Could the space station have an owner ?

[arctvrvs]

Somehow, the principle of having all the station you built fall into the hand of your rival just cause his influence extended doesn't feel really right to me.
Why do I think it could be interesting and fun from a gameplay point of view ?

-war to size the space stations in your area of influence (or ultimatum before)
-transport ships would be needed to size the stations
-build station in someone else territory (diplo malus) or ask for right to build stations into someone else territory (for half the income of said station
-stations in system exchangable in trade deal
-stations too far (not in anyone's zone of influence) could have a chance to become an outlaw den, colonize an available close-by system and secede

opinion?

 

[henzington]

I would love a way to stop my fleet from destroying stations in systems I plan on taking in wars.

 

[TestosteroneLol]

Based on the title, I thought you were asking whether space stations could be privately owned like the prison in mass effect 2, which I thought was very exciting. I do like the outlaw den idea though in theory.

 

[Stadhouder]

Somehow, the principle of having all the station you built fall into the hand of your rival just cause his influence extended doesn't feel really right to me.
Why do I think it could be interesting and fun from a gameplay point of view ?

-war to size the space stations in your area of influence (or ultimatum before)
-transport ships would be needed to size the stations
-build station in someone else territory (diplo malus) or ask for right to build stations into someone else territory (for half the income of said station
-stations in system exchangable in trade deal
-stations too far (not in anyone's zone of influence) could have a chance to become an outlaw den, colonize an available close-by system and secede

opinion?

I think it would become tedious very quickly. There will be dozens of stations already in early game, and hundred by the middle game. If they can all belong to different nations the map/UI will either become very cluttered or you just have no idea whether all station in your space are actually belong to you.

Seizing station would be a pain, plus your warships will have destroyed the station before your transport arrives, or the station destroys your transport. Also, there's not really a reason to wage actual war over them if they're in your territory, just close border to the empire they belong too, good luck collecting the resource and supplying the inhabitants of the station then...

Station exchangeable in trade deal would be hard to balance. If they AI is too willing it will be easily abused by the player, if the AI is not, it's a niche feature that hardly adds anything to the game.

From an immersion perspective I also thing the current situation is fine. Station need to be in friendly territory so it can be supplied by civilian ships and the mined resource can transported. People will abandon a station or simply die if it isn't guaranteed to get supplied regularly.

I would like it if something can happen to stations who due to circumstances are now in unclaimed space though

 

[arctvrvs]

I think it would become tedious very quickly. There will be dozens of stations already in early game, and hundred by the middle game. If they can all belong to different nations the map/UI will either become very cluttered or you just have no idea whether all station in your space are actually belong to you.

Seizing station would be a pain, plus your warships will have destroyed the station before your transport arrives, or the station destroys your transport. Also, there's not really a reason to wage actual war over them if they're in your territory, just close border to the empire they belong too, good luck collecting the resource and supplying the inhabitants of the station then...

Station exchangeable in trade deal would be hard to balance. If they AI is too willing it will be easily abused by the player, if the AI is not, it's a niche feature that hardly adds anything to the game.

From an immersion perspective I also thing the current situation is fine. Station need to be in friendly territory so it can be supplied by civilian ships and the mined resource can transported. People will abandon a station or simply die if it isn't guaranteed to get supplied regularly.

I would like it if something can happen to stations who due to circumstances are now in unclaimed space though

From an UI point of view, you could just have a color code, like we have right now : one for free ressources, one for the one that belong to you and one for belonging to someone else.
like @henzington I would actually love to prevent fleets to destroy space station (they are after all civilian structures and destroying them is a war crime)
closing the border would not have a lot of effect, fleets moving directly from systems to systems.
From an immersion point of view, the notion of influence is too vague for me being happy that key systems I exploited fall into the hands of my rival without me having a say in it. But well, that's only my opinion.

Based on the title, I thought you were asking whether space stations could be privately owned like the prison in mass effect 2, which I thought was very exciting. I do like the outlaw den idea though in theory.

Sorry if the title was misleading.
But yeah I would like to see some dynamics due to private initiatives (independent space station, independent system...)
I won't hide that I would love to see the mechanics I proposed to see a trade form of government (like oligarchy) being like the republics in CK2. Like 3-4 families extending their commercial empire in the universe (imagine, Romeo and Juliet in space ! talk about a space opéra)