I see lots of suggestions about stopping pesky buggers moving on past your fleets, and also to make battles more funky - I wanted to add my own suggestion.



The idea is to have something easy to implement, but which adds some depth and fun.



NOTE: I know there's a retreat option in the works somewhere - but this is in addition to that.



So:



1. Blockades



Instead of the usual "holy crap I missed clicking on the battle button" system, have a good ten seconds after each battle possibility comes along (a pop-up or something would be nice, but even the current method of noticing or not works fine too). The options are the same as in the current battle option screen, but in three sets: Force; Engage; Avoid.



Each of those three have Manual or Auto under them, as now. You only click one button, as now.



Force attempts to stop them moving, and make them fight.

Engage is "I'll fight them if they fight me". You could lose this option if you like, but I think it's useful.

Avoid means you try to get past 'em and continue on your way - a bit like what happens now if you line the movement up right.



If you're a defender, or otherwise just didn't have a movement order when the battle became an option, a successful Avoid will move you to a random adjacent star.



The chances of Forcing an Avoiding enemy is based on speed, and perhaps hero skill, stealth, or other modules on a ship, but should always be reasonable - perhaps a 15% minimum chance, and then only if you already have a movement order set for the avoiding fleet. Otherwise it could just get too frustrating.



If you want to decide on where you go in a successful Avoid, you need to have the movement selected before the battle starts. That makes probes interesting - you can miss opportunities with preselected movement, or hope for a good random retreat direction. It also makes it possible, but risky, to have some "behind the lines" bombardment and blockading fleets.



I think that'd be fun.







2. Combat speed: battles



At the start of a battle, you have the option to select your desired range.



In general, the faster fleet gets to extend the time spent at that range, with the battle time remaining constant - that is, the time would come out of the other ranges.



So if you want to stay at long range, and you're fast, you'll make the Long Range phase go longer.



If you want to close with the enemy, you'll cause shorter Long and Medium Range phases, to give a longer period in short range.



Your ability to effect your chosen phase is based on the average speed of your fleet (smaller ships giving greater tactical flexibility that helps the big slow buggers get into range? Or they're good at forcing enemies to battle, or screening / avoiding it?), as well as stealth, detection, heroes, and maybe ship components.



To keep it simple it could even be a fixed amount: say a 30% increase to time spent in your chosen range if you're faster / stealthier / etc, with the slower fleet also getting a 15% increase in their chosen phase if they have at least (some proportion - 75%?) of your speed / stealthiness / etc. The other phases simply shrink to allow that extra time, so battle times don't change.



Otherwise, there could either be a sliding scale, or a certain random effect thrown in, weighted by your ability.



This wouldn't just have an effect on weapon damage, but also on card effects - if you're extending Short range, you'd make Long and Medium go quicker. So the first two cards would get played faster, but arguably have a smaller effect (depending on the card). But then, you might pump in two quick repairs before the Short Range phase...



And it would make weapon fire-rates more interesting, since the number of whole volleys you might get off in each range is more important.





(3. And combat speed itself could be a new stat, as separate from speed on the map. This stat would be used for blockades and battles, as above, instead of the strategic speed stat we're already using. This stat could be fixed for each hull type, giving more interesting options in fleet composition (?) - this is a good blockade runner, this is a good intercept ship, this is a good one to increase the average speed of my fleet in battle, etc.



Or it could represent a different research path from the strategic ship movement speed, with specific modules to build into hulls.



Or both).

Well, in the alpha 2 which is released today, #1 is partly implemented. You can set a fleet to "block". Giving an invading fleet a percent chance to avoid being blocked seems possible. But, if a string is like a stargate and has a known, fixed exit point, it seems that the percent chance would have to be very small. The defending fleet can sit right there. I am OK with a zero percent chance to avoid (ie not being given the option.)



For #2 and #3, I encourage you to read the multiple combat overhaul threads in this forum. There are a lot of sides to this debate.