If this was already suggested elsewhere or covered in an update, feel free to nuke my topic from orbit. After viewing the tech demo regarding the menu and giving out orders, I was struck with this idea.
Follow Competency and Loyalty
The general idea is that each pilot following you has certain traits that increase (and possibly decrease!) as time goes on. The basis for this model that I was thinking of was the agents you can get in games like Shogun: Total War, like the spies and assassins seen there. What this would do would allow for a bit of randomness and unsuredness in orders you gave. For example, you could have a crack team of ace pilots who fly in formation and completely wreak havoc on enemy ships. On the flip side though, you could have a less-than-stellar (HAH SPACE JOKE) crew that may miss a lot, or shoot the wrong ship, misfire, accidentally eject instead of fire a missile, etc...
Very roughly off the top of my head I was thinking some traits like
Loyalty: 1-100%
The two extremes here would be at 1% there's an almost guaranteed chance that he will actually turn on you and scuttle your ship. While at 100% you can order him to fly directly into the thrusters of the capital ship, thereby crippling the ship but also dying/
Piloting: 1-100
This would effect how well the pilot can fly. Can he roll a hard six and complete own another ship? Or will he fly headlong at a capital ship turret battery without even drifting lazily to the left?
Gunnery: 1-100
Kind of self explanatory. Can she bullseye a womprat in her T-16 from 2km out? Or would a strafing run against a cargo ship somehow miraculously end up as her shooting her own cockpit?
Luck: 1-100
Intangible, every bit helps
These are just some rough ideas. You could also have a whole pool of trait bonuses to pull from, again, not unlike Shogun or Rome. So an example pilot would be something like:
Captain Jack Harkness
Loyalty: 67
Piloting: 84
Gunnery: 43
Luck: 90
Traits:
Ace in the Hole: When near death, Gunnery and Piloting each get +5
Sexy Devil: Enemy ships tend to focus Jack due to his in-your-face flying style
How DOES He Do That?: +10 Luck
Obviously there's all sorts of directions to take this, but I just think that it would be a fun way to help diversify, but also keep uniqueness, in the fleet you assemble and the way you approach situations.
Thoughts, criticisms, rude remarks, sexy PMs? Let's hear'm!
Post
Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:54 pm
#2
Re: Fleet and Follower Loyalty/Competency
I'd say that for every NPC pilot, loyalty starts at 50. It goes up if you win battles/pay them well/whatever to a maximum of 100, but will decrease if you shoot them/abuse them down to a minimum of 0, at which point they leave.
The other three stats, however, should be share a pool of 150 points, like an Attribute system in an RPG, and they'd all have to have at least one point invested in them. You can't have a bunch of NPCs for hire that have 90s or 100s in all their stats because that takes the challenge out of the game.
These values would need to be predetermined by the computer, but you'd have pilots that would be really lucky, or great pilots, or effective gunners, and then you'd have pilots that are middle-ground and not specialized in any direction. And then the player could hire pilots according to how the skills match their needs.
If you found a pilot with a really high Gunnery skill (let's say 100), and then his luck and piloting skills are only 25, you might want to assign him to a capital ship where it's effective cannon fire rather than dodging that wins the match.
Or if you had a pilot with a really high luck stat, you might put her into a freighter for your trade convoys, as it might buy your convoy some time if pirates show up.
And then pilots who have a really high piloting skill would be better assigned to fighter craft, where dodging and distracting enemy fighters is essential to either having them killed or preserving the flagship.
Although this might be a little too micromanage-y.
The other three stats, however, should be share a pool of 150 points, like an Attribute system in an RPG, and they'd all have to have at least one point invested in them. You can't have a bunch of NPCs for hire that have 90s or 100s in all their stats because that takes the challenge out of the game.
These values would need to be predetermined by the computer, but you'd have pilots that would be really lucky, or great pilots, or effective gunners, and then you'd have pilots that are middle-ground and not specialized in any direction. And then the player could hire pilots according to how the skills match their needs.
If you found a pilot with a really high Gunnery skill (let's say 100), and then his luck and piloting skills are only 25, you might want to assign him to a capital ship where it's effective cannon fire rather than dodging that wins the match.
Or if you had a pilot with a really high luck stat, you might put her into a freighter for your trade convoys, as it might buy your convoy some time if pirates show up.
And then pilots who have a really high piloting skill would be better assigned to fighter craft, where dodging and distracting enemy fighters is essential to either having them killed or preserving the flagship.
Although this might be a little too micromanage-y.
Post
Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:12 pm
#3
Re: Fleet and Follower Loyalty/Competency
I like the idea of loyalty and competency. I think that if each stat was out of 100 it would be OK but only is there was say...1-5 pilots max per star cluster that had all stats >90. This would cause the player to have to seriously hunt for each and every pilot. If you wanted to compose a small to moderate sized fleet, say 25 ships, you would have had to travel to at least 5 star clusters and talked or encountered a large majority of the population of each star cluster before you could have found the pilots with exceptional skills. At this point I would argue that you should be approaching end game and should have something to show for it anyways. You could also make pilots with skills >80 quite rare too. Think bell curve.
Post
Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:12 am
#4
Re: Fleet and Follower Loyalty/Competency
There has been some talk about an NPC skill system in other threads, where the skills of the NPCs working for you would improve (or degrade) over time. Piloting and gunnery are obvious examples, loyalty could of course become another factor.
So yes, something similar has been brought up and discussed elsewhere.
So yes, something similar has been brought up and discussed elsewhere.
Post
Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:28 pm
#5
Re: Fleet and Follower Loyalty/Competency
Key the loyalty to the salary/wages paid. Assume that there is an "average" price of X currency units to be payed per crew member per cycle, depending on the quality (=skills) of said crew member. If you overpay them, loyalty rises, if you underpay them, it'll sink. Reaching maximum/minimum loyalty should take a few cycles, though.
I'd also try to figure damage taken/time into this equation, somehow - if you expect your pilots to fight on a regular basis, better don't skimp on that hazard pay. Not getting shot at, ever, in return, makes for happy employees despite average paycheques.
I'd also try to figure damage taken/time into this equation, somehow - if you expect your pilots to fight on a regular basis, better don't skimp on that hazard pay. Not getting shot at, ever, in return, makes for happy employees despite average paycheques.
Hardenberg was my name
And Terra was my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
And Terra was my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
Post
Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:16 pm
#6
Re: Fleet and Follower Loyalty/Competency
In the case of meeting AI and building a friendship, I think loyalty would be a great stat, especially if that AI can become part of the player's fleet. Low loyalty could result in the AI fleeing or turning against the player if an enemy engaged in combat is a greater friend. However, I don't like the whole direction of having to pay and maintain loyalty with ship captains for the ships that I design and pay for. My current concept of Limit Theory doesn't really fit with the need to balance a budget, hire and fire staff, or risk losing ships to disloyal captains.