I hope the new ship builder is more functional than just choosing weapon types and armor

How about the ability to also create fleet formations they will use when entering tactical combat?

from GalCiv3 Forums

I hope StarDock takes a page from the game StarDrive when it comes to ship building and combat.  StarDrive is basically a real-time version of Galciv, and I think the strongest element of the game is how the ship builder impacts the tactical battles.

I'd love the new Ship Builder to allow you to actually place the types of armor on the hull in the places you want followed by guns, shields, power etc inside the hull wherever you want.  What is cool about this is that you can fortify the front of your ship but leave the rear weak if you want.  If the starboard side of your ship takes heavy damage then those weapons stop functioning.  If you target the engines of the enemy ship it loses its ability to move.  If the warp core or power plant gets destroyed the entire ship may blow up!  How you design your ship directly impacts its combat abilities which was really fun to see.

If combat remains automated it would be really cool to have the ability to create custom formations for your fleets.  In this way you could place your cruisers in front with your support ships behind them and maybe the fighters on the edges for the strafing runs.  In this way the support ships would be protected by the cruisers in front.  Creating formations that your fleets use when they enter battle would be cool. Currently any ship can shoot through a ship to target anything it wants which isn't very interesting.

Also being able to give a wide range of combat orders to fleets for when they enter battle would be great.  Maybe I want my fleet to outflank the enemy fleet and have my ships prioritize certain targets.  Or maybe I want them to remain in a tight formation which might limit their ability to shoot at targets but also helps protect the weaker ships.  Certain formations could work better against others and help make a difference in the battle outcome.

These are just some ideas I thought would be fun.  The ability to customize ships and see how your ship fights in battle in StarDrive was really fun.

45,054 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I don't want anything too complex. I got real lazy when it came to designing my own ships once the devs added the auto ship design feature to the game. I don't really need to design my ships most of the time, only when the AI seriously fails, or when I need a ship that uses something other that uses modules other than guns and defenses.

If you wanted to improve ship designing for me, you would need to give me better control over the combination of modules, the selection of modules, and so on that the AI could do for me. I tend to favor defenses over guns, not guns over defenses like the AI does. I would like to be able to tell the AI to add x amount of guns (as in number of modules, the best I got), y amount of speed (that speed or better using as few modules as possible), use exactly one of these modules (like a specific atlas module), and give the rest over to defense.

I don't usually care for placing things. I usually find that when I upgrade my ships with better guns, defense, and engine - I remove the old modules and put the new modules where the old ones were. In fact, I often put extras on my ship that have a lot of mount point to stuff all my defense modules on. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to have people to put all those modules on the ships? I have at times needed to put like a dozen or so modules every upgrade, so I try to find ways to minimize work. I don't like feeling obligated to rotate my ship several times to distribute things evenly.

Personally, when I design the cosmetic features of my ship, I would rather I not need to do it again and again when ever I need to upgrade the ship with new modules. The cosmetic design and functional design should be kept separate.

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Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I really agree with this notion. Special weapons and components are definitely in order this time around.

I think my go-to model for ship customization would lean more towards MoO2 and Ascendancy rather than Stardrive, which made things a tad too micromanage-y.

Anyway, the ship customization in GC2 was extremely superficial, IMO, to a point that I really preferred to let the AI handle it for me and ignore this feature in the game altogether, which is a shame.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

As long as we get carriers (CV's) I am satisfied. :D

 

Ultra expensive of course, both in upkeep and prod. cost, and taking alot of logistics points, and only carrying tiny ships that die easely and must be replaced.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

one like Stardrive has is perfect.

 

use it, and import/export XLS ship blueprints through steam workshop marketplace whatever.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I like carriers too!

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yes. Carriers. With different types of spacecraft. Like a real carrier. Not just fighters. 

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Oh god, not the carrier debate again! :D I am in favour of them as well though.

I really liked designing my own ships, and not just for practical use, i loved designing them, making my own interpretations of famous Sci-Fi vessels and such.
Yes, it really could be more intuitive than how it was in GC2, and i'm sure SD are on to that. Plenty of time to sort out shipbuilding.
Bring on the Alpha!


Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Re: carriers

Why?  Why on earth would you build carriers in space?  The concept makes sense for a wet-navy because airplanes maneuver in a different medium than ships.  It makes no sense in a space-navy because all your vessels are operating in the same medium, subject to the same physical limitations.

Answer:  because it's awesome, so find an excuse!

Fine, fine... an excuse... um...  FTL drives take up so much space on a ship that it makes sense to build one, larger vessel with them, and then lots of smaller vessels without...

