Transport thoughts.

[allmybase]

-Transports:
Capacity from 100 to 200
Energy cost from 5000 to 10000
Metal/Crystal cost from 5000/3000 to 10000/6000
Now unloads a maximum of 10 ships per game second if out of supply, still unloads all if in supply or scrapped/destroyed.
Now loses 12.5% of max health when traversing a wormhole to a planet that is out-of-supply.
Now regens health very quickly (30 seconds from 1hp to full) when on a planet controlled by its team that is in supply.

Whoah those transport changes gut my entire strategy 

Gonna have to rethink and see if I can beat AI 7 again O_O;

That definitely makes getting to ARS in the middle of nowhere more challenging. You'd have to either manually escort colony ships (yuck) or incur AI progress by setting up a new supply chain from a command station every x number of jumps. But it's for the better, transports were grossly overpowered.

I think this actually may indirectly encourage the use of MRS and starships; if you have to sludge across the galaxy now instead of zipping by everything with transports, it's best to keep your fleet in tip top shape with maximum firepower and repairs. But escorting colony ships will be a huge challenge, the enemy likes to target those.

[x4000]

Yeah, this is a middle ground between where is was pre-3.060, when transports were paper-weak and couldn't make it through a single planet on their own (one transport at a time, that is), compared to 3.060 where they were temporarily overpowered.  We're still considering extra nerfs to the exit speed of ships from the transports, but for now it seems pretty well balanced overall.

[allmybase]

Do you think it might be overly aggravating to escort colony ships through a vast distance to set up a next supply chain? Or is that simply part of the challenge?

[x4000]

Do you think it might be overly aggravating to escort colony ships through a vast distance to set up a next supply chain? Or is that simply part of the challenge?

I don't think that colony ships should be able to be transported any distance with impunity, no.  Until 3.060, the effective range of anything except perhaps something like raid starships was only around 5 systems.  So if you wanted to go long-range raiding, you'd need to make some stops on the way.  As you yourself have observed, being able to run around too freely obviates the player from certain logistical challenges that otherwise create interesting strategic choices.  Having a sense of distance mattering is important to a strategy game, I think.

[allmybase]

Wait a second, you can still repair transports that aren't in supply right? So maybe actually the changes aren't enough if you can just move your transports off to the fringes of space every couple jumps to repair their damage.

[x4000]

Hmm, that is a really excellent point, actually.  Not sure why I did not think of that!

[allmybase]

Uh oh what further transport nerf can we expect 

No repairing on nonsupplied planets? Or some other devilry? 

[x4000]

No repairing on nonsupplied planets? Or some other devilry? 

It used to be that engineers did not work outside supply, at all.  But that's not what we'd go back to.  I'll have to think of something else, though.

[ShadowOTE]

Hmm... can MRS ships dock? That would open up VERY interesting possibilities.

On a seperate note, a possible balance change: when transport is destroyed, all ships are stunned for a maximum of 5 seconds, with 40 ships coming on-line per second. That would balance out the current ninja-transporting that is so exploitable (ie, dropping one or more transports on top of an objective, then scrapping it and instantly unloading 200 ships per transport), which is currently far superior in many cases to unloading when out of supply. At the same time, it would allow the speed and hp of transports, which are a major advantage in the current beta, to remain unchanged.

For most warp raids, it would make no difference, and for many other attacks it wouldnt matter either (you would effectively unload 4x faster, but at the cost of the transport); however, it would prevent you from dropping 3000+ ships on top of a homeworld and obliterating a core forcefield and station in the initial volley. Thoughts?

[Kryzite]

Hmm... can MRS ships dock? That would open up VERY interesting possibilities.

On a seperate note, a possible balance change: when transport is destroyed, all ships are stunned for a maximum of 5 seconds, with 40 ships coming on-line per second. That would balance out the current ninja-transporting that is so exploitable (ie, dropping one or more transports on top of an objective, then scrapping it and instantly unloading 200 ships per transport), which is currently far superior in many cases to unloading when out of supply. At the same time, it would allow the speed and hp of transports, which are a major advantage in the current beta, to remain unchanged.

For most warp raids, it would make no difference, and for many other attacks it wouldnt matter either (you would effectively unload 4x faster, but at the cost of the transport); however, it would prevent you from dropping 3000+ ships on top of a homeworld and obliterating a core forcefield and station in the initial volley. Thoughts?

Transports are overpowered imo!

[allmybase]

Random ideas

1) transports blow up immediately when they jump into a planet without supply (you can still use them to play all the cute games transports play with decoys and defense avoidance if you have an immediately adjacent planet which means you have to alarm it which is a fair tradeoff considering how strong these tactics are). Costs adjusted.

2) add anti transport structures or capabilities to existing structures so you at least have to deal with them before you use transports (same idea with having to get rid of ions/warhead intercep/mass drivers before you can use those units effectively). Maybe allow their engines to be damaged.

3) transports make the computer very angry. Even one transport will alarm the AI (because he has no idea what is inside them), and it causes additional reinforcements until the transport leaves the system.

4) active repairing transports causes AI progress, passive regeneration on your planets does not (reminds us of golems yea? lol)

IMO the transport's decoy function is something that it just shouldn't have. There should be a separate unit called a decoy that does that where you build them and suction off units.

[drum]

i think using transports as decoys is more exploitation of a hole in the ai than exploitation of the transport

i think the ai need to make a decision to stop chasing a transport and return to their post if say they are far enough away that the transport could turn around and beat them back to what it was they were guarding, something like that

add to that a cap on the amount of ships that follow any given transport

the ai could be aware of transports contents aswell

recall ships if another more immediate threat arrives

could even come up with some ai technology to prevent the decoy tactic

efficiant usage of multiple transports can be fairly micro intensive (keeping track of whats in each transport, setting targets quickly after disembarking, getting the right ships back in the right transport) so that balances out their power for me at least

anyhoo thats enough rambling

[RCIX]

Simple solution:make mass drivers effective at shooting transports.

[ShadowOTE]

Ah, that would be clever! And it would make sense, as well

[Trezamere]

No repairing on nonsupplied planets? Or some other devilry? 

It used to be that engineers did not work outside supply, at all.  But that's not what we'd go back to.  I'll have to think of something else, though.

Just make the repair costs significantly higher?  Since it auto-regens now you don't have worry about it ferrying between area's you control.  And besides the whole engineer to repair thing seems like a lot of effort and kind of a stretch that a lot of people would do; there's always going to be people that try to exploit stuff to the max they can.