A Dyson Sphere... Cool   Quite the super structure.  I like the design.  Plenty of places for the light to still reach planets, but still ridiculous amounts of room to develop.  Looks like it works best with TEC structure style.

What's the population going to be for this?  I did some looking and found this, "A spherical shell Dyson sphere in our solar system with a radius of one astronomical unit, so that the interior surface would receive the same amount of sunlight as Earth does per solid angle, would have a surface area of at least 2.72x10¹⁷ km², or around 550 million times the surface area of the Earth"  On Wikipedia.  LOTS of room for people.

Are there going to be other capabilities for this structure?  Defenses, trade, culture?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but this is a really cool idea for a mod.

I'll deffinitely be watching for finished version!

The current size is about 3 times larger than a normal sins planet, so the sun inside is very small (mabe artifical ). The size may change if I tested it ingame.

Population will be high maybe like on terran planets.

Structures health will be very high, cause the colonizable side is inside, and so the siege ships have to do a lot of work

All other stats are still undetermined. Maybe someone has an idea?

I will give it a special ability if I have a good idea.

To make it colonizable it has to be a "planet entity" which means there is also a normal star in the system. Also there will be a special colonize research needed.

yeah, i was thinking about using the TEC starbase texture as a base for the outer shell.

I think it should have less logistic slots because its got alot of health otherwise it might get very unbalanced

Hmm....  If it is three times the size of a regular planet, shouldn't the population be larger too?  That could lead to some pretty hefty tax income if it had, say, twice the population of a terran planet and was made the capitol though.  Maybe make it so it can't be the capitol, but keep the population high?

I aggree with this.  I don't think it'll need any more logisitics slots than an ice or volcanic planet.  Will you still be able to put 4 star bases in the grav well with the Dyson Sphere?  If not, then I think there should be a few extra tactical slots,maybe 8-12, because it is a much larger grav well to defend.  If it will still take the four SB, though, with the regular planet tactial slots, it would be very very hard to take.  Worth the effort though, I think.

Maybe some sort of culture bonus, because it's such a big project, and its completion is a source of major national pride for the race that builds it.  Or maybe because of the larger population ship build time is increased by 75%, or something.  Of course, the ship build speed might not matter too much, because by the time you've made it to the sun and colonized it, I usually have a large fleet by then anyway.  Hmm.... must think on this more.

So we have more trekkies out there, maybe we have to research (probably at least level 7) and colonize the sun (research start at level 7) before we could build a dyson?

Why not make it so that capitals are unable to bombard?  Maybe only fighters and small frigates (siege frigates only?) are small enough to navigate inside of the dyson sphere in order to take out the population so it can be recolonized?  This may not be feasible due to game engine constraints, but would be much more realistic.

If the structure's health is going to be that high, it's probably not a good idea to make it even more difficult to bombard.

Can the TEC shield be used by a planet and not just structures?  If so, you could give it the shield with a good amount of mitigation to reflect how hard is to damage the inside.  It would also go along with the fact that it takes time to damage something so massive.

Also, what about an ability that reflects the fact that it is collecting a massive amount of energy from the sun it is built around?  This could be reflected in massive AM regeneration for all firendly ships/structures around it, a significant boost to its tax income(or trade income from having the ability to make massive amounts of trade goods).

I can see two different types, one designed to support people and thus having a massive population.  The other would be for the sole purpose of gathering energy from the star and could have a massive boost to things like trade income and/or ship/structure production speed(maybe a reduction in costs of ships/structures built there ).

I think it would probably be a level 7/8 research, maybe a base research to colonize and then research to imporve the ability you decide to give it.  The population could be low initially, but have a tech to provide a significant increase with several levels(start out with ice population levels then have the research provide a 200%+ plus boost with at least three levels).

I agree it should require a high level of research to be able to colonize a star, but I don't think it should be much more expensive to upgrade than a fully upgraded starbase.  I like the idea of haveing a couple of types, population and trade or construction, but the investment shouldn't be out of proportion either.  Of course, if the bonuses for population or trade are hefty enough, increasing the cost for the structure and upgrades would be okay.  I just  think using the star base price scale would be a good place to start

As far as population, there is so much room in one of these structures (see my first post on this thread) that starting at the level of an ice planet is like giving a build the size of a pro-football stadium to a family of four.  LOL, deffinitely need more population than that.  I'm not saying upgrading the population cap is bad, I think it should be upgradeable like any other planet, I just think it needs a higher starting level.

