Power conduits

KingBenjai

So my idea was after playing the game for a couple hrs. That I noticed even if I had a power supply and people right next to my weapons and my power is well above the recommended that I still have power issues. I assume this is because how Walt has set up the human AI is 1. A weapon or thruster requests ammo or power, 2. A person goes to a source of that ammo or power, and 3. Runs to the weapon/thruster and deposits the ammo/power. This I have found leads to problems of people going across the ship to feed power when someone next to a power source and the weapon is standing doing nothing. So to help with this why not make power conduits that take up one of the 8 batteries in a reactor and the player runs a wire thru the ship to the weapon supplying 1 battery every 2-4 sec. but if this line gets cut during battle then it can no longer supply power to the weapon of choice.

Walt

In Cosmoteer, crew are what make ship design interesting, and so I try to avoid introducing mechanics that make crew less valuable. My concern is that power conduits would do just that, by taking away one of the primary jobs of crew.

I think the ideal solution here is to fix the crew A.I. and/or give the player more control over the crew. Then we can think about how power conduits could make crew and ship design more interesting, instead of using them as a band-aid for problems in the crew A.I.

KingBenjai

What about making it so that a control station must monitor/control the power being sent along the conduit making it so that crew is still needed and doesn't take away the value of crew as much.

Walt

That'd be better, but the reason crew make ship design interesting is because you have to think about how the crew get from point A to point B. If the crew just hang out in one place you don't have to think about that as much and it might make ship design less interesting.

KingBenjai

You could have different tiers of conduits that have different tolerance levels and the more power going through them the higher chance a section has to blow out and have to be reconnected by a person. Tier one could be 1 battery: 5%, 2 battery 15%, 3 battery 30%, 4 battery 50%, 5 battery 75% and 6 battery 100%, tier two could be 1 bat. 5%, 2 bat. 10%, 3 bat. 20%, 4 bat 30%, 5 bat. 45% 6 bat. 60%, 7 bat. 75% and 8 bat. 100%

KingBenjai

So the conduit line would have to be able to be serviced by having it run along a corridor or be next to a corridor

Matou1612

What could help would maybe make priorities to ships? Or giving orders where to go, or do?
What i mean by priorities is saying: This that and that are the most important. when they run out of power, go re-supply power there as fast as you can.

Walt

Matou1612 I'm planning something along those lines.