Rethinking Transports, Colony ships and outposts

[Dewbacca]

So I'm playing GALM, the first mod I've messed with since reading about "towable" ships :

Of (Transwarp) Carriers and Fighters

GALM has towable sensors early in the game and fighters later on... I think I read about some turrents for other races... but all very cool and interesting. Lots of questions come to mind... possibilities that are dependent upon knowledge greater than mine... so let me toss them out to the community after a greater overview of one idea.

Several threads have a reoccurring question about the Borg... how do they terraform or colonize. They neither use transports to capture systems nor "outposts" as other races do... Starbases or the equivalent...but not outposts. The Cube IS the outpost... it IS the colony ship, it IS the troop transport. This game doesn't really work like that... but I think I might know how to simulate it.

First... lets consider troop transports as Troop "Containers" for most races... no movement on their own. Towed into location by larger ships. "Dropped" into the atmosphere or joined together to build an Outpost

Same with colony ships... now they are colony "Pods" for most races, towed into the system. But can the ability to Terraform be given to other ships, such as Cubes or "advanced" ships, such as the Enterprise D? The Colony Pods can still terraform, but would be neat to give a superior rate to a Large Advanced Multipurpose vessel.

The Cube is just such a multipurpose vessel. It should be able to drop into a system (1 cube with 5 troop containers, 3 colony pods in tow = fleet of 9) and capture a system with Strike Cruiser ability, or terraform and drop Pods to claim territory and set up facilities to convert resources and build more cubes.

So now we get into my questions phase... the idea above is a thread of an even bigger idea on ships, balancing and "facilities" that occupy systems for resource harvest.

Can we still use Outposts and Starbases as separate "Stationary Ships"? Every mod I've seen lately has outposts at low tech, star bases at higher tech. Can we assign other functions to outposts, such as terraforming? Could we make them build and launch low tech sensor probes to the edge of their range?

Can there be a limit on the number of "ships towable" dependent on ship size or class? Scout and Destroyer Class can tow 2 vessels, Cruiser class can tow 3, Capital class can tow 5, MPV's would be generally long range and high towing capacity.

Can we set all functions of the troop transport (attack system and build outpost) to the Colony Pod so only one towable ship class is required to claim a system at a reduced rate that increases as tech improves, or is enhanced by fleet ships (Capital class assaults systems, Cruisers can terraform, both medium range, MPV's do both and are Long Range)

What are the limits of the "avoid" command on towable sensors. If I see one in my range I want to kill it, is avoid like seeing a cloaked ship, you need a certain "sensor" amount to engage it or combat ability?

Many questions... but all in all it is amazing how much life this old code still has in it thanks to this community. One little like of code deciphered and a thousand questions spring to life, countless possibilities and variations.

[Tethys]

Some good suggestions and good questions here. I think I will implement the Colony/Troop Container Pod idea for the Borg, but as for terraforming on capital ships and outposts that is out of the question for now. I would like to see more ship groups added to the game before adding abilities to ones we have already.

Another thing Id like to see is multiple shipyards for same race (Cardassian vs Dominion shipyard), as well as being able to make use of Cloaking and Stealth levels.

[Dewbacca]

Cloaking is certainly something I'd like to see on the Sensor pods.

We didn't see a lot of actual terraforming in Star Trek... but we saw lots of planetoid manipulation from TNG and the Enterprise crew specifically.

In TNG: Allegiance the Enterprise was ordered to rendevous with the USS Hood to terraform Browder IV
In TNG: Unification they are recalled from a terraforming mission to find Spock
In Wrath of Khan there is the Genesis device which terraforms
References abound to stations set up to modify the environment

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Terraforming

To be honest, there is little evidence of "colony ships" possessing terraforming ability. It is generally done by larger ships or planetary stations. This seems to be a concept pulled from somewhere else and poorly applied to BotF. Canon shows several "colonies" that were terraformed by automation with colonists arriving AFTER the fact.

One point I've always had some difficulty with... how were we supposed to "extend" range with outposts just set up in empty space? It always struck me as an odd concept of a station with nothing to bind to or pull resources from floating in an empty sector. Colonies could be resupplied with drone shots of materials... beyond range, established with one way shots of colonists... but in BotF we had to have "range" to get there first... and send slow defenseless ships to terraform and colonize.

[Dewbacca]

can the ability to Terraform be given to other ships, such as Cubes or "advanced" ships, such as the Enterprise D?

Turns out, yes it can. In UE you can change the type/ function of the ship in a dropdown menu.
You can make a command class vessel a colony ship with all of the previous range and firepower... it just has colony ship commands in battle.

Towable TT and colony ships works great, but the AI needs to be able to make a fleet for them to be able to use them.