Background Faction's Ships Brainstorm

[Pumpkin]

Human-reserved ships that are slightly off-balance? Let's do this!

My idea:
Might be a good place to bring back the "strange perks" that got removed.

EDIT: I'll update that list as proposals flow. I take no credit for all of these ideas.

* Snipers
* Drone Spawners (Enclave Starship, Blade Spawners, TDL)
* Swallowers
* Boosters
* Zenith Siege Engine

[tadrinth]

For context:

I want to make a general prediction that people's favorite ships are disproportionately ships that are hard to balance.   I know most of mine are.  Broken crazy ships are fun.

I think a good general rule is to say that anything the AI can't have is never a bonus ship type.  You can't have things like Protector Starships and NCCs and Lightning Torpedo Frigates competing with Laser Gatlings.  They should instead compete with each other somehow.

This is a brilliant point, actually.  I don't want these things to be something that you start the game with, though.  I'd like for them to be something along the lines of "quest rewards" (that's really misleading) for protecting background factions.  We actually could use quite a few ships for that, since there could be a lot of background factions in the game.

You'd have access to build this ship type (fleet style or starship style) so long as you protect that background faction, and if they die then bye-bye for your ability to build that sort of thing for the rest of that campaign.  That would be the perfect thing for background factions actually, and anyone who wants to start a thread about ships that maybe should go there would be more than welcome to.

[Pumpkin]

Yup. Thank you for that.

EDIT: Huge mistake on my part: not MINOR faction, but BACKGROUND faction. (God, that's troublesome.)

[tadrinth]

I really want a cross between a Flagship and a Mobile Space Dock; maybe that would fit here? 

[tadrinth]

Hey, we could bring back Zenith Siege Engines this way without Kahuna tearing his hair out!

[Pumpkin]

Hey, we could bring back Zenith Siege Engines this way without Kahuna tearing his hair out!

Added. 

[kasnavada]

First, category names. I'd suggest:
- throneships => if the factions are "noble" types, that could fit. Idea there would be that each "house", or background faction, would compete to make the shiniest and most op one.
- simply... battleships.


Next, OP is possible ? 

Phantom projector => constantly creates 1hp doubles of your ships.
Parasitic worm => Could take over a dire guardian.
Transport teleport.
Mortar ship => once an hour (maybe less ?) ship that can target stuff on another planet in the same solar system.
Resurrector ship => same as the golem really, but... a ship.
=> Basically a toned-down version of all golems could fit. I'm writing that with the last 2 ships...
Attritionist => has the attrition capability.
Hubble => Scout shisp that scouts the solar systems adjacent to the solar system where it's in.


I don't actually see why this should limit the player to ships though, so... buildings ?
- lost fleet anchor (attracts fleets of low-tech ship once in a while, with a different cap)
- Marauder bar (same idea but the fleet would be people that lost their ships in the bar, would generates less ships, but in compensation would bring income from drinks).
- Advanced mineral extraction => these guys have figured out how to get even the tiniest traces of metal in asteroids, boosting your generation of metal by XX%.
- Mercenary docks (where you could... hire mercs. A bit (lot) less expansive that in AI war 2. Possibly could also hire a group of mercs to patrol your territory like zombies. Them being hostile and targetting other systems seems too complicated but could be cool.
- "Cap modifiers" (needs a name tied to the ship type), like "Advanced fighter control center" => doubles the cap of fighters, gives them an upgrade too.
- Neinzul fountain of youth => halves the life degeneration of neinzuls.
- Space whale nest. This place happens to be the home of an old hydra space-faring pet, that looks like whales. Those are transport that can regenerate, but need to go back to the nest once in a while. Number of transport available, if dead, regenerate with time (to simulate reproduction of the "animals" there).

That's all I can think of for the moment...

PS: in case trains make it in the game, spy train.
PS2: added neinzul founain, cap modifier, attritionist, hubble.
PS3: space whales.

[ewokonfire]

If we're generalising to buildings, why not 'candy techs' too?  I can easily see a fun mechanic whereby you befriend a faction and as a reward, all of your ships get...something.  Alternatively (for stronger upgrades) you could only be able to apply it to one ship type (or save it for later, if you don't yet have the type you want to use it on).  I can easily see some weird and wonderful upgrades going here, like something that gives the Zenith Hydra ability to a ship type of your choice.

[chemical_art]

A huge side note about these factions: It would help immensely to know why the AI has returned. Was another civil war brewing? Did one faction pursue forbidden technology? Did someone try to build a Dyson sphere using AI?

[tadrinth]

How many of these are you going to get, btw? Are there ship concepts that would normally be annoying to micro, but you won't get so many of them here that it would be a problem?

Because Zenith Bombards might be a good fit.  They can be very strong if you micro them really hard (ie, power them down until a desired beefy target is in range, then tell them to attack it and power them back up). 

[PokerChen]

I really want a cross between a Flagship and a Mobile Space Dock; maybe that would fit here?

Super carrier?

[chemical_art]

I really want a cross between a Flagship and a Mobile Space Dock; maybe that would fit here?

Super carrier?

Super transport:

The ultimate in transportation technology, we cut out the middle human.™

[tadrinth]

Now I want something that projects a miniature black hole. 

[Pumpkin]

Now I want something that projects a miniature black hole.

Projected instakill AoE?

(Imagine a Plasma Siege Starship with a brief black disc instead of lightning bubble on impact? (Well, instakill was ban for a good reason, but it's the easiest way I can think of a weaponized black hole.)

[PokerChen]

Well, it's hard to imagine a scenario where a microscopic blackhole won't instakill its target within the local vicinity - however, there might be something fun to be refined out of it. What do people think about a warhead type as a minor faction bonus?