New thoughts on Ships/Research/Other

I'm not sure trying to make the research and construction methods more complicated will make the game any more fun. Its hard enough for nubies to pick up now.

I agree that ice worlds should be in the outer reaches of the system and the smaller rock planets should be the closer ones. Too close and they don't get any atmosphere and can't be modified.

I have one game with my homeworld on the outer edge and on the opposite side of the system from the warp point. sucky.

I think the most common desire is a more usable GUI. The current one requires way too much jumping around to get information and perform tasks.

I don't really see why anything has to be added.

Ion Engines are basically nuclear powered.
It is basically a nuclear power source that creates electricity that is then used to accelerate ions for thrust.
The ground based version does happen to be called a Nuclear Ground Thrusters.

Here's my view of things.
Supply basically is reflected in total power capacity, probably including capacitors to store extra energy, fuel for reactors, engine reaction mass, etc. Capacitors are neat, you could store energy at a rate of 100 watts per hour for a year, and be able to release all that energy in a long or short time, be it 100 watts per hour for a year, or hundreds of thousands of watts in an hour or less. Even storing 100 watts for an hour means you could have enough energy to put out 360,000 watts in a second.

Contra-Terrane engines happen to allow for Fusion Ground Thrusters.

The energy weapons need to operate is reflected by the supplies they use per shot, effectively being how much energy they need for shot.

Fuel is not an issue in long range travel with Ion Engines, it only needs to be used to change course or accelerate/decelerate, so as long as you fly in a strait line, you will use as much fuel going a thousand miles as you would going a million miles.
One thing that would make sense is ships using up supplies at a slow rate during battle, reflecting a lot more supply being needed for combat maneuvers.

With Chemical based drives... not going to work for long range travel where you're doing more than just travellin from point A to point B and back. You're going to run out sooner or later, a lot soon with a lot of combat maneuvering, and any minor problem could lead to an explosive end... Just look at Apollo 13, there are hazards to carrying combustibles on board a ship.

Life Support has an organics cost, it's organics maintenance costs basically reflects supplies for a crew. A ship made for deep space is going to need excellent recycling systems, hydroponics/aeroponics (provide food plus water, air and waste recycling), etc, allowing a ship to be away from supply lines for years or longer at a time.

Just having the tech to make ships that can travel between planets easily puts basic SE V tech well beyond our own, which means all sorts of power sources (steam powered generators with water heated via buning coal or wood soller collectors or even via nuclear material, not to mention wind turbines, hydroelectric, solar panels that don't need to be made to survive the harshness of space, etc), so power isn't going to be a factor either for research.

We would probably take a good 6 months just to get to mars if we actually could build a ship to get there, while in SE V, the basic ship can do the equivilent of fly to Mars and back in a month, perhaps doing so twice.

Thats similar to an Idea I proposed. And Bugged MM about .

How Im breaking dow Techs

Major - Effect just about every thing -
Power - Solar - nuclear fission- nuclear fusion - Anti-mater - Zero Point - Dimensional Tap
Each power level unlocks new techs and improves all current technology and research centers

Common - Effects several different technologies

Minor Tech - Effects one or two technologies

Here is an example of how this works

Major - Nuclear Fusion - Per level
Adds +2% Reproduction
Adds +2% Happiness
Adds +2% Build increases
Adds +2% Repair rate
Adds +2% mining Bonus to all resources
Adds + Supplies to all engine.
Adds + Damage to all weapons ( More Power to burn )
Adds + to Shields ( again More power )
Adds +1% Defense Bonus to all ships and units ( More power to make radical corse changes)
Adds ( At Tech 10) Anti-mater Research Facilities ( Higher Research unlocks Anti-Mater Power Tech for Research)

Common- Robotic Remotes- Per Level
Adds + 3% Build Increases
Adds +3% Repair rate
Adds + 3% Mining Bonus to all Resources
Adds + 3% Maintenance Cost Reduction
Adds + 10 to both life support and crew compartments
Adds + 3% Research
Adds + 3% Intel

Minor - Beam - Laser
+1% Build Bonus
+1% Repair Rate
+1% Mining Rate
Unlocks - Infrared Laser Cannon
Laser Point Defense

great idea! why don't you get started on that mod

Well the reason for the Reproduction bonus is that throughout history every time a new more efficient energy source is discovered it improved the living conditions. More food harvested, Cheaper transport = easier to have and maintain large families.

