Astro Trains: Lets Talk

[Misery]

I like the Astro Trains as they are in the game for the most part (though that seems to be a rare sentiment) and generally have them turned on, but the one issue I do have with them is that lack of being able to tell where the "rails" are, in terms of their paths through the galaxy map as a whole.  That can be kinda irritating since it's hard to influence them via destroying the stations.   I see I'm not alone when it comes to disliking that specific bit.

Also I love the idea of being able to hack or hijack these, or dropping some sort of virus or something onto one and it takes it somewhere else, where it causes some trouble.   All of these things sound fun.

[NickAragua]

After beating a game of AI War featuring astro trains, I now always leave them off because they're annoying. Being able to see the routes would help. That being said, if implementing them detracts from the core functionality of mass fleet battles against a highly adaptive AI, then they should go to "post release items" instead of trying to cram them in.

Overall, I would recommend a point blank laser focus on a fixed set of polished core mechanics. Astro trains just never really seemed like a part of the core experience to me (even though I remember they were non-optional back in the day).

[Tridus]

I like the Astro Trains as they are in the game for the most part (though that seems to be a rare sentiment) and generally have them turned on, but the one issue I do have with them is that lack of being able to tell where the "rails" are, in terms of their paths through the galaxy map as a whole.  That can be kinda irritating since it's hard to influence them via destroying the stations.   I see I'm not alone when it comes to disliking that specific bit.

Also I love the idea of being able to hack or hijack these, or dropping some sort of virus or something onto one and it takes it somewhere else, where it causes some trouble.   All of these things sound fun.

If it makes you feel better, I like them too.

Improved UI would help with them a lot, in figuring out where they're going and what they're doing, for sure. Also being able to hack the train and send a virus somewhere else would be neat.

[Draco18s]

For the record, "showing the rails" was pretty much the first point that started the whole thread.

[Cyborg]

There's no shortage of love for trains in a variety of games. No other game has trains as %100 negative annoyances, though. I, also, would like to see trains as something we can develop and use to push forwards through the game. Whether that is bonuses, supply lines, knowledge, resources (my preference, rebuilding time bonuses are welcome), or unlocking units, there's a place for trains. Besides that, they look cool.

[Tridus]

Wanted to bring this over from the "Ship Bays" thread, since it was called out over there:

The destruction of certain kinds of buildings on the AI side, like perhaps supply trains or whatever else, could cause immediate drops of X amount of currency.

Hello Astro Trains! (Even more interesting if successfully completing a run gives the destination system a bonus or uses some of the currency there, making it very advantageous to reroute and sabtoage cargo cars on trains, rather than just ignoring them.)

That would be an awesome suggestion to note down in the astro trains section, actually!  The astro trains discussion last week was one of the things that helped spark the idea about reinforcement currency being more granular like this, too.  There were several discussions that people had about that, more ways to damage the AI in specific fashions, etc, that really led into this.

If the AI has currency, there's a lot of options for trains to do things like move that currency around between planets, and trains are a natural vehicle for that. Players then have a reason to target/reroute them. (The AI could also be trying to build larger projects or special things, of course, but the ship reinforcement currency is a natural jumping off point for the design.)

[chemical_art]

If the AI has currency, there's a lot of options for trains to do things like move that currency around between planets, and trains are a natural vehicle for that. Players then have a reason to target/reroute them. (The AI could also be trying to build larger projects or special things, of course, but the ship reinforcement currency is a natural jumping off point for the design.)

I agree, such as redirecting an astro train from a high MK world to a lower one. The currency cost is the same but the impact it makes is reduced. This is just one of many ways were they can be used to the player's advantage.

[Draco18s]

If the AI has currency, there's a lot of options for trains to do things like move that currency around between planets, and trains are a natural vehicle for that. Players then have a reason to target/reroute them. (The AI could also be trying to build larger projects or special things, of course, but the ship reinforcement currency is a natural jumping off point for the design.)

Yup. Precisely.

[Nuc_Temeron]

I love the ideas in this thread.

If the trains are carrying certain materials, destroying the (heavily shielded) train car might dump radioactive material all over your system, or cause continuous explosions in space nearby the destroyed train, or poisonous meteors might start falling on the planet, or maybe an acid cloud might form there that functions like an Armor Rotter. This would be determined by the train's origin and what resource is produced there.

What if, when destroyed, the trains drop salvage (just like from battles) at that system. (was that mentioned already?)

[Pumpkin]

I was thinking about the potential integration of the Astro Trains as basic tools for the AI that would give Human players a chance to stop it. I realized they will need to be slower. For instance, if scouts are in the right place, a warning would display "AI is conveying resources. Astro Train detected in $planetName". The train would be rather slow (but not sluggish neither; maybe the speed of the missile frigates) but on a rather short itinerary (like 3 to 5 wormholes). The Human players would be tasked with taking it down to gain a bonus or cancel an AI bonus. The train itself would be tanky (but not Wormhole GPost tanky) and protected (armed wagons, escorting fleet/threat/Special Forces). It would be like a spawn of Mining Golems with a more "organic" timer and more interesting repercussions (for both success and failure).

A better scout or hacker-stuff would allow players to know when and where a "special delivery" will happen and prepare its interception. ("Ore Train departing from $planetName to $planetName within 5:34")