Cepheiden
Posts: 27
Joined: 12/29/2015 Status: offline
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How about reworking the research system into the following: - There is only one research pool and you can assign how much is spent on what category / subcategory / project. - Differentiate between these 3 categories 1. Invention (something completely or largely new) 2. Innovation (a combination or variation of something that already exists) 3. Research (systematic effort to gain new knowledge or improve existing knowledge) 1. Inventions For example warp drives or shields. Of course that category would be empty rather quickly if you go straight by the definition of invention, so it should also include for example warp drive 2.0 or shield 3.0. Inventions will be made at set intervals, depending on your research hours invested and your bonuses from race, government etc. However, the content of the Invention is out of your direct control and only influenced by where you spend your research and also again race, government, resources etc. The actual stats on a module you get from an Invention are somewhat randomized and again depending on factors such as race, government etc. For example: One race could develop a basic shield that has 1 recharge and 100 capacity and another could develop one that has 2 recharge and 50 capacity. On that note: Shields could have extra resistence stats against certain weapons, for example lasers, but that is a whole different story that has no place here right now. 2. Innovations For example High speed warp drives / energy efficient warp drives or high capacity shields / fast recharge shields. This category basically allows to create specializations of made Inventions. Innovations are much more specific than Inventions, yet the actual stats of the researched module are again randomized, yet largely better than the initial Invention. 3. Research This category allows to improve the efficiency of already existing modules (Invention or Innovation) by a certain %. Of course the amount of research time invested will increase exponentially while the efficiency gain will be linear or even degressive. For example spend 1 year to improve shields to 200% efficiency and then another 10 years to improve them to 300% efficiency. What this does: -You won't be stuck on some tech for 10 years without anything happening inbetween -Constant improvement -More choices, as to how to go about your research -no more refitting research modules -randomized modules will create the sense of always playing a new game -Many more possible difference between races and playstyles For example: Machine races are great at research, yet not very creative for Inventions, while Securans are very creative for Inventions, yet party too hard to do proper research. Insects could suck at all 3 of them, but instead get a moneyless economy and absolute control through hivemind, alleviating those drawbacks and offering a completely different playstyle that is based around literally throwing the lives of their workers at problems. Rodents could be good at making Innovations to existing tech, but suck at actually thinking of new stuff themselves and thus require to trade or steal new tech from others. On a side note: There are many other topics that could be touched, like moneyless economies (why do they all work the same in DWU?), modules that only fit certain structures (i.e. space stations, ships, planets) or certain sizes of structures or certain types (i.e. civilian, corporate, military etc.), reworking of certain mechanics like wonders or armors and shields or even damage and ship types and many more, but that's too much for 1 post.
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