Less & More expensive ships

[Strager]

By the time early mid-game comes around you have huge massive fleets. These fleets or "Deathstacks" as some on the forum have come to call them pretty much steamrolls through everything.

I think to at least partially fix this in the short term, ship costs should go up - like WAY up. 10x the current cost. Fleet capacity should also drop 25% or so. Finally build times should increase by a decent margin.

With these three changes, ships will be more meaningful. Saving existing ships becomes a more important strategy than whittling down enemy numbers. Bonuses to construction rate matter more too.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I believe consensus is that tweaks to build rates or cost will not discourage doomstacks- just change how big they are. We need mechanics that mean a smaller fleet can, in some situations, be superior to a large one in terms of effectiveness.

 

[Occursus Morini]

There is a thread on the very first page of the forum concerning Doomstacks ; I would advice to use it.

 

[LordMagus]

While it makes it easier on the engine, longer build times make that 1 decisive battle even more decisive. The doomstack isn't so much a matter of the number of ships in it, it describes pooling all your forces together into one fleet, to fight one decisive battle. Reducing the number of ships wouldn't stop you from still grouping all your ships into a doomstack.

There's no current way of saving your ships easily, as the emergency FTL is the only way to break off the battle, and you can lose a lot of ships before you're able to do so.
Bonuses to construction rate might be nice, if it allowed you to recover from large losses and make a war about successive engagements. Though you'd probably need stronger defensive structures to give you the time to replace your losses.