Invaders must die!! Ground combat rework ideas.

Soo we know that ground combat has changed in ES2 right ? and we have to admit that it has changed for the best, at least compared to what we had back in ES and that is better than ground combat in most 4x games. But i still think that there is some room for improvement so a friend and i had some ideas in order to improve ground combat and make it a more tactical and enjoyable experience.

manstock.png

An early concept of fortresses 

Fortresses.

This would be the first change, instead of having a single battle over a single battlefield, we suggest to have fortresses these would be heavily reinforced cities ,important points on the planet taking a system wouldnt be possible until you have the majority of these or at least the capital you would only be able to build these on the planet you designate as capital of the system

The number of fortresses  would depend on 3 factors.

1.Population: The number of fortresses on a world increases alongside your population growth, with a new fortress being added for every two population. Every fully realized colony starts out with a single fortress. Every two pop after the first will increase the number.

2. Development Level: Fortresses are capped at two on the most basic of colonies. Every following development level increases the fortress cap by 1.

3. System FIDSI Output:The overall productive output of a system will allow more and more growth to occur as trade takes place and local economies begin taking steps into the greater galactic market. For every 150 (not final, up to devs if change is needed) FIDSI a system puts out a new fortress will spawn, regardless of the cap. If the number of forts spawned this way should be capped please let me know.

Ground combat:

Only the largest planet of a system can be upgraded with these fortresses since combat would happen there.

Planets would have far higher manpower stocks ( maybe 20,000 for heavily fortified planets) but this would be spread over the fortresses so a planet with a manstock of 20,000 would have 2,000 points of manstock on each city, before the invasion the invader could choose to recruit troops from its system or the market ( more bellow) after recruiting the troops the ships would depart.

When an enemy fleet invades it would be able to choose which fortresses you want to attack and how many troops it wants to send after this the troops would land and engage in ground combat against the enemy troops, each turn allied and enemy troops would fight each other based on tactics choosen by the player

After losing a fortress its upgrades would be destroyed or captured ( choosen by the invader) and after taking the capital of the planet the system would pass to the invader.

Defense improvements 

These would be exclusive to the capital planet and would be designed to make the invasion harder the amount of improvements would depend on how upgraded is the system a nation could field 3 or even 4 while a mere settlement 1.

Some examples could be G2A batteries capable of damaging attacking ships each turn, planetary shields reducing the damage made by orbital bombardment and the possibility to destroy other upgrades ( more on this later ) or even artillery positions that would increase the damage done by defending troops.

Orbital bombardment and ship roles during ground engagements. 

After getting in orbit the enemy fleet could choose to bomb the planet from orbit similar to stellaris giving an x chance to kill troops and damage improvements each turn this bombardment could be aimed at civillian structure or ground support could be given focusing on fortresses, ground troops with orbital support should always have the advantage.

Ground troops type and commerce. 

Something i would love to see changed, i cant understand how a craver a 2.5 meters tall monstrosity made of muscle and hate has the same stats than a human soldier.

Thats why i suggest the following: Troops from different races should have different stats Craver soldiers for example should have the best stats while sophon infantry the worse but they could compensate by having far better armor units ( you know robots and stuff), also this would allow for new opportunities for commerce with different stats for troops man stock could become a new commercial resource.

I propose to open a new option in the market to sell and buy man stock where you could sell your troops as mercenaries or get some help during ground invasions, another idea would be to add the option to buy groundtroops and manpower from minor factions.

So this is thanks alot for reading it ,any suggestions ? 

 Also relevant song.

https://youtu.be/1T-sGC37XHE