The patrolling mechanic is tedious and doesn't work well for later phases of the game. I understand why would implement it, you want to have the "lively" image of a galaxy with ships moving back and forth and patrolling seems logical. But in the practical aspect of the game, it just doesn't work well. Managing an empire with dozens of trade routes and assigning corvettes to move on routes here and there is just clunky and tedious.
Instead, ships should provide trade protection the same way starbase improvements provide trade protection, they project protection into neighboring systems. All they have to do is to either orbit the star, in a starless system, or the starbase, if you have one. The range at which they spread their protection is up to debate and should be adjusted to provide the appropriate balance in the game.
PS:
Alternative solution I can think about is to have a mechanic of assigning ships to police duties on a given trade route. It works like this, you choose a trade route on the trade route screen and you assign a ship to police duties. The ship disapears from the form the map and it has a "arrival time" once it arrives, it appears on the trade screen next to a given trade route as a token. From there it can be recalled from "police duties", which will cause the ship to reappear on the map after some time. Therefore the entire patrolling thing is converted to a hidden, behind the screen mechanic managed from the trade screen rather than a swarm of corvettes that you need to manage around manually.
Instead, ships should provide trade protection the same way starbase improvements provide trade protection, they project protection into neighboring systems. All they have to do is to either orbit the star, in a starless system, or the starbase, if you have one. The range at which they spread their protection is up to debate and should be adjusted to provide the appropriate balance in the game.
PS:
Alternative solution I can think about is to have a mechanic of assigning ships to police duties on a given trade route. It works like this, you choose a trade route on the trade route screen and you assign a ship to police duties. The ship disapears from the form the map and it has a "arrival time" once it arrives, it appears on the trade screen next to a given trade route as a token. From there it can be recalled from "police duties", which will cause the ship to reappear on the map after some time. Therefore the entire patrolling thing is converted to a hidden, behind the screen mechanic managed from the trade screen rather than a swarm of corvettes that you need to manage around manually.
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