I also want Starbases, preferably ones that are either prefabbed like MOO2's, or similar to the ones in Stars! that we can design.

I agree in regards to having starbases AND system defenses. No self respecting empire should be without a plethora of system defense. Fleets are costly and not always around. Especially when pirates seem to magically show up out of the blue.

I dont want "Starbases", as someone said before we can already construct space elevators, if anything there would be a shipyard/docking ring bolted on top of the giant space elevator but I doubt anyone would want to make that place a prime target by placing weapons on it, think of the civvies after all!



I do however want defensive structures, Mood/Asteroid bases comes to mind.

I would like to have multiple forms of defense and infrastructure. One of the things that I very much liked about MOO2 was how planetary defenses strengthen over time without player intervention, which really helped with easing some of the micromanagement.



ORBITAL & SOLAR

+Minefield (like we have in Stars!, in that the field grows larger over time. Some also have side effects, like slowing the speed of enemy forces.)

+Satellites (These orbit the planet, and use sublight thrusters to set interception courses.)

+Starbase (General purpose, player researches technology to improve each property seperately. Eventually transforms into a dyson sphere? )

+Enforcers (Police cutters that automatically handle small-time pirates and light enemy invasion forces in the solar system. Very weak, but cheap and automatically replenishes. Sublight.)



PLANETARY

+Missile Bases

+Energy Platforms

+Mass Drivers

+Garrisons (Infantry)

+Fighter Bases (Fighters, for both space & air combat, can't wander far from the planet.)

+Armor Hangers (Mecha & Tanks)

+Energy Barrier

Perhaps starbases could be treated like a fleet, it can be attacked and attack an enemy fleet in the system. It could be supported by either anti-orbital cannons and defence batteries, or any allied fleet in the system. It would take a large fleet to destroy the starbase, but usually there would be defence batteries to support it and it all could be done in manual battles.

Ah yes, the troubles of "page 2" on forums. I Posted in a new thread on the first page so, long story short:



+1

(put the link to this thread in the new one)

Forget starbases as a sole defence, and I hate the idea of deployable starbases everywhere - how about :



Planetary Defence Networks?

Military Bunkers?

Orbital Missile Platforms?

Enhanced Planetary Shielding?



Inspiration is to be had from 'Ascendency', which did this quite well, and even used tractor defences to pull ships in while you annihilated them with missiles and beams.

Okim wrote:
I find it rediculous to defend a huge planet with just a single starbase (MOO2). Even a number of surface to space cannons look a bit odd taking into account that you need lots of such guns to effectivelly cover just a small region of the planet.



Anything that is not launching something that can get to its target fast and does not depend on which side of the planet is being invaded - is the only possible and somewhat realistic way of defending a planet. I mean fighter bases, missile bases and other such things.



I can assume that a single starbase in a game is actually a web of several such bases, but even 100 of starbases wont be enough to defend a whole planet (enemy ships will just find a spot where those bases can`t reach them).

36 guns to cover a whole planet, dosent include backups , sts missiles would do better. But 6 or better 12 bases are enough to give at least 1 a line of fire on the enemy.

I'd like it to being abstract. It already seems we'll have dozens and dozens of planets to manage, if you add starbases it can become a real chore if you have to babysit them like the planets.

Strange i dont have to manage planet i just manage the system and thats realy easy with the systems overview heck u dont even have to open them u can change 90% of the stuff directly in the overview, what is just awsome

Stargem wrote:
I would like to have multiple forms of defense and infrastructure. One of the things that I very much liked about MOO2 was how planetary defenses strengthen over time without player intervention, which really helped with easing some of the micromanagement.



ORBITAL & SOLAR

+Minefield (like we have in Stars!, in that the field grows larger over time. Some also have side effects, like slowing the speed of enemy forces.)

+Satellites (These orbit the planet, and use sublight thrusters to set interception courses.)

+Starbase (General purpose, player researches technology to improve each property seperately. Eventually transforms into a dyson sphere? )

+Enforcers (Police cutters that automatically handle small-time pirates and light enemy invasion forces in the solar system. Very weak, but cheap and automatically replenishes. Sublight.)



