Hi guys,

i've only been playing ES2 for some 20 hours, haven't been past research era 2,

but i've tried three of the factions now and i really like the game so far

-especially when figuring out all the different interlocking used mechanics which really add depth to it.

I have been thinking a lot, considered writing a 'first thoughts'-post about it,

but I think it really comes down to a single (balancing) matter imho:

Groundbattle.

It seems bugged in that orbiting fleets don't prevent a ground invasion from happening,

but even when that is fixed and the ground battle works as described in the dev blog

I think it should be way harder in the first era to succeed in a succesful invasion.

Part of this has to do with my inability to understand how the crew of a couple spaceships could possibly invade an entire planet.

Surely the overtaking of an hostile planet requires millions of people, equipment and support ships and even then should be a tricky manner.

(the research, design and use of manpower modules later on certainly takes of lot of these grievances away, by the way)

Mostly i suggest this because I think it's almost gamebreakingly easy to conquer a planet right now (now = v0.1.3 so alpha-public).

Sophons and Lumeris need to spend way too much time and energy protecting their planets (feels only manageble to me if you can succesfully create a single bottleneck system)

and Cravers expand way to fast (and receive a 50% FIDS bonus for every newly conquered planet, which only speeds this proces up and makes them not having to worry about any repercussions from depletion).

Easiest sollution: make the Impervious Bunkers building way better (like, +200 instead of +50 manpower).

That way, you can really defend your systems (with a bit of effort) until the agressor researches extra manpower modules, which in turn are really needed then and not just a nice bonus.

I think this would make all factions behave more like they seem intended to.

Really looking forward to your reactions to this!

Sorry, I can't agree at this time, because it's just too early as this is a balance issue and from what we've been told, there's still a lot to be revealed regarding combat.  If you were talking about gameplay mechanics for ground combat of things you'd like to see, I would be more open, but it's just too early for me to make an opinion regarding balance related issues.  Sorry, I don't necessarily think you're wrong, but I can't agree with you just yet either.