Cruiser Command

Had an idea.

Anyone ever play a game called Final Frontier or Dominant Species? Well, l'd recommend playing those for a better understanding of the idea.
The idea is research, actual research rather than sitting at a console waiting for it to finish. You could edit a few variables adding up to a max of 100% and put some money into it, and then you can leave the console and it will finish eventually, so you can start a new research. The more money you put into it at a time the more effective.

Different types of income would do different things to the research.
E.g.: Blue, cooldown rate. Yellow, range. Red, firepower. Green, energy cost.
E.g.: Weapon Research: 100 blue, 300 yellow, 10 red, 30 green on wraith lasers would end up with a very high range, decent speed, very low firepower, and a decent energy cost.

As l mentioned for the 'editing a few variables' could make up for some money you don't have and 'use' other resources for it at rates of something like: yellow, 75%, blue, 50%, red, 25%, and green, 2%. The example mentioned above:
weapon research: 100 blue, 300 yellow, 10 red, 30 green.
weapon variables: 30%blue, 15%yellow,50%red,5%green would end up as good speed, decent range, decent firepower, very high energy cost.

l do know that this would be very hard to implement, but it shouldn't be unable to be done. Also, the research speed would be something like 5-10 minutes, and would add some end-game aswell as mid-game and game-start stuff. And after it's done you could possibly expand the whole upgrade console to a similar system but they would be much faster upgrades and more based on getting what you want such as a very energy consuming tractor beam that pulls anything you want to the ship, as an example, but wouldn't have the normal 10 minute wait to have it, but instead it's usual upgrade speed. l feel this would add a lot of possibilities for end-game and may even make games much longer or shorter depending on how it's used. l would also like to see what others think of this idea and what it could be to make it better? Also, sorry for the long post.. When l have an idea l could go rambling forever on it, so l'll end it -->here<--

I've played a small amount of Final Frontier on SC2 and it seems like an amazing game. The amount of polish that went into it is astonishing. Unfortunately, it's too complex for most people which really hurts its popularity.

I think the research system in final frontier is very nice, however I'm not sure how well it'd work out in CC. First of all, many upgrades are upgrades which unlock certain abilities and such. Upgrades like engine boost and Nano hull spray are not really suited for the kind of upgrade system that final frontier has. Some other upgrades like fusion core and upgraded mining laser could work with that kind of upgrade system, but I think it would make the upgrade console harder to use than I'd like. Not to mention the time I'd have to spend to implement the entire thing.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the concept of it, but it's a lot of work and I'm just not sure if it's worth it. However, it's something that could be worth looking into later on.

Well, l kinda went into it a lot.. The original idea was to have an upgrade console with these features that goes soemthing like 'set it, leave, come back when message appears, start new.' Some of the more complex features like the 'using other resources for different things at a lesser efficiency' could be left out and just use the basics of 'this does that' and get a weapon with 200 blue, yellow, red, and 50 green, and get a good upgraded weapon.

On the one hand, I like the idea simply for its merit in regards to resource usage. Having upwards of 1000 kerm. (green) ore sitting around during end-game can make a crew feel like they've wasted a lot of time (reality: denying enemy of huge kerm fields has its own advantage). Being able to put all that ore into a research project to reduce the energy cost of, say...Penta burst lasers. Huge advantage, and should come at a high price.

The main problem I see with implementing a system like this in CC is TIME. A somewhat experienced crew can have all upgrades in 15-20 minutes; if I handpick a crew, we're fully up'd in 10. The trade off of having such high research goals should inherently require a good deal of time, but in that time I've already come to blow you to hell.

All in all, I think upgrades could use a bit of refinement if done in the right way. I'm not 100% sure what it would look like (instant upgrades system was too ridiculous, so I think we're at least balanced now) but I'd rather not see this become an hour+ minimum game - although I've definitively had those as well.

l think l see. Resources are much in to big of clumps and to easy to get hold of and have 300 even after everything is upgraded. Perhaps less resources and more spread out? Also, something beside the point almost entirely, maybe something 'bad' happens each game, randomed from about 10-99999 depending on how many you, Siretu, make.
E.g.: Sun in range on map, getting to close to it causes your aircraft to catch on fire (Post by DumbMarine, l think)
had an idea on fire. Well, it would catch the aircraft on fire and drain health. Or maybe something worse such as 'Something in the area has made it impossible for kermiculite asteroid fields to appear'. Maybe slightly off-topic for this, but whatever.

The upgrades arent really slow in the first place (except stuff like boost which is 30 seconds) and i dont think it would be worth it, the time was meant to stop cheap tricks like a wraith chasing another damaged wraith and a person hops on upgrades and hits hull upgrades and weps so the damaged wraith that now has extra hull in an instance and turns around and takes out the attacking wraith before the poor guy figures out what hits him. (i did it a couple of times and it was funny but ultimantly it comes down to the fact that it was very cheap and it isnt what cruiser command is about) Final Frontier was good but cruiser command has a very different concept on tecing and it should remain that way (although boost and broadside upgrades should reduce the amount of time to upgrade by like 5 seconds)
Its a good idea for a good game but i dont see it going into cruiser command without confusing people and it either being way to expensive to use or used in un-CC like manners

Alright, wasn't really wanting it to be something intrusive or anything, just something to set and forget until that little message appears that the research project is done. Also, on the upgrades, maybe the ship has to dock to get them? That seems to be the most obvious answer to almost dead wraith killing full life wraith with a few upgrades.