Okay so this idea just popped up a few minutes ago in the icecream shop (don't judge) when two service ladies came at me at the same time to offer service, here's the idea;



2 or more allied fleets against 2 or more allied (opposition) fleets in the same gravity well fighting in the same battle in the one turn.

EDIT: Or 3 (or more) separate fleets in the same well opposing each other eg, a three-way or Mexican stand-off...



Example: Empire 1 and 2 are allies. Empire 3 and 4 are allies but oppose 1 and 2.

1 is defending a gravity well from 3, next turn 4 jumps in and "merges" with 3 so the following battle sees 1's fleet barely alive.

Next turn has 2 jumping into the well and "merging" with 1 helping to reinforce him and sharing the epic defense! =)



Basically having a friend assist your attacks/defence. It has an added bonus of mixing fleet strategies (Defensive fleet + Invasion Fleets, etc) and overall tactics (How and Where you use this, terror tactics >=)

If formations are brought in and the diplomacy system gets teamed this idea would benefit.



Only downside is this late in core development it would be difficult to implement...



Positives;

- Makes alliances a tad more meaningful when you share your opposition

- Larger fleet battles (Maybe more epic)

- More diverse options with the designs being mixed

- Definitely makes hotly contested wells a lot hotter to fight for and keep...

- Everyone in the well fights (Unless there's a tech to avoid it)



Negatives;

- Not sure how it will work with diplomacy system

- "Fleet Stacking" is *currently* more effective

- Probably won't work well if you have a lot of allies.

- Probably wont work well if there is A LOT of fleets in the one location (Doesn't mean ALL fleets in a gravity well will fight)



Again, Icecream does wonders especially in a Mexican Stand-off situation.

Thoughts?

Sounds fun.



What's wrong with an icecream shop? A previous landlord worked in Baskin Robbins and they told her to sell ice cream as a, "poor man's vacation".



All your ice creams are belong to us!

There is just a problem with having more than two fleets involved with combat. It diminishes the cp cap on fleets and would mess with the card system quite a bit.

@ArrowLance



It would definitely mess with the card system but I'm not sure about Command.



They would need to modify the battles a bit, say adding Target selection or splitting participating parties into "Teams" or "sides" of the battlefield, eg;

4 people are contesting a system.

1 & 2 are allies

3 & 4 aren't allies to anyone.

On one "side" of the field 1 & 3 are slugging it out while 2 & 4 are on the other "side" fighting between themselves. 1 & 4 wins their battles, the remnants of both fleets then engage each other in the same turn.



The card system remains mostly 1 v 1 while still leaving these huge battles mostly intact.



Thoughts? (Sorry for reviving the thread, work chewed up the last few weeks x/)

@Wenchbane: Exactly what I want to see. Sword of the Stars 1 got it right when 2 allied fleets sat in one system, so I think Endless Space should have that too.