Number of ship designs

[toddestan]

I'm a bit late here, but here's my input:

1. 4
2. 7 (I agree with Kyrub, with one spot "reserved" for the colony ship. This leaves 6 spots for other designs, which would allow for three designs with the current and previous generation.
3. 4
4. 3
5. I kind of like the strategy having limited slots for ship designs entails. With other games (such as MOO2) you can design a new ship at any time, with no cost really other than your time to do so. With MOO you really have to plan and think about when you want to design a ship, as a new design requires you scrap an old, possibly still useful, design. Furthermore, once you start producing your new design you can't just change it without scrapping your new ships, and there are also certain tradeoffs dealing with the long-term usefulness of a design. There's certainly a strategy as to when to commission a new design versus still producing an older design. I also like how I end up with distinct generations of designs, such as Bomber1, Bomber2, Bomber3, etc. and it's always kind of interesting to see how a design ages as a game progresses. Anyhow, that's just my thoughts.

[toddestan]

2. 7 (I agree with Kyrub, with one spot "reserved" for the colony ship. This leaves 6 spots for other designs, which would allow for three designs with the current and previous generation.

Just realized something. With the current battlefield layout, with 7 designs one could completely surround their planet as below:


|
|>>>
| O>
|>>>
|


Which would effectively prevent any bombers from being able to bomb the planet. Not sure if that would be a big problem or not - one would need 7 stacks that could withstand the attackers without being destroyed to pull it off. But it would be a tactic that someone could employ so it might be worth considering.

[WhiteMage]

I don't understand. A planet has 8 sides, so the 7 only works if the enemy ships don't have speed>1 or other specials circumstances like repulsor beam. Ships fly over enemy ships.

[toddestan]

I don't understand. A planet has 8 sides, so the 7 only works if the enemy ships don't have speed>1 or other specials circumstances like repulsor beam. Ships fly over enemy ships.

Now that I think about it, I believe you're correct. So disregard, except for very unlikely early game scenarios (speed = 1, no specials).

[Tiltowait]

1. 5. I think the 6-ship limit is a great bit of game design. It keeps you from having useless ships all over the map. It also provides an interesting strategy with regard to having two stacks of the same kind of ship - you can do it, but you have to give up one of your precious ship design slots. I think that's brilliant.
2. I think it's great as-is. Creating more ship types will just clutter up your empire with useless old tech ships. That, or give players too many options for shipbuilding, resulting in analysis paralysis.
3. 3. I know the manual and how to play the game, but people here just know every nut and bolt. I don't like my games to take forever, so I don't play large and huge maps, so I've never seen a lot of the late-game techs.
4. 1. I can't win on impossible. Maybe I could, but it's just no fun. I prefer a more leisurely game.