Idea for a new unit

from Sins Forums

Okay, so I was thinking about Entrenchment and the other two new expansion packs due, and I thought of something I think could work. What if each civ had a new "Dropship" strike ship, that carried marines on it? it could be upgraded through the military tree, andwhat the ship would do would be to "corrupt" an enemy whatever by having the marines board it? There would be a waiting period while the marines and security force have a firefight, and in the end, whover had the most and the farthest upgraded marines gets permanent or temporary control over the orbital structure. It would lead to a dramatic choice during a battle to fire upon your own structure so that it would not fall into the enemies hands. The cool thing is that tons of things could be boarded for all kinds of outcomes. For example, cap ships could be boarded to temporarily disable or destroy them, space stations could be sabotaged, and information could be stolen from planets, like mine field locations, or fleet movements. 

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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

the idea needs work...but i like where it is going

marine drop ships could also be the answer to the bombarding-planet-as-only-means-of-colonizing-enemy-planets question. of course this dropship should be relatively cheap and heavily armored...(maybe not so cheap, but not too extravagent) 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Facilities, perhaps.

Planets, I doubt for large colonies -- too much scale.  You'd be better off threatening general societal breakdown by orbital destruction of critical facilities, rather than trying to overwhelm a planet's worth of hostile population with ground troops.

Ships I'd also doubt, except for ships whose engines have been disabled.  In the middle of combat, they're going to be moving as unpredictably as they can... and the ubiquitous use of energy weapons and (probable) fusion-bomb missiles or the like implies extreme engagement ranges.  How long do you think it'd take marines to reach a target vessel perhaps 5 light-seconds away, considering that too high acceleration will kill the marines?

 

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I kind of like the idea, bu I agree it still needs more refinement

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

i would like to see a ship class higher than battleship maybe a dreadnought the troopship idea is good aswell but troopships are normally low in protection and low or none offence abilities

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

This concept was explored in Homeworld, and was a great aspect of the game. To adapt it to Sins however would take quite a bit of balancing. Here's what i think would make it work:

 

Troop ships would be constructed and purchased (based on resources, not AM) from carriers. That way they could be docked and launched mid battle so they aren't the first thing targeted by an enemy fleet.

They should be a little slower than bombers, but still faster than most ships. Their weakness should be flak frigates and fighters, but should have more armor and hp than bombers.

They should be able to latch on to cruisers and cap-ships only, smaller frigates are too agile and mobile. It should take a certain number of troopships (diff # for different ships) to begin a takeover process, the speed of which could be augmented by more troopships. Upon initiation of the take over process, the target vessel should act similar to being phased out, ie completely disabled but invulnerable (neither side should be able to fire on it and though many people may disagree with this, there are plenty of logical and balance reasons this should be in place). To stop the takeover process, a player must blast the troopships off the side of the targeted ship below the number it takes for take over. If the number of troopships falls below the amount needed for takeover, the process is reset and the ship is freed. Also each ship should have a maximum number of troop ships that can be attached at any given time. The level of a targeted cap-ship should also greatly affect the amount of time it takes to take over, making your level 10 cap ship quite difficult to lose in that fashion.

For each troopships attached to a target ship below the amount needed for take over, the targeted ship should suffer random system failures for brief periods of time, stuff like disabled sub-light engines for 15 seconds or disabled abilities for 30 seconds, etc.

Each race should have research available to boost the effects of troopships and reduce the effectiveness of troopships on their own vessels. (TEC might have something like "Armored Bulkheads"or vasari something like "molecular encryption, which lenthen the takeover time)

And to go with each race, only TEC should actually use manned vessels with marines on board. Advent should use some sort of remote psi nodes allowing psintegrates to slowly take over the minds of the crew, and vasari should use a ship that releases nano machines on a ship that target that ships systems and re-programs them to give you control.

This would make cap-ships with no supporting fleet much more vulnerable.

It would probably be a nightmare to code, but it would be way cool.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

i would like to see a ship class higher than battleship maybe a dreadnought the troopship idea is good aswell but troopships are normally low in protection and low or none offence abilities
End of quote

There is already a ship designated as a dreadnaught in Sins...

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

yes a ship but a class is a different aspect

maybe we could also bump up the dreadnaught...