Sejant wrote:That's why I'm suggesting that all systems are defended rather then a concentration of forces. I'd suggest that if the enemy can bypass a system and attack the one 'behind' it, then there is no depth in the static defenses and there must be no reserve available to plug the gap.
Well, I haven't played it, I think I agreeguiguibaah wrote:True, like the proverbial Starcraft Terran Bunker defence, where if it held, you could withstand even the biggest Zergling attack... But once it breached, you were doomed.
That is why I suggested that you could build five 'mass production' ships for the price of one. Let me explain a bit better:guiguibaah wrote:However, the problem with defences is that to build them you must take money that could go into making ships and divert it into making defences that can easily get overwhelmed.
In the technology tree might be a series of ship designs such as 'Mass Production Lancer/Defense Lancer', or later 'Mass Production Frigate/Defence Frigate'. You can build three to five (depending on playtesting) of these for the same cost of a larger ship, so 5DF Lancers = 1 Normal Destroyer and 5DF Frigates = 1 Normal Cruiser and would appear at roughly the same level in the tech tree (again, a playtesting issue).
So for five colonies, they could build either ten cruisers or ten defence frigates EACH. And remember that the planets will have their previous planety defences as well. Since production is being split into different areas, you don't get one fleet with hundreds of ships that just blasts everything in sight, but a number of smaller defensive and attacking squadrons, each with a seperate role.
The mass production ships would be limited: can only jump to a friendly system and quite slowly, limited to one weapon type and two weapon mount types, and only one special. To cut down on micromanagement, there are only one or two designs per mass production class, but the refits would be done automatically, like space stations and planetry defences in MOO2. The main ships would therefore be very special since they could have any variation of weapons, turret types and specials. I imagine the mass production ships being the generic ships in the background of an anime space battle (normally coloured light brown, for some reason ) while the other ships you build are the ones that the story focuses one (and normally bothers to name).
Being able to design the space stations and orbital defenses could achieve this. Do you build your orbital platforms with just x2 missiles and fast missile racks, to see them sit around and do nothing when the missiles hit their target and the enemy is left? Or do you go with mass drivers, which can hit a target a very long way, but aren't as powerful as fusion cannons?guiguibaah wrote:In some ways, I like the "Command and Conquer, Generals" idea for defence, where one gattling cannon can a) Massacre enemy troops, b) damage medium-armor vehicles, c) Completely innefective and vulnerable to heavy vehicles and artillery.
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Of course, your opponent could go the safe way, and build one 'gattling cannon', one 'bunker', one 'sam site' and one 'artillery' so they are generally 'well rounded' in their defence, but it would only be effective against a well-mixed fleet.
I'm not really fond of that idea because I can see the standard ones becoming usless as the better technologies come out and we're back at the same point (as someone recently pointed out) of an advanced scout ship bombarding planets.guiguibaah wrote:Perhaps an option would be to have 2 classes of defences... The standard ones you can fit on any planet that have minimal cost, and the specialized ones that cost a lot more.