Basically, what i'm suggesting is more orientated for the campaign overhaul.
1
I am curious if it possible after a cannon fires for a shell casing to be left behind. You need to transport the shell to another location for the cannon to work. What this means is that your crew are going to have to stockpile the shell casings in the cargo hold which means you will get some resources back, opposed to losing all the resources spent on the shell.
Or, simply throw them out the supply hatch.
2
What i'm suggesting here is a proper ranking system for your empire. This means that if a crew member gains enough experience, he will "rank" up. This means he will be given a bigger role on a ship, fleet, and empire. A newly ranked up troop will get better and better at his new job until he ranks up again.
Though, I imagine the majority of your military will have blocks on how far they can rank up.
I also recommend a button that allows you to stop your whole military from ranking up if this is added.
And, perhaps you will not always be in control of your empire? Perhaps you might just be a ship captain?
but i do like ranking up crew members. But i think when there's like 500 of them it's sort of going to be ridiculous to manage that. Maybe just allowing the "captain" of the vessel to level up - at the very least just giving him a dope hat and a randomly generated name.
You really wont be managing anything. When they work at their current job(Powderboy, lieutenant, etc...) they gain experience which not only makes them better at their current job, but can "level" them up to a new job if they get enough. However to stop all your troops from ultimately becoming admirals i figure the majority of your troops will not be able to rank-up past a certain rank.(I do recommend that the maximum rank varies from person to person.
About shell casings, I'm not sure there even is a need for those unless you plan on modding the game, since the old cannons didn't use shells. If you want to see how they were loaded, I suggest you go look on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzleloader
Now about leveling up, you could simply make the ship level up with a general bonus in speed, efficiency, durability, etc. That means that instead of having to manage every single crewmember, you could just apply a single buff to everyone. Now, it may be able to "assign" a captain to a vessel, and that particular captain would have his own experience.
1)Totally my bad here. Didn't see the heavy cannon launching shells until I paused the game. That and I hadn't thought about gatling guns, rifles, etc.
Now, I think the ammunition storage isn't really meant to be realistic since the ammo you use to fire your flame thrower is the same you use when firing your Imperial Cannon(which is admittedly not in the base game, but my point still stands).
So unless you make a dedicated ammo storage module for each mode, you're stuck with something pretty damn unrealistic. I guess you could assign an ammo storage for a certain type of guns by dragging and clicking, but then it would take more space and you would likely need more of these. And that's not even considering the dedicated space needed for storing casings (though they could be put in the "hold" if trading is ever implemented). I also assume those casing would have to be hauled to the hold (no pun intended). Would that be done during or after the fight?
That was the mechanic issue. Now for the "artistic" one.
Assuming you implement those casings, you're gonna need to render them into the game. I believe there are a few ways to do this:
You could insert each and every casings(in the same way debris fly around) so that you can see them during the fight. Of course, that would require a tremendous amount of power from a computer if you align 50 gatlings because shells would be raining around. You could always implement a hard limit and/or make them disappear adter a while, but that would only postpone the problem for those with lower-end gear (such as myself). And if you need to store them, how do you know how much has gone overboard?
You could create some sort of decal in the same way as lighting so that when you fire, you see shells flying around but that is just an effect to make things look nicer. Then, you simply would have to implement a counter on each cannon and count the time they fire, add to the total, and there you go. Of course, this wouldn't be as "realistic" as the first option.
You could simply not render them at all. The least realistic option, at least, it simplifies the problem since you only need to see how much shells you have at the end of the battle.
2)I'm gonna go with mrCarlton on that one. While you may not need to manage yourself each and everyone of the sailors, I fear it might still put a certain strain if the PC needs to calculate for every single character (since that would also include landships and buildings) especially if the same happens with your ennemies.That said, if it was possible, it would be quite interesting to see your troops become grizzled veterans...
P.S: Regarding what you said about being just a ship captain, I would love that myself, and I could certainly envision my captain being a pirate, a merchant, a Baron or a mercenary captain, a bit like in Mount & Blade...
