It has been discussed a bit on several occasions. I tried to gather a properly detailed concept of how such a system could work in X4.
The main idea is :
We need a proper Fleet/Station auto-reinforcement feature.
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In the Global Orders, we could specify a Reinforcement global order, such as :
- use nearest ally/owned shipyard
- use specific ally/owned shipyard
- use owned shipyards only
- ...
And then for each station/carrier, we could use the Individual Orders tab to specify if we use the Global Order for reinforcement or something else.
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I think that should only apply to Stations with an Admin Module (renamed Command Center?), or a Carrier.
For Stations, the use of the new Position Defence feature would fit greatly with this idea.
Also for Stations, maybe there could be a limit of the number of ships auto-controlled/reinforced, depending on the kind of Dock there is on the station :
- a simple 1M/3S would only command 10 ships
- 3M/6S up to 20
- ...
- Eq Dock up to 100
- Wharf/Yard up to no limit...
- also L docks if some destroyers are involved. Gotta maintain our fleets sometimes!
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I think the concept of a Reserve Pool would also fit neatly :
- Each station/carrier can get assigned ships in a new Reserve Pool assignment. These would remain docked. They could be anything that can go into internal storage : S/M traders/miners/fighters...whatever that station/carrier could need.
- In the loadout screen of that station/carrier, we could parameter for that Reserve Pool what ships it should contain, based on defined templates
- If a ship from another mining/trading/fighting group is destroyed, it gets automatically reassigned by the manager from that Pool to that group, topping it up.
- Then the manager would order the destroyed ships replacements from the defined Wharf to get the Pool back to its nominal level. This order uses the funds of the station, or personal wallet if its a carrier.
- There could be an individual Pool for each station, and/or alternatively a Global Reserve Pool docked at a Wharf/EQ that would resupply all linked carriers/stations
- Also for each group assigned to a carrier/station, we could choose whether or not to automatically reinforce that group, or keep it fully manual (default option). That could be toggled in the Loadout tab I guess.
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Notifications, reports :
- In the upkeep tab of the messages, we could see a report (each time? Hourly?) of reinforced ships.
- If a reinforcement can't be performed for different reasons, we should get a notification, calling for manual input (missing blueprint, AI wharf has missing resources for more than 15min, ... whatever causes a reinforcement to be delayed by more than 15min).
I hope these ideas could bring some support and be technically possible. I believe it would bring a great addition to the mid/late game in X4.
