Hi.



Major idea suggestion. Very radical, requires more brainstorming, but would be a neat addition. The idea is to allow a new option called "Refit" that is a role-changer, cheaper than retrofitting, and should allow quick adaptations to new situations.



"Create Variant". Copies a design, lets you modify it, and appends a suffix (of your choice) after the Mk. Number. Idea is very messy, but I can't think of anything better.

- Knight, and Knight Templar for example, if you have a Destroyer and a variant "Templar".

- Updating Templar while at Knight MkI will get you Knight Templar B, while the original Templar design gets an A suffix and is now obsolete.

- Updating Knight to MkII will make all designs obsolete. All ships can be retrofitted to this design but not vice versa. Templar Variant is greyed out until you update it.

- Updating Knight to MkIII, see above.

- Choosing to update Templar now, will give it Knight Templar MkIII.



- Updating Templar again, will create Knight Templar MkIII-A and MkIII-B, where MkIII-A is obsolete. (this part is really messy i admit)



- If you ever solve the management nightmare, you can introduce Retrofit and Refits. Retrofit upgrades a variant to it's direct successor design.

Knight Templar --> Knight Templar Mk2 (Retrofit, Standard Retrofit Cost)

Knight Templar Mk2 --> Knight Crusader Mk2 (Refit, Cheaper that Retrofit)

Knight Templar --> Knight Crusader Mk2 (Retrofit + Refit, Expensive)



The only way I can think of to make Variants not abuseable, is to restrict what % of the ships tonnage must be similar to it's root design (Knight in this example). I'd say if the restriction is a number i just made up like 25%, and 26% of your ship tonnage is missiles, then:

- Upgrading all the missiles (26%) exceeds the limitation.

- Changing all the Missiles (26%) to Kinetics of the same tech level (and tonnage) also exceeds limitation.

- Upgrading half the Missiles to Newer ones (13% of tonnage) does not exceed limitation, and is allowed.

- Changing half the Missiles (13% of the ship tonnage) to Kinetics does not exceed limitation, and is allowed.

- Changing half the Missiles (again 13%) to Defenses is allowed.



Perhaps with tech upgrades you could eventually raise the percentage of refits to something worth abusing like 50%.







Again, the idea is rather messy to the point where I doubt it's worth the effort, but it IS cool if you could adapt available ships to exploit/cover weaknesses.

So basically you want 1 ship design to be the parent of 2 or more subsequent designs, with the ability for those child designs to swap to each other

Yes, but only at systems belonging to you, and at a cost.

I really like this idea Afoxi, particularly the fact that you thought of limitations to balance it as well



This is something that always did kind of bug me about games like Galactic Civilizations II. Considering the fact that even in the modern era, many weapon systems are designed to be modular it only makes sense that kind of functionality would carry on into some far future time.



It also solves the problem of having to build redundant fleets (with minor differences in their outfitting) to deal with different opponents. If I've just finished a war and another one crops up, why can't I swap out the defenses on my ships at a reasonable refitting cost for ones that will better suit the coming engagements?

Okay, if I've understood correctly, it seems like a grand idea, and it makes a lot of sense really! Sorry, I haven't really much to add, but I like the concept.

i'd very much like to see something like this. beats the hell out of 'scrap all' and rebuild.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the OP, but isn't this already in game? I was able to create several versions of my ships and I called them LR, MR, SR and I was able to refit them as necessary.



Just click the plus symbol in the fleet management screen, you can add as many ship designs as you want. And every time you upgrade it assigns a version number.

Lyability wrote:
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the OP, but isn't this already in game? I was able to create several versions of my ships and I called them LR, MR, SR and I was able to refit them as necessary.



Just click the plus symbol in the fleet management screen, you can add as many ship designs as you want. And every time you upgrade it assigns a version number.

But you can't upgrade your ship from LR design to MR, from MR to SR... And you can't roll back to previous design.



On topic - Good idea, I like it!

it's kind like forking the design but have a state of parent-child relationship that is broken when you exceed the limitations this creating a brand new ship.



so, if I understand it correctly these ship must have the same hull and a certain %-age of equal gear onboard. and if you update the parent you update the child as well.



i tried to come up with a graph or something but now i can't visualize it, maybe when i'm home i can