Ship experience levels - Well balanced or too spread out?

[ArcticISAF]

Just something I was thinking about when looking at my ship levels, and the experience needed for each level. I was debating over whether or not they fit well as they are, or if the experience needed is too high to be reasonable. Really could be swayed either way right now, since I don't have a good feel for ultra long term ship survability.

First level - Regular - 0 to 100 exp
Second level - Experienced - 100 to 1000 exp
Third level - Veteran - 1000 to 10000 exp

I haven't gone past veteran yet for a ship, but it certainly seems like it would take some time for it to go on to the fourth level. Might be best possible on your titans or battleships, since they should be the most likely to survive battles (but not always as I've seen). Part of me thinks the higher levels would be served better to be lowered a bit (say to 5000 exp), but maybe 10000 is actually quite doable. Or it should be reserved as that high.

Let me know what you think and your experiences.

[Ninjasquirrel]

Yeah I think it takes too long to rank up too. I had 1 fleet starting off as experienced, must've fought in like 10 battles with Prethoryn 150k fleets before any ship got to veteran.

[Kypamop]

As for me everything's fine. Novices quickly become experienced if survive first several battles just like in real life. Veterans are those who survived some big campaigns. Above veterans might be some elite forces with long bloody history only for best of the best. Most countires never had such forces.
In my current game I play as tall empire focused on science with 2.5x preset science modifier. First ~300 years I did not engage into wars but then Prethoryn came and the core of my fleet fighted in endless 100-year battle. I won finally and my best experienced ship is a veteran Titan with 4979/10000 exp.
If I fought all the time right from the moment when I got my first battleship I think I could get to that 10k exp point.

[Ninjasquirrel]

I just feel that the smaller ships should have some sort of chance to reach veteran also. Maybe the smaller ships could gain experience faster?

[Kypamop]

Smaller ships usually are not counted as something worse of attention.
Just look at some historical ships that survived to our days (some as museums, some as academies). Theyt are always bigger than a boat ;)

[Ninjasquirrel]

There's all sorts of small historical boats out there, I been on anything from small tugboats, WW2 submarines, little wooden pilot cutters from the 19th century, etc. A corvette or destroyer, if we're gonna use real world as examples, aren't exactly small boats either. I agree that larger ships with higher survivability should have a better chance than the smaller ships at ranking up, but the smaller ships should get at least a small chance to level up before they die.

[ArcticISAF]

I think I'd like it slightly reduced for the upper levels, since the jump seems quite significant, almost unobtainable in a sense. I wouldn't mind if the increase in stats was reduced as well, but having more intermediates stages would be more representative of a functional increase of an experienced crew. So example a stage in between the 1000 and 10000, placed at 5000, with a gap filling stat increase. (like 20% damage at 1000, 25% damage at 5000, 30% at 10000). Making up numbers but yeah. I like that they've added an experience system, it's a pretty awesome mechanic all in all. Makes it more that keeping them alive matters.

[tomasoltis]

it seems that as long as they are engaged in combat, they gain exp based on time, something like 1 exp per day. Late game tech makes battles usually short ... also, no retreat policy means higher efficiency vs crisis fleets but no exp for survivors, while partial retreat keeps exp, while hull regen+armor make such fleets combat ready pretty fast, without huge casualties and without need to jump around to base. At game start where damage takes forever to do, corvettes I had today manged to get to some 500 exp before I disbanded them.

[ArcticISAF]

Originally posted by tomasoltis:

it seems that as long as they are engaged in combat, they gain exp based on time, something like 1 exp per day. Late game tech makes battles usually short ... also, no retreat policy means higher efficiency vs crisis fleets but no exp for survivors, while partial retreat keeps exp, while hull regen+armor make such fleets combat ready pretty fast, without huge casualties and without need to jump around to base. At game start where damage takes forever to do, corvettes I had today manged to get to some 500 exp before I disbanded them.

Interesting. If that's how it's done (1 exp a day), that's quite a long time in battle for experience gain. 20 plus years in perpetual combat for the next level... lol. Might happen though. Hull regen is one of my favorite auxiliary slot options. Less for the in-combat application (though it does contribute), and more for the allowing of keeping my fleet in the field instead of returning for repairs. Pushing forward with some ships being near broken from battle means they're likely to get blown up in the next engagement. As well as the whole less hull-less damage deal.

[cooltv27]

I have never seen a ship actually reach veteran, and I use the hit and run war doctrine

[ArcticISAF]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

I have never seen a ship actually reach veteran, and I use the hit and run war doctrine

I just loaded my game up quickly, seems like only a few of mine are veteran. The stat bonuses, if you're interested, are - 20% weapon damage, 5% hull points, 5% evasion. Not sure what the next one above is. Probably in the files somewhere (for curiousity), but haven't pinned down where that could be yet.

Edit: Hah, I just found it. (took out some minor code to make it shorter). Was in '00_static_modifiers'

##########################################################################
# Rank modifiers
##########################################################################
army_rank_regular = {

army_rank_experienced = {
army_damage_mult = 0.1
army_morale = 0.1

army_rank_veteran = {
army_health = 0.1
army_damage_mult = 0.2
army_morale = 0.2

army_rank_elite = {
army_health = 0.2
army_damage_mult = 0.4
army_morale = 0.4

ship_rank_regular = {

ship_rank_experienced = {
ship_weapon_damage = 0.1

ship_rank_veteran = {
ship_weapon_damage = 0.2
ship_hull_mult = 0.05
ship_evasion_mult = 0.05

ship_rank_elite = {
ship_weapon_damage = 0.4
ship_hull_mult = 0.10
ship_evasion_mult = 0.10

[Ninjasquirrel]

It's like the next level is so elusive no one even knows what its actually called lol.

Thanks for looking it up arcticISAF

[ArcticISAF]

No prob. :P The elite rank - so elite, probably none will survive to that point lol.

Edit: Something neat I didn't know. Being in a defensive war cut your consumer goods cost by 1/3, if I'm reading it right (helps out defender I guess).

'defensive_war = {
pop_consumer_goods_mult = -0.33'

Then there's this. Guess I wouldn't be happy about a stalker either lol.

'pop_did_not_kill_stalker = {
pop_happiness = -0.2'

[HeLLfire]

Lol i was sure there was only veteran as the last rank...well now i know :P

[Kypamop]

Got 2 fallen empires warring in my current game and 5k more exp to go to elite. Will try to reach it.
The new info about days spent in combat will be very useful. Maybe I will make a huge stack of unarmed titans+battleships, catch some small enemy fleet and let them "fight" for a few decades xD
Will have to protect them with other fleets.