Regarding your concerns, yes you understood correctly my proposal. Your point is a good point, however I'd like to clarify why I think it isn't that bad. And then I'll suggest two modifications to the mechanics to make it more interactive, which I think is the real issue.
First the clarification.
In order for stealthy empire A to remain stealthy and block empire B's supply, empire A needs to race both stealth and supply range. For empire B to counter it only needs to improve detection or supply range. Empire B is never worse off supply wise than if they were beside an empire that was prioritizing supply. Empire A's strategy is fragile.
I think that the issue is with stealth in general. The intent of stealth is to limit your interaction with other empires. Because detection strength is a global value the results are all or nothing. There is not enough push and pull at the local level of the stealth mechanics.
Here are two suggestions to increase the interactivity of stealthy supply mechanic.
- Change the blockade mechanic so that a blockading fleet can block enemy supply if it can detect the supply and it can always protect friendly supply. That way posting fleets protects your supply, but still can't block undetectable supply. You send your fleet and protect your supply, or get ambushed by the stealthy fleet that was blocking your supply.
- Allow colonies to have stances, aggressive and passive the same as fleets. A colony set to aggressive can i) block supply and ii) initiate combat with fleets/monsters in its system. When it attacks or blocks supply it is revealed in the same way that a fleets is revealed and can be attacked/bombarded/invaded. A colony set to passive can i) not block supply and ii) won't initiate combat in system.
This change is more intrusive than the first change.
Its benefits are removing the use of Comsats to initiate combat, makes the stealthy supply mechanic interactive.