Land warfare seems to be that one thing pretty much everyone seems to agree isn't that good; you just buy a buttload of armies, send them to the planet you want to invade, then watch as NUMBERS happen. There's not much of a strategy, you just buy enough armies(but not too many, because that could cripple the economy), send them over, and then you win.
Another thing that is kinda strange about armies is that soldier jobs can only help you defensively in land warfare, not offensively. Instead, armies kind of just... are built out of minerals, with the number of armies created being limited by the number of pops in your empire, regardless of their job. In my opinion, this makes armies feel disconnected from the rest of the game, kind of a relic of the past.
To remedy these things, I suggest making it so that assault armies are created by soldier jobs. I have worked out a system that does this, while also changing how armies operate(hopefully for the better)
The vision
This suggestion is focused on making land warfare more interesting, but unlike most other suggestions of this type, this is not done by trying to improve invasions themselves. Instead, it aims to improve everything surrounding it, how you create armies, how you manage them and so on. The idea is that being good at land warfare should be achieved by building up a powerful military infrastructure, and not just by buying armies from the army buying menu.
The suggestion would also, by necessity, include a revamp to the way armies move. Instead of transport ships, they would move more like how leaders move, but with a few differences. Admittedly, this system might be a bit less intuitive, but it would also make the game a bit more strategic.
How to create armies
Jobs that create defense armies now also create some assault armies, with the exact values being adjusted by some ethics and policies. For most empires, enforcers produce one defense army and one assault army, while soldiers produce two of each, with the ability to swap one army over to the other type through a policy. The type of assault army created depends on the pop in question, with robotic pops creating robotic armies and so on.
Moving armies around
Assault armies are now bound to a planet, and instead of moving around in transportation ships, they can instead be assigned to do a certain task(invade planet, complete a mission, etc.), and will then go to do that task. This works similar to moving leaders, with the army taking more time to start the task the further away the planet is.
During peacetime, armies will automatically move back to their home planet when they don't have a task to do. They will be unavailable until they return.
During war, you can freely move armies from one planet to another, provided there is a free line of non-enemy territory from one planet to another. When an army is killed, it will eventually be brought back on the planet it came from, provided the job is still intact and the planet hasn't been invaded.
Upgrading armies
While on their home planet, assault armies can be upgraded to more advanced variants(gene warrior armies, psionic armies, battle frame armies, etc.), assuming it's an appropriate type(can't turn robots into psionics and whatnot). This will have an upfront cost, as well as an upkeep cost, which should ideally be more creative than just mineral cost and energy upkeep. Armies can also be demoted to their "base" form if one wishes.
If an upgraded army is killed in battle, it retains its upgraded status when it's recreated by its associated pop.
Special armies(clones, event armies, zombies, and so on)
This system works well for regular armies, where armies are recruited from the populace, but some armies in stellaris don't work like that. These will have to work through some slightly different mechanics:
Xenomorphs and undead armies are generated by either necromancers(for the undead), or a new xenomorph-specific job unlocked by its relevant tech.
Clone armies could kinda keep the old mechanics, what with them being recruited by just buying them.
Event armies could also work in a similar way to clones, but with their current "only X of them can be recruited" rule.
Slave armies could be generated by just having enough battle thralls on a planet, with every X battle thralls giving you one slave army.
How to handle "overflow armies" and draft dodgers
This section is for discussing what to do if, say, a pop working for a soldier job stops working for that job. During peacetime, we can assume that it just deletes the associated assault army, but what if there's a war going on and that army is off invading a planet? In these instances, your army will become "over-capacitated", which means no armies are able to regenerate health until the number of armies in service is less than or equal to how many armies you're "supposed" to have. This is to simulate a lack of reinforcements.
Additionally, when an army leaves its home planet, it will "lock" its associated pop into its current job, preventing it from losing its job through promotion or being replaced by a better pop.(They can still lose their job if the building is destroyed)
I am aware this system could cause some inbalance, with an empire ending up with the wrong composition of armies by the end, but personally I think this is a better way of handling it than by having armies just poof out of existence when they stop being supported, or having every army be assigned to a certain pop.
The benefits of this system
- building an army would be made more interesting, since it's now more about creating military infrastructure, rather than just buying them outright.
- would make armies feel more distinct, because they can now be created in different ways(jobs, upgrading, or sometimes just buying them)
- would add another layer of strategy, because invading another planet would now also leave your own planet less guarded.
