Some ideas

[playwars]

This is some of the ideas I had that I thought would make nice additions to the game.

Realistic technologies :

Building Camouflage Line :

Topsoil and Vegetation Camouflage :
Reduces detectability of buildings by 25%
By using artificial topsoil and implanted vegetation, we are camouflaging our installations against long range detection systems, confusing spy planes, satellites and even some long range radar sweeps.

Radar Absorption Plating :
Further reduces detectability of buildings by 25% (total 50%).
Through the deployment of plates of radar absorbant materials, we are capable of absorbing or redirecting radar sweeps more efficiently, forcing the enemy to come closer before they are able to get a direct lock or an accurate position on our installations.

IR & EM Absorption Systems :
Further reduces detectability of buildings by 25% (total 75%).
With the aid of revolutionary electromagnetic absorption systems, we are able to finally hide the heat and electromagnetic signatures of our vital military installations from prying eyes.



Futuristic technologies :

Railgun line :
Electromagnetic Assisted Launch System :
All missiles gain +15% range.
It has long been a dream of humanity to be able to assist the launch of spacecraft with ground installations to reduce the amount of fuel, and thus the cost, of getting objects into orbit. This technology has been brought to life utilizing a coating of highly magnetically sensitive materials around our missiles and via installing electromagnets into the launch systems to aid in ejecting and imparting an initial velocity boost into our missiles.

Gauss Vacuum Tunnel Accelerators :
Requires Electromagnetic Assisted Launch System.
All silos gain global range.
The use of a long, steady acceleration through a tunnel devoid of air to be used to accelerate projectiles to supersonic velocities and then release them, giving a massive velocity advantage to get into orbit has been theorized for a long time, but only now has this dream finally been brought to life. While too bulky to embark on ships, this system allows our ICBMs virtually unlimited range as they would be capable to settle into orbit if we so wished.

Railguns :
Requires Gauss Airtight Tunnel Accelerators.
Unlock the "Railgun" installation in the production tab.
Unlocks the "Cluster Warheads" nuclear bombs in the production tab if MIRVs is researched.
Unlocked the "Cluster Warheads + decoys" nuclear bombs in the production tab if False Warheads is researched.
We have finally been able to reach the pinacle of electromagnetic launch systems. A fully functional railgun capable of accelerating a projectile to orbital velocities. This has granted us access to an artillery platform capable of striking anywhere on the entire planet.

Railgun (installation) :
A powerful immobile installation that is capable of firing nuclear bombs on any point of the map. The bomb is fired as a missile with a higher velocity. It has a very high rate of fire but it is a very expensive installation to build. Can use any nuclear bomb. Is the only installation that can use Cluster Warheads and Cluster Warheads + decoys, which open up like a MIRV with 3 x 1 Mt bombs (and 2 decoys if it has them) as it nears the target.

Custom missile templates :

Allow players to design their own missiles to add to the production tab. In the missile designer there are three components :
Warhead.
Missile body.
Range (fuel tank/engine).

Warhead determines the payload and the base price. Can be 100 kt, 1 Mt, 10 Mt or 50 Mt. Can include MIRV, can include decoys.

Missile body determines what can launch the missile, and is a price multiplier. There are 4 missile bodies : Light (everything that can launch a cruise missile and SRBM can launch it), Medium (everything that can launch and MRBM or an ICBM can launch it) and Heavy (only things that can launch ICBMs can launch it).

Range determines the endurance of the missile, and is a price multiplier. There are three fuel ranges : Short range (Cruise missile / SRBM range), Medium range (MRBM range) and Long range (ICBM range).

While most possibilities are already covered in the game as shown in the Slitherine 20th anniversary streams, there are some that are left open (for example, ICBMs with tactical payload, cheaper and used to destroy installations at long ranges, or heavy payload SRBMs). The most important feature however, is that this system will save space and problems if new types of missiles were to be added through modding or expansions for the game (like by adding neutron warheads, instead of cluttering the production tab with a missile of each and every type with neutron bombs). This would also allow players to custom design missiles to deal with a particular threat, and avoid cluttering the UI with designs that they are not interested in (allowing to remove missile designs from the production tab would be a good idea as well).

