I didn't see these topics anywhere in the forums so here goes.



Ok, I will address 3 things in this post, Orbital Bombardment, Planetary Invasion, and Planetary Defenses.



First, sometimes you don't want to take a planet, as much as you want to hurt the enemy, or set back their structures. The option of orbital bombardment should be available to damage/destroy a colony, rather than seige it. You could implement this by adding "Bombs" or "planetary assault" sections to the ship design, so you would have to sacrifice ship to ship weapons/defenses in order to have the bombing capability. Also, probably only having the bombing ability available for the larger ship classes would be a way of limiting it's overuse, especially early in the game. In addition to its obvious damage to the colony structures/population, bombing could bring down the morale of the population, making them surrender faster, but having the negative affect of them hating you for a longer period once you do capture a planet. Also, there should be a way to target a planet specifically within a system rather than just the system itself.



Second, there should be some way to invade, such as landing ground troops, mechs, etc. Possibly some research of a tech would be required, unlocking a "dropship" which could be added to a fleet to speed up the siege process. These ships would be extremely weak in ship to ship combat, but would be of great benefit when taking a planet. The research of "troops, mechs, tanks, etc" would determine how much affect these units would have on the speed of the siege.



Third, there should be some form of planetary defenses. Either via orbital defense platforms, orbital minefields, surface to space missiles, planetary shields, etc. These would only defend a planet when a player attempts to siege your planet, otherwise the enemy fleet would stay in the system, but out of range of the planets. With a defensive fleet in the system, the defending fleet would have the option to engage the enemy out in the system, or guard a specific planet. when they engage defending a specific planet, the enemy would have to contend with the defensive fleet and the planet defenses at the same time, but the enemy could engage another planet in the system with no interference from the fleet. Planetary shields would greatly slow the siege process as well as reducing the damage from orbital bombardment mentioned above. I would leave it to the developers to decide how the invading troops would be affected by the shield. Maybe they cant land while the shield is intact, or perhaps they can land with a mission, ie "destroy the shield generator, destroy the missile batteries"



What do you guys think? possible? unneeded? needs development?

On a side note, I purchased the game through Steam, but am not sure how to link that with my games2gether account.

Invasions & orbital bombardment have already been proposed here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12341-invasions-and-orbitals-strikes-alike-to-the-space-combat

System defenses/space bases have been proposed here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12281-system-defence-and-orbital-structures



Your thread has been linked to both of the former and is moved to the archives.



P.S.:

Alderbranch wrote:
How to get your G2G-points from pre-order?

- Go to the Endless Space Website http://endless-space.amplitude-studios.com/

- Log iN

- Insert the Multiplayer Code STEAM gives (right click on Endless Space once installed, select "show product key") you right here: http://www.amplitude-studios.com/user/edit

- Press "Redeem Code"