Some invasion suggestions

[True_poser]

1) Add a button to recall an ongoing invasion.
Seriously, having 75k still in orbit against 630k on planet and not having an option to withdraw is frustrating.

2) If your ships are orbiting an enemy planet, display the number of enemy troops in system overview before an attempt to invade.
The player can see it in the tactical combat, why not show it in the overview.

3) Divide "Bombard colony" command to "(A)nnihilate colony" and "(B)ombard defences".
The former is the current "Bombard colony", the latter is diminishing the number of enemy troops left to ~1k.

4) Make assimilation rate dependent on number of troops left to garrison the planet.
The more troops are stationed there, the faster assimilation is.


Currently people rarely do invasions, because it's too much hassle without much reward.

I believe that:
1) Getting technology boosts or new technologies from the conquered planet
2) Making a massive standing army quite an expensive toy
3) Making certain warfare techs appicable only to certain planets type (who knew that tanks are useless on an oceanic planet, but submarines and hovers are fine?)
4) Reworking strength stacking (1 lvl tank and 1 lvl apc are better than 9 lvl tank, okay) - if you're interested, I can elaborate more

- will not change much in the mechanics of the game as whole as invasions are pretty much isolated
- will not change the invasion mechaincs itself (click the button, see what happens)
- but will make this part of the game interesting

[keller]

1. I totally agree however as noted in my post here there is a serious imbalance in how quickly troops build per a turn. A completely decimated planet can output around 15k troops per a turn so there is quite an imbalance here as by the time your ships get around to actually landing your troops the enemy's troops on the planet will be built up far beyond the average invasion fleets troop capacity. I would therefore like to add that blockaded planets should not be able to build missile bases as they can not build star bases when blockaded so why should they be able to build missile bases ??
2 I most definitely like this idea
3 I would like to see the addition of this to the orders menu
4 I like this idea too.

[Xyquas]

1) Add a button to recall an ongoing invasion.
Seriously, having 75k still in orbit against 630k on planet and not having an option to withdraw is frustrating.

2) If your ships are orbiting an enemy planet, display the number of enemy troops in system overview before an attempt to invade.
The player can see it in the tactical combat, why not show it in the overview.

3) Divide "Bombard colony" command to "(A)nnihilate colony" and "(B)ombard defences".
The former is the current "Bombard colony", the latter is diminishing the number of enemy troops left to ~1k.

4) Make assimilation rate dependent on number of troops left to garrison the planet.
The more troops are stationed there, the faster assimilation is.

I second all 4 points. Expecially number 3 would be really really good as it would give invasions sense again.

Currently people rarely do invasions, because it's too much hassle without much reward.

That's definitely true! I changes my usual approach of invading planets respecting civil population to just wiping out enemy planets because it saves me around half an hour per planet.

I believe that:
1) Getting technology boosts or new technologies from the conquered planet
2) Making a massive standing army quite an expensive toy
3) Making certain warfare techs appicable only to certain planets type (who knew that tanks are useless on an oceanic planet, but submarines and hovers are fine?)
4) Reworking strength stacking (1 lvl tank and 1 lvl apc are better than 9 lvl tank, okay) - if you're interested, I can elaborate more

1) This is the most attractive change for me so I definitely second this, too.
2) I think this goes to the opposite direction as heavy invading is only possible with a large standing army - although I see that this makes sense and maybe draws the Tantik's teeth in the early phase of the game due to a lack of money.
3) I like this idea but from my point of view it could only work if there was 1 tech per planet type exclusiveley. And probably this suggestion also goes to the opposite direction as it makes invading a little harder.
4) I can see the point in this but I think it would not work this way. If there was a stone and scissors approach (every combat unit can be knocked out by a certain counter unit) then I could imagine this working. For example tanks render useless if encountering bombers, but bombers can be shot down by fighters.

[True_poser]

2) At the moment heavy invading does not require any standing army at all, because troops just spawn at troop pods when the ship is built/bought.
But the point here is that it is too easy to just build barracks at turn one and have whooping ~700k troops for free.

I percieve both things as bad.

