Idea to improve combat

[Kretson]

Hey guys

I'm back to Stellaris after a while of a break (hyped for 1.5 patch) and one though striked me while playing my collectivist-militarist growth focused empire.

In HoI4 we have a great option to assign certain tasks to our fleets and don't have to manually order them to protect amphibious assault, attack the single enemy fliet etc. etc. Combat in stellaris is boring. I highly enjoy developing my empires but when it comes to waging war I can't see any interesting stuff there atm, it's just smash enemies navy, siege, assault, repeat till he is defeated.

So I though - wouldn't it be a good idea to implement some kind of fleet missions to stellaris? For example player makes one battleship-based fleet to hund enemy fleets, 2 fleets that are solely ordered to bombard planets, 4 small torpedo fleets to harass space mining/research based, groups of corvettes to protect troops and automated groups of transports that are ordered to strike at every planet with 0 defensiveness due to bombardments.

Wouldn't such a possibility make it way easier to wage big wars in lategame, make wars more interesting and last but not least force players to emphasise more on ship builds, fleet builds and specializing ships?

I dunno guys, maybe most of you are satisfied with current system?

So it's basically a suggestion I wanted to post

 

[prismaticmarcus]

way too micro for my taste

 

[LordMagus]

Fleet missions being implemented without other changes, would still see wars quickly over and be lackluster. One of the reasons why combat is boring, is it's comprised entirely of doomstack fights to the death. Having more options for ships to retreat would see wars prolonged, and hopefully an end to the doomstacks of doop.

 

[Atlantians]

We really need a rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock combat system, not unlike in Crusader Kings II, or HOI4, where fleets react to and counter larger/smaller/more-advanced ships/fleets.

 

[safe-keeper]

The only thing I currently want is more control of my ships. I dream of a Dominions-style window where I get to setup a formation for my fleet and give "squads" of ships orders, like "stay back and bombard the enemy from afar", "charge the enemy", or "close to optimal weapons range".

Heck, orders alone would add so much depth. Stars! proved this back in the day.

Edit: or for that matter, just the ability to give simple move orders to fleets during combat.

 

[Atlantians]

Why on Gaia did you two, @safe-keeper and @scaper12123, disagree with my idea?!

The only thing I currently want is more control of my ships. I dream of a Dominions-style window where I get to setup a formation for my fleet and give "squads" of ships orders, like "stay back and bombard the enemy from afar", "charge the enemy", or "close to optimal weapons range".

Heck, orders alone would add so much depth. Stars! proved this back in the day.

Edit: or for that matter, just the ability to give simple move orders to fleets during combat.

This is abjectly counter to the design Stellaris adopted. What you have suggested is entirely antithetical to Paradox design philosophy for games like Stellaris, EU4, etc.

 

[LordMagus]

In the depths of space, the two fleets stood opposed. The Telnak had never before encountered an enemy such as this, though their pride assured them that their highly advanced beam weapons would be up to the task. Simultaneously, the enemy began to move, soaring through space towards the Telnak, faster than any ship they had seen. Over the comms, the order was shouted "Shel'mae!" and bright green beams of energy pierced the empty space between the two fleets. Instead of witnessing the immediate destruction of the enemy that the Telnak had become accustomed to, all that greeted them on their displays was blinding white light enveloping the enemy ships. The light slowly dissipated, and the enemy ships were shown to be completely unharmed. Horror began to spread throughout the fleet, as the enemy closed in even faster than before. The order was immediately given to retreat, to avoid the futile battle. Moments before engaging their jump drives, the enemy floated right before them, surrounded by a blinding light, as vibrations began to hum all throughout the ships of the Telnak. Admiral Kreevak could only pray that their armour was strong enough, as he attempted to peer past his hands shielding himself from the light. And then in an instant, the Telnak ships simply crumpled into themselves, crushed into heaps of metal with their crew inside. The ship mounted sensors sent off their last readings instantly to the Telnak space citadel. The great enemy did not use any previously known weapon, they appeared to use manipulate gravity to simply crush their enemies, and used advanced shielding technologies to become nigh invincible to the Telnak beam weapons.
When the initial panic died down, it was quickly decided that the remaining ships would be fitted with autonomous AI that would split off and attempt to stall as long as possible. All that could be done was to invest all resources, energy and manpower into finding a technological solution to defeat this great foe.

 

[safe-keeper]

Why on Gaia did you two, @safe-keeper and @scaper12123, disagree with my idea?!

?

This is abjectly counter to the design Stellaris adopted. What you have suggested is entirely antithetical to Paradox design philosophy for games like Stellaris, EU4, etc.

None of Paradox' other games handle combat like Stellaris.

 

[Adamsrealm]

Buffings static defences & and making doomstacks less effective are the main two things that need tackling since they are both already in the game.

Next is balancing ftl types so they all have a unique major pro, and a unique major con that other ftls can exploit. Jump drives are a bit too easy to get and have way too many ups vs it's downsides. I know they are meant to be "better" than all other ftl types, but they really need a major downside e.g. Costing a lot more ship power than standard ftl types.
(P.s. The chance of a crisis triggering is not enough to be it's downside and once one has triggered it becomes irrelevant.)

Next would be balancing weapon types so they truly are a rock paper scissors system, I'd personally like to see research bonuses to the type of weapon you chose initially and penalties for types you did not, essentially restricting your use of weapons in early to mid game, resulting in the rock paper scissors system being more relevant.

After this would probably be the expansion of defensive structures beyond large weapon platforms, such as utility stations that give significant bonuses to fleets present in the system or certain penalties to enemy fleets.

 

[Almond_Brown]

?
None of Paradox' other games handle combat like Stellaris.

Well Oceans battles in HOI4 are sort of the same, as in you create a Fleet and set them to task with no further input need other than Repair or Return to Port orders. There ain't no "BB Groups A go here, then there, then there!" type stuff.

P.S. I too would like some level of Fleet control during battles, or have the computers way more fine tuned such that long range ships would even "back up" if the enemy approached inside their optimal firing range(s)

 

[safe-keeper]

I don't neccessarily want to micro-manage individual ships, but the abiltiy to tell the whole fleet to move would be useful. If, say, you're fighting one enemy fleet and a larger second fleet appears, so that you want to move your ships away from the second fleet, but maybe keep them in range of the first, if you know what I mean.

 

[rcasale]

I think even now we have too much control over fleets. You shouldn't be managing fleet movement in system, you should only tell fleets to move to a system. If there is an enemy fleet present, then both fleets will engage in a combat, moving threw several phases (discovery, skirmish, engagement, withdrawal, et cetera). You could retreat at any point in the combat phases, subject to certain penalties depending on the phase. I'm thinking along of the lines of HoI4 naval combat. The system level map could even have fancy fleet battle graphics going on around the system indicative to the nature of the battle (fleet compositions, phase of battle, relative loses)

 

[Chilled Legumes]

The only thing I currently want is more control of my ships.

I'm not sure if you've heard of this mod, but this one pretty much gives you the ability to do that. it helps control the ships on a role-by-role basis, and it even ends up making the combat look a bit nicer too!