I was just thinking about Carrier experience and implementing some special abilities for carriers that had levelled up.
I first brainstormed a big list of crazy things a carrier could do, like turn back, or change direction, or scan, or build ships in flight, and many more, but then I remembered this this one one aspect of Subterfuge I was not a hug fan of. The specialist made the game too random.
But I do like the idea of giving the player a champion. A heroic leader. A sharp point at the end of a galactic sword.
So here is my crazy idea.
Every Carrier with at least 1000 Experience fights with Weapons Tech Level + Range Tech Level.
Too powerful? To crazy?
I was thinking of it as turning a pawn into a queen.
Would it be fun to try and keep big carriers alive and manoeuvre them into position?
What would it be like trying to defend against these super carriers?
I loved carrier experience when it was briefly enabled in Tritons test phase. It added a great dimension to battle tactics.
But I remember it was way overpowered. The level thresholds were set too low. 1000 kills for a carrier by mid game will be very common.
At whatever threshold you are proposing nearly doubling weps for a given carrier. Thatās a huge ad, so should be rare. Maybe 10k kills?
The other alternative is to introduce levels at 1000 kills, then maybe 10x for the next one. And build up the weps ad, maybe plus 5 for each level. But maybe that too much work for you to track?
I LOVE this idea, but you can rework the numbers a bit to be a percentage of total kills made in the game. That way, you can take the crown away from eachother, and you canāt sit on a valuable one, lest inflation rapidly bring it back to base level.
Range, Weapons, Initiative when attacking, even speed upgrades are all valid if they are limited to only a few per game, which the percentage thing does. Youāll always be working to bring ships into that fleet to keep it attacking and keep it at the top of itās performance.
I donāt like the idea of making somebody who is already strong even stronger unless itās a tradeoff.
It might be interesting if you make these super-carriers twice as strong but also half as fast or visible from double scanning range or something like that.
@wfmcgillicuddy yes, I would like to have the bonus grow over time. That was my first instinct, but there is something interesting about incorporating range tech into the equation somehow.
@xtrafresh I think using the size of the game to work out what is big is a good idea. That way its kind of self balancing. But I do think all players should have one.
Oh, that reminds me of something interesting I was thinking about a year or two ago. If even a small player has one of these fleets, it might make the game interesting enough to stay and fight it out (rather than AFK). Also, it might be a tool a small player can use well to out manoeuvre a big player.
What about if every player had just one, and it was whichever fleet had the most experience points?
@dakotahawkins I like the idea of making them visible all the time! It would be fun to see what other players are doing with them on the other side of the board.
But your suggestion of a double strength but half speed carrier is super interesting as well.
I like giving all players just one. I regularly look up where my original fleet (the āHomestar Iā fleet) is hanging out halfway in the game, and track it around a bit. Gives it a bit of a story feel to it.
Limiting players to one of them makes them more epic, but also balances things out. A large player can only focus on one of his six neighbours, while heās facing a bunch. It would be a valid way of fighting the big guy.
What if your superduperspecial fleet gets killed though? Make a new one available for purchase at the home star? Not applicable if you lost the home star?
Funny how a simple idea spawns so many details to worry about. Good luck with that
Imho weapon+range would be too high amount. First one having that carrier would just roll trough opponents.
I would propose +1 weapons tech for every 300-500-1000 kills. Or whatever kill number works the best. Amounts can perhaps be scaled depending on the galaxy size.
Or maybe to have modifiers +1 after first 300 kills, +2 for 500 kills, +3 for 1000, +4 for 1500, +5 for 2000 etcā¦ (after 2000 you have +5, not +15)
As for the incorporating of the range tech, you can add that initially before regular attack, supercarrier will first destroy number of opposition vessels equal to the range tech. So you could roll over weakly protected planets without taking any damage.
Negative modifier can be that you cannot reduce supercarrier fleet. You can just add the vessels, not remove them. That would force you to think twice before adding to the supercarrier fleet size.
I think a great way to implement it would be to make the home star carrier at start up the champion and capping the total champions at 1. Should a champion be destroyed, a new one metamorphoses from a standard carrier that reachs X experience. This way a player doesnāt end up with a bunch of super carriers, and experience is only relevant to this super unit.
Beyond simply adding an X weapons boost to the champion, perhaps make one of the techs relevant to experience ie; Experimentation increases exp gain per level. Then combine that level with weapons for the overall attack power.
I think 1 is better too. Iām just not sure what youāre thinking with experience besides a potential pawn>queen? Would the inclusion be justified just as a potential replacement champion. Or are you thinking abilities too? I like the idea of turn back! Feigning an attack to get a response would be good fun
I know that part of this idea was to increase the value of Range research, so hereās a different idea. What if Range reduced the cost of new carriers? Right now in Proteus, mid-game comes and you are dropping $1000 or more on carriers. This adds up when you have 50+ carriers. This would help to buff Range a bit without going too overboard.
Jay, did you give this any more thought? I had a new proteus player just ask me what the āspecialā powers for Carriers might be, and had to tell him I had never seen it come into play.
I know you now have an indicator (star) on the carriers once they pass 1K exp, so presumably the āspecialā might be applied to multiple carriers.
I wouldnāt want OP specials ā but maybe a few different āperksā. Maybe even allow player to choose a perk once the carrier reaches the exp level. Or (i think someone may have suggested) make the perks progressive ā 1K gets +1 Weapons, 5K gets boost to speed (?), 10K gets ability to warp gate between any stars (!?)
You know what would be a cool carrier ability, the ability to Kamikaze into other carriers to negate the +1 def bonus the stars get.
Itād be difficult to time, but sometimes I wish I could do that
