship? How does it increase happiness in a balanced way? Make one up, and I’ll throw it up there as your idea!

CraverGourmetChef wrote:

...even though it would bring more micro management with the trade ships you mentionned (I guess it could do something automaticaly like giving a set amount of ressource/ luxury per turn to a fleet of trading ships and getting something else in return in a couple of turns, or even adding an "intercept trading ships" mechanic, like taking its holds or capturing them and ransoming the faction that sent them to get them back ? Maybe I'm going too far, but it could be a Craver-only mechanic)

This is a concern. I imagine there would be some auto functions to help. In trade ship missions, for instance- a preset path is set out at the beginning, so it's not a turn after turn ship management. Resource and industry mining would have an option like blocade / sleep which the ship just mines until complete. A return to home option could be activated so the ship auto returned with the haul, or turned off if the player wanted to choose the destination. This game can already be a little micro heavy, so definitely valid.

Zyntree wrote:

We must indeed prepare for war, and extra tech costs for researching these modules would make them quite a bit less attractive – especially since these mods shouldn’t be that strong. I intend for them to simply be attached to a preexisting technology, which should resolve this issue. I updated the OP with an example.

Good to know. That way we can research military technologies whit less trouble, but i believe you must take into accouint that some players prioritize certain researches over anothers... Adding more stuff to most technologies in game, might change this, making other technologies more important for the developement of your Empire, possibily changing the research priorities and... Well, making the game better! :) Nice idea, Zyantree. 

Zyntree wrote:

I hadn’t thought about this, but I think the diversity this is actually a good thing. It adds additional distinction bewtween the major factions. The ones with more defense and weapon slots are more clearly military focused and those with more support slots have more options! I imagine coordinator ships as the main ship using these modules, and all factions have some support module slots on their coordinator ships.

Yes... that's, also , a good idea... riftborn coordinator ships are also essential to be upgraded in order to fill them whit extra movement speed modules to make riftborn larger ships faster.... But it just feels weird that Coordinator ships will be researching special nodes, Coordinator ships will be mining asteroids and giving industry to ships... Coordinator ships will be placing womrholes around the galaxy and... Wait, will coordinator ships attempt to do Trade Missions? REALLY? 

I just like the idea of coordinator ships very very much but.. im not sure it really fits whit the thematic of your idea. Its like using the cannon of a tank to distruibite candy to children. Its possible? Yes it is! whit a few modifications you can do that. But tanks are made for war... not to teach children how to make life more sweet. Like, srsly... xD

Zyntree wrote:

I would also be totally down for this as well, if it works better. This might make it easier to implement and may the new ships easier to manage in gameplay. I like the suggestions you make regarding these ships too, if this is the better way to go.

yea, i totally like the traveller ship idea. But i agree whit you the devs will have to decide if this traveller idea is good or not. Maybe you could implement it as an ~ Alternative ~ Option in your idea? Im not sure, its up to you decide :)

Zyntree wrote:

Don't forget about science Tech 4 - Anomaly Upgrade! (This was your idea ;)

<3 

Velorace wrote:

For the religious takeover, I agree, conversion is better XD (changed in OP). Going with the support module model, a single tier 1 ship would be able to convert a system, it would just take a long time! Time could be reduced with additional modules, so a single coordinator ships could be loaded with conversion modules to speed up the process (and influence cost). I agree the ship should be able to leave and then return and continue the conversion process, but it seems to me the conversion progress should degrade over time, rather than remain static.

Yea i agree... i completely forgotten that part, but you made a good point there. Degrading over time is also a good idea, i like it! :)