Space Colonies

Nice idea, but i got alot more for it.
but i think that for it to work, and be fair, space colonies would have to be different from planets, they could be ship building centers or trading centers that could be used to trade more conveniently or create ships if they are needed, the tech for it would have to be its own technology line. and though it could remain a regular constructor module, itshould be something like an advanced constructor/colony module, which would require alot of maintnance when created, like you said. basically a space colony would be very expensive to upkeep, and difficult to profit from, and with technology it could get cheaper and cheaper to maintain. also theycould have support ships that you could set to be built automatically or manually, these support ships would also cost to maintain. and they would cost less to maintain the closer the colony is to a planet, as well as if you configured them manually, to cater to the specific needs of the colony, such as amount of food, and building materials, as well as things such as waste management, consumer products, or even ships, which could be stored and shipped back to the support ships destination. you could also manually configure which planets support ships travel from a space colony to. if left on automatic, the support ship would simply go to the nearest planet. which if it is a poor, and low resource planet, would cost you more. while if you manually chose a planet rich in resources, it would be extremely cheap to you, and could save you money from the planets maintnance costs. as for food transport, support ships could take excess food from your planet, or food that you manually set aside for it, to the space colonies. and for ship building, support ships could carry hulls built by a colony to the set planet to be turned into ships, this could make ships faster or cheaper to build, and support ships could also be used between regular colonies as a from of intra-race trade, which could help your empire to become more productive, the benifits of inter-colony (not intra) support ships would be greater with different forms of government, for example, an empire, which provides the least production benefits, and keeps colonies close together under one rule, would provide some benefits, because it would make colonies even out happiness. support ships would transport morale, in the form of different things to entertain your populations, but because of the fact that the colonies are not as self reliant anyway, would have much other affect, while with a federation, they would make colonies they travel too more productive because they are carrying leftovers from other colonies, in other words excess, which colonies could put to good use, and they would be more effective then with an empire, because in a federation colonies are more seperate and independant and less interconnected, or aware of each others resources. with a federation, basically support ships would become more necessary or the unity and survival of your colonies. i've written too much and gotta stop now. at this period. right now. .

What are you saying? That the player has to build these new "support" ships and send them to these space colonies to transfer supplies between the planet and colony. My idea was to have these space colonies act as a starbase. Constructors travel to the space colony to upgrade them with new modules/improvements. These improvements range from factories, markets, support systems (artificial food & water). However these space colonies are nowhere near the level of having good quality planets under your civilization.

Basically the Space Colonies should generally be no better than a Class 8 planet. The number of Space Colonies that can be built are dependent upon range from a specific star and the amount of starbases within the sector. Another thing is that Space Colonies also have the same rules to war. They can be invaded by enemy troops. They can also be destroyed with certain invasion tactics as well (No single ship though can simply blow it up with their laser beams).

It would throw off the game dynamic if you could just build planets, even if their number was limited by money and logistics. That kind of thing is just too complex - it wouldn't be that hard to actually program it, but it would take quite a lot of time to get the AI to properly utilize it.

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Instead, if someone bothered to make this, it would be better to simplify it to a new type of starbase:
Colony Starbase: A habitatable, self-sustaining starbase that can support a limited but significant population. It would cost the same as a regular starbase but would take 2 logistical points, and have a base expense. First, you would need to send out a constructor to build one - the constructor's range would have to include a star. Then, you would need to send another constructor to build a Basic Habitat on it, which would allow for 1/2 billion people (to increase the population cap, you would need to research the Life Support, Logistics, Soil Enhancements, and Advanced Hulls branches of research). Then you would need to send a colony ship to the starbase to populate it. Ships could 'dock' with the starbase in the way a ship orbits a planet and both defend the starbase and get an increased repair ability. However, this starbase would be very vulnearable and could be destroyed by a single Defender if it didn't have any weapons.

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It would introduce a new level of strategy because you could build backup population centers if your primary planets were all conquered - a refuge of sorts. But they would still have the limitations of starbases (easily destructable at first) without the full benefits of planets (no Starport, no research or manufacturing, only basic taxation) and thus would never be economically viable.

i like all your ideas, and i think that the best idea would be to make it a type of starbase that could make ships, and my more advanced idea would go into a galciv3, with the space colonies bewing like small planets.

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as for my support ship idea, its something players can choose to worry about, continuing on the games optional micromanagement features. support ships would be like mini freighters. they are a concept that i thought of because of your space colony idea. they are rather seperate though.

