I have been playing GSB for around 6-8 months now, and games such as Sins of a Solar Empire, OGame and AstroEmpires for around 8 years. I mention this off the front so as give you an idea of the background I am coming from when I bring up the topic of reordering and expanding the classifications of ships by size (ie, mass) and purpose. What I am proposing is an expansion of the game, as a whole, as well as a reclassification of existing ships. I will be using the Rebel ship categories for the sake of convenience. I am not aware if this has been brought up other times. I was not able to see anything along these lines on the front page, thus my posting. With the coming of the campaign mode, an increase in the size of the ships not only makes sense but could make the game play richer.
To start with, the game is at the moment rather limited. The current price limit is at 100K, which sharply curbs the size of fleets we can use and develop. I would suggest increasing the maximum size up to 10 million, along with the pilot limit and map size. This suggestion fits well with my main suggestion, larger classes then cruisers. At the moment, the “cruiser” class can be split into Light Cruisers (such as the Fenrir) and Heavy Cruisers (LIke the Valhalla). Likewise, the “frigate” can be split into Destroyers (the Loki, for example) and Frigates. Fighters should just be kept the same, categorically. What GSB is lacking is Battleships and capital ships. By increasing the size of ship, we would of course need to increase the price limit and size of maps. The base cost for cruisers is between 99 and 140. I would suggest Battleships being between 500 and 750, and capital’s being over 5000. These prices are of course without any modules.
The first of the new, larger classes I’m proposing is the Battleship class. It would be composed of two archetypes, the Battleship and the Battlecruiser. The battleship is a combat ship, pure and simple, whereas conceptually, Battlecruisers would be more utility then combat. Battleships would be on the order of 16 hardpoints, 12 standard modules. The battlecruiser would have something like 10 hardpoints, 18 standard modules. This class would of course have the standard weapons, defenses and engines (Battleship Missiles, a verity of beam weapons, anti-missile defenses, shields and armor, 3 kinds of engines, etc.). It would have class-specific high energy weapons and larger missiles, as well as some interesting multi-ship effects. The class could be defined by a high energy budget, requiring a careful balance of utility, firepower and defense.
The final new class I’d suggest is the Capital Ship. Costing in the area of five to ten thousand credits for just the blank hull, they would have on the order of 25+ hardpoints and 35+ standard modules. They would have the largest missiles, strongest beams, etc. Conversely, they would have relatively low tracking speeds to prevent overbalancing. There would have to be the introduction of cap-killer weapoons, with very low tracking speed but huge armor/shield pen. With the introduction of capital ships, there would need to be an increase in the size and cost limit of maps. My suggestion of 10 million is what I feel reasonable. For the campaign, a highly developed world could be pushing 10m fleet cap. Likewise, the tactical games that emerge from a fleet that size are interesting in their own right.
Please leave helpful feedback. I’m LKohime on the challenge board, look me up sometime!