The basic Idea was to slow down research by requiring a Facility to be constructed to open the higher level techs. This will forces the tech clime to slow down wile the facility is being constructed.

Look up some of my older post.

Power increasing reproduction?
Byt that much?
That's.... sort of nonsense.
Power does not directly equal reproduction.

Power does not increas food production, improvements in farming methods and automation/mechanization increase food production.

Power does not equal better living conditions, it is quite possible to have good living conditons and not have a single electrically powered thing in the home.

It does not matter whether a house is powered by a fusion reactor the next state over, or if it is powered by solar panels on the roof, a wind turbine in the backyard and some backup batteries in the basement, extra power won't make some things 'run better'.

There are many other factors, some relating to availabilty of power, others not needing power.

Overall, in such regards, power is a supporting/contributing factor, but not the main factor in those things.

Also, At lvl 10 fusion tech, there would be a 30% increase to reproduction per year...
If you have 1 milion people, l about half of them of breeding age, the rest to young or to old to breed...
That leaves 500,000 people of breeding age...
Or 250,000 couples...
30% is something like 2.4 children per couple per year...
A human couple might be lucky to be able to get out 3-4 kids every 3 years, but after just ten years, you basically got families who need apartment buildings just to house all of the kids...
0.1% might be a far better number, it has an effect, but nothing so dramatic as "the extra energy! it makes them breed like rabits!" thing... O_o;

One thing I would like to see that popped into mind.
Going back to how ships in SE IV needing engines per move based on size, larger ships needing more engines to move one space, and then tossing in to have bigger ships use more supply per move.

Also, borrow from SE Star Fury (which I have the demo of), which had power generators as a needed element for ships.
Power output had little effect on simply flying around, but when it came to battle, weapons would use up a lot of energy to fire, and they could fire only as fast as the generators could 'recharge' the power capacity of the ship. Perhaps weapons cannot simply 'use supplies' as is, bu only 'energy' produced by a power generator.
Perhaps generators use supply to generate power.
There was also energy storage.

Factor in other 'power producers' already in SE IV/V
Solar Collectors can then be made to generate energy per turn and recharge energy storage, but not have much of an effect during battle (very slow energy charge rate in battle).
Quantum Reactors could have the effect of generating plenty of energy and still produce supplies.

It could lead to interesting scenerios.
The fusion reactor equipped ship with good power output but little power storage, meaning it all out early on, but then has to rely simply on energy output of the fusion reactor fires at a somewhat reduced yet constant rate for the rest of the battle.

Then there is the solar collecter ship that has poor power output, but massive energy stores to compensate, they can fire like nobody's business for some time, but once the energy runs out, they might as well hook up their batteries to a bunch of generator equipped exercise bikes and pedal for their lives, as solar panels would not be able to be in a 'deployed' position during battle in order to protect them from damage, limiting their power output.

Then there is the quantum reactor equipped ship... they simply keep on firing and firing and firing and firing... like the Energizer Bunny in space with a laser gun instead of a drum...

I've always liked the idea of having a power sub-system for ships. Not so much for movement, but as a constraint for weapons. Let's face it - firing any sort of engery weapon several light seconds or more with sufficient power to punch through armor and destory ships is going to take some serious power. Heck, we can't even destroy missiles from near earth orbit with an energy weapon.

So, to me, it makes sense to differentiate between supplies for movement and power for weapons and shields. It also makes ship design more interesting, as you can't just shove the max number of particle beams or blasters on a ship.

That reminds me of an idea that Suicide Junkie posted a week or so ago on the IRC channel...

I might be mangling SJ's idea a bit, but this way it should fit your idea of "power systems"...

Basically the way it works is this:

Fuel = Ordnance
Energy = Supplies
Reactors = New Component which Converts Fuel to Energy (thus providing a *limit* on how much energy you can use per turn, i.e. a power rating)
Batteries = Supply Storage
Fuel Tanks = Ordnance Storage

(The difference between power and energy, in case you forgot from physics class, is power is the *rate* of production (or consumption or conversion) of energy over time. Thus a reactor's "capacity" is measured in power units, not in energy units; a battery's capacity is measured in energy units! Well technically real batteries have a power rating too; you can't just drain all the energy out of a battery instantaneously, but that's another matter )

Now, what you have to do is the following:
* Remove all ordnance consumption and storage from weapons, since ordnance has a new meaning.
* Rename "supply storage" to "batteries".
* Rename "ordnance storage" to "fuel tanks".
* Add "reactor" components with varying amounts of an AI-tag ability. (Don't just give them destroy-ordnance and produce-supply abilities - then they will waste ordnance (fuel) refilling full batteries, and produce supplies (energy) even when there is no fuel left!)
* Write an event script which runs every turn and tries to "top off" all ships' batteries from their fuel tanks.

