Expansion idea: DIY customization.

[CMDR Duck]

I was ready to type up a long and boring post about my last game and recommend some changes/rebalance. But what I would really like is the opportunity to do it myself. Lets see what happens if transports become more brittle and fortresses can damage bombers. I would love to be able to set the "replicates" tag to the marauders, or give the Capital ships a boost in armor and build time. 

I realize this would be a major change, so why not release it as a optional update and charge people $10 to use the editor/user created content. I think there would be a market for this.

[RCIX]

The big problem is with doing this at all is that it would significantly fragment the playerbase (i.e. 5 people play with this mod, 20 play with that mod, etc.), and besides if a change is good enough it will probably get integrated into the game anyway. So, type away!

And charging for it would be even worse (though X does plan to provide a scenario editor in the next paid expansion): 99% of games out there let you mod their game for free.

[x4000]

You can mod the names of stuff harmlessly at the moment (Language folder), but as far as ship stats, etc, that's something we keep under central control for the reasons RCIX was mentioning.

[CMDR Duck]

Honesty the biggest wish would be to simplify the FRD tactics for the friendly AI, right now they make some very strange choices. I propose the following rules:

1. Move towards the enemy closest to the point you are defending. (The point I "v-Rclicked")

2. If anyone gets into firing range attack and pursue them.

Rule 2 beats Rule 1. When I set defenders on a planet, I want them to defend that point. The location of the ships in the battle often matters more then the ship types. 10 cruisers right next to the command station is more of a threat then 20 bombers across the map.

Other notes:

I wish the acid sprayers had less shielding/immunity, they look like roaches and are twice as hard to kill.

Fortresses should use the same missile tubes as the cruisers. I have never bypassed a star system because of a fortress, 1 wing of bombers can down a fort with minimal casualties. I had the same issue with the zenith warheads bouncing off my bombers, they were not the threat I expected.

Why no level 3 Ion cannon? The AI should have them, even if the player can't capture them.

Star systems with a missile silo should have some lighting missiles sitting around for a rainy day. Destroy the command center and the missiles switch to 'revenge mode'.

The marauders should reproduce when they destroy enemy shipping. 

Star trains should reinforce worlds they pass though. At higher levels they drop ships wherever they are, like what we do with transports.

At higher levels: The AI should send ships from neighboring worlds if it is outnumbered while defending a high value planet.

Human colonies should only rebel after I scout their world, I keep getting imposable calls for help from areas I would never go otherwise. Yes I save scrum so what.

Mining Golums should stick around planets they kill eating the remains and FRDing anyone who comes into the system.

Well, I really like sticky tactical problems so I guess my ideas are more about torturing the players then unit balance.

[Ozymandiaz]

in respone to the colonists, I just deactivate them

They can be interesting, but I don't generally like games with them on since it dominats the strategy I use too much to my liking .

[Buttons840]

Honesty the biggest wish would be to simplify the FRD tactics for the friendly AI, right now they make some very strange choices. I propose the following rules:

1. Move towards the enemy closest to the point you are defending. (The point I "v-Rclicked")

2. If anyone gets into firing range attack and pursue them.

Sounds like attack move.  Try Alt+Right click.  Units will pursue units which come within range and position themselves in a good attack position against stationary targets.

[Draco18s]

The big problem is with doing this at all is that it would significantly fragment the playerbase (i.e. 5 people play with this mod, 20 play with that mod, etc.), and besides if a change is good enough it will probably get integrated into the game anyway. So, type away!

Dwarf Fortress doesn't really have this problem (there are a few mods that get some heavy play, and one tileset that 99% of its users don't realize is a mod which fixes a minor bug--cats not having a [GRASPER] tag, which causes the game the throw warnings when cats try to haul vermin they killed--and adds a minor feature--enables all stones as "economic" allowing finer grained selection of choice for what stones to use for a given project) but with a multiplayer game its a little more important.  You'd need a Mod Manager of somekind, so you can enable/disable certain mods with a single click to play with others who don't have your mods.

Of course, then there is the issue of messing up the "this ship is strong vs." and "this ship is weak vs." notes, as IIRC, that is done by Arcen with some automated matchups* (every ship versus every other ship).

*Speaking of which, I noticed that there was one ship--the sniper ship?--that had a 1% advantage against itself, so it got listed in the "weak vs." list also.

[Fleet]

It seem like implementing a way to switch between different configurations (including the immutable default/stock) would provide an easy way to continue multiplayer games. Could even have a master configuration file for each config that would be as easy to add to and use as saves are (dropping into a folder). In-game, you could simply choose which configuration to use before starting a game.

For multiplayer, the players could be forced to use the settings of the host, or if config files are swappable like saves, the game could simply do a check when joining, just like it does for versions.

I don't see how fragmenting the player base would be a problem if the simplest measures of choosing default/stock config options is available. It would be no different then players right now using different versions; we still communicate, and let each other know what version we are using before play, or talk in the lobby.