Ship design

from GalCiv2 Forums
One of the major issues I have with ship design at the moment is its lack of scope. The only real issue you have is how much stuff you can put on a hull and what stuff to put there. Where you place your weapons/defenses doesn't matter, as all weapons seem to the capacity to shoot in a 360 degree arc no matter where it's placed. I would like to eventually see a system of weapon arcs in place. Weapons pointing towards the front would only be able to fire in that direction, same with weapons pointing towards the rear, etc. The more engine power you have on your ship, the faster it will be able to turn and bring its weapons to bear. Turreted versions of weapons would require more space.

None of this currently even remotely exists in GC2's design, so these changes would definitely require major coding time to implement. However I feel this would give ship design a larger impact in the game, whereas now it's really a cosmetic issue after you've determined what exactly goes on the hull.

In a related topic, I would like to see a limitation on the number and size of extras you can put on a ship. I realize that they are primarily intended to be decorative (thus the size of 0), but if I put half-a-dozen large extras on a tiny hull, how can you justify calling that ship tiny anymore?
6,671 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the issue of covered arcs and so on falls into the wish by some for tactical combat. It has been extensively discussed, and for various reasons including a very small coding staff and the difficulty in getting the AI to play well with all the issues tactical combat requires, is pretty unlikely to happen.

I would enjoy tactical combat a well, but I certainly understand why it probably will not happen.

As far as the issue of limiting what you can add, in the end, it is up to the user to decide what they like or what is enough. I don't think there is a need to spend programming resources on it.

That's my two cents anyway.

Tony
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
The game sizes down your ship to the size of its hull, when it is in game. So no matter how much you put on a hull it stays the size it is classafide as.

However in my opinun, The funnist thing about the ship design is its openess, if you start limiting things like weppon direction, then do we have to limit the size of the structure, so for example, window sizes always match. It might make for more "realistic" designs, but it would take alot of the fun out. And really the ship design is there for the fun of it.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, IMHO firing arcs have no place in this game. It's a strategic level game, on tile of space is a PARSEC! How can it matter from which direction an enemy is approaching when all you see is that both ships / fleets fight in a space so large that we can't even imagine the distances involved.

BTW, even on a tactical level firing arcs would be next to irrelevant, as you can turn your ship in space in an instant and as such point any weapon anywhere. You might even spin the ship at insane speeds so each weapon points at every enemy all around you in a fraction of a second.

Space combat is fundamentally different from, say, air combat. You need to abandon the idea of a dogfight in space.