Rework RP use to deepen ship combat strategy
Feb 9, 2018 16:03:58 GMT -5
LordofSyn and Sinocelt like this
Post by contributor on Feb 9, 2018 16:03:58 GMT -5
So I brought this up in some other thread once, but after thinking about it, I think it deserves it's own thread. I don't know what the overall feeling on ship combat is as I haven't been around the STF boards on Discord enough recently. Maybe it's already at that sweet spot and doesn't need any major adjustments. Maybe there is room for improvement. I'm sure the TB's will best have their finger on the pulse of that conversation. So take this with a grain of salt as one possible idea amongst many.
The major idea is basically to make RP more flexible by allowing any amount of it be applied to movement and/or weaponry and possibly to defense. It would also eliminate the 0 RP cost for holding range. It's actually the range holding thing that basically got me thinking about this. It currently is hard to understand how using 0 RP to power the engines allows you to hold range with someone who is burning theirs to advance or retreat. So basically what you have is a wager system on the move.
At the beginning of combat you chose your move option and then you decide to allocate any number of RP to it from 0 to 8 (or max). I would call this a wager, because you're playing against what the enemy is going to wager to his movement RP. Ship components and skills would still play a part.
For a very simple example; PLAYER has a good ship and well allocated skills. So for every RP he spends he adds 16 dice to the pool. ENEMY is not so good. Each of his RP only adds 10 dice to his pool. You can see that if they both allocate the same number of RP to movement the PLAYER is almost always going to win, however, the farther they get out to the edges the weaker ship still has some ability to achieve what he wants. Say PLAYER only allocates 2 RP (32 dice) and ENEMY allocates 6 RP (60 dice) the ENEMY still stands a pretty good chance of getting to his desired range.
Obviously the rest of the RP can then be allocated to weapons. Unless, and this is just an option, unused RP could also be used to boost defense.
I know it would all have to be balance out and make sure it couldn't be exploited one way or another, but it seems to me like it would be a pretty simple way to add deeper strategy. It would also set up agonizing choices and the possibility of getting it vastly wrong (PLAYER allocates 8 RP to advance while ENEMY doesn't even try and just blasts with 8 RP in weapons). I know this would also take a lot of AI rebalance when a lot of time and data has already been put into it, but it would be best done while still EA.
Happy to hear what others think.
The major idea is basically to make RP more flexible by allowing any amount of it be applied to movement and/or weaponry and possibly to defense. It would also eliminate the 0 RP cost for holding range. It's actually the range holding thing that basically got me thinking about this. It currently is hard to understand how using 0 RP to power the engines allows you to hold range with someone who is burning theirs to advance or retreat. So basically what you have is a wager system on the move.
At the beginning of combat you chose your move option and then you decide to allocate any number of RP to it from 0 to 8 (or max). I would call this a wager, because you're playing against what the enemy is going to wager to his movement RP. Ship components and skills would still play a part.
For a very simple example; PLAYER has a good ship and well allocated skills. So for every RP he spends he adds 16 dice to the pool. ENEMY is not so good. Each of his RP only adds 10 dice to his pool. You can see that if they both allocate the same number of RP to movement the PLAYER is almost always going to win, however, the farther they get out to the edges the weaker ship still has some ability to achieve what he wants. Say PLAYER only allocates 2 RP (32 dice) and ENEMY allocates 6 RP (60 dice) the ENEMY still stands a pretty good chance of getting to his desired range.
Obviously the rest of the RP can then be allocated to weapons. Unless, and this is just an option, unused RP could also be used to boost defense.
I know it would all have to be balance out and make sure it couldn't be exploited one way or another, but it seems to me like it would be a pretty simple way to add deeper strategy. It would also set up agonizing choices and the possibility of getting it vastly wrong (PLAYER allocates 8 RP to advance while ENEMY doesn't even try and just blasts with 8 RP in weapons). I know this would also take a lot of AI rebalance when a lot of time and data has already been put into it, but it would be best done while still EA.
Happy to hear what others think.
