I really like how you spice things up for SC.

Having additional SC types might be a bad idea though, imho. Having too many SC types will mean that players will need to make even more carriers to get sufficient numbers of each SC type.

Experience should not be divided. If a single 40 XP worth unit is detroyed, ALL cap ships and all SC should get 40 XP. 

I think that only squad leaders shoould be relatively hard to replace though. Having all squad members hard to replace would defeat the purpose of SC.

If SC get 2 weapon types, then I think that frigates and Cruisers should too.

I might as well make a small detour and explain some other mechanics that regulate the use of strike craft. Thought most of them were not expressly mentioned in the story, they were still there in the background and I did have them in mind while I was writing.

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The first mechanic is fuel consumption. When strike fighters are first launched they enter an operational envelope. The boundary of this envelope is the distance a fighter can fly while still being able to return to its point of origin. For freshly launched fighters this envelope is far bigger than most planet gravity wells. When the operation envelope becomes smaller than the outer boundary of a gravity well the squadron icon will be flagged for your attention. The frequency of return fuel trips can be customized. Fighters will automatically head home before they reach the point of no return.

You will almost never have to deal with fuel except in battles around stars or battles that last for a very long period of time. The point if this system is to stop strike craft from being too powerful while far away from thier attending carriers. A squadron too far away from its home will not be able to fight as long and rearming will be much less efficient.

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The second mechanic is munitions. Strike craft that rely on expendably munitions must rearm on a regular basis. This entails returning to a hangar bay with a properly equipped flight crew. A carrier geared up to resupply space fighters will not have the right supplies for assault fighters and vice versa. Reloading and refueling takes place at once, the smaller and more experienced a squadron is the less time it will take for them to get back in the action.

Carriers and other structures will eventually run out of supplies. But the stockpile they carry is quite large. Running out of expendables will only become a problem if you spend a very long time deep in enemy territory. Supply regeneration rates are calculated based on how far you are from friendly territory. They can drop to zero if there are too many enemy planets between you and home. Restocking rates max out at planets with existing hangar space, this could be from orbital hangar bays, star bases or space stations.

The mechanics for fuel and munitions are both are needed to prevent the new strike craft from being too powerful. Currently you can jump in 20 carriers to an enemy gravity well and have them run circles. The big cloud of strike craft will maul the enemy and the carriers will take damage very slowly, if at all. Under the new system the more you force your strike craft to run after thier carriers the less effective they will be overall.

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The third mechanics are flight crews. Every hangar has a flight crew who service and rearm the fighters. You will never have to worry about training sufficient flight crews to service all the hangars in your fleet. Instead every carrier starts with a full complement. A hangar has 1 crew for every two strike craft the hangar can support. The longer a flight crew works on a single type of strike craft the more practiced they will be at thier job and the faster things will go.

Flight crews do not gain as many levels as strike pilots. Instead they start at Novice level and work thier way through Experienced and Expert. Flight crews learn very fast under combat conditions and it does not take long to reach Expert. Some special abilities that high level squadrons can earn require higher level flight crews. You don't want just anyone manhandling an FAE torpedo around your hangar deck.

When the host of a hangar bay takes hull damage the flight crews may be injured or killed. If killed they will eventually be replaced, missing members of a flight crew will lower the overall experience level by a set %. Larger structures such as starbases have replacements that can step in immediatly. If only wounded they will eventually come back with all of thier experience intact. Expert flight crews will never drop past Experienced in level as long as some members of the original crew survive.

The purpose of this mechanic is to stop players from switching between types of strike craft whilly nilly. The emphasis of the new strike craft is towards smaller and more personable squadrons. Experienced squadrons and thier attendant flight crews are a valuable asset that can not be easily replaced.

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The last mechanic is hangar space. Ships and structures capable of hosting strike craft have a certain number of hangar bays. The size of these bays determines how many strike craft can be hosted in a single bay. Squadrons of TEC strike craft vary in size from 2-8. You can support up to 4 types of strike craft per hangar bay. But having more than 2 types it will make it harder for the flight crews to service them all. This results in a pernalty to rearming and reloading speed until later in the game when tech improvements are available.

