Possible Game Addition

[Eric Moreau]

I've been thinking about adding someting to the the game but I thought I would ask here to see what you all think of this idea first.

The idea is that Officers would be able to be named and each Officer would have stats that would increase a ship's ability in battle. The Officer would gain battle experience and his stats would improve.

What do you all think of this? Is this something you would like to see?

[Njord VIII]

Eric-

In general I like the idea because it gives the game more of a "face." However, I wonder whether it wouldn't become unwieldy later in the game as ships start to number over a hundred....

Maybe it is possible to reduce the number by having a new position of Admiral, and do it based on fleet performance rather than ship performance?

Just a thought, and I too would like to hear what the others think about it.

Sean

[Eric Moreau]

I thought about it being unwieldly. I'm not sure if it will be or not, right now, nobody is close to owning 100 ships.

I came up with a whole system for this idea. The stats would be: Intelligence, Command Ability, Tactics, Battle Experience and Respect.

The first three stats are randomly determined when the Officer is trained. The last two will grow as the Officer gains experience. Battle Experience will go up with every battle that is fought while Respect automatically increases at a small pace as the Officer gains commanding experience. The Respect stat will dictate what size ship the Officer can Captain without incurring a penalty in combat. For instance an Officer fresh out of the Academy being put in charge of a Titan Sized ship would incur massive penalties in combat as the crew do not respect the Officer as much and are not pushed to be at their most efficient. Officers will need to gain experience commanding smaller ships before they tackle the Titan.

Now this might seem like a drag, but fear not, I always have a plan. With this Respect idea comes Officer Ranks, Empires will automatically build up prestige every turn, (there will be an ability to invest in gaining a bonus of Prestige points) Empires will also gain prestige when any of it's ships are involved in a combat that they have won. What does Prestige do? Well it's essential to the Rank system, you will need Prestige to promote your Officers to higher ranks. With each promotion comes a huge boost in Respect.

There will be 11 Ranks that can be renamed to whatever an Empire wishes.

Still working stuff out....

[Butlerian Jihad]

I like the idea of having the new system. I am concerned with new empires. Maybe the longer the captain commands a particular ship, they will gain small lvls of experience without having to enter combat all the time?

[Blackwill]

Perhaps a Military Academy could be funded to produce more advanced Officers? Rather than simply training Green officers, a player may opt to keep an Officer in the Academy a few turns longer, to give him a boost in his abilities. Say, one additional Rank or Experience Level (Green, Trained, Experienced, Crack, Elite, Admiral, Fleet Commander) for every 4 or 5 turns left in training, up to a maximum level/rank of Trained or Experienced (with all respective levels of Tactics, Respect, etc increased proportionally).

The Academy Training program would, of course, be rather pricey, but would offer new and old empires alike a means of attaching trained officers to their fleets without having to get into a large number of battles. Once an Officer is attached to a ship/fleet, he begins accruing levels and skills normally.

One may even advance this idea further by saying that a Fleet cannot be formed without a Fleet Commander being attached to one of the ships in the fleet.

Some suggestions.

The High Harvest Church

[Eric Moreau]

Battle Experience and Respect will be bonus stats, you'll either have them or you won't. Battle Experience won't accumulate over time but Respect will.

[Nia]

Could the idea of named officers with various attributes be introduced on a trial basis.
As far as the point made about newer empires possibly gaining an advantage without having to fight for it goes, would it not be possible to ensure that fighting ability would not increase from the random starting level until the officer had undergone actual battle experience.
The other point., which only Eric can answer, is whether he can cope with the extra work-load.
I would like it to be introduced if it proves to be feasible.
Nia

[Eric Moreau]

You can spend all your time in a University or Academy but nothing can better prepare you then actually getting to command a ship.

You are mis-understanding the system. You will not have to go into battle to improve your character. That is just a bonus for those Officers that have seen more battles then others. As for Respect, every time you'll promote an Officer he'll get a certain amount of Respect. You promote your Officers by gaining Prestige which will also accumulate by itself (there will be an option to give this a boost by investing in Military Parades, Air Shows, Military Ceremonies, Promoting of Military services, etc...)

[Blackwill]

Yep. I like the idea. Let's see how it works out

Chris

[The Butlerian Jihad]

I'm sold on the idea. Lets get it up and running.