So, having watched all of the Blorg streams in one massive binge session ( <3 Blorg ), one thing that struck me particularly is that fleet combat is... lackluster. It seems almost a carbon copy of the ship combat from EUIV, which if we're honest was never particularly thrilling (I don't have Mare Nostrum so cannot speak to how it has changed, if at all).
I get that in Stellaris the most important part of combat, and wars in general in most games, comes down to preparation. Stellaris offers you a great amount of freedom in ship design, indeed perhaps making this the most important part of combat, which I am extremely excited about. My only issue is that when the fleets do start clashing, you lose all agency beyond calling for a retreat (from what I can see, assuming I haven't missed anything).
I think what would be nice is if the ships had abilities or perks that they could use in combat to boost their performance. I'm not suggesting anything in the vein of mid-combat ability use in the style of Sins of a Solar Empire or the Warcraft games (where that kind of micro got slightly tedious), but the ability to allow your ships to use emergency power to temporarily boost their shields or their thrusters, and thus increase their chance of evading fire, would give combat a bit of a spark.
My suggestion for this would be to allow excess power generated in the ship design screen to provide an emergency power stat, or to let there be a ship module with a store of emergency power. The idea then is that in combat, you can tell ships of a certain class to use this power in one or another way, and they do this until they run out of power or you tell them to stop. This can then either recharge slowly over time if based on excess power, or needs to be recharged at a star base, with an energy requirement, if based off of an emergency power cell.
In broad strokes, that is how I would give players a bit of agency in combat and add a bit of depth, as the choice of whether to boost shields or evasion would depend on the kind of weapons you are facing.
Please feel free to offer commentary or critique and I will be more than happy to respond!
I get that in Stellaris the most important part of combat, and wars in general in most games, comes down to preparation. Stellaris offers you a great amount of freedom in ship design, indeed perhaps making this the most important part of combat, which I am extremely excited about. My only issue is that when the fleets do start clashing, you lose all agency beyond calling for a retreat (from what I can see, assuming I haven't missed anything).
I think what would be nice is if the ships had abilities or perks that they could use in combat to boost their performance. I'm not suggesting anything in the vein of mid-combat ability use in the style of Sins of a Solar Empire or the Warcraft games (where that kind of micro got slightly tedious), but the ability to allow your ships to use emergency power to temporarily boost their shields or their thrusters, and thus increase their chance of evading fire, would give combat a bit of a spark.
My suggestion for this would be to allow excess power generated in the ship design screen to provide an emergency power stat, or to let there be a ship module with a store of emergency power. The idea then is that in combat, you can tell ships of a certain class to use this power in one or another way, and they do this until they run out of power or you tell them to stop. This can then either recharge slowly over time if based on excess power, or needs to be recharged at a star base, with an energy requirement, if based off of an emergency power cell.
In broad strokes, that is how I would give players a bit of agency in combat and add a bit of depth, as the choice of whether to boost shields or evasion would depend on the kind of weapons you are facing.
Please feel free to offer commentary or critique and I will be more than happy to respond!
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