Hangar infrastructure can be upgraded through tech advances. There is a mechanic in place called "service ratio". A service ratio of 6-6 means that you have enough support in place to service 6 strike craft at once. In the beginning of the game your service ratio will be 2-4. As you tech up it will eventually reach at 8-8. As a result even if you could immediatly start using squadrons 8 craft strong, your infrastructure and pilot supply will not be able to keep up.

Later in the game it is possible to reach a service ratio of 16-8. This means that while the first squadron is out fighting a second squadron (of the same type) can land and be serviced in that same hangar bay. This is especially useful in structure based hangar bays because they tend to be very large.

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Next up, assault strike craft.

Edit: Got my ass kicked by the nightmare Demigod AI, its rigged! Rigged I tell you!   Anyway came back to do some spellchecking.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I just got my hands on Demigod and it is every bit as awesome as I hoped it would be. The multiplayer is still iffy but at this point watching it get fixed is like watching the paint dry on a masterpiece. It is happening, it will be finished eventually, and in the mean time the painting already looks fantastic!

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Continuing on. Mechanically speaking assault fighters are very similar to space superiority fighters. They have a little less armour and shielding and carry weapon payloads based on a mix of solid projectile weapons and various missiles. Thier fuel capacity is much smaller but since they tend to return constantly to rearm this is less of an issue.

The main target of assault fighters are main line ships of cruiser class and below. Assault craft will form the majority of your offensive strike power against enemy fleets, complementing space fighters who have a defensive slant. The secondary target of assault fighters is other strike craft. They can dogfight reasonably well but become sitting ducks if the fight goes on for too long and they run out of ammo.

Thier exact role depends on what you arm them with. In the beginning of the game they will have rapid fire autocannons as well as dumbfire rockets. The balance between the two types of ordnance can be controlled in increments of 10% between 20-80 and 50-50. More cannon ammo means less room for rockets and vice versa. In general you would want to keep them balanced but there are circumstances when one of the two would be more useful.

Cannons are used to dogfight with other craft as well as damaging the weaker places on a target's hull such as the engines and weapon ports. The tech tree for cannons is fairly straight with few branches. The starting autocannons become progressively more powerful and can be loaded will special ammunition. Higher up the tree you will find more exotic weapons generally specialized to target either ships or strike craft. These include the spike cannons I mentioned earlier as well a smaller version of the gauss cannons mounted on interceptors.

The missile payload for assault fighters is divided into two categories which both come in large and small sizes. Rockets are dumbfire missiles that lack guidance systems. This allows them to carry more fuel and a bigger payload. Missiles are the opposite, they have advanced guidance packages that can track targets as well as dodge point defence fire. The tradeoff is a shorter range compared to rockets and a smaller payload to make room for the extra hardware.

Small rockets can be rapid fired to supplement cannon fire in dogfights. Large rockets are handy for attacking big targets such as destroyers, but more nimble foes can dodge them with ease. Small missiles are launched singly and in pairs, they are handy for dogfighting as well as hitting precise points on an enemy hull. Larger missiles play a similar role to large rockets only they are better at taking on more smaller targets such as corvettes.

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Assault fighters will form the core of your offensive strike power. You will want to have about as many as you have space fighters. The nature of the weapons they carry makes them extremely versatile against a broad variety of targets. Thier weakness is that they lack the firepower to take on large ships such as destroyers and the staying power to take on waves of small targets. Thought both space and assault fighters can eventually turn any destroyer into a blind, disarmed and crippled wreck they tend to lack the firepower to destroy them outright. For that you must call in the bomber squadrons. But that is a story for another day.

Next up, Interceptors.

Very interesting. I would like to see the ability that if your carrier is destroyed, but its strikecraft are not, then you can dock those strikecraft somewhere else.

Edit button is your friend

Also that is a good idea. Every aircraft carrier worthy of the name has craft packed ass to elbow in some space or other. Usually this means lining them up somewhere on deck that does not block the launch ramp. There is no reason we couldn't do this with Sins carriers as well.

Strike craft from another carrier could land in a hangar bay to be rescued. The worst possible scenario is that there is no room to store the fighter, but then the extra fighter can be dumped overboard. The fact that you don't have room to put it means your hold is full of spares anyway.

There is also the possibility of having hangar space just for landings. The Battlestars from the newer tv series launch fighters out of tubes but the fighters land in a conventional hangar. It would be near to have something like that on a Sova carrier. Getting to watch the fighters launch and return through the actual hangar bays would add a lot to the immersion. Imagine the screenshots, heh.