The one thing I will keep recommending, though, is that it be able to support lots of defenses.  Whether it be no tactical slots and 5 starbases, or 4 starbases and 40+ tactical slots.  I just think that something this valuable in terms of investment and potential profits should have corespondingly tough defenses.

P. S. I just noticied I've got a third of the post on this thread so far.  I don't mean to take over, TohKlidan, I just really like this idea.  Throw something at me if I need to shut up.

Maybe a good way to balance something that could be a tremendous cash cow would be to deny it any offensive or defensive abilities.  A good argument can be made for having a buffed media center upgrade and buffed trade port upgrade as part of its own developement, but then the sphere has tied up all of the logistic and tactical slots available in the gravity.  This is a huge creation after all.

Perhaps that one special ability, I know I just said no defense/offense abilities, could be disrupting the phase lanes in/out for hostiles.  That shouldn't be too unbalancing since the sphere can't hurt the hostiles, and if you're not on top of your defensive fleet the ability doesn't actually do you any good.

**Edit**

I do agree that this thing should have base hull points of a huge number.  I don't think 16k would be too high to start with, maybe upgradable to 30k or something.  That gives anyone time to get their fleet there if they've been paying attention at all. It'll take a long time to build, it should take a long time to nuke.  Having said that, it should probably be damagable by antiorbital and siege weaponry, since it's a bit of both.

One concern I would have with making it undefendable is system-system warps take you from one star to another so it might be just a little too vulnerable with anyone wanting to pay you a visit dropping on top of it.

*Shock* *Amazement* After all this time! A Dyson Sphere!

Samurye.

Woot! I don't know what to answer first.

First thanks to all for this hot discussion and ideas you posted here, keep it on!

I first idea on that was to allow a maximum of 2 starbases per player and 150 mines per player, as a mix of a normal companion star and a planet from my mod. I think 4 star bases ar too much, cause it is not a star that can directly jumped into from another system.

good idea, than the health increase will not that much. I am not shure if this can be done with an ability. But still you will not see frigates and fighters entering the sphere. cause the "bounding box" of the mesh keeps them of.

You can use the planetary shield orbital module, as it counts as a planet.

The research for colonizing a dyson sphere will be called :

- Xeno Archaeology (TEC)

- Ancestral Relevation (Advent)

- Xeno Assimilation (Vasari)

It enables you not only to colonize a dyson sphere but also other "acient planets". So there is a counterpart for the sphere, working title is "The Citadel" (everyone who played Mass Effect should know it).

While the Dyson Sphere has its focus on population and logistics, The Citadel has its focus on tactial and defense. But you posted a lot of arguments here that make me reconsider it.

I haven't decied yet what tier the researches have for each faction, but one idea I had was to increase the planet upgrade costs for these structures.  So maybe you can have an early access to the research, but the upgrades costs much more than for a normal planet. Also the Vasaria and Advent will get it earlier than the TEC.

No problem this is why started this article. So keep posting.

Another good idea I read here is the homeplanet setup, this will be adjusted too. Some way like I did it with the gas giants and "no atmosphere" planets, they also get a lower homeplanet bonus compared to the other planets.

And finally i am think about a "Guardian Fleet" the protects the "ancient planets" until their first colonization. Maybe i make a special race and unique ships for it, but only if I have enough time. My first goal is to get the sphere into the game and next will be "The Citadel".

I only play TEC, so....  The second tier ice planet colonization is a level 4 research.  Why not make the research for these spheres a level 6 in the same category as the rest of the planet research?  Or you could put it at a level 3 research, in the same category, and increase the cost, like you were saying.

Okay, two starbases sounds like a good balance.  It makes sense now that I understand that it's not the main star, lol.  Will the sphere have the usual tactical slots, or just the SB's?

I like the idea of being able to upgrade the spheres like star bases.  They can be upgraded totaly to a military purpose, or cut a few of those abilities and be strong in trade or repair or something else. 

Nice research names, BTW.