Something I suggested previously, but that post seems to have been lost. I'll type up a quick summary: Dyson Spheres/Ringworlds are very intensive builds (e.g 10b metals, so a team has to actually invest in it) that provide buffs to surrounding galaxies. They could probably be tied with the new team skills. Cheaper variants for small teams would also be available, but they would have fewer module slots. The limitation here would either be a maximum number per team, or the inability to place multiple structures within aura distance of one another.

The basic layout would be one central 'base' surrounded by a ring of potential modules (say, 10). They are all immune to tractors. Individual modules can be killed, but destroying the central 'base' finishes everything in one fell swoop.

Teams can choose to build a variety of specialized modules from the central base, and these would either grant aura type buffs to the surrounding galaxies, defend the structure or provide economic bonuses. Some of these structures act in a fashion similar to bases (can be augmented, docked in etc), others are basically drones and some are a combination of the two. Some of these may require a constant supply of commodities in order to function, such as factories or aura generators.

Examples:
Adamantiumised Shield Projector: very durable, gives the central structure more shield bank and regeneration.
Adamantiumised Cannon/Laser/Pulse/Fortification. The weapon modules are relatively fragile and very offensive oriented, whereas the fortification is more of an all rounder.
Ministry of Trade: Increases the spawn rate of trader AI *Hint, maybe we need some* and can either: apply a small % tax on AI trades within owned team space, increase the colony consumption of commodities or give a slightly lesser boost to colony prices.
Intergalactic War Academy: Applies an aura buff to all team assets within X jumps. Players can build as many different auras as they like, but doing so replaces the previous aura, which can't be unequipped.
Institute of Plutocracy: can be fed with massive quantities of materials to produce useful goods and credits. Reduces the population growth/cap of all colonies in team owned space within X jumps... yeah, screw those peasants.

It's important to note that some of these bonuses would stack (such as the economic ones) and the effects of others (combat) can supplement one another. This forces teams to either defend a much squishier facility or invest more in shield modules.

Any sort of dyson sphere build would be awesome as a mega project. Something like this should definately require an immense amount of metals, and it should not be an item that cna be carried from universe to universe, so it will take time to set up.


I would further propose that this should replace the teams HQ once it is built, and hence a limit of one per team.

Sounds limited. Perhaps a variety of "mega projects" be possible for a team to build? Restricted to one mega project per 20 galaxies and cannot be placed within (number to be determined, but probably something like 10) a set distance of owned galaxies from each other.

Yeah, so long as you can't stack their effects I don't see why they should be particularly restricted. It's meant to be a 'team effort' kind of thing anyway, like a production galaxy.

The way I envision them is to be a an "in system" buff to other bases, as to allow small/medium teams to be more compact and safe, but require large teams to hold enormous amounts of territory to hold multiple projects. The bonuses would be skewed a bit to encourage larger teams to stand as one instead of splitting (TFC) into shards to concentrate more mega projects.

I really don't like the idea of auras to other systems because of the mountain of possible bugtesting that would need to be actively done by players, and that is a real let down, but combined with removal of the 25 base hard capped (unattached kits hard capped), and I think it would fit nicely.

The only thing I would want differently is to make whatever project be localized to either a planet or a star (preferably the star), because it's going to get stupid with intersecting planet and moon orbits.

Mega projects would be awesome.

Megaman

I don't think that 'Ringworld' is a viable option.

I talked, via email, with Larry Niven, about using 'Ringworld' in one of my books. From what he said the name 'Ringworld' is tied up seven ways to sunday with cross copyright ownerships.

As for a Dyson Sphere ... Not practicle at all. Building an object that large in the Goldilocks zone of a star would require all of the planetary objects from over 200-500 star systems just to make the underlying frame work. Then you need more material for the ground, air, water, etc. And just as you slap the last plate in place the universe goes KAPLOOOWWWEEE!

To be practicle the Dyson Sphere would have to survive uni resets.

And then just when you thought you had a fantastic money maker JeffL decides to use your star to test his new NOVA code.

In the real world a Dyson Sphere is a total nightmare.
.. Where are you going to get the building materials?
.. How are you going to control the gravity of the construction pieces?
.. How many thousands of years are you willing to spend building it?
.. How do you block the radiation?
.. How do you create DAY/NIGHT?
.. How do you create seasons?
.. How do you nominalize gravity?

ive named all my bases ringworld, email him and tell him to come at me bro!

We will call them HoopLands.

Bumped for industry rework

Could imagine many other such structures being possible, and maybe more feasible than a Dyson Sphere for number of metals (although we have capital ships larger than planets, does anyone care about resource-volume-realism?)

-- Adding a structure to a Star to give a production benefit / harvest fuel. (Star-Forge style thing)
-- Space Elevators giving some benefit to colonies / allowing different colonies to interact.
-- There are many styles of ring-worlds or cylinder-worlds in fiction (can't really imagine too many uses for these in-game other than additional population limits):
- Rings around single planets.
- Rings that orbit on their own.
-- Hollow Planets.
-- Dyson Swarms / Dyson Bubbles




Fortunately we play a game with wormholes, space-rats and weird energy-beings. None of this matters. (But is interesting in real-life!)


Paladin,

Yes please.



Thank goodness for science fiction!

- Chrono

As cool as it would be, wouldn't actually fit in with SS. The whole "Station Kit" thing kinda steps on its face.

However, rewarding people for developing planets further would probably be the way to go. Though that would also mean an overhaul for colonies and I smell "Too much work".

I've always loved the idea of "Mega builds" that take a lot of effort/resources to make. That being said its hard to find a good balance for them where they'd be worth the effort but not game breaking. Any discussion on possible bonuses and/or costs of such projects is definitely interesting to me.