The service ratios I mentioned earlier would work well with this system. A ratio of 12-6 means that you have room to service and fuel up 6 strike craft and have the resources to supply 12. If the carrier also had the capacity to store another 6 fighters using internal holds there is no reason why you couldn't base two squadrons off the same carrier.

With the current control scheme I agree, there would be a lot of little ways to automate the system that should reduce micromanaging. Unfortunatly all I can say at this point is that I wouldn't stop improving it till it worked. But small changes would help a lot, even with vanilla Sins. Currently you can only pick squadrons for capships and cruisers after they have been built. Since squadrons are currently free there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to pick them while the ship is in construction or even before.

As for the dumbfire rockets, there is a concept that military forces around the world know and love. Its called KISS, Keep It Simple and Stupid. The less complex something is the better chance it has of working properly. And when that "something" is capable of blowing up in your face that becomes very important.

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The pros and cons of both dumbfire rockets and guided missiles are pretty clear. I won't bother listing the cons because you can just compare with the other list.

Rockets pros:

• Large payload: Any rocket will usually pack a lot more punch than a missile of the same size.
  
• Higher speed: More space for fuel and no delicate electronics to worry about allows them to travel at a higher speed.
  
• Cheap: Pretty self explanatory.

Missile pros:

• Guidance: Less likely to miss a moving target, can dodge point defense fire.
• Retargetting: If it misses the target and has enough fuel it may be possible to curve around for another go.
• Independant: You don't have to face the target you are attacking directly.

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As for automated support I agree that they would have a lot of it. But I don't see independant robots being in use on the actual flight deck. A "smart" dolley that can do something like swap cannon magazines with the push of a button would be fine. Behind the scene other things would be be fully automated. The freight elevator I mentioned earlier could fetch and deliver the right munitions automatically.

I don't see flight crews performing repairs on the spot. Any damage a strike craft takes will likely be severe and crippling. If an interceptor loses a wing but still managed to make an emergency landing on deck. likely what would happen is the pilot hops out and his damaged fighter is replaced. He flies off and meanwhile robots do all they can to get the craft into working order. Replacing a missing wing is a job for a factory and not something that you would do in a crowded hangar.

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Being negative is fine, thats how I spot the parts that wouldn't work.

A lot of these changes wouldn't be possible with the current game. There is architecture missing which we could probably fudge but things wouldn't fully work without it. That is why this idea is meant to be a separate expansion, not just a list of changes that could be modded in.

A big focus of Escalation is changing the combat system to better support smaller fleets. The total number of ships in combat wouldn't be much less. But the ships under your control will be organized into groups that you have more control over. Each fleet can be linked to others to form a chain of command.

Strike craft are meant to be deployed in squadrons. The max number of craft per squadron is 8 for TEC and the max number of squadrons per hangar varies but is usually 1. In the early game you would not be able to deploy 8 craft in a signle squadron. What you can do is combine multiple squadrons together, in which case they move and act as a larger squadron. This also works with mixed craft types. So for example if you grouped space fighters with a squadron of bombers the fighters would escort them around and protect them from other strike craft.

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EDIT: I'm laying off demigod for a while until they fix the bug that wipes your singleplayer achievements whenever you play multi. In the meantime, Interceptors.

Now the balance between Space/Assault strike craft and other ships is fairly clear cut. Space fighters have staying power, toughness and the ability to give anything they meet a black eye. (at the very least). Assault fighters trade some of that toughness and most of the staying power for lots of damage. This allows them to take on larger ships and neutralize them at a higher speed. Thier limit is that the weapons they carry are only good against small to medium targets. Interceptors fill the next niche on the list. Interception of craft and projectiles. One thing neither space or assault fighters are god at is any combat that takes place too far from thier point of origin. The farther they are from home the longer it takes them to rearm and refuel.

Interceptors do not have this problem. Thier design incorporates powerful engines as well as a large fuel supply. This lets them engage targets at ranges other craft could not match. Since Interceptors stick to hit and run attacks they are not in the line of fire for very long. But this means that the enemy will try even harder to shoot them down during this time. Accordingly they do not have much armour. Thier shielding is geared towards taking a few strong hits instead of large amounts of constant damage.

