2018-07-24 Turrets, Sensors, World Building Limit

[Vectorus]

World Building Limit

This seems a sensible solution to combat balance, as well as to the population controversies we had on the old boards. Numbers in the tens of thousands allow new ships to be built at a reasonable rate. Perhaps the world population limits can now be relaxed or abolished, since most of them are unattainable anyway. It's just more complication. 

A city with a few hundred buildings and a few dozen citizens visible to the player is a good sci-fi backdrop. It could represent the idea of a 10,000 person town or of a 10 million person metropolis. The aesthetic choices are now open to everyone, while the "functional" numbers are better balanced. Nicely done.

The numbers may need tweaking in time - spacecraft can be totally dedicated to combat, while cities which are equally dedicated will have no strategic resource value. You would have to choose between defenceless cities and cities with nothing to defend.

When the limit is the number of buildings, say 10, the player is motivated to make 10 of the largest buildings possible.

I'm glad you see it this way - it's essentially our argument against that kind of limit in the old thread. If those limits ever need to return, owing to server load, 400 seemed a reasonable number. Volume-as-currency is more flexible and encourages diversity.

Certain volumes should be worth more on planets. i.e. Each m3 of say, storage, should take more commodities than the equivalent m3 on a spaceship. Not sure if this is already true. Probably also true of things like power, shield strength etc.

Life Forms on Sensors

Perhaps just add a filter? The extra options can be useful. I remember having fun with it in the relic mission - beaming down right on top of the guy. It was a real Star Trek experience..."reading five lifesigns, captain!"

 Although it didn't always make sense that I could detect a lone person on the other side of a planet, while the massive battleship hiding in a bush underneath me was totally invisible...

Cannot Scan Under Water

Gas giant cities and underwater colonies, particularly ones built under the old rules and currently defenceless, are now quite vulnerable, particularly considering their generally low populations and military capacity.

By way of compensation, perhaps buildings shouldn't show up on the world map or sensor contacts, even on the locator's "city present", unless you are able to read them by scanner domain. That would unify the rules under common sense, and allow true hidey-holes for those who want them. You'd have to dive into a planet's ocean to check - possible but time-consuming.

Looking forward to those Red October submarine duels, though!