Do you think there's room for more micro and doohickeys now?

[Professor Paul1290]

Before when the combat worked more like a strategy game it was nice to keep the micro and general "stuff" you would need to manage down.

Ironically with the current system I sort of feel the opposite. Now it feels like there's plenty of space and "player RAM" free to cram in more stuff for the player to manage at once.

Maybe there could be more guns to shoot, more ammo to expend, or maybe resources to manage or something. Maybe even bring back a few things that might have been tossed out to minimize excessive tedious micro before. It's a rather vague and general notion to be sure.

[x4000]

Honestly I think it's mainly about the terrain of the battlefield, and then getting out of the fight and on with the rest of the game.  If there's too much mental bandwidth in each battle, then you lose the thread of the main game.  In my opinion.

There's also a substantial limit to how much more we can safely pack into the game at this point and actually get things tested by next month.  Something along the lines of what you are describing sounds like expansion material to me unless it's actually a deficiency in the base game, if you see what I mean.

[Professor Paul1290]

I definitely wouldn't expect something super groundbreaking with a lot of new assets and code this close to release. That said, I'm guessing there are probably some things that could be leveraged from existing assets and code or "reintroduced" from cut features if testing shows a need to add a bit of meat to combat.

Whether that would be necessary or desired to remains to be seen of course.

[x4000]

Sure, that makes sense.

[Professor Paul1290]

I guess on that note, have you considered retaining some "fleet" functionality in lightweight form aside from as an operational ability?

Something like players ship having a small drone fleet attached that only had "escort", "attack target", and "dock" orders.

It seemed like something that would have been considered during the switchover so I'd be curious what the "verdict" was on that if there was any.

[x4000]

I guess on that note, have you considered retaining some "fleet" functionality in lightweight form aside from as an operational ability?

Something like players ship having a small drone fleet attached that only had "escort", "attack target", and "dock" orders.

It seemed like something that would have been considered during the switchover so I'd be curious what the "verdict" was on that if there was any.

Oh, that's definitely there at present already.  All the various "operational" abilities do basically that.  Depending on the type of operation in question, it's either aggressive or escort.

[Cinth]

What if you had a flagship that sacrificed an active and/or utility slot for extra operational slots.  Could be something specific like a "carrier" archetype that focused on small scale fleets.  Batman didn't always go it alone (Robin and Batgirl for better or worse).

[x4000]

That sort of specialization is actually a SUPER good idea -- thanks for that.

[Cinth]

That sort of specialization is actually a SUPER good idea -- thanks for that.

I'd use it for sure.  I'm always running out of bullet catchers.

[Teal_Blue]

Really cool idea!

[Professor Paul1290]

Oh, that's definitely there at present already.  All the various "operational" abilities do basically that.  Depending on the type of operation in question, it's either aggressive or escort.

The issue I have with the operational abilities is that they are "secondary weapons" with limited ammunition.

I'm not saying they are bad at all, but you tend to save "secondary weapons" for when you are in trouble and as such they just don't apply for a large portion of combat.
Sure, having more of them is nice as having options is nice, but their ability to enhance basic combat is limited by their nature.

[x4000]

You will probably like the skylaxians in the new version, then.