Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The production process lack diversity.
Every produced ship is exactly the same. Beside fitting (which for experienced players is not so hard to guess fitting with high success rate) there is no difference.

I would expect that in so much of sovereignty nullsec gives by being so far from main empires - corporations that resides there would eventually come up with their own ships or at least modifications of well known ship designs.

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Production process would begun with producing components.
Every ship would need:
-- frame - based on known ships, it determines what type of ship comes out, how many component space manufacturer has and how much weight it can support
-- components - elements of the ship that are installed in or on frame:
- engine
- cpu
- capacitor
- power generator
- armor
- shield projectors
- cargo/ore space compartment

1. By using different frame production technologies and materials we could get light, able to support much weight and giving nice space for components but it would not be as damage resistant as heavy massive , shock absorbing design. On other hand using more expensive materials we can make its parameters slightly better. One frame per ship.

2. Engines - engines can differ in max speed, acceleration and deceleration and maneuverability (aligning speed and turning angles) it would give to ship. Speed of ship would still depend on its final mass after fully assembled. One engine per ship.

3. CPU. It would take energy and turn it into processing power and heat. The more processing power and less heat the more expensive it is. To reduce heat manufacturer can install additional heat-sinks at an expense of space and by increasing ships total mass. Ship can be equipped with multiple CPUs of different types - some may provide bonus if certain conditions met like only one type of CPU and designated number of CPUs installed.

4. Capacitor. It would be characterized by its capacity and charging speed. Different designs use different materials. The more expensive design - the more expensive material it would require and the better its characteristic. Ship can be equipped with multiple capacitors of different types - some may provide bonus if certain conditions met like only one type of capacitor and designated number of capacitors installed.

5. Power generator. It would be characterized by its size and power output. It produces heat as an waste. Installing heat-sinks upgrades its performance but not as efficient as good design - in other words design that minimizes heat wast gives better power output then power gained from installing heat-sinks, not mentioning space taken.
Ship can be equipped with multiple power generators of different types - some may provide bonus if certain conditions met like only one type of generator and designated number of generators installed.

6. Armor. It would be characterized mainly by material it is made of and production technology. Material would mostly influence damage types it would resist best and production technology - general capacity for damage taken. It is installed in layers. Ship can have multiple layers of different kinds of armor. The frame limits number of layers of armor it can support.

7. Shield projectors. Shield projectors would be characterized by energy projected (general capacity for damage taken), speed of projecting (how fast shield strength grows naturally or with help of internal and external factors), shield modulation (how it deals with different damage types) and energy efficiency (how much energy is converted into shield and how much is wasted in shield projection process - so how much energy it needs).
Ship can be equipped with multiple different kinds of shield projectors. Shield is evenly spread around all external parts so placement of projector generally does not matter (some frames or projectors may work better with specific shield projectors and worse with different).

8. Cargo/ore compartment. Some frames can support ore storage - no module here, merely deciding on how much left space will be spend on ore and how much for cargo space (frames that do not support ore storage - all unused space will be transformed into cargo space).

For points 1. to 7. players can either produce items like till now they do or will be able to build their own production station in either highsec or lowsec, but will be required to meet standing requirements and pay production tax, or build those stations in nullsec.
Those production nodes would not possess strong shields. They would be similar to ships - it would have shield, armor and hull.
Player could buy CONCORD protection services (the lower sec status the higher prices but lower general production tax). Protection service would be based on number of interventions per day and response time.
Materials for components production would come from Planetary Interaction.

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Why production stations?

Players need to adjust price of bought/sold items and need to manage production in some automated manner.
By taking production of components out of stations we populate space a little in other manners than roams/missions/camps/deliveries/mining and on one hand giving some players a form of property and other players - form of new target to loot or destroy.

Production stations cannot hold other items than materials used in process (PI Products) and final products and have maximum capacity.

A. Building production station.
Setting up would be similar to setting up POS but do not require anything special than correct standing if in high/low sec or verbal/written approval of corp/alliance in null.
Quick anchoring of station construction site and then player need to deliver correct amounts of ores to the site and construction drones will do the rest in their time (an hour? a day?).

B. Managing.
Player could automate production by setting max buy price for materials.

From a different thread:



Your's could have more potential then the last guy, the only problem that befalls here is instead of a production set up, this would turn more into a very complex fitting system where a ship now is set to frame, and you can then fit your basic components onto the frame through the normal fitting service, of course this could make things even more complex so in turn you will have players screaming out. "THIS GAME ALREADY TO COMPLEX!"

But like I said, if you changed this system out to be a fitting system I forsee it having better potential where someone could trade speed for better acceleration and vis-versa. They could trade out different radar systems and ectra,

However to keep every ship from transforming into the same basic ship with a different skin, you would of course have to make some rules! For example, Equipping Amarr ships with Minmitar equipment could have so unique side-effects, this kind of system though can't be built in a day, but I am providing some tips to help push along your thoughts.

Do you know how hard it would be to make ships like this balanced and useful at the same time?
The ships we have now are all defined and we still have entire forums sections dedicated to discussing their balancing.
I've seen games with systems that you propose.

It was like this.

Three builds were good and used in 90% the rest were used by idiots who didn't know better.

While I'm not saying this couldn't work...
I am saying it WON'T work.

It would have to be severely limited in overall moddability.

See t3 cruisers.