Air Admiral
Basically, what i'm suggesting is more orientated for the campaign overhaul.
1 I am curious if it possible after a cannon fires for a shell casing to be left behind. You need to transport the shell to another location for the cannon to work. What this means is that your crew are going to have to stockpile the shell casings in the cargo hold which means you will get some resources back, opposed to losing all the resources spent on the shell. Or, simply throw them out the supply hatch.
2 What i'm suggesting here is a proper ranking system for your empire. This means that if a crew member gains enough experience, he will "rank" up. This means he will be given a bigger role on a ship, fleet, and empire. A newly ranked up troop will get better and better at his new job until he ranks up again. Though, I imagine the majority of your military will have blocks on how far they can rank up.
I also recommend a button that allows you to stop your whole military from ranking up if this is added. And, perhaps you will not always be in control of your empire? Perhaps you might just be a ship captain?
Just a suggestion.
Commander, Engineering Corps
Semi related,
but i do like ranking up crew members. But i think when there's like 500 of them it's sort of going to be ridiculous to manage that. Maybe just allowing the "captain" of the vessel to level up - at the very least just giving him a dope hat and a randomly generated name.
Air Admiral
You really wont be managing anything. When they work at their current job(Powderboy, lieutenant, etc...) they gain experience which not only makes them better at their current job, but can "level" them up to a new job if they get enough. However to stop all your troops from ultimately becoming admirals i figure the majority of your troops will not be able to rank-up past a certain rank.(I do recommend that the maximum rank varies from person to person.
Lieutenant
About shell casings, I'm not sure there even is a need for those unless you plan on modding the game, since the old cannons didn't use shells. If you want to see how they were loaded, I suggest you go look on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzleloader
Now about leveling up, you could simply make the ship level up with a general bonus in speed, efficiency, durability, etc. That means that instead of having to manage every single crewmember, you could just apply a single buff to everyone. Now, it may be able to "assign" a captain to a vessel, and that particular captain would have his own experience.
Air Admiral
What i'm talking about is individual crew members leveling up by themselves. Though by level up i mean be assigned a more important job.
Air Admiral
I know how the old cannons load, i'm talking about all the other guns that should have shell casings left over.
Lieutenant
1)Totally my bad here. Didn't see the heavy cannon launching shells until I paused the game. That and I hadn't thought about gatling guns, rifles, etc.
Now, I think the ammunition storage isn't really meant to be realistic since the ammo you use to fire your flame thrower is the same you use when firing your Imperial Cannon(which is admittedly not in the base game, but my point still stands). So unless you make a dedicated ammo storage module for each mode, you're stuck with something pretty damn unrealistic. I guess you could assign an ammo storage for a certain type of guns by dragging and clicking, but then it would take more space and you would likely need more of these. And that's not even considering the dedicated space needed for storing casings (though they could be put in the "hold" if trading is ever implemented). I also assume those casing would have to be hauled to the hold (no pun intended). Would that be done during or after the fight?
That was the mechanic issue. Now for the "artistic" one.
Assuming you implement those casings, you're gonna need to render them into the game. I believe there are a few ways to do this:
2)I'm gonna go with mrCarlton on that one. While you may not need to manage yourself each and everyone of the sailors, I fear it might still put a certain strain if the PC needs to calculate for every single character (since that would also include landships and buildings) especially if the same happens with your ennemies.That said, if it was possible, it would be quite interesting to see your troops become grizzled veterans...
P.S: Regarding what you said about being just a ship captain, I would love that myself, and I could certainly envision my captain being a pirate, a merchant, a Baron or a mercenary captain, a bit like in Mount & Blade...
Air Admiral
Yeah, i sort of remember zark talking about a campaign mode like that. Where you start out as a captain.
Lieutenant
That... would simply be awesome. I would love seeing that happen.
Lieutenant
Then again, we need to see how the game will progress in that aspect. And that is if modders don't take care of that first.
Commander
Re: OP, why would you need to store the casings when you could just kick them overboard?