Motherships rather than Planets

[Sytn]

Let me just start by saying I realize there are a lot of bigger issues to be dealt with in the short and long term for Stellaris and I feel they need to be addressed first, but this is just an idea that floated by I wanted to raise in the one in a billion chance it leads to being made, maybe for an expansion. Now thats out of the way...

Rather than having planets a faction could construct motherships that behaved like a planet in that it provided tiles that could be worked to produce resources, but it was a spaceship, able to move and travel across the galaxy freely.

You could have multiple sizes (6, 12, 25 tiles) that would obviously provide no natural resources to be exploited, but would have the advantage of being able to move and defend itself (being both a planet and a space station).

From this point you could add in a whole bunch of potential features to make motherships stand out. I think a big one that would be needed to promote moving between systems rather than just staying in a single system with your motherships would be that could harvest worlds (maybe to pay off that massive energy debt such a mothership would have), draining its resources and eventually destroying the world (obviously no one wants a whole galaxy turned into a barren wasteland, this would be a very very slow process and have its own dangers and risks).

Hell it could even be a new endgame disaster where an Independence Day like race (no rewards for realizing I just finished watching the new movie) arrive in the galaxy moving from planet to planet consuming them.

Thats all really, wanted to throw the idea out. I feel like it would really add in a dynamic and fun to play/play against race that would work within the game fairly well.

 

[Dalinski]

You owned it with this idea!

 

[Sytn]

You owned it with this idea!

Ha, thanks. Not so much my idea as the whole of science fiction. Glad I'm not the only one though.

 

[Dr. B]

This would be cool.

Pretty sure the 40K mod guys would appreciate this for the Eldar craftworlds and Tyranid hive ships as well.

 

[Squizzy77]

Out of curiosity, have you seem the new Independence Day movie?

Just a wild guess as to where your inspiration came from.

(Not a criticism, I actully think it's a fun idea)

 

[Sytn]

Out of curiosity, have you seem the new Independence Day movie?

I did, fun movie. Mentioned it in the OP.

Shame there is no mod for that race yet, tentacles and all.

 

[OneHeadedHydra]

Lets make ourselves some Quarian Flotillas!

I love this idea, but I can see an issue: What stops the player from building several of these motherships and bunching them together to make a single system with an unbeatable blob (if they also have these defensive capabilities) that has hundreds of tiles? It'd make them really easy to defend in a war, because you'd only have to defend a single system.

 

[Sytn]

Lets make ourselves some Quarian Flotilla's!

I love this idea, but I can see an issue: What stops the player from building several of these motherships and bunching them together to make a single system with an unbeatable blob (if they also have these defensive capabilities) that has hundreds of tiles? It'd make them really easy to defend in a war, because you'd only have to defend a single system.

Mm I had that idea too. The way Total War deals with it is having a penalty when multiple hordes (or in this case motherships) are near each other. Easy solution, but maybe not elegant enough.

Alternatively you could have it that motherships cant get near each other because of their gravity. In the same way you cant build multiple defensive stations near eachother, motherships would have a sphere of gravity that other motherships cant enter; so you can still have multiple motherships in a system but cant rely on all your motherships blobbing together. The enemy would get the chance to kill you off one at a time in a system.

They will also be very slow to warp, far slower than any other ship or even the largest fleets (its the size of a planet with about as much mass after all), so you might not get the advantage of being able to blob even if someone does declare war on you because of how slow you are to move. Add in the fact you need to consume planets to survive you'll have to spread your motherships out to maintain resource income, assuming thats a feature.

 

[OneHeadedHydra]

They will also be very slow to warp, far slower than any other ship or even the largest fleets (its the size of a planet with about as much mass after all), so you might not get the advantage of being able to blob even if someone does declare war on you because of how slow you are to move. Add in the fact you need to consume planets to survive you'll have to spread your motherships out to maintain resource income, assuming thats a feature.

This sounds like a good idea. Again going with the likeness to Mass Effect's Migrant Fleet, which is stated to need several days to get all ships from one location to the other, even though warp-travel is very fast.

I don't think Motherships should "consume planets", though. Yes, you will need to virtually strip-mine planets to create them, but if you get energy plants and food production working it's practically self-sustaining. The comparison to Total War's hordes is a good one, maybe even go a step further and liken them to hordes in Crusader Kings II? A nation which has very fluid borders, has no inhabited planets, but instead hops between systems looking for .. something? A planet to settle on?

(This should probably go into the "Suggestions" section of the forum, though.)

 

[orochi2k]

New end game crisis. Unoccupied planets go alive, become motherships to attack other races.

 

[Sytn]

I don't think Motherships should "consume planets", though. Yes, you will need to virtually strip-mine planets to create them, but if you get energy plants and food production working it's practically self-sustaining. The comparison to Total War's hordes is a good one, maybe even go a step further and liken them to hordes in Crusader Kings II? A nation which has very fluid borders, has no inhabited planets, but instead hops between systems looking for .. something? A planet to settle on?

You could have (similar to bombardment styles) resource exploitation styles. Precision, Exploitative and Devastating, ranging from extracting the bare minimum from a planet to absorbing its core and obliterating it. This way it doesn't force you to be a malevolent evil, you can be careful and precise but it will grant less resources and take longer, but cause no diplomatic outcry.

