Army Changes, pretty much a complete rewrite
- Transport ships don't get into "fights" - they can be fired on, but can be assigned to land on planets even under fire (although they probably all won't make it). This allows you to invade planets even if they have a station in orbit. Additionally, transport ships are given very high evade values, giving missiles a powerful niche at resisting them.
- Planets have "defenses". These are not multipliers, but instead deal additional damage to invaders as they are landing. Once they are on the ground, they don't matter anymore. Techs can be used to empower or weaker these defenses.
- Things like planetary shields can slow down landings, giving the defenses more time to do their work... or even completely prevent landing in the case of the shield generation structure. This is the only situation, post-changes, where orbital bombardment would be required before a landing can be attempted.
- Once they are on the ground, it's mostly a straight up knock-down fight between the two sides. However, the invading army can select a few different different options for the invasion: "Occupation", "Deprivation", "Total War", or "Terror".
- Occupation works the way it does now. Armies fight until one side is wiped out, with one major exception - defensive garrisons made up from unhappy pops may switch sides at the start of the battle, and any burgeoning resistance movement on the planet will join the attackers so long as they aren't ideologically opposed (materialist rebels still won't join a spiritualist invasion). Units that deal lots of damage are the best for this sort of thing, though health helps to.
- Deprivation campaigns target enemy infrastructure. The goal is not to kill the enemy - damage dealt to enemy units is reduced to 25%, and units do not stop even if they "win" and wipe out the enemy. Instead, their goal is to destroy enemy facilities in the same way "sabotage" events do, turning them into wrecks. This happens fairly quickly, and once all enemy defenses, power plants and mining facilities are destroyed (in that order of priority), they will retreat. Large numbers of units are your best bet here.
- Total War campaigns work like the above, except they will destroy research facilities and farms as well, and will actually prioritize the destruction of farms first.
- Finally, terror campaigns. Terror campaigns will kill civilian pops, and cause incredible unhappiness on the planet. Terror campaigns work like Deprivation campaigns in that they barely fight enemy armies, but so long as you use units with huge morale damage they can do their work very quickly and retreat. They also take reduced damage from enemies, since they try to spread out and target civilian areas while avoiding armed conflict, making them hard to target. Terror campaigns are meant to be relatively quick strikes, probably with expendable units, against planets you don't think you can actually invade.
This will involve a few changes to bombardment as well
- Instead of destroying fortifications, you have three types of orbital behaviour. You can blockade, target specific buildings to destroy in bombing runs (although this will open your ships up to being attacked by planetary defenses), or bomb indiscriminately (which causes terror and kills pops).
- Blockading temporarily turns the planet into a "sector" of it's own since they are cut off from control - however, they will continue generating materials, and if the blockade is driven off those stockpiles will be immediately added to the parent empire, so this is really not as large a benefit as you would think.
- If the enemy has a planetary shield up, this is the only building you can bomb - you are otherwise restricted to blockading. Bombing this building will open the planet up for a ground invasion though.
- Bomber Carriers are incredibly effective at bombing runs and terror campaigns, roughly three times as effective as the next best equipment in the game.
Finally, buildings:
- You can build a few types of building to help secure planets, since defensive stations are no longer a guaranteed safeguard against invasions, and even a single terror army getting through can cause havoc. By default, planets have fixed defenses based on population though, so they aren't requird.
- Repulsor Buildings significantly slow down invasions, giving other defenses more time to work.
- Planetary shields stop them completely.
- Artillery buildings can not only fire on invaders, but can also fire on ships that are blockading or attacking the planet or attacking the nearby station.
- Transport ships don't get into "fights" - they can be fired on, but can be assigned to land on planets even under fire (although they probably all won't make it). This allows you to invade planets even if they have a station in orbit. Additionally, transport ships are given very high evade values, giving missiles a powerful niche at resisting them.
- Planets have "defenses". These are not multipliers, but instead deal additional damage to invaders as they are landing. Once they are on the ground, they don't matter anymore. Techs can be used to empower or weaker these defenses.
- Things like planetary shields can slow down landings, giving the defenses more time to do their work... or even completely prevent landing in the case of the shield generation structure. This is the only situation, post-changes, where orbital bombardment would be required before a landing can be attempted.
- Once they are on the ground, it's mostly a straight up knock-down fight between the two sides. However, the invading army can select a few different different options for the invasion: "Occupation", "Deprivation", "Total War", or "Terror".
- Occupation works the way it does now. Armies fight until one side is wiped out, with one major exception - defensive garrisons made up from unhappy pops may switch sides at the start of the battle, and any burgeoning resistance movement on the planet will join the attackers so long as they aren't ideologically opposed (materialist rebels still won't join a spiritualist invasion). Units that deal lots of damage are the best for this sort of thing, though health helps to.
- Deprivation campaigns target enemy infrastructure. The goal is not to kill the enemy - damage dealt to enemy units is reduced to 25%, and units do not stop even if they "win" and wipe out the enemy. Instead, their goal is to destroy enemy facilities in the same way "sabotage" events do, turning them into wrecks. This happens fairly quickly, and once all enemy defenses, power plants and mining facilities are destroyed (in that order of priority), they will retreat. Large numbers of units are your best bet here.
- Total War campaigns work like the above, except they will destroy research facilities and farms as well, and will actually prioritize the destruction of farms first.
- Finally, terror campaigns. Terror campaigns will kill civilian pops, and cause incredible unhappiness on the planet. Terror campaigns work like Deprivation campaigns in that they barely fight enemy armies, but so long as you use units with huge morale damage they can do their work very quickly and retreat. They also take reduced damage from enemies, since they try to spread out and target civilian areas while avoiding armed conflict, making them hard to target. Terror campaigns are meant to be relatively quick strikes, probably with expendable units, against planets you don't think you can actually invade.
This will involve a few changes to bombardment as well
- Instead of destroying fortifications, you have three types of orbital behaviour. You can blockade, target specific buildings to destroy in bombing runs (although this will open your ships up to being attacked by planetary defenses), or bomb indiscriminately (which causes terror and kills pops).
- Blockading temporarily turns the planet into a "sector" of it's own since they are cut off from control - however, they will continue generating materials, and if the blockade is driven off those stockpiles will be immediately added to the parent empire, so this is really not as large a benefit as you would think.
- If the enemy has a planetary shield up, this is the only building you can bomb - you are otherwise restricted to blockading. Bombing this building will open the planet up for a ground invasion though.
- Bomber Carriers are incredibly effective at bombing runs and terror campaigns, roughly three times as effective as the next best equipment in the game.
Finally, buildings:
- You can build a few types of building to help secure planets, since defensive stations are no longer a guaranteed safeguard against invasions, and even a single terror army getting through can cause havoc. By default, planets have fixed defenses based on population though, so they aren't requird.
- Repulsor Buildings significantly slow down invasions, giving other defenses more time to work.
- Planetary shields stop them completely.
- Artillery buildings can not only fire on invaders, but can also fire on ships that are blockading or attacking the planet or attacking the nearby station.
- 1
- 1
Upvote
0