PLANETARY

+Missile Bases

+Energy Platforms

+Mass Drivers

+Garrisons (Infantry)

+Fighter Bases (Fighters, for both space & air combat, can't wander far from the planet.)

+Armor Hangers (Mecha & Tanks)

+Energy Barrier

Summed up pretty nicely there. Thats about everything moo2 has. Maybe the only thing missing is the stellar converter

My thinking is that the best planetary defense is a fleet of ships in orbit or in the planetary well...sort of like a carrier CAP. Keeping the bad guy away from home base is always the preferred strategy to begin with.



Your final line of defense, on the planet, is more limited in effectiveness, but there are several ground defense enhancements that we could see added to the game by means of specific research goals: 1) Vital targets on the ground might be hardened to withstand orbital bombardments; 2) Some sort of projected "shields" might protect key cities; 3) Specialized mobile ground forces might be built up to resist invasion attempts.

Id be interested as static defences as being a anti blockade/invasion defence feature, ive noticed that in alpha, a single scout ship can blockage a system or lone invasion ship skip past you defence fleets and try to invade a system further in.



id see a defence station being a base for a local defence "fleet", each system gets a defence fleet that gets bonuses from a planets assigned hero if present, a defence station can deploy fighters/bombers/drones/missiles capable of attacking blockade fleets or invasion ships. Could have a reserve of fighters/bombers/drones/missiles that replenish over time.



You cant invade/blockade without taking out the defence fleet/station.

Each turn the defence fleet/station will attack any blockading/invading fleets



defence vessels would be more heavily armed/armoured but not capable of leaving a system



defence stations could if result in two many combats instead cause "attrition" damage to invading/blockading/hostile fleets

I wonder if the devs ever going to reply on any of the suggestions posted.

Or are we talking only amongst our selves?

Keep 2 things in mind:

1) Amplitude is a small indie studio,

2) it is week-end.



So I expect them to check the forums tomorrow morning and faint



I am sure they will read through the forums and try to integrate suggestions (of course not ALL suggestions, but they are receptive to critic and they see it as an opportunity to make the game better not as something personal) but I am also sure it will take them some time.

Before release, we had less than 2000 people registered on the forums and max numbers of simultaneous connexions was 88 if memory serves. We are now flirting with 8000 registered users with a record number of 539 simultaneous connexions.

So give them some time.

Aerensiniac wrote:
I wonder if the devs ever going to reply on any of the suggestions posted.

Or are we talking only amongst our selves?

Aerensiniac wrote:
I wonder if the devs ever going to reply on any of the suggestions posted.

Or are we talking only amongst our selves?

You're not looking hard enough

SpaceTroll wrote:
we wanted to focus on dynamic battles for the release, but star bases could something we could definitely look into for the futrure.

system defences are a mix a system improvement and population.

IT would be indeed really nice to see the possibility of starbases,

probably in the late game as a technology.

As reference, I relly liked how starbases worked in "Space Empires IV & V".

There are plenty of possibilities to implement them:

- As a moon around planets that do not have one

- As additional planet, if the max number of planets in a system is not exceded

- As non-movable "ship" in a system

Edraii wrote:
You're not looking hard enough

Oh... now that you mention it...

Sharidann wrote:
So I expect them to check the forums tomorrow morning and faint

That sounds harsh... :<

Would it be possible to add some satelites (kinda starbase but dedicate to 1 role only) :

- Saltelite could be build like a ship with no or low protections (low armor with some limited shields to protect themselves) and somes 1 unique offensive power (or counters mesure) : ie - 1 laser beam, 1 with missiles, 1 with counter mesure against missile, 1 that could lower precisions of enemies, ...

- and/or - their powers would add to any flee definding the system attacked

- and/or - each time a system (they are defending) is conquered they could be destroyed /partially captured

I think satellites are the best option to solve that. They can be produced very often and cheap. They could enter the game with an option like the "explore moon" thing.

One easy way to abstract a starbase would be for it to be handled as an extra planet that is created in system when built. The existing planet exploitation system could even be used to focus it on trade, military, commercial or influance (with corresponding bonuses to those things in the system).

I like the idea of defenses for your star system.