Revamp hulls.

[DaloLorn]

A lot of the different hull types in the game don't quite make sense as being mutually exclusive. For instance, why can a Titan not be a Mothership, and what's stopping a Colossus from being a Destroyer? Then there's the Spinal Mount Hull, which just doesn't make sense, period.

From a mechanical standpoint, some hulls define the role of a starship. Destroyers are fast, sturdy ships which excel at killing other capital ships and getting out intact. Carriers can support colossal amounts of support ships. Miners should really be renamed, since they have many uses beyond mining ships. Bombships are just designable torpedoes. Motherships and Harvesters serve racially-specific functions.

But what about Titans, Colossi, or Superstructure Hulls? What's their function, and why does that function conflict with (most of) the roles above? And what the hell is the Spinal Mount Hull?

To resolve this, the idea is to remove the mutual exclusivity on most hull types. This will undoubtedly make for some seriously overpowered combinations, so they'll also need statistical changes. In keeping with the principle of logistical tradeoffs started in 1.3.0, ships without a hull will tend to be cheaper and easier to mass-produce, to offset their relative ineffectiveness.

• Spinal Mount
  • The idea behind the revamped Spinal Mount is to provide an added punch in combat against other capital ships. Ships relying on these weapons will be more expensive, and much more susceptible to attacks from groups of smaller flagships or swarms of raiders.
  • Examples of Spinal Mounts in fiction: Yamato Cannon (StarCraft), Galaxy-X Phaser Lance (Star Trek), Subjugator-class Dreadnought (Star Wars), Aggressor-class Star Destroyer (Star Wars), Ori Mothership (Stargate), Anti-Capital Beam Cannon (Freespace), SSD Lucifer (Freespace), SJ Sathanas (Freespace), GTD Erebus (Freespace - Blue Planet), GTCv Bellerophon & Chimera (Blue Planet), UEFg Narayana & Karuna (Blue Planet)
  • Now a one-per-subsystem weapon module instead of an applied subsystem.
  • Weapon must have a firing arc, and have a subsystem size of no less than 150 (and must occupy at least 20% of the ship's internal space). Weapons like these do tend to be the centerpiece of a ship's design.
  • Increases weapon range by 20%, and decreases spread by 50%, providing increased accuracy at long ranges. Heavy weapons usually are somewhat more accurate and long-ranged, to improve the odds that the few shots they get to fire will be meaningful.
  • Adds the subsystem's size to its build cost, and increases its build, labor and maintenance costs by 20%. Giant weapons tend to be expensive to build and operate.
  • Reload times are doubled. It takes time to reload/recharge a weapon of that size. (Unrelated, regular flagship lasers will soon be changed to have their beam DPS modified by cooldown modifiers, since they already fire 100% of the time. This will cause them to simply deal 150% damage when installed on a spinal mount. Considering the extremely limited firing arc, this seems acceptable.)
  • Weapon damage is tripled.
  • Supply costs are also tripled. (Perhaps they should be quadrupled - heavy ordnance is usually harder to store.)
  • Firing arc is reduced by 60%. Spinal weapons generally don't have a lot of flexibility, so the idea that they would have a 360-degree firing arc seems laughable.
  • Weapon mass is increased by 50%.

[DaloLorn]

A proposed variant of the Destroyer:

• Destroyer Architecture
  • Ships with this kind of architecture are sturdy bruisers, most commonly seen on the frontlines. Although they may be capable of servicing strike craft and other support ships, their primary function is to go toe-to-toe with enemy capital ships and besiege hardened installations.
  • Examples of Destroyers in fiction: Battlecruisers (StarCraft), Aurora-class Battleship (Stargate), Bilskirnir- & O'Neill-class Cruisers (Stargate), Bortasqu' Dreadnought (Star Trek), GTD Orion (Freespace), SD Ravana (Freespace), GTD Erebus (Blue Planet), Imperator- & Tector-class Star Destroyers (Star Wars), Breath-class Battlecruiser (Schlock Mercenary)
  • Increases health by 200% (down from 500%).
  • Increases armor damage resistance by 50%.
  • Increases shield capacity by 350% (down from 500%).
  • Worth 50% more for effects such as Rahta kill rewards (down from 200%).
  • Reduces mass by 30% (down from 50%). Also increases hyperdrive speed and jumpdrive ranges accordingly.
  • Weapon range is reduced by 30%.
  • Support capacity is reduced by 40% (down from 100%).
  • Minimum size of 300.
  • Increases build, labor and maintenance costs by 30%.
  • Increases hex limit by 30 hexes. This does not affect hex size or the size requirements of subsystems such as Spinal Mounts and Tractor Beams.
  • Must dedicate at least 25% of their interior space (before the extra hexes are added) to weapons.