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting RonLugge, reply 8

Re: carriers

Why?  Why on earth would you build carriers in space?  The concept makes sense for a wet-navy because airplanes maneuver in a different medium than ships.  It makes no sense in a space-navy because all your vessels are operating in the same medium, subject to the same physical limitations.

Answer:  because it's awesome, so find an excuse!

Fine, fine... an excuse... um...  FTL drives take up so much space on a ship that it makes sense to build one, larger vessel with them, and then lots of smaller vessels without...

 

Please take a look at the thread I posted earlier today. It finds a way to have multiple ship classes in ways that makes more sense.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting athelasloraiel, reply 4

one like Stardrive has is perfect.
use it, and import/export XLS ship blueprints through steam workshop marketplace whatever.

 

Have none of you ever played GC2?

GC2's ship builder is miles ahead of SD.

 

All I want from GC3's ship builder is GC2's features + anything else.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Replicators, reply 10
Have none of you ever played GC2?

GC2's ship builder is miles ahead of SD.

 

All I want from GC3's ship builder is GC2's features + anything else.

 

Disagreed. Totally.

 

GC2's ship builder was just plugging modules on holes. Weapon placement, shield placement, etc.. were all purely cosmetic. There was no functionality to the build beyond selecting what you wanted.

 

In Stardrive, you have to take care about power distribution. About fuel capacity, about ordnance availability and weapon arc.

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Replicators, reply 10
GC2's ship builder is miles ahead of SD.

It really depends on what you want out of the ship designer, though, doesn't it? GC2's ship designer lets you make ships that looked more or less like anything you wanted them to, as long as you had the patience to place all the little pieces and had the parts you needed. It doesn't make the locations of the non-decorative parts important - as examples, the orientation and placement of a cannon had no impact on its firing arc, and where you place armor relative to other ship systems has no impact on what gets protected by the armor.

On the other hand, from what I've seen of StarDrive's ship designer, you have a fixed set of hull patterns and you can put certain types of modules into certain types of slots. It allows for protecting systems against incoming fire by interposing less important systems or armor between the likely direction of fire and the aforementioned important systems, but limits you in terms of how much of what kinds of things you can put on the ship.

Whether or not one model is superior to the other really depends on how detailed the combat model is going to be - if it's going to simulate firing arcs, armor location relative to ship systems, etc, then I'd say that what I've seen of StarDrive's ship designer is more appropriate. If it's going to be the same kind of combat as GC2 had, then there's really no need for that. And, of course, on what you as the player want out of the ship designer - if you want the ability to make ships that look like almost anything you want them to, then GC2's designer is probably one of the best out there, if it's not the best. If you want to have a relatively detailed combat simulation or have the locations of the components you placed be important, then something like StarDrive's ship designer is better (at least from what little I've seen of it).

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'm not real creative, so while I spent a good deal of time in GC2 designing my ships, they were kind of boring.

Whatever gets done in GC3, I'd like to be able to see other player's designs and install them as mods.  I'm sure there are going to be some awesome looking designs done.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting joeball123, reply 12

Quoting Replicators, reply 10GC2's ship builder is miles ahead of SD.

It really depends on what you want out of the ship designer, though, doesn't it? GC2's ship designer lets you make ships that looked more or less like anything you wanted them to, as long as you had the patience to place all the little pieces and had the parts you needed. It doesn't make the locations of the non-decorative parts important - as examples, the orientation and placement of a cannon had no impact on its firing arc, and where you place armor relative to other ship systems has no impact on what gets protected by the armor.

On the other hand, from what I've seen of StarDrive's ship designer, you have a fixed set of hull patterns and you can put certain types of modules into certain types of slots. It allows for protecting systems against incoming fire by interposing less important systems or armor between the likely direction of fire and the aforementioned important systems, but limits you in terms of how much of what kinds of things you can put on the ship.

Whether or not one model is superior to the other really depends on how detailed the combat model is going to be - if it's going to simulate firing arcs, armor location relative to ship systems, etc, then I'd say that what I've seen of StarDrive's ship designer is more appropriate. If it's going to be the same kind of combat as GC2 had, then there's really no need for that. And, of course, on what you as the player want out of the ship designer - if you want the ability to make ships that look like almost anything you want them to, then GC2's designer is probably one of the best out there, if it's not the best. If you want to have a relatively detailed combat simulation or have the locations of the components you placed be important, then something like StarDrive's ship designer is better (at least from what little I've seen of it).

 

That isn't so much the limitation of GC2's ship builder, but rather the limitation in the combat engine that can't take that into account.

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

DONT MESS WITH THE SHIP DESIGNER!

other than to update it and as for Stardrive Yeah Riiiiiight thats so anal that if you miss 1 component the ship wont work...