Fleet battles

I find the current combat system to be very intriguing, as it is cinematic with a tactical aspect. I would, however, like to expand on that tactical aspect and to that end have the following proposals:



Maintaining Distance: Different ships are designed to operate at different optimal ranges and it makes little sense for a missile ship to move to melee. I propose to allow ships to "keep at range" which would change the amount of time spent at a particular range based on the difference in speeds between your ships and the enemies. For example if both fleets chose to "keep at melee" then the number of rounds spent at long and medium range would be reduced, while the number of rounds spent in melee would increase. On the other hand if two fleets chose to "keep at long" then they would never come into melee with range with each other and the entire battle would be spent in the long range bracket. The third option is one fleet chooses to "keep at long" while the other chooses to "keep at melee" (for instance), in this scenario the amount of time spent at a each range increment would depend on the relative speed between the two fleets. On a related note, you should be able to select if you want your fleet to move at the pace of the slowest vessel or if you want each ship to close at its own rate. This would potentially be both more cinematic and more tactical while maintaining the "big picture" feel that fleet combat seems to embody in this game.



Shared Point Defense: Point defense is an interesting defense type because it implies an active defense instead of the passive sort provided by shields and deflectors. It makes sense, then, to have point defense shared between fleet members with friendly ships providing missile interception for nearby ships. This concept goes well with my previous suggestion as it allows for a potential counter against missile spam destroyers that try to "keep at range" while also providing an incentive to keep your ships moving together as you would have to decide if you would be better off rushing the enemy as fast as possible or if it would be better to move as a unit and reduce casualties caused by missile bombardment. This feature would also either create a role for battleships as a missile shield or create a role for corvette missile interceptors

Targeting: The ability to choose how your fleets engage the enemy is very important, however in keeping with the "big picture" idea I propose the simple options.









Retreat Option: This would be one of the options lumped in with "keep at range", but I feel it merits its own section as it is a concept independent, though related to keep at range. Basically your ship would have to survive for a specified period of time (half a normal battle?) before it would be allowed to leave the battle. While retreating you would have a penalty to accuracy and damage of weapons, but a bonus to defenses and propulsion, increasing your survivability and the amount of time the enemy takes to close distance on you.



Reinforcements: I've been toying with a way to have friendly units within movement range of your fleet to join you in the battle, but I have yet to come up with an elegant solution that wouldn't potentially be unbalancing (reinforcements arrive some number of rounds after the start and begin at long range? Not sure)



Invasions

Where fleet fights are cool and cinematic, invasions are currently boring. These are a few things that I think would make it better:



Defenses: Starbases and defenses are a staple of any galactic empire as they are cheaper to maintain then a space fleet. In game terms, I propose two types of defenses, the moon base and the asteroid fort. The moon base would be a planetary upgrade (and should be a med-late game option with a high upkeep) for the moon and would provide an invasion resistance bonus as well as support fleets during stage 2 of an invasion (to be explained below). The moon base would be armed with missiles and strikecraft (if implemented) as the range of kinetics and energy weapons is two short to be practical on a fixed orbiting body. The moon base should have hit points equal to or perhaps even greater then the dreadnought. The asteroid fort is an early game, solar limited space craft designed purely for defense. The fort could be customized like any other space ship though the bonuses would be purely weapons and defense, with perhaps even a penalty for support modules. In order to really use these effectively, the game would need to implement a system that allows you to "garrison" the forts either at a planet or on one of the solar string paths. Forts garrisoned at a planet would be able to support fleets during stage of the invasion, while forts on the solar strings would be able to defend against stage 1. Note that asteroids should have a move of 1 to prevent them from being able to dictate range in a battle.



Stage 1: Blockade: If you arrive at an enemy colony or outpost with a defending fleet, instead of a regular fleet fight, the defending fleet should have the option to either fight you or fall back to the planet. If they fall back then the system goes enters the blockade status and you are free to advance to stage 2. Should they decide to fight, both fleets will engage along whichever solar string the attacking force arrive on (the defenders would be bolstered by any asteroid forts garrisoned on that string). If the attacking fleet arrives via the "off-road" method, then no asteroid forts would be allowed to join the combat and the battle would resolved as it currently is.



