Just another silly idea? or a diamond in the rough?

[Mr.Killer]

I was thinking about a few things that I would like to throw in here, to you guys, to see if there are others who liked the idea, or in a different form.
I was just building my station, and took a lot of time in SETA to see it slowly finish, on some other stations I ordered a few ships to be built to add to some of my existing fleets, and then it occurred to me, what if a captain of a fleet loses ships, slowly over time, then at one point there is no fleet left....

What if the captain of a fleet can keep up numbers?
What if 5 of 25 of its interception fleet gets killed, and that same captain can order those ships back to be built and added to the fleet without having the boss (YOU!) pain with those problems?
Have thought of this for a while now, just an option for a fleet leader that says [Keep ships at this number] and then submenu [Defend] - 25 [Attack] - 10 etc etc
Just a setting in the info screen of a ship, if it has fleet members it works and if not, then not!
Also what might be possible then, ordering a captain of a fleet to keep their numbers up, configuration and location.
Configuration: = If a friendly station has no certain item, sorry, you have to take what they offer, that is the way now, and maybe too hard to change (I agree on this too) but configure yourself some profiles on stations, and let him choose from that.
Location: = Given time YOU make a Wharf, Shipyard, one, two, maybe more, so, order that captain to let a certain 'OWNED' station build those ships that were lost in battle, given earlier explained profile and after they are ready, they report directly to that particular fleet.
This last part is also a welcome option throughout the game, make a ship and it goes to the pointed fleet or ship to defend (become a fleet member)
(Or address the captain to let him order a ship build and added to his command)

So, in a nutshell? What who, Ideas, options, think? Lets hear it......

[jlehtone]

Just a setting in ...

"Just" ... I have a feeling that the devs would rather focus on "complex, challenging, and (what adjectives does that Boron use when you decline to help?)".

Automation is a nice goal though. How do the NPC Fleets assemble? A Carrier sails from SY. How does it gather its escorts? (I saw ZYA Raptor sail to action without more than two fighters. It died quickly.) Overall, the NPC can get ships. Do they replace losses? If yes, then that bit of logic does already exist too.

There is always the chance of: "Hey Boss! We had to replace five fully equipped Raptors while you were taking a nap. The last one was paid with IOU. Will you sort that out ASAP?"

[chew-ie]

I'd like to give fleets a budget which they can use to replace losses.

Next step would be them looting, selling stuff and transfer the surplus money back to me.

[jlehtone]

Next step would be them looting, selling stuff and transfer the surplus money back to me.

Company board meeting's agenda: Our fleets did loot our PHQ. How shall we invest the profitsss?

[Mr.Killer]

Funny, you guys, to address that....

I order a fleet commander/captain to keep his numbers up. If they buy from other factions, no problem, but if YOU think they use up all your hard earned cash, order them instead to one of YOUR own wharfs or shipyards to build it.
Isn't that what I already mentioned in my original post?

...but configure yourself some profiles on stations, and let him choose from that.
Location: = Given time YOU make a Wharf, Shipyard, one, two, maybe more, so, order that captain to let a certain 'OWNED' station build those ships that were lost in battle, given earlier explained profile and after they are ready, they report directly to that particular fleet.

[jlehtone]

Yes, "given time" I might build a Wharf. That time could be infinite. In the mean time ...
... the fleet commander must show initiative.
Is it by boarding, buying, or building her own Wharf? Do I care how?

[dtpsprt]

I'd say it's a good idea, providing that one can only do this in his/hers own shipyards/wharfs using their blueprints since it will be an "automated" task... This way the "Fleet finance" problem is also solved since there are no finances involved in this.

[GCU Grey Area]

Not keen on this idea at all, even if it was restricted to player-owned facilities only.

Don't really like having my own shipyards etc. Had one in my 3.0 Argon game & it made that game a bit too easy. Have been avoiding them since then (too much money, too easy to build a huge fleet). However these days a wharf has become a mandatory prerequisite for terraforming (though that is all I use it for, still get all my ships from the NPCs).

Certainly would not want any of my captains being able to automatically build ships there. Would use up the same resources many of the terraforming projects need & some of my ships need quite a lot of them. For example, one of my standard Chimera loadouts requires 685 Adv Electronics per ship. My current terraforming project also needs a hell of a lot of them (77k). Would hate it if a captain lost a bunch of those Chimeras & suddenly decided to order say 10 replacements from my wharf. Losing 100 million credits worth of ships would be bad enough, however setting back my terraforming progress by several hours would be even worse.

[jlehtone]

To be fair, OP's wording was "let a certain station", i.e. that one could give a list of Wharfs that the fleet is allowed use. However, even if you would have two Wharfs, one for terraform and other for fleet, there would be some competition for resources.

The Teladi standard response to consuming your own products is: "Fool! You lose profitss!!". Why build a ship for yourself from 685 AdvEl when you could sell ships build from them to NPC and use only part of the revenue to buy a ship for yourself?


The idea in itself is good, but the implementation is far from "just add"; plenty of choices from fully autonomous you-have-no-say-in manager to complete control of every last detail (i.e. heavy UI), not to mention what it takes under the hood.

[Mr.Killer]

to both jlehtone and GCU Grey Area, it is an idea, and yes, there are many steps in the proces, but the 'rough' idea do not need pinpointing on words I used, it is as I said a diamond in the rough and can become something very handy.

So, positive thinking here people, that way there is still hope!