So, on the first hand, succesful invasion becomes easier once you have a suitable force. Also, it's more lucrative.
On the other hand, gathering that force becomes harder as you have to actually pay for your troops and weaken your own defences.

How to pay for troops:
- either setting a limit in 100k units in that barracks box and pay corresponding maintenance fees
- either setting a limit in % of population in that barracks box and pay by diverting your workforce

I like the second option more.
Let's look at Earth - 6b, 31% workforce.
If we set 2% of working pop in army, we have 37,2k troops max and (as 90% are in farming) we hurt science and industry by 20% (from 5% to 4%).
Well, you have to make do then!

And the speed of troops buildup up to the set limit has to be tied with the population morale, of course.

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3) Yes, it makes invasions somewhat harder but combined with other suggestions, I believe, they'll have more or less the same diffuculty throughout the game.
At the moment invasions are prohibitively expensive at start and boringly easy at later stages.

I don't think one tech per planet type is reasonable.
Then it should be not tanks, mechs, bombers etc, but "Jungle warfare", "Desert operations" etc techs.

However, I think that the current techs are ok, but they should be different somehow in order to be useful.
At the moment there is no point in actually researching a warfare tech once you got it.

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4) Stone and scissors would work if there was armies micromanagement.
Three tanks reinforcing each batallion, logistics department, air support doctrines, that stuff.
However, it would be a game in itself and it'd be quite inconsistent with the whole game.

Ok, let's assume we're waging a war on a terran planet.
We have conventional warfare there, so it's tanks, fighters and bombers.

First, we have grunt check.
The weight of each grunt combines from their ground combat, infantry weapons, combat suite, personal shields and APC level.
The exact mechanism is debatable, but in the end we'll got 170 points. Or 203. Or whatever, a number.

Then we have numbers and morale check.
If the outnumbered side (any ratio) has "Fanatical" morale, they don't care.
If the outnumbered side (more than 2:1) has "Content" morale and the other is not "Fanatical", they don't care. Otherwise, they have x0.7 multiplier.
If the outnumbered side (more than 1:1) has "Subdued" morale and the other is also "Subdued", they don't care. Otherwise, they have x0.7 multiplier.

Then we have tech check.
The amount of rock-paper-scissorness here can be debated. The main issue is to have the comparison rules transparent for a player.
For instance, let's just say tanks battle with tanks, fighters hinder bombers and bombers try to deliver thir payloads thorugh enemy's air defence fighters.
7lvl tank vs 4lvl tank gives a 1.3 bonus, 4lvl fighter vs 5lvl bomber gives a 0.9 bonus, 6lvl bomber vs 3lvl fighter gives a 1.3 bonus.
Average is 1.17, let's take it as a tech multiplier.

Then we have a simple check:
attacker_troops_number * attacker_grunt_weight * attacker_moral_multi * attacker_tech_multi
-
defender_troops_number * defender_grunt_weight * defender_moral_multi * defender_tech_multi
=
VICTORY if >0, DEFEAT if <0,


We can also throw in targetting tech level as a multiplier or a defender's bonus, etc.
We can also throw in bonuses from alliances (biological warfar advisors from Barbecks, why not?).
We can even add armor types used.

However, it all requires modelling and prototyping.
The point is not to insert as many variables as possible.
The point is to make the invasions interesting and versatile with minimal complexity added.

[keller]

IF troops built up 10x less or ground troop pods could carry 10x more troops then this would correct the imbalance that exists on how fast troops build (IMO) Then invading a planet might be worth it. As it is now it is a terrible tedious process.

[True_poser]

Maybe it can be alleviated by a simple rule: when ships ordered to invade the planet reach it, they should invade only on the last turn in the tactical combat if at least one ship has "Bombard defenses" order on that planet.

[keller]

I propose that ground troops be like boarding ships. The addition of a button to drop troops on the planet during tactical combat would be awesome and more realistic.
After the tactical combat has taken place any troop successfully landed would take part in the ground combat phase.

[Xyquas]

I propose that ground troops be like boarding ships. The addition of a button to drop troops on the planet during tactical combat would be awesome and more realistic.
After the tactical combat has taken place any troop successfully landed would take part in the ground combat phase.

I second that.