supply capacity

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

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jinlanid
Space Squid
Posts: 88
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:26 am

supply capacity

#1 Post by jinlanid »

Say, every supply-network has its supply capacity calculated from PP,stockpile,infrastructure or something else. And every ship cost some supply capacity.

Then, if your fleet are fighting somewhere, and suddenly, one/some of your systems are blockaded/occupied, your supply-network are divided into 2. Now your fleet maybe can't get enough supply, so, you have to go back to secure your supply line.

How this affect the game:
1. You can't just push, you have to consider the security of your supply line.
2. You can defeat a powerful enemy by cut his supply line.

The war is an art of logistic.

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Geoff the Medio
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:33 am
Location: Munich

Re: supply capacity

#2 Post by Geoff the Medio »

The existing fleet supply mechanic (hopefully) accomplishes most of the interest aspects of this, in that keeping a fleet in supply requires securing an unobstructed connection back to a source of supply. Adding the additional complication of supply capacity restricted to and calculated separately within subsets of the empire's supply lane connections would complicate things quite a bit without a lot more strategic benefit, arguably. The existing mechanic is nice, in that it is on/off at a particular location, so easy to display and understand for the player.

There are, however, proposals for influence as a resource to be used for maintaining fleets in some fashion. This would work similarly to how you've proposed, except not limited by the empire's supply network, so only a single pool of influence needs to be tracked.

Having these sorts of mechanics (geometrical restriction and connect, and a resource that needs to be tracked as a number) are OK separately, but combining them sort of multiplies the complexity in a way I'd generally like to avoid.

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