Interceptors are the only strike craft in the TEC fleet to mount spinal weaponry. These are very long weapons that occupy space stretching to both ends of the hull. There are a few choices of weaponry to mount in this slot. In the beginning you will start off with recoiless autocannons, later on moving to beam weaponry and from there to miniature versions of the gauss cannons normally mounted on TEC capital ships. Each weapon has its own pros and cons. The autocannon is adaptable in configuration and ammo, the beam doesn't require ammo at all and the gauss cannon has raw power and range.

As well all interceptors carry special extended range missiles. These are similar to the large missiles used by TEC assault craft only they carry more fuel and have a MUCH more powerful engine and maneuvering package. They are very precise and can hit targets at extreme distances. They also move so fast that even enemy strike craft will have difficulty dodging them. These are just as adaptable as the other missile types and can carry a wide variety of payloads.

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The primary role of interceptors is to counter enemy bomber type strike craft. These pose a huge danger to large ships but must get relatively close to do any damage. The secondary targets for them are other strike craft (enemy interceptor equivalents in particular) as well as enemy capital ships. The amount of damage they can do to larger ships is fairly low, but thier massive firepower allows them to crack the shell of any nut. (so to speak)

Yeah I hope so too. The current game is great fun but there are so many ways it could be expanded upon to make it even better.

Modding sounds like fun but I really don't have the time to get into the nitty gritty details of programming. I know for a fact that much hair loss would result if I had to fix a minidump issue.

I would start with Space fighters and see how many of the changes you can implement. Things like strike craft shields, levelups and varied equipment. The things I describe are the ideal version of a concept, but it takes smaller steps to actually get there.

EDIT:

The last thing to talk about before the start of chapter 2 is #5 weapon variety.

Currently Sins weapons are not very complicated. They never miss and the damage they do is set. Instead it would be more fun and interesting to make each weapon work in a unique fashion. Give them some character in other words.

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Laser weapons form a major part of the TEC arsenal. If we wanted to get scientific about this we would need to change the beams from little bolts to solid beams. As well lasers in space aren't actually visible. But that wouldn't be as cool.

TEC lasers have some defining characteristics, the pros and cons:

• Pinpoint accurate.
• Beams travel near instantly to the target.
• Requires no ammunition other than abundant energy.
• No extra space needed for ammunition.
• Cheap and reliable.
  

• Lasers require a lot of cooling equipment.
• As a laser cannon heats up it will actually get less accurate.
• Muzzle flashes can be blinding to the gunner.
• Relatively short ranged compared to other weapons.
  
• Less effective against energy shields.

TEC lasers come in two flavours. Pulse lasers fire green bolts. Normal laser cannons fire solid red beams. When a laser weapon is fired there is a small delay in the cycle that results from capacitors charging with energy. Laser cannons will build up a full charge and release it all at once. Pulse lasers use energy in smaller increments which allows them to fire at constant pace until the capacitor overheats.

Space fighters use dual banks of pulse lasers to great effect. The amount of cannons mounted varies from 4-12 depending on the tech level. TEC bombers also mount a single cluster of pulse lasers. But these "burst cannons" are far more powerful and fire fewer bolts. This allows them to strafe heavier targets during bombing runs. Interceptors are the only TEC strike craft capable of mounting full sized laser cannons.

Corvettes come in the same types as strike craft and carry similar weapon loadouts. However since they have room to diversify all corvettes types mount at least a few laser weapons. Some more, some less. All designs carry at least a pair of pulse laser turrets and a single laser cannon mounted coaxial to the bow.

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The higher up you go in the TEC fleet tree the bigger and bigger laser weapons will get, but the role remains the same. Pulse lasers are used to engage fast moving targets and are usually mounted in turrets. Large pulse lasers pack steady firepower and smaller agile pulse lasers are used for point defence.

Laser cannons are mounted in fixed positions, more flexible bank mounts (45-90 degree traverse) or turrets depending on how much hull space the host ship has available. Fixed mounts are common for Cruisers who rarely have bank mounts. Destroyers tend to have a mix of both. The larger capital ships such as carriers and battlecruisers rarely have fixed laser mounts with the exception of spinal weaponry. Battleships in particular tend to be armed with many turrets.

