COW Design - Construction
Each empire can implement a limited number of construction centres.
Need a better name for these...
Military Centre? Government Centre? Mobilisation Centre? Sector Seats? ;-)
Construction Centres (CCs) are where *all* construction of ships and troops is done.
Only construction centres may build shipyards and training centres.
- A number of systems can be affiliated to each CC.
- A system can only be affiliated to one CC at a time.
- A CC pools all of the manufacturing capability of its affiliated systems.
- This pooled capability is then used to build ships and train troops at the centre.
The range from an affiliated system to its CC has an effect on its contribution to that centres capability.
Basically, for a given system affiliated to a CC:
centre_capability += system_capability * range_factor
where:
range_factor = 1.0 - (range * transport_cost)
An initial value of transport_cost would be around 0.05, thus systems greater than 20 LY away would not contribute anything.
Of course, transport costs will drop as engine tech improves (and possibly other techs).
The range_factor formula should probably be modified to give an inverse exponential drop off, so that system contributions would never drop all the way to zero.
Number of Construction Centres
Maximum number of construction centres in an empire = sqrt(number of planets controlled by the empire)
| #systems | #centres
|
|---|
| 1 | 1
|
| 4 | 2
|
| 9 | 3
|
| 16 | 4
|
| 25 | 5
|
| 36 | 6
|
| 49 | 7
|
| 100 | 10
|
| 225 | 15
|
| 400 | 20
|
| 625 | 25
|
| 900 | 30
|
However this number is only taken into account when placing new centres.
i.e. centres do not have to be removed if the empire loses systems.
Alternatively:
Make construction centres expensive - therefore building one in every system is inefficient. Then balance the cost of the construction centre per system with the number of systems using it (i.e. the range to the construction centre).
The cost goes up with the number of systems which use the centre:
Construction centre cost = base cost + (50% base cost * number of other systems)
The cost also goes up with the distance to the centre:
Distance Cost = system_capability - centre capability
So there is a point at which it is cheaper to add a new construction centre rather than add another (distant) system to an existing one:
When distance cost > construction centre cost.
So : base cost and transport cost need to be balanced so that: (a) the player isn't encouraged to build lots of centres, and then has to micromanage them all, and : (b) the player isn't encouraged to just build 1 or 2 centres for a 100 system empire. Ideally, the numbers should balance out so that the player tends towards the maximum numbers of centres shown in the above table.
ALSO: base cost and transport costs should probably be made dependent on galaxy size, to balance gameplay between small and large galaxies??? Or not, so that there *is* a gameplay difference between small and large galaxies???
Effects of Stargates
Should stargates be taken into account when calculating range? If so, even if a system is a long way away in realspace, the distance when using a stargate can be considerably less. This could significantly mess up the attempt to balance player use of CCs - they could have just one CC with stargates to every other system.
Possible solutions:
(1) Stargates are ignored w.r.t. CC ranges. This is effective - but inconsistent.
(2) Impose an additional cost based on using the stargate, to balance out the decrease in distance.
Construction Centre Upgrades
Construction centres should be upgradable to allow different types and qualities of units to be produced.
Capacity Upgrades
Allow more capacity to be channelled through the CC
Upgrade Cost - Medium
Maintenance Cost - Very low (needs to be low otherwise you may as well build a CC on every system)
Shipyard Upgrades
Allow larger ship hulls to be manufactured
Upgrade Cost - High
Maintenance Cost - High
Training Centre Upgrades
Allow more experienced ground troops (and ship crews?) to be created
Upgrade Cost - Medium
Maintenance Cost - Medium
Allocation of Systems to Construction Centres
This can be done either automatically or manually.
- Automatically - each system will be allocated to the CC closest to it.
- Manually - the player will be able to manually change the automated CC choice to any other CC.
Global Build Queue
A global build queue can be set for some or all construction centres.
Empire wide build queue percentages (and maxima) are set.
Work is then proportionally divided between the construction centres based on their capacity.
Separate Build queues are defined for ground troops and starships.
Troop Training
Hmmmm…. Consider making training centres a separate entity from construction centres.
Possibly drafted population is trained at the nearest training centre -
thus there would be separate supply lines for training centres and construction centres (rename CC = shipyard?)
Problem: you don't lose a percentage of troops per LY travelled. So : how do we balance number of training centres?
Problem: training centres will still require industry, especially armoured units etc.