So i was just thinking about carrier caps, and how they are largely useless (and, seperately, how other cap ships could become more powerful).
I read one post that proposed (in addition to new abilities/weapons etc) Carriers carrying many more squadrons of SC initially, and ultimately leveling up until it had like 12 or 15 squadrons at level 10. Then alot of people said (correctly) that that would kill the early game because there would be no counter to it. Everyone would have to choose the carrier first, or just rush and tech up to carriers and flak super quick.
This is a very valid point. But the idea was nevertheless quite good, and unless you turn it into another Utility Cap or Battleship Cap, I personally can't think of any way to make it more useful. After all, its a Carrier Cap, its supposed to be very strong SC combat.
So. Im getting slightly off topic here. What i was thinking is, atm, all Cap Ships are available from Day One. However, if we made it that certain capital ships (say the carrier, the dreadnought and the utility/support caps) required research before they could be constructed, then those caps could be made much more powerful without throwing off game balance. For instance, you could only bring out the Carrier Cap once Flak and/or Light Carriers are researched, or even just at the same time.
This would also open the door for a few things:
1. Early game caps (lets say the battleship and the coloniser for the moment) can have their powers and abilities made much more powerful as they level so as to scale better with the more powerful later game cap ships. A lvl 10 Kol lvl 3 Gauss Railgun Blast (sic) could punch right through a LF or LRF etc, and be bery powerful vs heavier ships, for instance.
2. Each race can be given a weapon equivalent to the Missile Barrage, some level 6 ability that will only come out mid-late game once enemy fleets will be more likely to survive it. Also, standard weapons and abilities can be boosted to really reflect the role of a Capital Ship.
3. As an alternative to the first point, the existing early game caps (lets say Kol and Akkan etc) can be left as is, and new caps can be added to the menu with greater firepower, speed and abilities etc, and once researched (lets say tier 5-7? maybe both Civilian and Military research required?) will be available. This was you can have some smaller 'destroyer' type caps, which act basically as weapons platforms and give basic abilities (colonisation, targeting computer, basic interrupt abilities, heavy weapons (gaus railgun) etc), and then late game bring out the REAL capital ships, with much greater/more powerful/more useful(?) abilities and, of course, greater firepower.
I know this sounds like another quest for Super-Cap ships. I assure you, its not. I just think caps atm give you a little bit of use with their abilities until someone focus fires on them and they evaporate. And i also think carrier caps need to be given a place to belong. something they do exclusively. perhaps co-ordinating the fleet (sorta) and giving extended range, or better mobility, or higher damage output, etc etc something fitting and useful... rather than missile platforms that get left behind anyway
So. These are some ideas. I know at times the community can get iffy with big changes, so I just hope this isnt too radical.