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Cosmetically not much would change except for the muzzle flashes. Currently lasers weapons seem to spit "sparks", this effect is quite hard to see. So instead we could replace that with a bigger cone shaped muzzle flash. Scientifically that doesn't make much sense but it is important to be able to see weapons being fired. Also, pew pew laserguns!

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The nitty gritty details of lasers and other weapons will be explained in more detail later. For now its imporant to just flesh out each type, make them a bit unique. As you see them used in the story you can then beging to appreciate the differences which make different weapons useful in certain ways.

I have a rough outline for chapter 2 in my head but I need a large chunk of time to hammer it out. And I don't have a title as of yet.

Stay tuned.

Funny you should say that. I actually flunked highschool english class on two occaisions.

Next up, Autocannons.

Autocannon is the name Sins has given to the weapon but it would be more accurate to call them mass drivers. A mass driver is simply a device that moves mass, in this case deadly projectiles. An autocannon specifically is one that uses chemical propellants to launch its payload.

I might seem odd that the TEC use both mass drivers and lasers but mass drivers share some distinct and valuable features. The pros and cons:

• Varied payload: Mass drivers basically throw "boxes" inside which you can place pretty much anything.
• Solid projectiles: A laser striking a weak armour plate will "only" vapourize and melt a portion of it. A solid metal slug will pierce through it and continue on to deal damage behind the armour.
• Shield Piercing: Energy shields are far less effective against solid projectiles.
• Superior range: Solid projectiles do not dissipate over distance as energy weapons do. They will continue on forever until they hit something.
• Low profile: It is much harder to see a bullet coming than it is to see a ball of plasma.
• Modular: Mass drivers and thier ammunition are composed of many parts, all of which can be swapped and upgraded seperately.

• Expendable: Without resupply it is very easy to run out of ammunition.
• Logistics: Even if the materials used to make projectiles are dirt cheap. It still requires many man-hours of labour to make them and transport them into a position where they can be used.
• Innacurate: Unlike lasers the projectile may not land exactly where the barrel is pointed.
• Recoil: A bigger problem in space, but generally only an issue with the largest of autocannons.
• Slow projectiles: Bullets travel very slowly compared to lasers making them easier to dodge.

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As with laser weapons autocannons come in multiple flavours. However what makes each cannon unique is simply a change of parts. To simplify things, Autocannons are composed of 5 parts:  Barrels, Loaders, Payloads, Propellants and Fuses. A barrel is the tube used to launch the projectile. Loaders are the mechanism used to place ammo over the firing pin. Payloads are the projectile being loaded into the cannon. Propellants are the method of launch. Fuses are what control how a projectile behaves on impact.

You can't actually mix and match which components go into any given weapon. Instead researching certain tiers of each path will unlock new types of weapon which then benefit from futher "base" upgrades. The barrel tree for instance unlocks large bore barrels which give you launcher type autocannons. The payload tree unlocks submunitions and then flechettes. If you combine the two you get spike cannons.

Detailing every single combination would take too long but I can give you an example of a typical design track. In the beginning barrels will be thick and heavy. Better materials allow you to craft them lighter and thinner. Upgraded loading mechanisms increase the rate of fire and allow you to mount more barrels. Explosive payloads up the firepower. Better propellants increase projectile speed and impact. And finally proximity fuses allow you to blanket an area with flak.

All of this makes for a very deadly point defense turret.

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Cosmetically autocannons would be the most diverse of all the TEC weapons. When playing a computer game the vast majority of feedback is visual. You know weapons are being fired because you see the lazer guns go pew pew pew, or whatever. Such cues give us information which we then factor into our descisions. This is even more important with autocannons because outwardly they all tend to look the same.

However there are little details you can spot. Point defence guns have small muzzle flashes that "flicker" from side to side. This is because the flash jumps between multiple barrels which are all firing at once. An extended range autocannon looks like just a regular one, except for the addition of a muzzle brake. And so on.

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As always, you will see autocannons in action and in higher detail later.

Chapter 2 now has a title. I'm hoping to start writing tuesday at the latest.

Stay tuned

You are mixing names there. Gauss guns use magnets to accelerate objects down a tube. Railguns use a current that jumps between two rails to create opposing magnetic fields that propel objects along a firing track. I think its called "Lorentz force" but my spelling might be off on that.

Literally speaking a "mass driver" is any device that drives mass. Even my foot would qualify. But in Sci-fi it generally refers to one of the above.