Suggestion: hangars earlier, fighter production later

[An Ning]

Suggestion in short:
1) Fighters (combat), and personnel shuttles (for boarding) cannot be produced before Naonite tier, they can only be purchased at stations
2) mining/salvage fighters can be produced at iron/titanium tier.
3) Hangars can be produced at iron/titanium tier
4) iron/titanium hangars cannot hold craft above iron/titanium tier (thus preventing boarding and massive fleet expansion before those tiers), but CAN hold iron/titanium fighters -which can only be purchased at stations (before reaching Naonite tier)
 

 

Allows more variety in early ship building, makes early mining slightly faster (and more risky, as an attack that requires escaping can mean leaving fighters behind), enables fighter combat early on, but makes it more costly because new fighters must be repurchased, not simply produced.

Edited August 24, 2021 by An Ning
shuttles removed in 2.0 update

[Straybow427]

Perhaps require cargo shuttles for r-mining and for mining fighters without transporter tech. Minimum one size 6 cargo per slot or fighter using r-mining. Without shuttle or transporter support r-mining efficiency is reduce by half.

Shuttles can reduce need to dock. Extend range for transfer of goods by some amount, and require transport times proportional to capacity×speed / 4×distance. Simple equation for short distance transfers (2×distance each shuttle trip, 2×distance to account for launch, approach, landing, loading/unloading each way). More complex calc for distances beyond base range (maybe 5km) would be capacity×speed / (2×distance + 2×base).

[FuryoftheStars]

Cargo shuttles are completely gone in 2.0

[An Ning]

I am looking forward to 2.0 being out of Beta.

 

...I have had issues trying games in Beta and not being able to play -then not being able to go back- before, so... waiting.

 

I'll edit the suggestion to remove cargo shuttles, though

[Nyrin]

I really like the idea of being able to engage with fighters earlier given all the love they've been given, but I see one potential problem: this takes away trinium's "cool new feature."

With the exception of ogonite (which everyone can agree is lame), each tier gives you at least one "cool new thing" to make it not just a stat upgrade:

• Titanium gives you generators (though titanium itself is a virtual non-tier)
• Naonite gives you shields
• Trinium today gives you hangars
• Xanion gives you transporters (and cloning vats, if you use that)
• Ogonite... I'll skip ogonite.
• Avorion is "better most things," including rift-jumping hyperspace cores and not-iron dampeners

Trinium is already an outstanding tier just for its weight and durability (and it's the first material you get to that's really used and loved through the rest of the game), but it should likely keep something functionally new, too. Assembly alone (if we went that route) doesn't seem like quite enough.