Hi,

after playing a couple of multiplayer games with some friends, I/we would like to make some suggestions about the obliterator.

The game changing ability of this unit feels really game breaking. For example, destroying the home system of an enemy is quite easy (especially if you fire 2 shots - can you have more than 1 shield??).
The targeted player is unable to rejuvenate his home planet, as it is a unique planet. With that in mind, all his unique buildings are gone without the possibility to rebuild them ever again.
This hits even harder, if the targeted faction relies heavily on their home system (e.g. Hissho)

I do like the unit type obliterator itself. My suggestions are:

- target a planet, not a full system (maybe damage or destroy fleets in orbit)

- Change the current planet destroyer technique (carrier/coordinator modules) to system destroy modules (would make them more interesting as well)

- Think about the possibility to rebuild player's unique buildings after they were destroyed (also possibly during invasions)

These changes would upgrade the old planet destroy modules on the one hand and on the other hand it would be much harder to destroy a complete system (as a fleet with such a module has to be in the system's orbit for a while) , but not impossible.

Regards

p.s. We love Endless Space 2 :-)

Citadels act like a permanent shield that can’t get destroyed and if you also have a shield on the system (or it's the unfallen home system) then you take no damage (on the first shot at least)

The no terraforming of unique planets is annoying when they get destroyed.

In the last patch, Hisshos have been changed to rely more on their best system.

That's true, but at least in my experience it is rather easy to coordinate 2 shots on one system. You can do that alone or with an ally, which might cause in an immediate loss of the according player.  (especially Hissho) 

All I'm trying to say is, that it's nearly not possible to counter this mechanism and offered offered a possible suggestion that can be discussed.

I think the resource and fireing requirements need to change.  Right now there is no reason really to have two obliterators if you don't have access to both Purple and Green resources.  Its not the defenses its the double tap  from a single obliterator and not having to wait for the timer that I think personally should be shrunk so you can fire it MORE often but you are strictly bound to its timer.

My thoughts would be decrease timer by 1/2 with no way to shortcut through the timer.

Then you really would have to work to have two missles hit the same target at the same time.

If you make the defenses too strong the fun of the obliterator is out the window.  But you should not be able to continueously fire from one obliterator just because you have extra Quadrinix and Orchil...

plutar wrote:

If you make the defenses too strong the fun of the obliterator is out the window. 

Same thoughts on my side. Look my "Edit edit" this case.

Could it be useful to have increased costs for shields on citadel systems ?

CyRob wrote:

Citadels act like a permanent shield that can’t get destroyed and if you also have a shield on the system (or it's the unfallen home system) then you take no damage (on the first shot at least)

The no terraforming of unique planets is annoying when they get destroyed.

In the last patch, Hisshos have been changed to rely more on their best system.

as the one that got nuked in that game, i will try to write up the szenario that happened and why it was a very unfun moment.

a) a citadel was finished building the same turn the nuke impacted, but appearently the nuke had higher priority and wiped the system anyways.

b) the loss of the system itself was not tragic, even though it destroyed most of my infrastructure

c) we played a game with very few strategic and luxury ressources (this is probably a major factor in this situation)

d) the system contained the unique hissho building to lower production cost of ships.

within this szenario, one nuke effectively ended my chances of winning the game because i was unable to recover from this hit. this is not because the loss of the system, but the loss of the unique building. due to laws, buildings and hero bonuses i was able to produce ~20 to 25 BP in that system per turn of small and medium ships without strategic ressource heavy weapons. this ability was lost instantly and forever.

in any case the long range nuke capabilities are unreasonable compared to the planet destruction module that had been in the game much earlier and that was moved to the same techlevel as the nuke. what does not make much sense is that the nuke is alot easier to use and much more effective at the same time. 

to be honest, the most fair solution in my eyes would be to switch the effects of both, destroy single planets with the eradicator (but decrease base cooldown of its use and obviously rework the shields capabities) and wipe systems with the corebreaker (since it makes no sense at all for the current corebreaker to exist in a universe where there is an eradicator, which does the same but mostly risk free).

another option would be to limit the eradicators range drastically, so you can try to block it from going into position.

That makes a lot of sense as  a risk/reward balance.

ColdDarkness wrote:

a) a citadel was finished building the same turn the nuke impacted, but appearently the nuke had higher priority and wiped the system anyways.

b) the loss of the system itself was not tragic, even though it destroyed most of my infrastructure

c) we played a game with very few strategic and luxury ressources (this is probably a major factor in this situation)

d) the system contained the unique hissho building to lower production cost of ships.

Never happened to me that I was bobarded with an obliterator same turn I endend a citadel, so didn't know how it works.

Probably a minimal improvement, that doesn't requires much change to actual mechanic, can be ending the citadel previous to missile impact in same turn. This will make the game less frustrating if ou're the one receiving the shot (it can be frustrating if you're the one firing the obliterator).