Post by khamya9 on Feb 25, 2015 13:42:03 GMT -5
A change I'd personally love would be to add some variety in the xeno worlds, and with them changes to invasion combat.
Right now, all xeno worlds always have 20 population, and seem to never have below 6 quality (before bombing). Attacking them is an "all or nothing" effort as their population grows so fast and their quality is always X/X never X/Ywhere Y is greater or equal to X.
All bombs and aux systems for invasion are strictly a decision of damage vs mass/cost. Unlike space combat where we have speed of attack, range, boarding vs killing, torps vs guns as well as many aux system options for survival, crit, exotic damage, longer range, even one for speed.
Could you do something like make a few classes of ai planet that do different things for them? Like an industrial world that puts out ships faster with a small chance for ships of +1 level, a technology/research world that builds their score faster, a colony/hab world that gives a global buff to all population growth and spits out colony ships and world killers, and a military world that is like the current default bland ai world but with higher defense values than they usually go for.
This way, selecting which ai world to attack becomes a strategic decision with long term consequences, and not just a tactical decision of "this one is closer". Different xeno races could have different mixes of world types to better distinguish them from each other. In theory, a " scout" invasion action could reveal world type just like invasions currently reveal defense levels. Though it'd be nice to allow exploring or scanning to do so as well.
For invasion tech, could we get some changes to the aux systems so that some increase chance for qua!its/pop damage and others reduce said chances? Like a dirty bomb for bombarding and reducing quality; or infantry central command for focused population killing with reduced quality damage. Possibly even bunker buster weapons to reduce ai defense levels? And ideally actually make infrastructure damage vs permanent quality damage.
Also if the planet quality were somehow tied to the effect on score and ship production, so that an attack that weakens a world without wiping it out is meaningful, that would be great. Like having reduced a world from 20 pop and 11/11 quality to 8 pop and 4/11 quality would mean something. Today 4/11 quality is impossible, and 8 pop will grow back to 20 in just 4 to 8 turns depending on which xeno.
Right now, all xeno worlds always have 20 population, and seem to never have below 6 quality (before bombing). Attacking them is an "all or nothing" effort as their population grows so fast and their quality is always X/X never X/Ywhere Y is greater or equal to X.
All bombs and aux systems for invasion are strictly a decision of damage vs mass/cost. Unlike space combat where we have speed of attack, range, boarding vs killing, torps vs guns as well as many aux system options for survival, crit, exotic damage, longer range, even one for speed.
Could you do something like make a few classes of ai planet that do different things for them? Like an industrial world that puts out ships faster with a small chance for ships of +1 level, a technology/research world that builds their score faster, a colony/hab world that gives a global buff to all population growth and spits out colony ships and world killers, and a military world that is like the current default bland ai world but with higher defense values than they usually go for.
This way, selecting which ai world to attack becomes a strategic decision with long term consequences, and not just a tactical decision of "this one is closer". Different xeno races could have different mixes of world types to better distinguish them from each other. In theory, a " scout" invasion action could reveal world type just like invasions currently reveal defense levels. Though it'd be nice to allow exploring or scanning to do so as well.
For invasion tech, could we get some changes to the aux systems so that some increase chance for qua!its/pop damage and others reduce said chances? Like a dirty bomb for bombarding and reducing quality; or infantry central command for focused population killing with reduced quality damage. Possibly even bunker buster weapons to reduce ai defense levels? And ideally actually make infrastructure damage vs permanent quality damage.
Also if the planet quality were somehow tied to the effect on score and ship production, so that an attack that weakens a world without wiping it out is meaningful, that would be great. Like having reduced a world from 20 pop and 11/11 quality to 8 pop and 4/11 quality would mean something. Today 4/11 quality is impossible, and 8 pop will grow back to 20 in just 4 to 8 turns depending on which xeno.