Thus, for instance, you have a ship with 1000/1000 energy and 500/500 fuel. It gets in a fight and triangle man wins. No, seriously, it gets in a fight and spends all its energy firing weapons. It can't move (more than 1 sector/turn) or fire again until next turn, when the script says "Oh, you're not at max energy? Then drain enough fuel to either bring you up to max energy, or drain your fuel completely." So the ship now has 500/1000 energy and 0/1000 fuel. It gets in another fight and runs out of energy again (albeit a bit quicker this time since it only has 500 energy). This time the script tries to charge the batteries but there's no fuel left, so the ship really is dead in the water.

If you want, you can think of "fuel storage" as "emergency supply components which automatically use themselves as needed but only between turns, not in the thick of battle"

This would also make organic races more interesting, as they could regenerate fuel...

It also differentiates "combat/sprint endurance" from "strategic endurance" - combat/sprint endurance is your energy stores in your batteries, while strategic endurance is that PLUS your fuel stores in your fuel tanks, since the fuel tanks! Thus, ships which fight a lot or move quickly will need a lot of reactors and batteries, whereas ships like colony ships, freighters, etc. which don't fight a lot and move slowly can get by with fewer reactors and batteries but more fuel tanks to compensate! (You can of course make fuel tanks cheaper or store more than the equivalent batteries, or make them the same and just make reactors expensive since they have to do do the conversion!)

~~~
The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

That was just an example I came up from thin air. . .

But all that I got from my history classes. .

Every time in human history that we have taped a new power source, there has been a marked increases in the birth rate and life expectance.
not that all the benefits happened at one time but the new power source allowed for the changes.
- Horse power --
allowed humans to cultivate larger areas of land, hunters could travel faster and farther and carry more back = increases in food production. = more people can be feed = higher sustainable population.

increased transport ability allowed for resources to be gathered from farther away. = More Resources better living conditions

-Wind power-
Wind mills ground grain = better food production
Wind mills allow for water to be pumped -
Ships travel by wind increasing the amount of resources transported

Ect. . . . ..

So if you look at human history the Reproduction rate of our species has gone up over 10000 times in the last 10000 years. ( remember that at one time they state that there were less than 100,000 humans).
With more power you free up people to do other things like research, manufacturing, and raising families

I do admit that the rates I posted were way off but there base in history is sound.

Yes, power is a contributing factor, but not the key factor.

Extra power won't mean much unless there is something new out that requires the use of extra power.
On the flip side, as some things become more efficient in the use of power, or they actually need less power to get the job done than they did previously.

Other factors.
Computers (simplyfying some tasks, freeing up people and time for other things), machines (man power multipler), robotics (making some tasks safer and easier), automation (making some tasks safer and quicker), transportation (e.g., Roman empire and all its roads), communications (from pony exrpress to telegraph to radio), medicine (and sanitation), science (all sorts of useful stuff), all are key factors that would affect reproduction and life span in one way or another, but not all of them require or would otherwise benifit from extra power.

As is, SE V at start is 'more advanced' than our modern tech, and we are already coming close to the limits of what can be done in some areas. There is poverty and starvation around the world because of not being able to meet demand, medical science has already pushed reproduction to its limits... (but then again, SE V has no 'currency', which is likely why some of above problems don't exist...)
SE V, as is, should be at an effective bottleneck as far as increasing reproduction. Even the facilities that specialize in increasing reproduction will only add a few % iirc.
A 'fast' reproducing race from one racial trait gets what, +5% reproduction per year?

As is, I don't see how extra power is going to have a more massive impact on reproduction than medical and organic techs will.

Another thing to consider. Unless your're a tribble or a small mammal, each couple can only produce one or two children at once every year or so, and it will take upwards of two decades for each child to reach maturity.