[DaloLorn]

A possible take on the Carrier:

• Carrier Architecture
  • Ships with this kind of architecture are massive flying cities, capable of servicing numerous squadrons of strike craft within their cavernous hangars. Although they excel at prolonged warfare, they primarily do this from a safe distance, relying on their superior logistical capacity and support fleet to wear an enemy down from afar.
  • Examples of Carriers in fiction: Carriers (StarCraft), Wraith Hiveship (Stargate), Jupiter Carrier (Star Trek), GTD Hecate (Freespace), PVD Typhon (Freespace), GTD Titan (Blue Planet), UED Solaris (Blue Planet), SD Demon (Freespace), Venator-class Star Destroyer (Star Wars)
  • Supply capacity is increased by 400% (up from 50%).
  • Support capacity is doubled.
  • Hull health and shield capacity are increased by 50% (down from 100%).
  • Worth 25% more for effects such as Rahta kill rewards.
  • Repair rate and shield regeneration are doubled (up from 0%).
  • Weapon damage is reduced by 40% (down from 100%).
  • Minimum size of 300.
  • Increases build, labor, and maintenance costs by 30%.
  • Reduces hex limit by 26 hexes. This does not affect hex size or the size requirements of subsystems such as Spinal Mounts and Tractor Beams.
  • Must dedicate at least 20% of their interior space (before the hex limit reduction) to support command.

[DaloLorn]

Bombships should probably stay unchanged. They're explicitly built to be designable torpedoes.

[DaloLorn]

I'm not sure what to call the Miner Hull...

• Specialist Architecture
  • Specialists provide various miscellaneous functions for an empire. They are the scouts, miners, AWACS platforms, medical cruisers, salvagers, and boarding craft of the galaxy. Although fragile and ill-prepared for combat, these sorts of ships can have a limited battlefield presence.
  • Examples of Specialists in fiction: BFF-1 Bulk Freighter (Star Wars), Observer (StarCraft), Viper Probe Droid (Star Wars), Pelta-class Medical Frigate (Star Wars), Y-8 Mining Ship (Star Wars), Immobilizer 418 Cruiser (Star Wars), Delta-class Transport (Star Wars), GTM Hippocrates (Freespace), GTFr Triton (Freespace), GTT Argo (Freespace), GTA Charybdis (Freespace), GTG Zephyrus (Freespace), GTSC Faustus (Freespace), GTT Elysium (Freespace), GTL Anemoi (Blue Planet)...
  • Health and shield capacity are reduced by 25% (up from 0%).
  • Repair rate and shield regeneration are reduced by 50% (up from 0%).
  • Maintenance cost is reduced by 90%.
  • Supply capacity is increased by 50% (up from a 90% reduction).
  • Mining rate and cargo storage are increased by 200% (up from 25%).
  • Weapon damage is reduced by 90% (down from 100%).
  • Support capacity is reduced by 90% (down from 100%).
  • Build and labor costs are reduced by 25% (up from 0%).
  • Construction Bay and Ore Processor labor output are increased by 20% (up from 0%).
  • Sensor range (when implemented) is increased by 50% (up from 0%).

[DaloLorn]

The Titan's interesting in theory, but in practice it comes off as... weird and largely ineffective outside of a few niches. This might be more useful without sacrificing some of its more unique aspects.

