Ship Designer Modules

[asdfsadf]

On the stream and dev reports, the only non-weapon modules we've seen are armor, shields and power. It seems a little underwhelming having a ship customization engine that only allow you to basically specialize in either armor defense or shield defense (since power specialization seems useless).

Will there be other types of modules available on release? Warp jammers, fleet support shields, fleet targetting support, engine upgrades for fast raiders, etc. are some ideas that come to mind that would be really fun to play around with.

 

[Summin Cool]

I sure hope so. If not I (or someone else) will probably mod it in

 

[ahhheygao]

Warp jammer is already in the game. Support/utility functions are in the slots on the right hand side of the ship designer screen.

 

[asdfsadf]

Those aren't the same as the lower-slot addons though, as the right-hand addons are mandatory things like warp drives.

So if you wanted to say, trade shields for faster move speed, that wouldn't be possible from what I've seen.

 

[Solismar]

Well don't forget there are systems on the right as well as the bottom. You can upgrade your ships in system drives, as well as FTL drives, radar, and "range finder" or stances. So you can make it so smaller ships run forward with their close up weapons, while battleships stay back with long range weapons, or otherwise.

As for the bottom display, I think there is also deflectors. So Deflectors, Shields, and Armor, in a rock, paper, scissor battle format, as well as the power.
Then the weapon slots have a variety to choose from, such as PDS systems to shoot down missles or small craft, not to mention the lightning weapons, and fighter/bomber bays. So the bottom rows may seem a bit more limited, but you have to play with balance, to much shields, and not enough power for really great weapons, or no shields and armor, and you can put power to weapons.

 

[barny]

Those are only a part of the "non-weapon" equipment.

You basically have to balance energy, shields and armor depending on the equip your enemies have.

 

[Ulzgoroth]

Those aren't the same as the lower-slot addons though, as the right-hand addons are mandatory things like warp drives.

So if you wanted to say, trade shields for faster move speed, that wouldn't be possible from what I've seen.

If better thrusters use more power, it would be. I don't know whether they do, though.

 

[asdfsadf]

The thing is, you can't specialize in anything on the right-hand side. You can't have a fast raider, because the upgrade options go: FTL 1, FTL 2, FTL 3, etc. And you usually want to just pick the most advanced one you have researched. Similarily, you can't make any scanner ships, because the scanner upgrade path is equally linear and just depends on what tech you have. There are the battle computers, but it seems equally limited to "defensive, offensive, or basic". You can't have a command ship that gives fleet bonuses, or a field repair ship, or a scrap recycler module for turning enemy wreckage into minerals, a berserker module that damages the ship while increasing its damage; or any other sort of thing that would add a lot more variety to your fleet composition. It seems only natural that non-combat modules for customizing your ship would go in the bottom slot, but I haven't seen any but the defensive ones and power.

So aside from weapons, which seem to have a good variety, your strategy in customizing your ship will boil down to "use the best tech you have researched, and spam on defensive modules depending on what weapons your enemy is using, then balance power".

 

[barny]

Yeah well, you can always make systems more complex, but a lot of people don't want to bother with ship designers in the first place.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

The thing is, you can't specialize in anything on the right-hand side. You can't have a fast raider, because the upgrade options go: FTL 1, FTL 2, FTL 3, etc. And you usually want to just pick the most advanced one you have researched. Similarily, you can't make any scanner ships, because the scanner upgrade path is equally linear and just depends on what tech you have. There are the battle computers, but it seems equally limited to "defensive, offensive, or basic". You can't have a command ship that gives fleet bonuses, or a field repair ship, or a scrap recycler module for turning enemy wreckage into minerals, a berserker module that damages the ship while increasing its damage; or any other sort of thing that would add a lot more variety to your fleet composition. It seems only natural that non-combat modules for customizing your ship would go in the bottom slot, but I haven't seen any but the defensive ones and power.

So aside from weapons, which seem to have a good variety, your strategy in customizing your ship will boil down to "use the best tech you have researched, and spam on defensive modules depending on what weapons your enemy is using, then balance power".

Yes. This isn't Gratuitous Space Battles: all ships move in-system at the same speed, and battles are much more abstracted and less intricate than you may be hoping. The reason for this is that the focus of the game is not on the individual battles or even the wars, but on the very large picture.

I absolutely love Gratuitous Space Battles and I was hugely fond of Master of Orion 2, but I wouldn't want that level of detail in a GSG. It would take away too much attention from the things that makes Stellaris interesting: diplomacy, internal politics, and hunting down weird anomalies.

IMHO there's a fallacy which states that more complexity added to a game is always good, and that adding what is essentially a minigame onto another game is a great idea. This isn't true: every audience member has a certain tolerance for complexity and doesn't want to play a game which has more than that, which means that it has to be budgeted out very carefully.

 

[Revan7719]

The thing is, you can't specialize in anything on the right-hand side. You can't have a fast raider, because the upgrade options go: FTL 1, FTL 2, FTL 3, etc. And you usually want to just pick the most advanced one you have researched. Similarily, you can't make any scanner ships, because the scanner upgrade path is equally linear and just depends on what tech you have. There are the battle computers, but it seems equally limited to "defensive, offensive, or basic". You can't have a command ship that gives fleet bonuses, or a field repair ship, or a scrap recycler module for turning enemy wreckage into minerals, a berserker module that damages the ship while increasing its damage; or any other sort of thing that would add a lot more variety to your fleet composition. It seems only natural that non-combat modules for customizing your ship would go in the bottom slot, but I haven't seen any but the defensive ones and power.

So aside from weapons, which seem to have a good variety, your strategy in customizing your ship will boil down to "use the best tech you have researched, and spam on defensive modules depending on what weapons your enemy is using, then balance power".

Sounds like all that is needed to be honest. Combat is not the focus of the game.

 

[barny]

Yes. This isn't Gratuitous Space Battles: all ships move in-system at the same speed

I think they actually don't. There are different "below FTL" engines, AFAIK.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

I think they actually don't. There are different "below FTL" engines, AFAIK.

Ooops. Ah well. The principle of what I said is hopefully still true.

 

[gk.]

AFAIK, aside from weapons, shields, and armor, there are also (at the very least) power generators, sensors, and thrusters.

Also:

 

[LastLeviathan]

The thing is, you can't specialize in anything on the right-hand side. You can't have a fast raider, because the upgrade options go: FTL 1, FTL 2, FTL 3, etc. And you usually want to just pick the most advanced one you have researched. Similarily, you can't make any scanner ships, because the scanner upgrade path is equally linear and just depends on what tech you have. There are the battle computers, but it seems equally limited to "defensive, offensive, or basic". You can't have a command ship that gives fleet bonuses, or a field repair ship, or a scrap recycler module for turning enemy wreckage into minerals, a berserker module that damages the ship while increasing its damage; or any other sort of thing that would add a lot more variety to your fleet composition. It seems only natural that non-combat modules for customizing your ship would go in the bottom slot, but I haven't seen any but the defensive ones and power.

So aside from weapons, which seem to have a good variety, your strategy in customizing your ship will boil down to "use the best tech you have researched, and spam on defensive modules depending on what weapons your enemy is using, then balance power".

You're mistaken. It has been stated by the devs that there are warp inhibitors and nano tech which heals nearby ships that can be placed on stations and the larger ships. I'm certain there are more utility attachments and if not, more will undoubtedly be added.

Edit: Here's a screen of the nanobots.

We actually can build repair ships, thanks to Nanobot Clouds:

Yes, I know, it's shown as a station module here, but Wiz said we can slot them on the larger ships, too.