Stage 2: Orbitals/Raiders: The next stage of the invasion is securing the orbitals of the planet, or at least getting within range to bombard the surface. In this stage, the attacking fleet would choose a particular planet to attack from the solar system viewer. If the defending fleet held back in stage 1, it would join the asteroid forts and moon base to defend the planet, otherwise the forts and base are on their own. When starting this battle the attacking force would choose to either take the planetary orbitals or bombard the planet (only an option if the attacking fleet contains a ship with an invasion module). In trying to take the orbitals the attacking fleet needs to destroy the defending fleet as well as forts and the moon base (if there is one). They would then move have the option of moving on to stage 3. If bombardment is chosen, then the attacking fleet need only to survive to get into melee range at which point the bombardment is considered successful. Bombardment could result in reduced FIDS for a certain number of turns, or in the destruction of one or more planetary/system upgrades. The amount of destruction would be dependent one the relation of the attacker's invasion power to the defender's invasion resistance. Possession of the orbitals or bombarding the planet should reduce invasion resistance as such things are demoralizing to the populace and damaging to defense infrastructure Pirates would stop at this stage, as they are unlikely to risk the casualties of an assault when they can simply wait for the planet to surrender. Attackers in control of the orbitals should also have an option to annihilate the colony on the planet through bombarding it on every turn, eventually the planet will be reduced to zero invasion resistance, and instead of being captured, the colony would be destroyed. Bombardment could also be used to "soften up" the colony in preparation for stage 3.



Stage 3: Capture: A star system is captured once all invasion resistance reaches zero. This can be accomplished by capturing all orbitals and waiting (note that invasion resistance should not reach zero while a planet still has asteroid forts/ moon base/ defense fleet in orbit over it). However, if time is of the essence, the attackers can launch an assault on the planet. Like bombardment, this can only be done if the attacking fleet has an invasion module. I am unsure as to whether this should be resolved as a simple auto-calc of invasion powers invasion resistance, or if a cinematic approach could be used like the fleet combat (the second option is of course more dev resource intensive). If successful the colony would suffer some random damage like a bombardment, but the attacker would be in control of the planet (further reducing invasion resistance of the system, potentially resulting the the other planets of the system capitulating).



I just thought I would throw these ideas out here. Please comment and critique away, I have tried to stay out of the really gritty details, but I would be happy to elaborate on any point.

Muaddib wrote:
I propose to allow ships to "keep at range" which would change the amount of time spent at a particular range based on the difference in speeds between your ships and the enemies.

[...]providing an incentive to keep your ships moving together[...]

You can't actually tell your ships to move into battle in certain formations. Formations need to be added.

Targeting: The ability to choose how your fleets engage the enemy is very important

Retreat Option

approval

Reinforcements

approval Gives some usefulness to stacking fleets.

Defenses: Starbases

approval

staged combat for ground invasions

approval

Please comment and critique away, I have tried to stay out of the really gritty details, but I would be happy to elaborate on any point.

I like all of it.

It may take some time and effort for the devs to do, but for stage three it would be really cool if its a cinematic battle done from the ground perspective. What cards you have in the battle would depend on the mods you have on the ships. For example, one of your ships is covered in S2G missiles, while another has that Hissho invasion module. This would give you options for either bombing the planet, or for rushing the ground defenders with your soldiers.

Making ground battles a bigger part of the game may be something for an expansion, as I doubt there is enough time to get it balanced and sorted before the game comes out fully.



As for the rest of the points, ill comment on the ones I feel strongly about.



Maintaining distance: YES. Either that, or some sort of ability for ships to take agro and get targeted before other ships.



Targeting: Also a huge yes. At the moment, if you pit two fleets with the same CP and MP against eachother, one fleet consisting only of the biggest tonnage out there while another fleet consists only of small 100 tonne ships, the small fleet would win hands down. Why? Because although four dreadnoughts may do 20,000 damage to a ship, they only target one ship per volley. Every time, the small ships will beat the bigger ships. I don't think a player should be handicapped for having large ships.



Re-enforcements: Have it as a card maybe? Each round you can pull in a certain number of ships that enter the battle either at the same phase as the rest of the fleet, or a round behind them.



Starbases: Asteroid and moon; sounds good. With Asteroids though, I think it should be a planetary improvement. This could also mean that if the asteroid-base is destroyed, the asteroid colony is either destroyed or takes a hit to its population?



Moon should only be able to be put on an empty moon, or you have to destroy the temple on a moon in order to put a starbase on it. This again means you have to choose between economy and defence.



Thats about all I have to say at the moment.

Nice post! All great ideas! I especially like the stay at certain phases suggestion, it would add another depth of strategy. Another Favorite of mine is your idea on flak defense. Again great post.

Yes on formations and being able to select ships on escort/defensive roles.



This becomes even more important once carriers are added. You can greatly enhance the tactical elements of the game if you can set ship A to protect ship B (with PDS/Flak for example) or for a Fighter Squadron to form a defensive screen around ship C.



Have a fleet heroically defend a colony ship at it's own expense, and all sorts of fun stuff. (Even more fun if they allow us to open Embassies with other races, but forcing us to physically carry the ambassador there in a transport ship that spawns, escorting it through hostile territory to end up at the right location of a neutral/friendly race. Thinking out loud here, this is way outside the current scope)

Wasn't expecting such resounding support, thanks.

big fan of the shared anti missile idea, could also add modules like a big ass shield genereator which covers the whole fleet from projectiles and or beams. I'd like to see more variety and this would allow for more support and command ships, instead of just spamming combat ships. Command ships which give access to more cards, defense ships which cover the fleet etc