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and your idea of population backup, or refuges gave me an idea,shadow. there could be a seperate population supporting starbase, which would be known as a refugee starbase, which could be either a ship that takes up a tile on the planet, and if the planet is taken over, half a billion of the population leave in the constructor, and can only go within a small range of the planet. but that kind of refugee starbase would be heavily protected by United Planets law. the other kind would bwe a constructor you build and send out somewhere in space, and it could produce an insignificant amount of tax revenue, to keep it from being something a race relies on. Either way, the Iconian Refuge would have many bonuses in for these starbases, and would have several in the Yors territory, and near the Iconian homeworld, which would be included in each game, it the refuge starbases would be in the form of the escape idea, after the Yor conquered the Iconian homeworld, the Iconians released several refugee ships from their planet.

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anyway, these are only ideas, which they would filter and polish if they ever used them in the game, they don't have to be perfect.

It would throw off the game dynamic if you could just build planets, even if their number was limited by money and logistics. That kind of thing is just too complex - it wouldn't be that hard to actually program it, but it would take quite a lot of time to get the AI to properly utilize it. Instead, if someone bothered to make this, it would be better to simplify it to a new type of starbase: Colony Starbase: A habitatable, self-sustaining starbase that can support a limited but significant population. It would cost the same as a regular starbase but would take 2 logistical points, and have a base expense. First, you would need to send out a constructor to build one - the constructor's range would have to include a star. Then, you would need to send another constructor to build a Basic Habitat on it, which would allow for 1/2 billion people (to increase the population cap, you would need to research the Life Support, Logistics, Soil Enhancements, and Advanced Hulls branches of research). Then you would need to send a colony ship to the starbase to populate it. Ships could 'dock' with the starbase in the way a ship orbits a planet and both defend the starbase and get an increased repair ability. However, this starbase would be very vulnearable and could be destroyed by a single Defender if it didn't have any weapons. It would introduce a new level of strategy because you could build backup population centers if your primary planets were all conquered - a refuge of sorts. But they would still have the limitations of starbases (easily destructable at first) without the full benefits of planets (no Starport, no research or manufacturing, only basic taxation) and thus would never be economically viable.

That was my general idea with some exceptions. This would be something that could be added in the long run. Meaning a future expansion or seqeul. The space colonies would be capable of research, industry and all the other basic building blocks of your emipre. Now instead of just clicking the space colony and adding a new improvement onto the surface, you send a constructor to it. Once there it will notify you if you would like to upgrade Space Colony XXXX? Doing so you have a list of options that increase industrial, economic, research etc. This in term adds value to the space colonies, and allows you as a player to expand your empire beyond just the use of planets.

One thing they can't do is build starports that allow them to construct ships. However as you said ships can "dock" with the space colony, treating it no more than a ship in orbit. When it comes to the destruction of these space colonies, perhaps a simple defender can take it out if the colony is left defenseless. Although I would like to see the option to invade (or in this instance, raid) the space colony with troop transport ships.

Now theres obviously a max limit to how many space colonies can be built, the range, population cap etc. Expensive maintainence also applies, meaning building too many can result in an economic breakdown. It is fairly complex, but if implemented correctly I think it would be rather simple.

I find it rather unrealistic that we can't have colony-like starbases (or use a constructor to make a PQ1 planet out of most worlds, for that matter). I would suggest an overhaul to the starbase system that goes by hull size.

My system would work like this: As you get the options for various hull sizes, you'd also get the options for construction modules of those hull sizes. The modules would get progressively larger and more expensive, and each would be able to build bases of its own size or lower--you could build a medium base with a large module, if you felt like it. The base itself would probably be cheaper, but you would have paid more for the constructor (which saves on micromanagement, allowing rich civs to just churn out the largest size for any task).

The different sizes of starbases would have different module capacity, cost scaling, logistics cost, hit points, maybe area of effect (depends on modules), etc. A "Tiny" starbase would be little more than a helpless observation post or resupply center (to increase ship range), whereas a "Huge" starbase would simply drop a PQ2 planetoid with no initial colony on the map in that spot.

with just alittle more tech then TODAY (2006) self sustaining "floating" colonies should be possible (and without expansive support from a "home planet"). Mine astroids for raw materials, and build more and more of your colonies. I think it should be a non tile requiring improvement to planets that gives alittle extra benefits. It shouldn't be a major research and manufacturing and population center because of size constraints. Instead it should just give alittle minor benefits to the star. Alternatively, they could work like colonizing an astroid belt with series of independent small habitats that mine the astroids, grow their own food (you just need basic molecules like hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, to grow plants) and develop independently. I think it will be lovely from a flavor point of view but not entirely practical. Too much work for too little return. I would love to see it because I am big on flavor, but I don't think it will be done. Alternatively, just have some graphical indication that people are moving offworld when the population / tech reaches a certain point.