Sea Change: T2 (Ships)

Back to Sea Change.

Saktoths (outdated) idea for pace/design:

  • A naval-scale feel and pace, with large expensive units and a focus on effective deployment (micromanagement).
    • Slow turn rates and restricted fire arcs, so that the facing of a ship is important and something that must be considered head of time in regards to persuing, retreating and bringing weapons to bear.
    • Slow Accel/Decel, creating a focus on 'commiting' to an engagement, and allowing combat manoeuvres to take place at a slow pace but still allowing ships to travel over larger sea maps at relatively high speeds.
    • Long ranges, so that sea is played on a very different scale to land battles, but also to allow effective bombardment.
    • Borrowing from real naval tactics where it meets these goals, especially  WW1/WW2, using broadsides, turning away from torpedoes etc. Sci-fi concepts such as effective deployment of shield ships and anything that fits along this vein of effective deployment.
  • Hard counters (Sea, subs, hovers, etc).
  • If any game is ever going to involve ships, measures must be taken to avoid rushing a ship player with boats (Or possibly hovers?). Perhaps stronger early defences, an underwater d-gun, or a relatively light anti-boat ship that can be built as the first thing out of the fac to counter a rush.

Evil4Zerggin

Issues

  • What we do with hovers and amphs will also affect the balance of sea; for example, how easy it is to get to hovers/amphs; the availability of amphs that can attack from underwater, etc.
  • Cost scaling.

Versus Boats

Compared to boats:

  • Deeper draft. Ships will require 40 minwaterdepth, compared to 5 for boats. This means that they will not be able to navigate shallows. However, a more comprehensive boat lineup means that water players have less cause to be disappointed if the water has a lot of shallows dividing it. In the worst case a ship player can terraform or blast their way past shallows.
    • Alternate method: Both types use the same minwaterdepth patterns, but boats get slowed in deep water and ships get slowed in shallow water. This has the advantage of not making passability strictly binary, and reducing the number of required movetypes (since then boats and ships can share a movetype). However, maps don't have standardized deep water (although this could be analyzed via Lua), and there is no way to notify pathfinding.
  • More expensive. The cheaper ships will be around the mid-upper range of boat costs.
  • Somewhat slower. The faster ships will go at a decent clip, but not as fast as the fastest boats.
  • Much less maneuverable. Low turn rate and acceleration.
  • Less specialized weapons. This helps offset the smaller unit count for a given cost. However, range and movement will continue to be factors in the unit's role.
  • More specialized movement/range?

Overall Layout

  • Construction sub.
  • Four ships to cover the four basic speed/range combinations: Assault (slow/short), Raider (fast/short), Skirmisher (fast/long), Artillery (slow/long).
    • Cost-wise, Arm has Raider -> Assault -> Skirmisher -> fire support; Core has Raider -> Skirmisher -> fire support -> Assault. This is in line with other factories; Raiders are always the cheapest, and the pride of the Arm military is usually fire support or Skirmisher (Penetrator, Crabe, Janus) whereas for Core it is usually Assault or Assault-like Riots (Ravager, Goliath, Sumo).
  • Battlecriuser for strategic bombardment.
  • Battleship mostly to look impressive.
  • Submarine.
  • Antinuke/support ship.

Arm

Construction Sub.

  • "Ingenuity"-class.
  • Cost 250-300.
  • Decent speed and nano power, poor armor.
  • Allows sneaky expansion early. Although this might give Core torpedo boats too much of an advantage over Arm patrol boats early?

Laser Destroyer Escort.

  • "Alacrity"-class.
  • Cost ~500.
  • Raider/AA.
  • Fast and maneuverable. Mediocre hit points.
  • Continuous lasers and secondary AA lasers.
  • EMP explosion?
  • Purer raider than corvette? However this might reduce its utility as an anti-corvette defense.

Lightning Destroyer.

  • "Invincible"-class.
  • Cost ~750.
  • Assault/ASW.
  • Slow, good armor.
  • Short-range lightning cannons, depth charge thrower.
  • Good for delaying the enemy.
  • Purer assault ship than corvette.
  • First ship capable of hunting enemy sub cons, but vulnerable to kiting by Core Plasma Destroyer.

Hunter-Killer Submarine.

  • "Revenge"-class.
  • Cost 1000-1500?
  • Scout/ASW.
  • Fast and manueverable; poor armor.
  • Accurate, short-range, low damage omnidirectional torpedoes.
  • Good sensors allow it to double as a scout.
  • Good at outmanuevering other subs but not much DPS.

