First and foremost I'm a huge fan and incredibly excited to see where the Endless Universe is headed with the next two installments. This is a very solid game and much needed reprieve among the endless spam of FPS and action games that litter the market at every turn.



I was curious if adding active planetary defenses to systems had been discussed up to this point? I think the bombardment and invasion options are pretty sweet and it's personally hard for me to imagine the game before they were available since I started playing ES with the Disharmony release, but it still feels like there could be an improvement or balance made in terms of how capable a system can be in defending itself when void of fleet support.



It seems odd that a system of six colonized planets or asteroid belts could be at the mercy of a small fleet of ships.



What about deploying orbital minefields that can be activated at will? You thought that was just a floating rock until the kill command is given and it detonates into a dozen magnetic mines to latch onto your ships.



Orbital ship platforms, or even planet based, that launch fighters and bombers making point defense or your own fighters and bombers necessary if you don't want your ships to get wiped out while they're sieging.



Launching ICBMs (or I guess maybe ISBMs) at an orbiting enemy fleet possibly at the expense of collateral damage? If an enemy fleet can orbit my system and bombard why can't my systems with potentially billions of people fight back in a land vs space scenario?



I know the siege and invasion parts are kind of left up to your imagination, but I personally feel a system should have a few active defense options to flesh out the experience and make leaving a fleet loaded with siege but no defense or offense a thing of the past.

ICBM/ISBM (on the side GSBM - Ground to Space Ballistic Missile would fit better) could be on type of defence (countered by flak, for this example), but looking at the technology needed in constructing weaponry, why couldn't there be GS (Ground to Space) Laser, Plasma and/or Ballistic Batteries (Gauss Cannon anyone?)



But the Inter System Ballistic Missiles could be exploited in another way then - why no bombard enemy system from your own, to destroy the defences (and not only, see last paragraph) with single use big missiles that do damage to a system (of course able to be launched in salvos... but there should be anti-rockets too...)



Of course it would also make sense to have orbital station/bases to plant those "turret" type defenses (where orbital stations could offer some more possible expansion/get upgraded themselfs, maybe in different, specialized ways - pop/ind/influence/science (0 gravity experiments could be important after all)/etc...).



Also, there could be different ways of handling the defences. From jsut capturing the system, while the defences take their bloody toll each turn to not beging able to unvade until the defences are utterly wiped out (auto-battle of some kind?). This could also let the choise to not upgrade risky, border system but to put upgrades on orbit stations that would left the system clean of upgrades if invaded and captured this way.



We could also think about some aternate ways of fighting. Why not instore plundering a system? rather than conquer it, plunder it to gain some wealth (dust, steal upgrades?) and also break teh enemy morale (-on popularity on system, and maybe -% on FIDS for a little moment?) - after all, crippling an enemy system is a way to wage war too, and a lone ship behind the lines should be able to do more than just scout. Your job to not let ships slip though your lines. Ofc ground defences should take their toll on the plunderers.



And one more think i could think about, thats kinda weird now. Its war, right? Planets are getting bombed, invaded and all the war stuff'd. So how is it, that no population dies, and no upgrade remain unharmed (i'm playing on vanilla, but i heard on disharmony the system loses pop when getting invaded... maybe i'm wrong).

Well, this is war, and something should get harmed. I think ships in hangar should be taking some damage depending on the invading force AND that upgrades should be taking damage, that need to be repaired either "by time" or faster by resources (buyout/production line). An upgrade that took too much damage should be destroyed. The invasion should also takes its toll on the population. The damage should be dependent on the timethe invasion took. Also, i find it capital that IT SHOULD BE MADE IMPOSSIBLE TO DESTROY UPGRADES ON AN INVADED SYSTEM (i understand the "scorched earth" strategy, but you should predict where you do it. not one trun before losing the system. logicaly, by then, most of the ystem is crawling with enemy forces, and you shouldn't be able to do that.)

Of course there should be a way to avoid those bad effects on invasion. Like organic target/virus weapon siege weaponry (bigger toll on pop, no damage to upgrades) or seismic charges that do more damage to upgrades, while sparing most of the population. Or maybe indoctrination modules allowing to "convert" the pop to minimize the collateral damage (the drop squads should take a toll on the pop and upgrades to. they're fighting and sabotaging after all).

The plunder suggested above could also make some damage...



Edit: Umm... sorry OP that in kinda threw all my ideas here... I'll move them if its a problem.

Hahaha, reminds me of the missile base from MOO. Those were awesome.

I agree here. Visual ground based defense would be an awesome addition to an already great game. Speaking of MOO2, remember the Ground Batteries facility topped off with the Stellar Converter, not to mention ships armed with said weapon...Death Star anyone?



Would love to see similar additions in an expansion down the road...

Davidiusz wrote:
ICBM/ISBM (on the side GSBM - Ground to Space Ballistic Missile would fit better) could be on type of defence (countered by flak, for this example), but looking at the technology needed in constructing weaponry, why couldn't there be GS (Ground to Space) Laser, Plasma and/or Ballistic Batteries (Gauss Cannon anyone?)

Having planetary based offense becomes extremely annoying in a very short amount of time and not very balanced to boot. Even if the projectiles can be defended against, nothing is more aggravating than watching weapons hit your system without even the chance to destroy enemy units in retaliation. And, as mentioned, its not very balanced as the more powerful player can simply send in a huge amount of projectiles to wipe out the opposing empire without even giving regard to strategic map positions such as wormholes and other bottleneck points.

We could also think about some aternate ways of fighting. Why not instore plundering a system? rather than conquer it, plunder it to gain some wealth (dust, steal upgrades?) and also break teh enemy morale (-on popularity on system, and maybe -% on FIDS for a little moment?) - after all, crippling an enemy system is a way to wage war too, and a lone ship behind the lines should be able to do more than just scout. Your job to not let ships slip though your lines. Ofc ground defences should take their toll on the plunderers.

Pillaging has already been implemented

And one more think i could think about, thats kinda weird now. Its war, right? Planets are getting bombed, invaded and all the war stuff'd. So how is it, that no population dies, and no upgrade remain unharmed (i'm playing on vanilla, but i heard on disharmony the system loses pop when getting invaded... maybe i'm wrong).

Well, this is war, and something should get harmed. I think ships in hangar should be taking some damage depending on the invading force AND that upgrades should be taking damage, that need to be repaired either "by time" or faster by resources (buyout/production line). An upgrade that took too much damage should be destroyed. The invasion should also takes its toll on the population. The damage should be dependent on the timethe invasion took.

No population dies because the planet is being seiged. They aren't physically destroying things on the planet, they are simply denying food to the system and waiting until the population gives in.



In addition, you could also bomb the system, and it is already in the game to selectively bomb improvements or population.



And of course if you land troops most everything dies.



So, most of what you suggest is already in the game...