Production Facilities :

In real life, cities are rarely equal when it comes to military production. Indeed, throughout the wars of the 20th century, it has been shown that extremely centralized, massive complexes dedicated to a single system allowed staggering jumps in manufacturing efficiency, and thus allowed far more units to be produced and put into service. Thus I propose the possibility to build "Facilities", massive industrial complexes dedicated to a single type of production, allowing it to be produced far more easily.

Each production facility gives -25% production cost to their respective product (with the notable exception of the Construction Prefabricator, which gives -10% production cost to all buildings), but only one per product can be built, and 3 production facilities can exist nationwide. Unless specified otherwise they are only buildable on the ground like a regular building.

A production facility is always shown as a radar contact to all the players, as it is effectively impossible to hide such a massive hub of industry from spies. The only exception being the Underwater production facility, which has to be discovered via sonar or espionage.

List of production facilities :

Avionics mega-factory (affects fighters, bombers, attack bombers, AWACs and AWAC helicopters).
Cruise missiles production facility (affect cruise missiles).
Ballistic missile production complex (affect SRBMs and MRBMs).
ICBM production line (affects ICBMs and ASATs).
-Construction Prefabricator (-10% production bonus instead of -25%, affects all buildings, including other production facilities).
Semi-automated Armada shipyards (built in the ocean, only affects Destroyers, Cruisers and Carriers).
Underwater production facility (built into the ocean, only affects submarines and SSBNs).

Initiatives :

An alternative to production facilities would be initiatives, where a single focus, that can only be changed every hour (every time you switch initiative a 1 hour "game time" timer start), can be declared for your entire country.

List of initiatives :

Sea of Stars Initiative : -50% production cost on satellites
Shatter the Sky Initiative : -25% production cost on all ballistic missiles.
Glass the Earth Initiative : -25% production cost on missiles and bombs with a yield of 10 Mt or higher.
Surgical Strike Initiative : -50% production cost on missiles and bombs with a yield of 500 kt or lower.
Conventional Warfare Initiative : +75% fire rate on Destroyers, Cruisers and Submarines conventional weapons, conventional bombs deal +100% damage.
Sky Shield Initiative : -25% production cost on SAM sites, mobile SAMs, Radars, Space Radars and Over-The-Horizon Radars.
Grand Fleet Initiative : -25% production cost on Destroyers, Cruisers and Carriers.
Silent Ghosts Initiative : -25% production cost on Submarines and SSBNs.
Sky Wings Initiative : -25% production cost on planes and airbases.
Enduring Shelter Initiative : -15% casualties and GDP loss from damage dealt to cities.
Resilient Architecture Initiative : Installations take -25% damage.
Rise From The Ashes Initiative : If you have less than 25% percent of your population remaining, and are the last person on the score board, you gain -15% global production cost on everything and +25% research speed. This is intended to allow players who have been focused down a shot at at least keeping into the game.

Strike Plans :

In the current games there are occasions where strike plans disperse your firepower too much to be able to punch through a tight defensive network of SAM sites with ABMs. Hence why I propose to add a "Saturation Strike" tick box to the Strike Plan menu. If activated, every available unit will concentrate all of their fire on the highest priority target. This allows players to concentrate all of their firepower on a single target, hereby allowing to punch through extremely powerful defenses at the cost of potential overkill.

[diana987]

they seem like good ideas

[Ozboat]

Some of those are fantastic ideas, the industrialised production especially. It would allow a further strategy of out producing your opponent with albeit less advanced weapons in the mid to late game. Would be really interesting. Only thing I'd add (which I think you alluded to) would that these facilities had to be set to a specific production (eg avionics).

I'd go one step further to a specific unit, ie it can only produce bombers from that production line or fighters, not all aircraft. The facility should be able to switch production, but only after a significant time penalty. Retooling for change of production, even similar products in a mass produced setting takes a long time and is expensive. I'm not sure however if that penalty should also be experienced for upgraded version of the same unit which would offer an inherent bonus to not upgrading vehicles from a production standpoint, but disadvantage from a performance standpoint.

This factory model would offer further weight to the counter force vs counter value equation of strategic war as well.

Great idea!