I feel like if you are going to add in motherships you have to go the full distance and put in something that really changes how someone plays and impacts the galaxy. It gives you a reason to spread across the galaxy, slowly eating your way either with either minimal or huge impact and stops the player just camping in one resource rich sector forever.

 

[OneHeadedHydra]

You could have (similar to bombardment styles) resource exploitation styles. Precision, Exploitative and Devastating, ranging from extracting the bare minimum from a planet to absorbing its core and obliterating it. This way it doesn't force you to be a malevolent evil, you can be careful and precise but it will grant less resources and take longer, but cause no diplomatic outcry.

I don't think damaging a planet to the point where it will never be useful again / obliterating it entirely should be a common thing, though. If it was, you only need one malicious player to make half the galaxy unconquerable. In Crusader Kings II, when a horde burns down a county you can atleast rebuild it. No such thing with an exploding planet. That is, unless you tie it in with significant improvements to terraforming-gameplay.

Going with the comparison to hordes, the main reason civilizations become migratory is loss of home or looming threat thereof. I think this should be simulated somehow, because why would you build a migratory fleet if there's a perfect homeworld with lucious groves sitting right there?

 

[wolf-the-white]

You won't be able to move them. And any heat loses in doing so will melt your ship... Or you can just move/accelerate so slowly that you don't move.

 

[Sytn]

Going with the comparison to hordes, the main reason civilizations become migratory is loss of home or looming threat thereof. I think this should be simulated somehow, because why would you build a migratory fleet if there's a perfect homeworld with lucious groves sitting right there?

Its a different playstyle, more choices for people who want it. Its not about migration as much as it is about giving the player a different way to play outside of planets entirely.

In terms of damaging planets this isnt really an issue because any number could be chosen for how hard/easy it was to damage a planet. But it should be an option for the player, as both a fun gameplay mechanic and for adding depth to the game overall. Can even have an option in the selection screen to turn off destroying planets entirely for motherships if you want. But more choices for players is always good.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

fantastic DLC idea. let's call the DLC 'Ships of State'

 

[orochi2k]

fantastic DLC idea. let's call the DLC 'Ships of State'

Agree! Nomad fleet has been worked on according to DD. Why not a whole big DLC and everybody goes to play space horse lord or alike?
In addition, it makes playing like mercenaries and pirates possible

 

[Leon_Aditzu]

New end game crisis. Unoccupied planets go alive, become motherships to attack other races.

Dead space 3 necromorf moons

 

[Jason262]

Love the idea. Maybe when the mother ship mines the planet, instead of it being destroyed maybe the planet should just suffer a negative modifier to mineral production. I feel that the planet should also have a negative habitability modifier for a certain period of time. The negative habitability modifier would represent the damage done to the planet from harsh mining and would take time for the planet to recover.

The player should also have options of how much mining they want to do on a planet. For example extreme mining would give the player more minerals, which puts a bigger negative modifier on the planet for minerals and habitability. The negative habitability would last longer with this option. But this would also be dangerous to the player as you would be in one place for longer which would make you vulnerable to attack. Since the player would be mining maybe the mother ship would get a small negative modifier for weapons and defences because a lot of energy would be used during the mining of the planet.

 

[OneHeadedHydra]

Love the idea. Maybe when the mother ship mines the planet, instead of it being destroyed maybe the planet should just suffer a negative modifier to mineral production. I feel that the planet should also have a negative habitability modifier for a certain period of time. The negative habitability modifier would represent the damage done to the planet from harsh mining and would take time for the planet to recover.

The player should also have options of how much mining they want to do on a planet. For example extreme mining would give the player more minerals, which puts a bigger negative modifier on the planet for minerals and habitability. The negative habitability would last longer with this option. But this would also be dangerous to the player as you would be in one place for longer which would make you vulnerable to attack. Since the player would be mining maybe the mother ship would get a small negative modifier for weapons and defences because a lot of energy would be used during the mining of the planet.

It'd be a nice way to find a balance. Strip mine the planet for a lot of minerals, but the planet depletes fast and will quickly rack up a negative modifier. Or take it slow and careful, getting you less minerals per month, but the negative modifier will take longer to reach an unbearabe state. The longer you stay on a planet, the longer it will take for the modifier to wear off once you leave.

This would mean that heavy mining will get the resources to you faster, but you will have to look for a new planet to orbit sooner. The more intense the negative modifier, the longer it will be before the migratory fleet can return to the sector to mine the planet again, making sure they actually stay migratory.

This could also tie in with the new method of closing borders. A migratory fleet flying into someone's influence and starting to strip mine their planets will quickly result into diplomatic events, yet a friendly empire might welcome the fleet in exchange for defense against a common threat.

 

[JesterHell]

No thanks, personally I don't like this idea because you start play as a race that just found FTL travel and the construction of a ship with even one planet tile is beyond what I think such a race could achieve, this isn't to say I'm against such super-ships existing altogether, as a crisis event (extra galactic nomads that have strip mined there home galaxy clean) or as really late game tech (pre-ringworld tech) but as a player race's starting "planet" no way in hell, leave that to the modders.

To me questions like how did they build it with out planetary infrastructure? and How can they build more without a massive industrial base? are paramount when considering it and I like my sci-fi to not crush my suspension of disbelief because of the "rule of cool" that this idea seems to based upon