This would hopefully make land warfare more interesting, but it should probably also be paired with some more improvements, like more interesting combat, but that is for someone else to fix.
Another thing that is kinda strange about armies is that soldier jobs can only help you defensively in land warfare, not offensively. Instead, armies kind of just... are built out of minerals, with the number of armies created being limited by the number of pops in your empire, regardless of their job. In my opinion, this makes armies feel disconnected from the rest of the game, kind of a relic of the past.
To remedy these things, I suggest making it so that assault armies are created by soldier jobs. I have worked out a system that does this, while also changing how armies operate(hopefully for the better)
The vision
This suggestion is focused on making land warfare more interesting, but unlike most other suggestions of this type, this is not done by trying to improve invasions themselves. Instead, it aims to improve everything surrounding it, how you create armies, how you manage them and so on. The idea is that being good at land warfare should be achieved by building up a powerful military infrastructure, and not just by buying armies from the army buying menu.
The suggestion would also, by necessity, include a revamp to the way armies move. Instead of transport ships, they would move more like how leaders move, but with a few differences. Admittedly, this system might be a bit less intuitive, but it would also make the game a bit more strategic.
How to create armies
Jobs that create defense armies now also create some assault armies, with the exact values being adjusted by some ethics and policies. For most empires, enforcers produce one defense army and one assault army, while soldiers produce two of each, with the ability to swap one army over to the other type through a policy. The type of assault army created depends on the pop in question, with robotic pops creating robotic armies and so on.
Moving armies around
Assault armies are now bound to a planet, and instead of moving around in transportation ships, they can instead be assigned to do a certain task(invade planet, complete a mission, etc.), and will then go to do that task. This works similar to moving leaders, with the army taking more time to start the task the further away the planet is.
During peacetime, armies will automatically move back to their home planet when they don't have a task to do. They will be unavailable until they return.
During war, you can freely move armies from one planet to another, provided there is a free line of non-enemy territory from one planet to another. When an army is killed, it will eventually be brought back on the planet it came from, provided the job is still intact and the planet hasn't been invaded.
Upgrading armies
While on their home planet, assault armies can be upgraded to more advanced variants(gene warrior armies, psionic armies, battle frame armies, etc.), assuming it's an appropriate type(can't turn robots into psionics and whatnot). This will have an upfront cost, as well as an upkeep cost, which should ideally be more creative than just mineral cost and energy upkeep. Armies can also be demoted to their "base" form if one wishes.
If an upgraded army is killed in battle, it retains its upgraded status when it's recreated by its associated pop.
Special armies(clones, event armies, zombies, and so on)
This system works well for regular armies, where armies are recruited from the populace, but some armies in stellaris don't work like that. These will have to work through some slightly different mechanics:
Xenomorphs and undead armies are generated by either necromancers(for the undead), or a new xenomorph-specific job unlocked by its relevant tech.
Clone armies could kinda keep the old mechanics, what with them being recruited by just buying them.
Event armies could also work in a similar way to clones, but with their current "only X of them can be recruited" rule.
Slave armies could be generated by just having enough battle thralls on a planet, with every X battle thralls giving you one slave army.
How to handle "overflow armies" and draft dodgers
This section is for discussing what to do if, say, a pop working for a soldier job stops working for that job. During peacetime, we can assume that it just deletes the associated assault army, but what if there's a war going on and that army is off invading a planet? In these instances, your army will become "over-capacitated", which means no armies are able to regenerate health until the number of armies in service is less than or equal to how many armies you're "supposed" to have. This is to simulate a lack of reinforcements.
Additionally, when an army leaves its home planet, it will "lock" its associated pop into its current job, preventing it from losing its job through promotion or being replaced by a better pop.(They can still lose their job if the building is destroyed)
I am aware this system could cause some inbalance, with an empire ending up with the wrong composition of armies by the end, but personally I think this is a better way of handling it than by having armies just poof out of existence when they stop being supported, or having every army be assigned to a certain pop.
The benefits of this system
- building an army would be made more interesting, since it's now more about creating military infrastructure, rather than just buying them outright.
- would make armies feel more distinct, because they can now be created in different ways(jobs, upgrading, or sometimes just buying them)
- would add another layer of strategy, because invading another planet would now also leave your own planet less guarded.
This would hopefully make land warfare more interesting, but it should probably also be paired with some more improvements, like more interesting combat, but that is for someone else to fix.
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