Cornflakes_91 wrote:maybe with the control fidelity modified by the distance of the instant comms connection.
short range -> direct remote control possible (same system or maybe even shorter)
medium range -> classic RTS controls
long range -> somewhat like grand strategy games, "this fleet moves there, this fleet attacks this area" etc...
I'm with you in theory. Some thoughts:
1. What in your opinion is the functional difference between "direct remote control" and "classic RTS controls"?
To me, RTS controls == direct remote control of an individual unit. Most RTSs give you a way to group units together, but you're still basically giving atomic-level instructions to individual units: mine the resource at location X, attack enemy unit Y, defend location Z.
I wouldn't have any problem with merging those and letting them be instantaneous within the same star system.
2. Between star systems, non-instantaneous communication basically means transmitting information -- data in, orders out -- via couriers of some kind. Options there would be:
- You do it personally in your own ship.
- Data and orders are moved via NPC ships, which have the ability to semi-intelligently protect the information they're carrying.
- Data and orders are moved via drones, which can't do anything if they are interfered with.
The effect of this would be to give value to the creation of information transmission webs in every star system in which you want to operate.
The optimal solution might be to station courier NPC ships around every wormhole terminus. As new information arrives at one wormhole point, it's transmitted instantly to all the NPC ships of that faction, and one ship at each of all the other wormhole points then travels through that wormhole to ferry that information to the neighboring star system. You could get more sophisticated with this, defining a certain amount of information that has to be collected before a courier departs, or selecting one NPC to be the local information broker for that star system (with the ability to do more intelligent routing of information), but that's the basic idea.
And for the skeptics who don't want to have to do this, there's no reason why NPCs in the game wouldn't create their own courier factions, which you could hire to move your information around for you.
And as a side benefit, this would actually be pretty resistant to enemy incursions since it's a dynamic web of information movement -- you could lose a star system and your information web would just route around it, not unlike today's packet-switching networks.
You'd want some form of this communication web in place to support strategic play. Since you wouldn't be able to instantly command a distant fleet or colony, or know what's happening to it the moment that it happens, you'd want to build or hire a good information network to minimize the delay between order and execution and between an occurrence of an event and awareness of that event.
Also note that this applies equally to combat and commercial operations. Strategically speaking, whoever has the best information network would have a significant advantage in any enterprise.
Still, at a high enough (multi-star system) level, there would always be some delay. That's both good and bad, depending on how you like to play games. If your preferred kind of fun is exciting action, then you probably still want instantaneous communication across the whole game universe to minimize the boring moments when nothing is happening. You can attack anywhere at any time, and so can any NPC gang. The game basically becomes an RTS -- tactical play with some light resource collection.
On the other hand, a delay between star systems has the advantage of enabling more strategic play: when something big starts to happen, you have the opportunity to detect those large-scale changes in patterns of force and make good logistical decisions to counter them before you're defeated. (And again, that applies to both fighting and economic play.) In a game with a communication delay between systems, you basically have three games: a tactical/operational game within each star system, an operational game within a sector, and a strategic game across multiple star sectors.
I don't know that LT has to be that latter kind of game. I think I might like that, and I suspect a few others would as well, but it wouldn't be for everyone.
So... a slider option, then?