Does the one from tech cost any SSP? Not at the PC to confirm right now, but I think it is free? If that first one is free of any SSP cost, 3 SSP might be okay for subsequent ones. I just don't want the first one to be that expensive to maintain. I am not sure if an increase to 3 will do enough to deter snowballing later on, but we could try it. I've never tried a heavy support ship strategy.
What about a compromise then, the free support ship via tech, and possibly the free one by Militia event can be kept at the current 2 SSPs After that, go for the kill, 4 SSP each. It should keep things from getting out of hand. You would get your first ship at 2, and additional ones would cost 4
Just some quick clarification on this, what you wrote is partially true, In the past, it was the thought of researching the tech, building the ship, (quite an undertaking early on), and the SSP combined that deterred me. With the current situation of getting a free ship once the tech is researched, I would certainly allow the 3 SSP for one. It would also be more in line with their capabilities, what do you think?
Speaking just for myself, I hope you leave it at 2. Otherwise, in a long game, I think I'd have to consider scrapping some of them. Reference Konstantin's post, above.
Perhaps not Joe3, as your game starts to go long, the ability to generate SSPs increases. I'm running a lot of sessions right now to get a large sample size before committing my thoughts, you could be surprised by how high you can get your SSP count with a determined effort. For me it isn't as much about limiting the number of support ships a player uses, rather it's about a proportionate cost for these "gargantuan" ships that confer the benefits that they do.
So are you proposing free of SSP cost on the ones granted via tech or the militia bonus and 3 SSP (per ship) for any you have to actually build?
No, I'm sorry I need to clarify. I propose as the most streamlined solution that actually reflects the value of these ships, the cost of each support ship could be raised to 3SSP, regardless of how that ship was acquired. It does not need to scale at this rate. 3SSPs is not prohibitive as far as maintenance costs go. Researching the tech gives you a free one, that means you do not incur the cost of building a ship, so I would pay that gladly. However, at 3SSP each, I would not be spamming these ships.
Ok. Well even at a cost of 3 ssp for all support ships, I could get on board. Having the freebie built is enough, otherwise I tend to spam them as well..
