Hello all! Picked the game up a couple days ago and love it. Please don't judge me for my low post count until you read the entire thing



Also, this is NOT a post saying devs should redo or revamp the battle system! My ideas are just natural extensions of the system that is already in place.



Currently battles seem rather dry. I think most people agree with that. They are interesting for the first game or two, you still do manual fights if fleet powers are close or if you want to see how your opponent has fitted their ships, but eventually you grow tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.



I don't think the solution to this is to change the system like other people are suggesting. There are other games for that. What I suggest is for battle cards/ tactics to have a more noticeable effect on the battle.



Currently, battles consist of two groups of ships moving slowly in a line and firing weapons. Some explode. This is the same no matter what cards you play. What the game needs is to give the player more of a reason to click Manual.



What I want to see is my choice of card affecting what my ships do. I want to see a trio of ships break from my fleet and fly in formation directly toward the enemy. I want to see my ships feint a retreat and then counterattack. I want to see flanking maneuvers. Suicide runs. I'm sure you all can imagine the possibilities.



Cards like this could be:

TACTIC

BOMBING RUN

1/3/5 (for fleet size) of smallest class of ship move directly toward enemy and engage.

+15% offensive modules on these ships.

enemy missiles hit these ships one turn sooner.

Counters ENGINEERING



I also want to see faction-specific cards. For example, the insectoid Cravers might not care so much if they lose a couple ships. They might play cards like this:



ENGINEERING

SELF-DESTRUCT

A single random vessel moves into the midst of the enemy formation and exposes its engine core. The vessel is destroyed and all enemy ships suffer 15% reduction in armor, 15% reduction in health, and 15% reduction in accuracy due to blinded sensors, turbulence, etc.

Counters TACTICS



The idea of formations or squadrons or whatever you'd like to call them would also play directly into this. Within the fleet, you could subdivide various ships into various squadrons, eg 1 cruiser, 3 destroyers or 1 battleship, 1 cruiser, 2 destroyers. You could then give each squadron its own card that it would act out. One squadron might set up a flank, one might attempt to draw fire, and then you watch it all play out. This would allow for further permutations in the next phase.

This would also reduce the all-or-nothing feel to the cards currently. Instead of just yes-it-worked, yes-it-worked-with-a-bonus, or no-it-was-countered, there would be multiple fronts in the battle where various squads face off against the opponent.



What do you all think? I feel that one of the strengths of the current system is that it allows for a cinematic and strategic feel to the battles. However, it is hobbled by the fact that no matter what you do, it just affects various numbers under the hood.



TL;DR battles are dry, cards should affect what your ships do on screen, add the ability to group ships in-fleet together and give disparate commands.



Thanks for reading!

This may be of interest: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12192-fleet-doctrine-an-additional-level-of-combat-interactivity