Mods that would fundamentally change gameplay

[LoBlo]

These aren't proposals, just interesting discussions.

I was thinking about gameplay changes that would completely alter the feel of design, strategy, and combat.

1. No shields and no armor repair except in port
- this would be more like IRL where damaged ships are always taken out of action. Much more emphasis on point defense and range advantages rather than DPS.

2. Realistic build and refit times:
-1 to 2 years for a refit and 5 years for a build. The need for fleet buildup would be much different and the ability to replace losses over time would be reduced. I think it would put much more emphasis on obtaining more shipyards vs just obtaining resources in a war of attrition

3. Ordnance: there's a thread for this already. This would force strikes to be selective as the logistics of rearming would forbid long engagements

Any other mods that would make the game completely different?

lb

[WiZz]

These aren't proposals, just interesting discussions.

I was thinking about gameplay changes that would completely alter the feel of design, strategy, and combat.

1. No shields and no armor repair except in port
- this would be more like IRL where damaged ships are always taken out of action. Much more emphasis on point defense and range advantages rather than DPS.

2. Realistic build and refit times:
-1 to 2 years for a refit and 5 years for a build. The need for fleet buildup would be much different and the ability to replace losses over time would be reduced. I think it would put much more emphasis on obtaining more shipyards vs just obtaining resources in a war of attrition

3. Ordnance: there's a thread for this already. This would force strikes to be selective as the logistics of rearming would forbid long engagements

Any other mods that would make the game completely different?

lb

1. Shields should replenish.
2. We have space construction in the game. In 0-gravity which helps a lot. I don't think time needed to build a SEA ship should apply here.
3. Against. Because dumb AI.

For the first such mod i'd like to see realistic gravitic well for all celetsial objects and changes in hyper mechs (no hyperjumps out/into gravity wells. Most combats take place at the edges of systems.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

3. Against. Because dumb AI.

The AI for the player is actually quite good though its taking a bit to smooth out some of the snags of a brand new from the top down engine. Its the empire AI that is lacking a bit but that seems by design for balance reasons but it should also improve over time. Modding should be pretty active for this game once it reaches a stable state where there isn't a new massive performance or balancing patch every few weeks or month.

[AKicebear]

Mod idea: designs have an efficiency curve - in terms of cost, build time, etc. Old designs are very efficient, new designs very inefficient. Discourages willy nilly total redesigns at every new component, and instead large generational upgrades. See Hearts of Iron 4 for a similar (and great) manufacturing efficiency system.

[Bleek]

I think you could mod point 1 relatively easily by reducing (or removing) the repair rate of components.

For me shields should recharge but perhaps a bigger delay, so they don't recharge until X time after the last hit. This would require the ship AI understanding it needs to dip in and out of range to prolong it's combat effectiveness. Otherwise it would just retreat.

I still think resources are too abundant (I've said this all along). Rare/Lux in particular could be found just a handful of times across the galaxy but give their bonuses a big bump - make them worth fighting for.

[Lunalis]

its probably possible to just mod the ship components to achive this:
construction bays = from like 100 construction power down to 5 for example.
and remove all repair values of the command module, maybe lower the values of the repair modules.

ya could even lower the throughput of goods on docking modules and lower the mining rates of the mining modules so recources are not that abundant and take longer to move around.