• Titan Architecture
  • Titans are the heart of an empire's fleet, boasting unparalleled flexibility in mission profiles at the cost of being too large and cumbersome for everyday use. These behemoths tend to be difficult to kill... or maintain.
  • Examples of Titans in fiction: Mothership (StarCraft), Leviathan (StarCraft), Allegiance-class Star Destroyer (Star Wars), Subjugator-class Dreadnought (Star Wars), Odyssey-class Star Cruiser (Star Trek), Wraith Hiveship (Stargate), SSD Lucifer (Freespace), Anubis' Mothership (Stargate), Carbon-class Battleplate (Schlock Mercenary)
  • Hex limit is increased by 300%. This makes each hex weaker, but allows for more intricate designs, such as composite armor weaves consisting of multiple complementary armor types.
  • Hex size is increased by 33%. (If my math is correct, this means that a quarter of a Titan's hexes don't count towards hex size. Also, Titans can mount more Spinal Mounts!)
  • Build, labor and maintenance costs are decreased by 5%.
  • Mass is increased by 25%. (Hyperdrive speeds and jumpdrive range are also affected.)
  • Repair rate and shield regeneration are reduced by 25%.
  • Minimum size is 1000 (up from 500).
  • Cannot be used on a ship with the Colossus Architecture or Exotic Superstructure subsystems.

[DaloLorn]

Everything the Titan is, the Colossus is, but worse. It has literally no purpose except to build extremely intricate designs and cause FPS drops for any poor soul who tries to view their obnoxiously large blueprints.

• Colossus Architecture
  • Colossi are the pinnacle of an empire's industrial capacity... and no small amount of, ahem, overcompensation. Incredibly large and expensive, they will destroy any other ship in single combat, but can only be in one place at once, and may be outmaneuvered or worn down by a crafty enemy.
  • Examples of Colossi in fiction: Atlantis-class Cityship (Stargate), Spear of Adun (StarCraft), Tzenkethi Battlestation (Star Trek), GTVA Colossus (Freespace), SJ Sathanas (Freespace), SJ Kalki (Blue Planet), Executor-class Star Dreadnought (Star Wars), DS-1 Orbital Battle Station (Star Wars)
  • Hex limit is increased by 900%. This makes each hex much weaker, but allows for more intricate designs surpassing those of the Titan. Hex limit is increased by 300%. This makes each hex weaker, but allows for more intricate designs, such as composite armor weaves consisting of multiple complementary armor types.
  • Build and labor costs are increased by 50%. Maintenance cost is reduced by 25%.
  • Health and damage resistance are doubled.
  • Shield capacity is tripled.
  • Mass is doubled. (Hyperdrive speeds and jumpdrive range are also affected.)
  • Minimum size is 3000.
  • Only available via a secret project requiring 3 Titans to have been constructed (down from 5).
  • All weapon damage is tripled.
  • All weapon supply costs are tripled.
  • All weapon reload rates are tripled.
  • All weapon ranges are increased by 50%. Weapon spread is decreased by 50%.
  • Cannot be used on a ship with the Titan Architecture or Exotic Superstructure subsystems.

[DaloLorn]

The Superstructure Hull is an odd duck. Serving primarily as a means of converting Ore into a construction and maintenance discount, it's unclear how this makes much sense. Hopefully this might be more reasonable while adding mechanical flavor to an otherwise bland hull type.

• Exotic Superstructure
  • The ship's superstructure is fashioned out of exotic ores primarily mined from asteroids. This building technique makes it surprisingly easy to build and maintain these ships, at the cost of complicating reconstruction and reducing resilience.
  • Build and labor costs are reduced by 66% (up from 50%).
  • Maintenance cost is halved (up from 33%).
  • Requires Ore to construct, equivalent to 75% of its build and labor costs and 37.5% of its maintenance cost.
  • Hexes at 25% health or less cannot be repaired, as if they were turning into Crystalline or Ceramic Armor.
  • Health and damage resistance are reduced by 25%.
  • Cannot be used on a ship with the Titan Architecture or Colossus Architecture subsystems.

[DaloLorn]

After ten minutes of staring at a blank grid for #83's ANJ Gwanlyn, I decided it was going to be less painful to rebuild the CTD Cronus and HCD Hugshap from scratch than roll out another dozen Colossi on this atrocity of a hex grid. The Colossus grid is being crunched down to Titan scale, with the old architecture being left in place solely for the purposes of helping people compare stats between their pre- and post-revamp Colossi. (You know, in case anyone else bothers to try converting their Colossi like I'm going to, instead of just drawing up new ones from scratch. It could happen! 😂)