Presently upgrades will be more of efficiency upgrades to fleet operations, command and control and tactics, you won't upgrade from turbolaser I to II or something or research proton torpedos etc. Similarly colonization research will be eliminated, colonizing any planet in the SW galaxy is simply a matter of showing up and having a reason to be there. What I want research to be is an investment in a strategy rather than a 'I'll eventually get all the research' it will be prohibitively expensive to try to climb all trees. This concept should be familiar to people that have played games like company of heroes. (without explicitly preventing you from actually going up all trees) research will be more of a decision to modernize forces rather than build more ships.
Alright so I’ve been brainstorming up some ideas in respect to creating trees that will personalize your fleet, like the Company of heroes game. I came up with a pretty generic ‘class’ tree but it’s a starting point :
Fighter Class:
• Provide upgrades to: Increase hangar size
• Provide upgrades to: Increase fighter efficiency such as damage/hull/shields
• Increase build time and cost for non-fighter carriers or ships
• Bonus production speed to ships that focused on providing fighter support
Please note that I do not believe that fighters should be individually produced like many other mods, but rather can be produced from their selected support craft. I.E. An escort carrier could produce X. amount o fighters that your current tech upgrades allow ie. f Tie intercepts, or Tie bombers, or tie defenders.
Support Class:
• Provide upgrades to: Increase damage done to fighters, and other small craft.
• Provide upgrades to: Increase accuracy, and re-load time for weapons
• Increase non ‘ship of the line’ craft production time, as well as cost
• Small increase to ship cap
I'm not sure if this class would be a good option, because both the fighter and the capitol ship class need these ships. But it could prove to be a great way for people to make good alliances in multiplayer.
Capitol Ship class:
• Increase cost to fighters and support craft
• Increase damage output
• Increase build time for all craft other then light cruisers +
• Smaller Numbers
I personally don’t think this is dynamic enough, but hopefully it’ll get some ideas thrown out there! I believe each faction should access to all the ships, but whatever tree they decide to go up, it’ll give bonuses to certain ships. Enough bonuses to where they’ll stay away from other types of ships. In addition, I believe that you should be able to go up multiple trees, to allow versatile fleets.
IMPERIAL:
Technology: this will upgrade existing ships and allow new vessel types to be built, and allows focusing on high technology vessels like tie defenders
Force projection: helps to diversify the empires fleet and ability to control multiple planets with a single vessel
I believe both force projection and technology could be included in the ‘class system.’ Each upgrade would personalize the fleet. Apparent weaknesses and strengths for sticking to one tree, or being versatile and spreading throughout the tree. Upgrades for certain weapons, crew training, and ‘special ships’ would be included in their specific tree.
In addition, another tree would be included that would be a ‘general across the board’ type of tree. Increase cap, ‘generic ships unlocks’ and other upgrades that all of the classes should have access to. I’m not sure if the ‘support class’ is needed, what are yall’s thoughts?
REBEL:
New class: unlocks new vessels, heavier weaponry and generally more advanced and expensive vessels. This transitions the rebellion from converted luxury liners and freighters to real warships.
Hit and run tactics: This reinforces rebel bonuses for conducting operations with smaller vessel groups and star fighters. Resource and commerce raiding.
Defensive tactics: this is important because the rebels have to transition from a highly mobile sponsored insurgency to a legitimate naval power that can adequately defend member worlds.
I believe the rebels could use the same class system as the imperials:
A hit and run class, and a more ‘imperial’ style class that relies on the mc90s. These two classes would send that faction down the path of being the more typical rebels we all know of, relying on fighters and multi-purpose craft, or to see the New-republic ish style using the larger mon cals, and republic class star destroyers. Either way, since this mod is going to be post endor, it would be interesting to see a mod that showed the true strength of the new republic.