Light Gauss Cruiser.

  • "Finesse"-class.
  • Skirmisher/AA.
  • Cost 1500-2000?
  • Good speed, poor armor for cost.
  • Low ROF, splash; high damage and good range. Secondary AA chainguns.
  • Stealth? Although engine is likely buggy with this.
  • Cloaking?
  • Vulnerable to raiders, subs.

Missile Cruiser.

  • "Havoc"-class.
  • Artillery.
  • Cost ~3000?
  • Slow, mediocre armor for cost.
  • Heavy missiles with low ROF, high splash, good accuracy, long range, decent damage; target both subs and aircraft.
  • Splash is the main feature (only non-strategic bombardment ship with significant splash).

Support Ship.

  • "Vigilance"-class.
  • Support.
  • Cost ~3500?
  • Put in boatyard instead?
  • Split antinuke, cloak?
  • Tweak antinuke stats?
  • Slow, moderate armor.
  • Antinuke, cloak generator.

Battlecruiser?

  • "Inevitable"-class.
  • Strategic bombardment.
  • Cost 6000-10000.
  • Slow, poor armor for cost.
  • Extreme-range plasma cannons.
  • Much less accurate than Carrier attack, but better AoE. As a ship, can't get as close to coast; however shots can't be shot down like drones.

Battleship.

  • "Victory"-class.
  • Cost ~30000.
  • Very slow.
  • Even greater number of extreme-range plasma cannons, many secondary weapons.
  • Mostly status symbol like late T3.

Core

Construction Sub.

  • "Anvil"-class.

Flame Destroyer Escort.

  • "Flametongue"-class.
  • Raider/AA.
  • Cost ~500.
  • Fast and maneuverable. Short range, high ROF. Mediocre hit points.
  • Flame or heat ray?
  • Secondary flak.
  • Death explosion?
  • Purer raider than corvette? However this might reduce its utility as an anti-corvette defense.

Plasma Destroyer.

  • "Katana"-class.
  • Skirmisher/ASW.
  • Cost ~750.
  • Decent speed and maneuverability.
  • Good range, mediocre DPS. Armed with low-splash, accurate plasma cannons, depth charge thrower.
  • Poor armor and regeneration?
  • First ship capable of hunting sub cons, but must be careful around raiders and such. Too reactionary for Arm ships v. Core ships? Not useful enough against boats?

Light Torpedo Cruiser.

  • "Pike"-class.
  • Artillery/ASW.
  • Cost 1000-1500?
  • Fires high-splash, high-damage, low-ROF, long-range, unguided, poor firing arc torpedoes (mini-nuke?). Mediocre hit points.
  • Death explosion?
  • Lengthy firing animation?
  • Open/close behavior?
  • Devastating when player has the initiative, but vulnerable to flanking, aircraft.
  • Splash is the main feature (only non-strategic bombardment ship with significant splash).

Missile submarine.

  • "Shuriken"-class.
  • Sneaky/AA.
  • Cost 1500-2000?.
  • Slow, poor armor. Armed with mid-range vertically launched missiles that track aircraft and surface targets, but cannot return to hit underwater targets. Low ROF, good damage and accuracy. Can bombard near-coast targets.
  • As with all subs, good against non-ASW ships. Can fight aircraft, but helpless against other subs.

Laser Cruiser.

  • "Warhammer"-class.
  • Assault.
  • Cost ~3000.
  • Very slow, heavy armor.
  • Variety of lasers against all comers.
  • Especially vulnerable to kiting.
  • True assault ship.

Support Ship.

  • "Hauberk"-class.
  • Cost ~3500.
  • Put in boatyard instead?
  • Split antinuke, shield?
  • Tweak antinuke stats?
  • Slow, moderate armor.
  • Antinuke, shield generator.

Battlecruiser.

  • "Longbow"-class.
  • Strategic bombardment.
  • Cost 6000-10000.
  • Slow, poor armor for cost.
  • Extreme-range wobble missiles.
  • Contrast accuracy/AoE with Monitor (that is, if Monitor is accurate, make Battlecruiser less accurate, or vice versa; a bit like Tremor vs. Pillager). Slightly more range, but can't get as close to coastline?

Battleship.

  • "Claymore"-class.
  • Cost ~30000.
  • Very slow.
  • Even greater number of extreme-range wobble missiles, many secondary weapons.
  • Mostly status symbol like late T3.