Ship Upgrades
All ships should be upgradeable - this the player can configure the ship to his taste. But instead of allowing to upgrade any option to the maximum, each ship has upper limit, of what upgrade level it can handle. So the initial ship might only be capable - if at all - to be upgraded carry level 1 or 2 upgrades, while a the high end ships can be upgraded to the maximum level of i.e 5. But it does not state that all upgrades can be pushed that far, so ship A might be capable of level 5 engines, while is capable to carry level 5 sensors. The player has to decide what he needs, and if the ship is capable of pushing it that far.
I want to include - though not buyable, but findable - ship which is best balanced. compared to the other ships, which have all a drawback, this one should only have the drawback of no being able to max out the upgrades. If the best ships have an average upgrade level 3.5, this one will have one of 4.
The player should be able to install stronger upgrades than the ship can handle, but he won't get any additional benefit. i.e installing a level 3 upgrade into a level 2 slot, will result the same as if a level 2 upgrade has been installed. The idea it, that the player may gather his upgrades, while freely be able to switch ships and take them along.
What parts should be upgradeable? Engines, Computer, Sensors, Shields, Hull, Reactor. While I like the part of having interchangeable parts, I like the approach of astromenace concerning the Hull: Hull upgrades have to be bought seperately for each ship - which make sense, as it is rather unlikely that two different ships have the same hull.
What are the effects of an upgraded part?That is where is get complicated, and I don't have a solution yet.
- Reactor: Core element of any ship, direct effect of the power available for any system, defines maximum supported weapon level.
- Engines: higher maneoeverability, better acceleration, more efficient afterburner.
- Computer: better or faster targeting capabilities, autopilot, autospeed - speed adaption to the target.
- Sensors: better range, higher resolution - i.e missile are displayed on the radar.
- Shields: strength, recharge rate - independent of the level a scissors-stone-paper concept --> weapons
I divide the weapons system into primary and secondary weapons - but this has nothing to do with their power - it more a logical distinction, and terminology decision on my part.
Primary weapons: Mostly Energy-based weapon systems, which have - apart from the reactor limitation - unlimited ammo. The player starts with two simple "lasers", which can be later on upgraded - or exchanged - with ones of higher RoF (rate of fire), increased damage or higher range - or whatever the player needs. Each weapon belongs to one of three types which make up the scissor-stone-paper concept together with the shields. So does weapon A half damage to shield a, full damage to b, and double/increased damage to c, while weapon B does half to b, full to c, and double/increased to a, and analog for type C. While there are only 3 shield types, there are many more energy weapons types (distinguishable in RoF, range, relative damage), but they can all be sorted into one of those 3 groups.
In a later stage, there will be some projectile based weapons available, which are more powerful than their energy based counterparts, but have limited ammo. The decision to introduce the in a later phase is based on "you are new to this game, barely hit anything and then you should even have to worry about ammo". To make it more appealing to advanced players, those weapons not only make more damage, but ignore the shield type, thus they are equally effective against all types.
Numbers and level of weapons that a ship can carry is open for discussion, but I would use a similar approach as in astromenace, each slot has a maximum level, and even a good ship might have level 1 slots, while another having not that many, but higher level slots.
Secondary Weapons: They currently comprise only of missiles. think of the them as severely limited heavy damage weapons. the number of misisles (-slots) dependent of each ship (-type). While at an early stage, most missiles are one "guided" missile per slot, at a later stage, missile pod will come available, which contain multiple (i.e 3-4) missiles. I say most, as even at the beginners stage, a pod of (i.e 20) unguided "dumpfire missiles" is available. (I only mentioned missiles, but they could be also torpedoes, or whatever you want to call them. I think of torpedoes, as rather sowly moving missile with a devastating effect on stationary targets - such as stations and capital ships)
though briefly mentioned elsewhere, I dropped the idea of mines for the moment, but the could be also used on missile slot.
hopefully I do not overwhelm you with this long text, but I think the subject is rather complex and need good designing.
cheers
nico
[edit: improved readability]