ZaphodBeeblebrox wrote:...We need some kind of supply depot / warehouse from which supply tenders will deliver all of the wares and arms that the fleet ships require to continue to operate at maximum efficiency.
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Setting up logistics systems was one of the main attractions in X3TC. (At least for me.) But, it was basically limited to e-cells, maybe missiles, and that was about it. (Ammo-based weapons were a no-go in X3TC for OS ships.)
I don't know if that was a need in XR or not, but for a true X4 game, it has to at least be a possible inclusion.
On the need for "carriers:" A carrier projects force. If you need to project force somewhere, you need a carrier. No amount of "we can manage to get a bunch of fighters somewhere if we use fifty-eleven support craft for refueling and hauling needed supplies" equates to "we sent a carrier group there."
It's like picking up a military airfield and plopping it down wherever you want, whenever you want. In X3, working with them was a bit difficult and one couldn't actually exploit them fully very easily. IOW, you couldn't really "control" the sector they were in AND the adjoining sectors, to represent the units ability to move and project force.
I'd like a true "carrier" to be the locus of "game commands" that wouldn't be possible, otherwise, in order to represent the carrier's significant abilities.
ie:
1) Patrol these sectors with these classes of craft.
Click on your brand new, fully loaded, carrier and give its Captain the order that they are to maintain a patrol of fighters/scouts/etc through a range of sectors/regions within range of the selected classes of craft. The carrier loiters at its designated location and keeps a patrol "in the air" rotating/refueling ships as necessary.
2) Launch Strike Group: Either a player configured group or an auto-configured one based upon the carrier's compliment. It will launch everything needed for that strike group and attack all enemy targets in that area or selected ones and then recover/rearm the group.
3) Standard CAP - The carrier, when ordered, will maintain a combat-air-patrol consisting of 3-5 fighter craft and 1-2 scout craft.
etc..
IOW - We shouldn't be thinking in practical, real-life, tactical, terms in order to determine the true value of a carrier. We need to focus on the strategic uses of the object in the game and the power of "ease of use" that it can afford the player.
So, you want to manually gather fifty-eleven different fighters, mix in scouts and missile boats, manually, get them all to one location from which you can then give them a massed order to do something, fully construct that order to mimic a really basic military command function and then plan on refueling them and splitting them all up so they can fit in the limited quantity hangers you have available, spread out over the five different sectors you've got bases in..
Or, do you just really want a carrier to make all of that much easier to deal with "in a game?"
Don't get me wrong - I love logisticalfying stuffs. But, if we have to give an in-game asset a "killer app" that gives the player a real game-related reason to desperately want it, then this is the kind of thing it needs to be able to do.
If a carrier is for sale for a bajillion Quatloos, the player should be considering "How does this make my life better in-game?" The answer should, or could, be that "If I buy this carrier, it will help me automate some mundane military functions so that I'm clicking on four commands to get them done instead of spending half-an-hour nesting fifty-eleven different obscure AI functions in a set of commands the manual doesn't explain very well..."
Anyone ever use the "Wingman" function in X3TC? No, you didn't... Why? Because your Wingmen spent more time trying to paint themselves onto your hull or the nearest Gate than they did trying to be your Wingmen.
But, if the function had really worked well?
You would have used it all day, every day, and twice on Sundays.
THAT is the power that function was intended to serve and that is why, I assume, the devs thought it would be a valuable addition to the game. The simplicity of one-click-Wingmen was awesome, but it just didn't work well. If it had actually cost the player in-game an appreciable amount of something to acquire it, more people would have been upset that it didn't work.
It's that sort of convenience factor and value for the player that a carrier can serve in order to make its significance truly meaningful. Otherwise, just build bases everywhere and you don't need a carrier in the game... And, where would be the fun in that?
