I feel like cards and phases is a good start, but it needs an overhaul to make combat more fun. Here are my suggestions.



Do away with the mandatory closing fights. It does not make sense that ships that are optimized for ranged combat would close to melee range with a ship that is optimized for that. Keep phases around, but treat them more like rounds.



Add more depth to the combat! Each phase/round should have multiple categories that cards can go into, assuming they have the cards available from developed tactics and technology. I would recommend having a (1) positioning/distance, (2) sensors/intelligence, (3) electronic warfare/countermeasures, (4) targeting, (5) engineering, and (6)weapon categories for each round, each with corresponding decks of cards available.



(1)The positioning/distance category would allow opponents to attempt to maintain, close, or expand the distance between combat fleets. Early tech could drive a player to create fleets that specialize in a type of ranged combat, while later tech could allow cards such as a “Captain’s Choice” that allows mixed fleets to attempt to optimize their distance based of the effective range of its weapons. Obviously this would add depth to ship design and the tech and make players include speed as a component for ship balance and design. Escape options should be available for those that can out run an opponent.



(2) Sensors/intelligence category. Why do all space combat games have “perfect” identify friend or foe? You always know who the fleet belongs to and where they are if they are inside sensor range. On the main map fleets should not be much more than radar blips, or at least be unidentified. Diplomatic relations with a race could allow for hail and response of vessels for identification purposes. Once combat ensues, sensors would learn more about the other fleet, automatically getting a good idea how many there are, but might not yet know ship class, weapons, weaknesses, or even empire it is from perhaps. Also how accurate your sensors are could have a realistic impact on accuracy of weapons. Example cards could be, “track fleet” for better targeting info, “track separating target” could detect beam or missile weapons aiding defenses against attacks, “scan defenses” could give an estimated value for deflective/shield/flak ratios, “Identify” attempts to id the empire and ship sizes more accurately. There is an opportunity for specialized modules to be added to ships, such as privateer (a suggestion by another post), low-observable (stealth), and specialized sensors that could be an important ship in any fleet that provides a supporting role. “sensor link” could tie sensor data from all of the ships to defeat electronic attack or aid targeting.



(3) Electronic warfare/countermeasures, I will be honest, the only reason I pre-ordered the game was because I saw a screen capture for offensive chaff, and the card for short circuit, which looked like you were including aspects of electronic warfare into your game. There is an amazing history of electronic warfare with modern militaries. Radars were attacked by electronic counter measures (ECM), which lead to electronic counter counter measures (ECCM), which was countered again… So it has since been renamed electronic attack and electronic protection, since ECCCM sounded silly. This category would pretty much effect the sensor/intelligence category, and have many other aspects to add depth. It should provide players with a variety of techniques to create miss distance and decrease the accuracy of the enemy’s weapons and sensors. Some example cards would be “chaff” the first electronic warfare method, “velocity deception”, “range deception” because misjudging velocity/range could potentially cause huge targeting errors. “False target generation” could include multiple techs that improve the quality of the false targets, maybe early tech would just be an extra radar blip, maybe tons of false targets (which could require an opponent to close distance to achieve “burn through”.) “Holograms” could have various tech levels, ones that dissipate on a hit, ones that distort with a hit, or ones that simulate weapons hit and could cause an opponent to keep attaching a fake target. Eventually the top of this tech tree could include

“directed energy” which could cause actual damage to the electronics of missiles or an opponent’s ships/shields/flak. If I were king, I would really run with this one. I would go as far as having sensor designs that include electronic protections being built in, such as Moving Target Indicator (to defeat chaff), Anti-Velocity and Range processing, various anti-false target techniques. Modern military equipment comes packed with features designed to protect against known electronic attack techniques.



(4) Targeting, many have complained that we cannot focus fire on specific enemy ships. That is where this category comes in. Cards such as “target weakest”, “target fastest”, “focus fire”, “target close/far” would be a huge step forward. “paint target” could improve accuracy for missile attacks, or the next round (that could be a sensor card also). If a player used “find weakness” from the sensor/intelligence category he could use a type of fire that an opponent is weak to. Additionally, selecting aimpoints such as “target engines, weapons, bridge, sensors” would all add something. I think if there is not something to allow a player to selectively target enemy ships, people will feel that ship combat might as well just be auto and will be unhappy with the combat system as a whole.



(5) The engineering category, almost self-explanatory. Repair hull, shields, weapons…many games have lip service to damage control, but here we have the opportunity to make it simple and meaningful. “Overpower/overcharge weapon”, “increase shields/deflection” could help balance your fleet design with the one you are facing. Specialized repair ships have been done, but are liked by most.



(6) Weapons. “Fire everything!” can be really boring. I would love it if you just ripped off the mechwarrior concept in some form. Ship capacitors, heat sinks, accuracy scales…something to drive a player to choose what weapons he will fire. Since I do not think you will go with the mechwarrior option (perhaps to in-depth), I would recommend everything firing automatically, but have cards to boost the performance of type of fire. Kinetic guns can be “Aimed fire”, “Sweeping fire” (think of tracer fire from the gulf war news reals), “wall fire” (like sweeping but graphically a vertical pattern in front of their fleet/ship), or “barrage fire” guns fire into a sector, has the heaviest volume of fire but least amount of accuracy. Each weapon type having a number of rounds to accuracy value or maybe double the missiles at lower accuracy this rounds, but not available next round due to reloading. Missiles could have cards that alter the rate of fire or the manner of warhead/guidance/propulsion configuration. “Ballistic firing” could be fast but horribly in accurate. “Passive guidance” guides in on heat or sensor/engine emissions, great guidance but easily countered perhaps. Beam weapons could have similar cards to kinetic guns.



I am looking forward to the improvements made between Alpha and Final. I am open to criticism, comments and questions.

I agree that the combat systems needs something to keep it more interesting. After all the time spent managing your empire to research and build your fleet. It is anticlimatic to watch them fight with little or no input.

Your poll is an insult to polls. It is the worst type of leading nonsense, even moreso when it is phrased 'Which one of my ideas is MOST AWESOME'. Clearly it is more reserved than that, but more marginally than you might believe. There are more layers to strategy than you think of, and while I hope for the system to change, I hope for it to change in none of the ways you imagine.

Well, I don't really agree with your suggestion. It seems a lot more complex than te actual system but I fail to see what it adds, strategically speaking.



But there is one things (in my opinion) we could use in the current deck : Overpower weapon/shield (Engineering)



Some other things you suggest already exist in the alpha:

• Electronic warfare/countermeasures: "false target generation" already exist, it's a hero ability
• Electronic warfare/countermeasures: “directed energy” already exist too. It's called "ECM" and you can research it.
  
  

About the Weapon part, I don't think that with the current settings, it would add something to detail this far the use of weapons. The actual cards are enough; considering that you cannot place or direct your fleet.



However, the Targeting part of your post made me think of something:

What if we could, in addition to the cards, point (with the mouse cursor) to ships we woud like to see destroyed rapidly. It would of course need to calm the camera or to add a fleet resume window (or both).



About the espionnage: An interesting way of thinking BUT it would need to rethink all the way down the diplomacy (not a bad thing, though) and the galaxy view. The game simply didn't take this direction … It could do a very good add-on !

You posted exactly the same poll and post twice. Closed down, please stick to posting things once.

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