This one should be controversial ...



The common advice for players is to watch what weapons/defenses the enemy has on their ships in the initial "fleet approaching" dialog; then build a modified ship schematic with the opposite weapons for their defenses and retrofit. If you have enough dust, retrofitting takes one turn at any colony you own, including one you just this instant conquered. This almost feels like a "cheat". How does dust convert into the hardware and installation time for an entire fleet? Instant-healing heroes I can almost understand, but not instant distant retrofit.



So retrofitting should be harder. Perhaps there should be a system improvement "drydock" which is required for retrofit. This would be an advancement of the "hardened framing" system improvement which grants +XP. Having to move a fleet back for retrofit would make retrofitting less convenient and create less possibility for instantly retrofitting to your enemy's weakness.

From what I understand Dust has a somewhat "magical" quality, which is why it is used as a currency. I think if you were to remove retrofitting you would also have to say that you could no longer use the buyout option to speed up construction for the same reason.



I however don;t find retrofitting to be as easy as you say though. Later in the game often it is not worth having smaller ships along in your fleets, just the bigger ones. (for me anyway) As a result of this retrofitting one of these would be far too expensive to do on a regular basis and normally would take me many turns or will often be faster to produce the new ship elsewhere and then bring it to the battlefield.

Most games have an option to buyout a construction which is underway. In that case, you had the ability to construct the item there anyway, all the factories and parts and so forth. Buying out construction does not bother me as much as instantly retrofitting a fleet at a system I just conquered.