Hey guys, this is just an idea I was kicking around in the modding section, but figured it might be interesting to post into general forums as well. This is something that might be cool for expansions or even a player mod. Just thought I'd get some feedback on what you guys think.
I was just curious if there was any work being done to add new ships to the game in the form of Juggernaught sized vessels. I was thinking that would be neat to see. Basically a high level research (maybe level 6 or so military with some prereqs). Possibly triple a capital ship's weapons and size, quadruple the armor, and double the shields. Of course to balance this, they should cost somewhere around a superweapon. They could definatly turn the tide of a battle, but by far could not win it on their own. Against a fleet of focused fire, I'm sure they'd go down quick, but with a few vessels with them it could make for one hell of a match. Just seeing two dreadnaughts wailing on eachother would be impressive to watch. It's something that I'm sure would take a lot of tweaking to make cool and useable but not unbalancing for the current game's specifications.
Another thing I was also thinking of is (if it's possible to do with the game engine) to have the Mega-ships build as a structure (you gotta figure a ship that size wouldn't fit in a cap ship facility). That would balance it somewhat a little more, in the fact that it can be attacked while under construction. Another thing that would be cool to see is if they have to be built in stages. IE. Stage 1 Building- Builds the ship, upon completion it can move like a normal vessel but only has the statistics of an average battleship. Upon clicking an "upgrade" button it again turns into a non-movable object or structure type item and begins another build phase. Stage II would make it more powerful with the firepower and armor far above that of a capital ship, with Stage III completing it and giving it "special abilities" like capital ships (as opposed to the capital ship's "Experiance" based upgrade). The dreadnaughts would have to still be incredibly slow, just to keep things even. Possibly even make them half the speed in phase space so the enemy has time to react if they can see if coming (another idea that might balance gameplay a bit). Just some ideas i'd like to kick around there, see if anyone else is interested in such a thing or has some input.