Well, I just wanted to throw out some ideas. I know DANMAN already has his 7 Deadly Sins mod out (and I'm a contributor), but what I mean is more of a gameplay mod; not content. I realize that some of my ideas are impossible unless a dev includes it in a patch, but I think we perhaps get some ideas moving, and maybe some modders can take an idea or two.
So, my Ideas:
Different Superweapons and Interception: I know, darn near every mod has a new superweapon or increses the damage or explosion, but what I'm thinking is different.
The superweapons I propose are more powerful and impressive, but there is a limit, or should be a limit, depending on the option set before starting a game, to how many can be constructed. The new ones should be twice as powerful and impressive, but should be twice (or thrice) as expensive and you should have to
buy each shot, with a limit of three per weapon. The explosion should also affect nearby modules and ships. This forces the player to take shots carefully and not just throw them around for effect. Firing a superweapon should also have an effect on your standings with other people, that is in a single-player skirmish with computers. Someone who you have 100% standings with, but is allied with other factions would drop a point or two out of astonishment, for lack of a better word, while if you and the computer are together only, with no other alliances, the standings would stay the same or increase if the faction you shoot at has been aggressing your ally.
Interception would work by having a module with range of maybe 2 or 3 planets equipped with intercepting shots, the type would depend on the faction (Missiles for TEC, etc), and with a limit of 5 of these shots per module (buying each one, of course). If a superweapon comes within range of the module, it would fire a shot, intercepting it and destroying it before it reached a planet. For balance reasons, the module may not always work, if it misses due to positioning or an avionics error, or if the interceptor is not strong enough to destroy the superweapon, because research has not been done to increase the efficacy of weapons in general (I'm talking about the missile upgrades, for example). Why do I say it's for balance issues? Well, it would just turn into a superweapon standoff between who has the most interceptors and most superweapons. Every time one side launches, the other side intercepts, with no hope for a single shot to hit. Although 100% hits from interceptors would encourage fleet warfare, there should be more than one side to gameplay.
Why do I say all this? In my experience, the superweapons in game are just too unimportant in their present state.
Other inter-planetary abilities:
Aggressive Patriotism for Broadcast Centers. Just an increased bout of culture spread for a limited amount of time.
Not sure what else, although there could be some different offensive abilities such as artillary and Forced Invasion.
Mobile Artillery: This could add another side to gameplay, with long-range shells bombarding next-door planets. These shells, naturally wouldn't be for taking down planets, but for destroying groups of ships with splash damage and buildings. When firing at a planet you don't have recent intel for, three round would be shot randomly. If you did have intel with a probe or if you have troops there, objects could be targeted. Shooting at troops right next to yours should be hazardous, as the splash damage would take out your own ships.
Fleet Warfare:
I think the frigates aren't combating the way they're supposed to. They aren't meant to just stand still there and be fired at. This isn't the 1700s. Frigates should be orbiting a large target or at least keep in motion around a target to prevent from being hit. This would allow a group of frigates to take down a cap ship, who can't fire successfully at a smaller, mobile target. In contrast, if the frigates engages a strike force with a cap ship and a couple of other frigates, then the strike force should be able to win. LRM and Siege frigates are designed to stay in one position, however.
As a countermeasure, Stasis Webs would be employed by a cap ship to slow down enemy frigates, and hit them a bit easier. Webbing would be included for the combat-oriented ships like the Kol or Radiance, but not on support ships and carriers. On those capital ships, Jump Scramblers should be included in order to prevent other ships from just leaving. I know Phase Jump Inhibitors do a similar thing, but at a Plasma storm or other interdiction zones, Scrams would help immensely to keep the other fleet from running.
A Titan-esque class of ships should be included, ala Olympus class, in another thread.
Three tiers of ship defense should be included for each ship - Shields, Armor, and Hull. I do think Armor should be shown as an actual dynamic value, rather than something to upgrade and see how much of it a ship has. Shields would go down, then the more resilient armor, and then finally the hull would be exposed. When a ship has taken hull damage, they should enter a sort of limp-home mode, where they cannot fire any weapon or use any ability. By that time, the ship should retreat if it can. The ship should remain in this mode until 25% of its armor is restored.
Openly connected maps should be relatively easy to mod in. There should be limitations, like not being to jump from one end of a map to the other. What I'd like to include are Deadspace zones. Deadspace would be in between planets and would be accessed by clicking in the middle of planets. Fleets would be forced to exit there by way of a Jump or Hyperspace inhibitor, however the fleet could move to the end of the pocket and continue to the planet. The inhibitors could be used in conjunction with fleets waiting in the deadpace pocket, forcing the fleet to fight, turn back, or make a mad dash to the end of the pocket. I know other celestial objets serve the same purpose, but this provides for random encounters, and can be used between any planet. Putting plasma storms next to every planet would be kinda stupid.
Point Defense: I know a lot of people have complained about the relative lack of point defense on Capital ships. These should maybe be laser or intercepting missiles to prevent missiles or maybe even a low-level ability from hitting the ship in question.
Also, I think planetary defense should be a little different. Shields should emanate from the planet itself, and should be bought, then upgraded. This would guarantee a little more time for the cavalry to come in and fend off the attacking forces. We could use varying types of buildings for defense, too. Perhaps the Hybrid Gauss gun/hangar defense Aractain (methinks) was working on could be one of them. But there should be an anti-fighter gun and something a little different from the Gauss gun for TEC, like a missile battery and some sort of smartbomb launcher. This could be adapted to all three races.
Hardpoints on ships. Just putting it out there.
Volt When firing a superweapon, allegiance should go down for a short period of time. When hit by a superweapon, Patriotism increases and increases allegiance.
SpardaSon21 Allegiance should shift when battles or war is over (by way of conquering the enemy). Allegiance from planets should increase slightly when a major win has occurred, and go down when a major battle has been lost.
Not Said by Volt, but inspired by him - Similar system with diplomacy, especially when going to war.
I think that's the end of my long and tedious post. Could whoever survived tell me what they thought of my ideas, and maybe post their own. I'll add it up here under their name.
