New block types?

[Thundercraft]

I just wanted a place to share ideas on new types of blocks.

 

Fire Control blocks

 

These would function as Ship gun fire-control systems. That is, they would scale with size (volume) to add a certain number of AI equivalents to gunners. These AI gunners would be stuck at level 2 skill equivalent and not gain any levels. As for how much they would scale with size, I'm thinking it should be similar to crew quarters. Then why use gunners instead of Fire Control? Because gunners will gradually improve in skill level. Also, Fire Control blocks could be made more expensive than Crew Quarter blocks. (Perhaps twice the cost in credits and materials?) Also, Fire Control would require Naonite or better.

 

(See the Manually aiming even with Gunners and the Aiming Reticle topics for my reasoning.)

 

Alternatively, I suppose this functionality could be added to Computer Core blocks, considering how they currently don't do anything for a ship besides add a few more module slots. (Some players have complained about how they hardly seem worth it.)

 

P.S.: I feel like turrets with the "automatic" trait should be completely eliminated. Our turret inventory gets cluttered enough as it is without having to wade through all the mostly worthless "automatic" ones that don't do much damage. I think all turrets should be able to function in an automatic fashion if designated as such from a command menu or, at least, if we hire a Captain or Lieutenant to give them orders.

 

P.S.S.: I feel that requiring 2 or more gunners per turret is just too much. It's not realistic to require that many to operate just one turret. If they must be scaled by size, then please make the smallest, lowest tier turrets only require 1 gunner.

 

Shield Capacitor

 

What are shields, but a protective field of energy? How do we increase the energy capacity of something? By increasing the capacity of the energy generation and/or storage, of course.

 

AFAIK, adding more/larger Shield Generator blocks only increases the shield's HP. (Having more of them does not increase the shield recharge rate... does it? There's no indication in a ship's stats.) My idea is to change how Shield Generators work so that:

• Shield Generator blocks only give about 1/4'th the shield HP that they currently provide.
  
• Shield Generator blocks scale linearly to increase shield recharge rate - meaning that shield HP could recharge much faster for ships with a lot of them.
  
• Shield Capacitors would be to Shield Generators as Energy Containers are to Generator blocks. That is, Shield Capacitors would allow a ship to store more shield energy. They would scale similar to how Shield Generator blocks currently work, increasing shield HP without affecting the shield recharge rate.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

Anyone want to share their own suggestions on new types of blocks?