Changing Motherships

[Nanaki]

Going back on topic, here is what I have come up with... This sort of necessitates Goblin Wizard's Mothership purchase script in order to work.

You initially start with a Mastiff, Mastiff mostly remains the same as it is now, with exception of losing a major caliber gun and gaining a slight boost to top speed. Using Goblin Wizard's script, I am thinking of adding these motherships as purchase choices:

Mastiff MK2 - Same as the Mastiff, except with an additional major caliber gun (bringing it back to two) and heavier armor/shields (1800 armor, 400 shields). Cheapest of all the motherships.

Military Transport - Basically, the same thing as Heretic's Base/Mercenary Mothership, armed with 4 turrets and 5 systems, 4000 armor and 200 shields. Tough and decent speed, but lacking major caliber guns.

Astarte - The same as it is now, the most expensive purchasable mothership.

A Lion MK1 will replace the Astarte in the optional Mothership mission. Will be armed with 6 turrets, 4 systems, no major caliber guns, 10000 Health, and 5000 shields.

[Goblin Wizard]

How expensive motherships should be? I think about something between 5KK and 20KK.

btw I removed buying motherships from maintenance stations. Now ms can be bought just anywhere in the space. Script can be attached to any object.
Max two more days and mod will be ready (at least working beta).

[Nanaki]

How expensive motherships should be?

The game's only hint is about 300K for an Astarte, and about 150K for a Mastiff... Obviously that is kind of low, but those numbers are what the game gives you.

Personally, I think it should start off as 250K for a Mastiff MK2, 500K for merc mothership, and 750K for an Astarte. In order to purchase the Lion Cruiser from the Mercenaries, you would have to pay 1.5 million (or, if you have the Intuition Perk, you can knock that down to 750K)

End-game motherships like the Manticore, Lion MK2, Lion MK3, Star Wolf, and Rhino are unbuyable.

Also, I am thinking about making GKGuns a little more important in Capital ship vs Capital ship combat, and doubling the range of all GKGuns (not GKTurrets). This will allow GKGuns to really put the hurt on an enemy capital ship at a considerable distance, and necessitate use of strong sensors or forward scouts in order to maximise the effectiveness of your Mothership.

Alongside this change, I may add 1 GKGun slot to the Merc mothership, the Lion MK1, and the Super Chimera. The Stone Arrow and Stalingrad already have GKGun equipped versions, and the Chimera is too light a ship to equip a GK Gun.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

The game's only hint is about 300K for an Astarte, and about 150K for a Mastiff... Obviously that is kind of low, but those numbers are what the game gives you.

Personally, I think it should start off as 250K for a Mastiff MK2, 500K for merc mothership, and 750K for an Astarte. In order to purchase the Lion Cruiser from the Mercenaries, you would have to pay 1.5 million (or, if you have the Intuition Perk, you can knock that down to 750K)

I think it's much too low. Comparing to a good fighters that can cost @500K mothership's price should be at least 10 times greater.

Also, I am thinking about making GKGuns a little more important in Capital ship vs Capital ship combat, and doubling the range of all GKGuns (not GKTurrets). This will allow GKGuns to really put the hurt on an enemy capital ship at a considerable distance, and necessitate use of strong sensors or forward scouts in order to maximise the effectiveness of your Mothership.

This will allow to blow up entire enemy fleets without being noticed. If something is out of their scanners it doesn't exist. AI is not smart enough to fly in the direction of incoming fire.

[Nanaki]

I think it's much too low. Comparing to a good fighters that can cost @500K mothership's price should be at least 10 times greater.

If motherships were really that expensive, nobody would ever buy them (nobody would even have the money to consider buying them, apart from power gamers), they would just use the money to buy state of the art fighters, guns, and systems instead, wait until the Astarte mission, and get whatever mothership comes out of that for free.

Remember that we are just talking about hull prices, not even including the cost of turrets, major caliber guns, and systems. Not to mention we are talking about ships that are mostly just modified transports (Mastiff, Mercenary mothership) or failed experiments (Astarte). The Lion MK1 is considered outdated at the start of the game, and is the only true warship available that early into the game.

My current pricing scheme idea is enough to impact someone's wallet, but cheap enough for someone to consider getting.

This will allow to blow up entire enemy fleets without being noticed. If something is out of their scanners it doesn't exist. AI is not smart enough to fly in the direction of incoming fire.

I do plan on giving handicaps to enemy capital ship fleets. Either with longer-range sensors, or with having sensor modules

[DanielTex]

A cool thing would be if you could have more pilots, like 8 or 9 pilots and the ability to buy a mothership at a space station.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by DanielTex

A cool thing would be if you could have more pilots, like 8 or 9 pilots and the ability to buy a mothership at a space station.

Check tomorrow. Just finishing my mod. Pilots slots are hardcoded but you can write about it in Wish list thread. Maybe devs will hear you.