So let me start by saying that I doubt this will fly because people will rebel against any revolutionary concept that limits their toys. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, allow me to explain the idea as simple as I can.
When it comes to ship and technology design, the forums are rather inundated with things constantly. That's great, and it's awesome that people take the time to think about what kind of technology there would be out there. It's like a constant running chess match of who can outplay who. This is great and builds an awesome community for writing in.
However, I've noticed that, despite the number of ship designs being built, there's a lack of interest in fleeting. Star Wars isn't just about the Force and people with lightsabers running around and chopping people in half. Fleeting was a large part of what we saw in the movies and books. It shouldn't be second fiddle, but should be just as important as everything else, especially when it comes to invasions, dominions, and skirmishes.
Some people may recall this concept from the old days of RPing, back in the early to mid 2000's. It was pretty simple. If you had a shipyard, you could build ships. No shipyard = no ships. Instead of them just being instantly available, however, you had to spend time building them. This was quantified in RL days where the shipyard was tied up building a ship. When the ship was done, that ship was officially a part of your fleet. If it was destroyed in battle, it was destroyed and no longer in your repertoire of vessels.
This put a large importance on strategy and tactics, rather than just mass firing of weapons and this or that happens, and in the end all of the ships are fine and dandy because we instantly replace them. Every ship had meaning. Every ship was a precious commodity. You lose it, and you're in trouble. So if you lose a big battle in defense of a planet, and a large portion of your fleet is wiped out, and another enemy attacks you, you're at a severe disadvantage. This provided realism, and with realism came some fantastic RPing of fleet battles that rivaled those in the books or movies.
The proposition:
We bring back this time based construction method.
Each ship yard has X number of bays depending on how developed the yard is (I believe there's a rating system already in place).
Each bay can build one ship at a time.
Length of time of construction is quantified in RL days and is based on the length of the vessels per an agreed upon ratio and is always rounded to the nearest whole number.
Shipyards get their own forum, with builds kept track of by dedicated staff. (I would volunteer)
All fleet manifests would be kept in the open for all to see from an OOC standpoint, with the understanding that their composition would be ICly secret.
All ship designs must have a built prototype of the vessel, as this would ICly be the first course of action when a new ship is designed. It has to be tested.
Something similar would also be beneficial in the tech field when it comes to tanks/droids.
Pros:
Fleeting becomes important again.
Companies have quantifiable capabilities of producing ships, and actually produce to order instead of everyone just posting and then having one of something, which puts a greater importance on companies and the development of shipyards.
Realism once more becomes important in the confines of space warfare.
Ships are made a resource which aren't to be taken lightly instead of getting blown up and replaced like cannon fodder.
Less common to have ship submissions.
Forces people to interact with companies to get what they need, putting a great importance on the position of owning a company.
Puts an importance on defending your drive yards.
Cons:
It takes time.
People don't like to wait for things (no instant gratification for you).
People don't want to be dependent on companies.
More work for staff to take care of.
Example:
The Republic wants to design a new 1500m destroyer.
The agreed upon length of time for construction, as a baseline, is 15 days for every 1000m.
The design is submitted and worked out with factory staff.
Once things have been ironed out, the Republic begins construction of the prototype vessel via their main drive yards, which takes 23 days.
Once the prototype is completed, the design is approved and they can begin main construction of the vessel. The prototype enters their inventory.
Their drive yards have four bays. Three bays are occupied. They can build one destroyer, costing them another 23 days of build time.
The destroyer is completed and added to their inventory of ships, assigned a name to differentiate, and capable of being used in battle.
So lets here the negative thoughts. I'm sure this won't go over well, but I thought it was worth bringing up as a possible idea and I think it would be of great benefit. Positive input is also welcome.
When it comes to ship and technology design, the forums are rather inundated with things constantly. That's great, and it's awesome that people take the time to think about what kind of technology there would be out there. It's like a constant running chess match of who can outplay who. This is great and builds an awesome community for writing in.
However, I've noticed that, despite the number of ship designs being built, there's a lack of interest in fleeting. Star Wars isn't just about the Force and people with lightsabers running around and chopping people in half. Fleeting was a large part of what we saw in the movies and books. It shouldn't be second fiddle, but should be just as important as everything else, especially when it comes to invasions, dominions, and skirmishes.
Some people may recall this concept from the old days of RPing, back in the early to mid 2000's. It was pretty simple. If you had a shipyard, you could build ships. No shipyard = no ships. Instead of them just being instantly available, however, you had to spend time building them. This was quantified in RL days where the shipyard was tied up building a ship. When the ship was done, that ship was officially a part of your fleet. If it was destroyed in battle, it was destroyed and no longer in your repertoire of vessels.
This put a large importance on strategy and tactics, rather than just mass firing of weapons and this or that happens, and in the end all of the ships are fine and dandy because we instantly replace them. Every ship had meaning. Every ship was a precious commodity. You lose it, and you're in trouble. So if you lose a big battle in defense of a planet, and a large portion of your fleet is wiped out, and another enemy attacks you, you're at a severe disadvantage. This provided realism, and with realism came some fantastic RPing of fleet battles that rivaled those in the books or movies.
The proposition:
We bring back this time based construction method.
Each ship yard has X number of bays depending on how developed the yard is (I believe there's a rating system already in place).
Each bay can build one ship at a time.
Length of time of construction is quantified in RL days and is based on the length of the vessels per an agreed upon ratio and is always rounded to the nearest whole number.
Shipyards get their own forum, with builds kept track of by dedicated staff. (I would volunteer)
All fleet manifests would be kept in the open for all to see from an OOC standpoint, with the understanding that their composition would be ICly secret.
All ship designs must have a built prototype of the vessel, as this would ICly be the first course of action when a new ship is designed. It has to be tested.
Something similar would also be beneficial in the tech field when it comes to tanks/droids.
Pros:
Fleeting becomes important again.
Companies have quantifiable capabilities of producing ships, and actually produce to order instead of everyone just posting and then having one of something, which puts a greater importance on companies and the development of shipyards.
Realism once more becomes important in the confines of space warfare.
Ships are made a resource which aren't to be taken lightly instead of getting blown up and replaced like cannon fodder.
Less common to have ship submissions.
Forces people to interact with companies to get what they need, putting a great importance on the position of owning a company.
Puts an importance on defending your drive yards.
Cons:
It takes time.
People don't like to wait for things (no instant gratification for you).
People don't want to be dependent on companies.
More work for staff to take care of.
Example:
The Republic wants to design a new 1500m destroyer.
The agreed upon length of time for construction, as a baseline, is 15 days for every 1000m.
The design is submitted and worked out with factory staff.
Once things have been ironed out, the Republic begins construction of the prototype vessel via their main drive yards, which takes 23 days.
Once the prototype is completed, the design is approved and they can begin main construction of the vessel. The prototype enters their inventory.
Their drive yards have four bays. Three bays are occupied. They can build one destroyer, costing them another 23 days of build time.
The destroyer is completed and added to their inventory of ships, assigned a name to differentiate, and capable of being used in battle.
So lets here the negative thoughts. I'm sure this won't go over well, but I thought it was worth bringing up as a possible idea and I think it would be of great benefit. Positive input is also welcome.
I certainly agree with it. We'd also need to factor in major/minor production: maybe minor production vessels take three times as long to build as a major production vessel of the same size?
