Paths

[-Blue Moon-]

How about we introduce paths to each race/planet. Currently we can all see other players' races on the galaxy screen, but something hidden and a little random could be fun if added to the game:

My idea is that you can decide to specialise (for the whole round) in one field for say, a 5% bonus...

Research would likely be used by 'rushers and scanners' (5% ?)
Construction by 'fin/dist whores / scanners' (1tick ?)
Mining for those who wanted a little extra income (5% ?)
Production to lower times by 1tick (e.g.)
Security to give a bonus to regular alertness (5% ?) - scanners/regulars

(i feel like ive forgoten one, please correct me if i have - my work has planetarion blocked, but not the forums!)

I propose this idea in addition to, or instead of, engineering. And it would be hypothetically available as soon as a planet has been upgraded - possibly under the engineering section? In addition, the only way to change this 'extra setting' would be through resetting your account (?)

I think this idea would add a new dimension to the game, and a little bit of randomness which might make the game less predictable at times -- it could also open up further uses to less 'useful' scans, as this new attribute could (?potentially?) be scannable -- adding a new intel gathering element. It also allows for a greater range of races used as specific path oprientated races (i.e. scanners/dist whores/'war path' etc), and adds extra elements to help players play their way irregardless of how they intend play the game - there's potentially something for everyone, and might eliminate that need for a scanner race(?)

Ideas?

[CBA]

You can do most of that pretty much with the current system, all you would be doing was to reduce options available making the game less dynamic, with the current system with waiting 48 ticks etc then can tactically change enginering for when suits, can be used Research one for scanners etc etc so what your saying does not from what i can see add anything to game, only decrease options to the players.

[jerome]

most of the uni would just go with mining surely.. with 60 fc's that'd be 50% bonus heh

[-Blue Moon-]

cba i think you missed the point if the idea were to be used in conjunction with engineering it would add more options not remove them.

jerome yes, thatd be pretty damn cool huh ;-) -- id say not everyone would go mining tho - some people would want to the 5% security so that they dont need to put it on their engineering priorities so high (or at all), and to reduce the number of constructions needed to be 'wasted' on sec centres if stockpiling.

i think some people might want the production bonus - personally i like my sleep so i always have production set to #1 so i can 'cover myself' if i need to -- people like me might want that extra 1tick as a safety net (especially as we're going to be seeing some ridiculously low etas this round -- re:clusters).

others might want constructions - imagine a terran scanner with construction-1, at prio1 it'd give them eta3 constructions - a great way to build amps quickly. or using the 5% to negate the cathaars slower constructions, making them better over-all scanners,

again, research would be a fantastic advantage also, as you'd get to capital ships and eta-4 earlier. also, with the lessening of research labs later in the round the latter HCT research advantages would be marginally more worthwhile (in the long run)


i just think it'd add extra dimensions to the game and give players more options on how they want to run their planet, without necessarily being restricted to certain races for certain styles of play (because of racial bonuses etc -- scanners for example wouldnt *have* to pick Cath/Ter)

makes more sense now?

[Heartless]

The idea is similar to what I had in mind with a more differenced races system.

The basic idea would be similar to Master of Orion: every race has (for example) 50 points it can spend on special abilities. These are split into different categories like "attack bonus", "defense bonus", "research bonus", "construction bonus", "production bonus", "<insert more categories in here>".

I don't have the time to go into great details right now, but if you need to know more about it, player master of orion 2 ;-)

Just a quick remark about how it would affect gameplay: Personally I think people will enjoy it as this would add a lot more depth to the original game (for instance, people could start designing their own races and thus gain more identification with them). You could also create different factions of each race. A whole new dimension will open up if this is implemented correctly.

[-Blue Moon-]

Again that could work - I actually remember reading a thread recently (cant find it) where someone suggested that instead of 1st-2nd-3rd priority, you could instead attribute engineers manually to whatever degree u'd like - I liked the idea of that, but thought it might be a bit of a pain to sort out.
Hense this idea - coupled with engineering - which would potentially give an added dimension to the game...