First of all, I wish to apologise in the case that any of these suggestions have already been implemented in the game, or have been suggested before. As I'm in the middle of the exam period I don't have the time to spare to play the game or read all of the forums, even though I bought the Emperor edition and am extremely excited about it. So I'll take a chance and assume these suggestions have not been made yet. If they were, feel free to ignore them.



Suggestion to add Neutron Stars. These stars (or former stars) would slowly damage/destroy ships with their huge radiation output, and thus require special additions to space ships (or even special ship classes) with greatly improved radiation shields to stay in the same star system. Certain species (or perhaps all species) could colonize these systems, perhaps build a permanent space station, as an outpost. This would be done at the cost of a hefty extra fee to 'radiation-proof' the station to make it suitable to life. These would be much more limited in build options than planets due to power and size constraints, and they could use 'radiation collectors' to power the station, making use of the Neutron Star's hefty output.



The utility of such a system would come from the fact that, unless the attacking player is willing to invest heavily in radiation shielding, its fleets will take serious losses from the radiation while in the system, making them easy pickings for a much smaller, but shielded, defensive fleet. This makes these systems extremely valuable defensive positions to either perform espionage from or as a base to stage fleet operations from deep within enemy territory. Players may not be willing to expend resources to get rid of your presence in said system, as the extra radiation shielding is a useless waste of money in all star systems that do not have this radiation output. The attacking player is thus left with a choice: either invest extra and be able to attack you, or spend the extra cash on a much bigger 'normal' fleet.



This same suggestion could perhaps be adapted to work with other cosmic phenomena, such as Black Holes (extra engine power needed) and dense nebulae (normal nebulae are very diffuse, but dense ones could be added? These would require 'dust filters' to prevent critical systems from being clogged/blocked, and system maintenance if they went in unprotected.).



Suggestion to add planetary bombardment options. Using either heavy metal slugs or towed asteroids to perform precision bombardments on planets or space stations (as described in Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet novel series). As space stations and planets have extremely predictable orbits, hitting say, Earth, from beyond the orbit of Pluto is merely a matter of calculations and time. Once asteroids are set on their path, there is nothing the defenders can do save for trying to destroy the asteroids before they hit. This destruction MUST happen at a significant distance from the planet, because if not, the planet will just be hit by a number of rocks instead of one big one. The resulting destruction will be exactly the same. Hence, planetary weapons cannot be used for this purpose, and fleets must spend valuable time chasing asteroids, giving the enemy fleet free reign.



Such strikes could be calculated to hit specific areas on (or around) the planet, for example power stations, factories, planetary weapons, space stations and orbital weapons. This would upset the balance (assuming planetary weapons have already been added to the game) between fleets and planetary defenses, but it is only a matter of realism. Planetary weapons and their connected power stations could be 'camouflaged' to wait just before an invasion to open fire then, but would be easy pickings after revealing their positions.



This gives the possibility 'hit-and-run' attacks where fleets hop in a system and shoot asteroids/metal chunks and leave straight after, leaving total destruction in their wake with little chance of being punished for the deed. However, defending fleets could perhaps intercept the asteroids and destroy them or change their course, thus negating the effect of such strikes except on undefended systems. This would, in turn, encourage players to defend all systems with fleets, not only their outer borders.

If more balancing is needed, however, ships could be required to collect their 'ammunition' in the same system they use it. This would make hit-and-run strikes impossible.



The result is that players would naturally be more inclined to invest in ships, as opposed to planetary and orbital weapons. However, this may be too hard of a suggestion to implement, and I am not sure it will add as much flavor to the game as my first suggestion.



I hope these suggestions contribute something to your development process, or otherwise give you some ideas to explore.



- Bratyn



EDIT: noticed planetary bombardment is already suggested. Consider this a suggestion on how to implement it, then.

I've followed this game for a while now but never made an account to post before. So I actually created an account just because I think everyone should know about these suggestions. They're brilliant! I love the idea of having a space station hidden away behind deadly radiation, and pulling pieces of rock around to use as weapons in space. Even if this isn't adopted verbatim into the game just seeing something similar (if credit is given where credit is due) would give me goosebumps! Good luck to the creator of this idea.