Should Military Academy be stronger?

[Ffc]

Hi guys,

Today I would like to talk about the Military Academy building.

I see two problems with it :

- Since Armies are a bit irrelevant because you can always just build more, Army exp isn't a very valuable ressources
- Since it cannot be upgraded, it's just a stronghold but less efficient

Maybe should it have an other effect or just be upgradable?

Also, I'm thinking about the Resource silos building which has an interesting effect but I never see myself losing one precious building spot for that and only 1 weak job, maybe should it be better?

What do you think?

 

[exi123]

The military academy could work like a booster building like the galactic stock exchange, mineral plant and energy nexus for fortress worlds. Thats the only purpose i can think of in the current enviroment.

 

[Ffc]

The military academy could work like a booster building like the galactic stock exchange, mineral plant and energy nexus for fortress worlds. Thats the only purpose i can think of in the current enviroment.

It would makes sense yeah, good idea

Something I didn't mention is that Military Academy is remplaced by the Dread Encampment with the Reanimated Armies civic so we should also think about that

 

[Olterin]

The thing about it is, in a vein similar to ship experience - 100 army experience equates to your armies trained on that planet dealing 10% more damage. That's not nothing - in the grand scheme of things it means your army death stack gets depleted slower since your armies are more efficient at dealing with enemies (because let's be honest, no army is ever going to see any unit xp beyond starting army xp, they die so fast).

The problem is that land warfare is largely irrelevant, so there's no real way to make this building that is meant to boost your land warfare capabilities ... not be bad. Unless you make it into something else entirely, but at that point you're advocating for two things - removing any and all boosts to land warfare, and for a new thing to be added.

To keep it mattering to land warfare efficiency, and to not clutter the build list everywhere, I would propose to instead make it an empire-wide one-of-a-kind building that grants those buffs and more. 10% more damage is barely noticeable when army quality varies so much and where species traits and militarist ethos can stack far higher. But if it gave something unique, to all your armies ... like, say, a +30% retreat chance? That would be unique, and might actually let some armies get up to higher experience levels eventually. And even if not, it would further reduce army attrition, giving a way to have to deal with this tedium of spamming armies less often. Win-win, as far as I can see it.

 

[Echo Candor One]

Hi guys,

Today I would like to talk about the Military Academy building.

I see two problems with it :

- Since Armies are a bit irrelevant because you can always just build more, Army exp isn't a very valuable ressources
- Since it cannot be upgraded, it's just a stronghold but less efficient

Maybe should it have an other effect or just be upgradable?

Also, I'm thinking about the Resource silos building which has an interesting effect but I never see myself losing one precious building spot for that and only 1 weak job, maybe should it be better?

What do you think?

I use resource silos a lot in the late game. I might be weird tho

 

[Ffc]

The problem is that land warfare is largely irrelevant, so there's no real way to make this building that is meant to boost your land warfare capabilities ... not be bad. Unless you make it into something else entirely, but that that point you're advocating for two things - removing any and all boosts to land warfare, and for a new thing to be added.

I wouldn't want to remove all boosts to land warfare, because it still better than nothing and in term of RP it would makes sense

But, with this state of land warfare, which won't change much accoding to the Devs, I think that every Army-oriented boosts need to do another thing useful, just like Strong trait does ressource boost and Reanimated Armies does others things like changing jobs.

To keep it mattering to land warfare efficiency, and to not clutter the build list everywhere, I would propose to instead make it an empire-wide one-of-a-kind building that grants those buffs and more. 10% more damage is barely noticeable when army quality varies so much and where species traits and militarist ethos can stack far higher. But if it gave something unique, to all your armies ... like, say, a +30% retreat chance? That would be unique, and might actually let some armies get up to higher experience levels eventually. And even if not, it would further reduce army attrition, giving a way to have to deal with this tedium of spamming armies less often. Win-win, as far as I can see it.

It would effectively be an other solution, a global boost would at least do something and I would probably build it somewhere

 

[Echo Candor One]

If the miltitary academy made it faster to train armies, I could see myself using them more often. There are enough situations in the game where I realize I need land armies, but in a very bad "oh shit this is happening" kind of way that it's definitely a building I'd have at least one of, somewhere near wherever I build most of my ships.

 

[Ffc]

I use resource silos a lot in the late game. I might be weird tho

Well, I mean by design it's not really strong, you will only need it when your resources are full, and even when it's the case, you can still sell it to stock an other resource.

It means that you're already over producing everything except maybe influence, which mean you probably already have won the game, so what you build doesn't really matter.

Maybe is it useful like in multiplayer when there is a huge battle and you use your 100k stock of Alloys and your Mega-shipyard to rebuild a fleet but I don't really play competitive multiplayer so I don't know

 

[Echo Candor One]

Well, I mean by design it's not really strong, you will only need it when your resources are full, and even when it's the case, you can still sell it to stock an other resource.

It means that you're already over producing everything except maybe influence, which mean you probably already have won the game, so what you build doesn't really matter.

Maybe is it useful like in multiplayer when there is a huge battle and you use your 100k stock of Alloys and your Mega-shipyard to rebuild a fleet but I don't really play competitive multiplayer so I don't know

I seem to remember them being critical back before the rework from tiles to districts, but I can't remember *why.* It might have been that I was new to the game and had no idea what I was doing, though.

 

[Ffc]

I seem to remember them being critical back before the rework from tiles to districts, but I can't remember *why.* It might have been that I was new to the game and had no idea what I was doing, though.

I didn't play much with the tiles system, I mean maybe a hundred hours but I don't remember using them either, it might have been that I was also new so no idea if it was good or not too.

If the miltitary academy made it faster to train armies, I could see myself using them more often. There are enough situations in the game where I realize I need land armies, but in a very bad "oh shit this is happening" kind of way that it's definitely a building I'd have at least one of, somewhere near wherever I build most of my ships.

True, so often I remember that my army is small so I build it mid-war, good point !

 

[fusei]

The thing about it is, in a vein similar to ship experience - 100 army experience equates to your armies trained on that planet dealing 10% more damage. That's not nothing - in the grand scheme of things it means your army death stack gets depleted slower since your armies are more efficient at dealing with enemies (because let's be honest, no army is ever going to see any unit xp beyond starting army xp, they die so fast).

My problem with that is whenever I need more armies I build 5 or so each on all of my worlds. So if I want this bonus on all of my troops I need an academy on every world and I don't see me doing this for any ground army bonus.

 

[Pancakelord]

I seem to remember them being critical back before the rework from tiles to districts, but I can't remember *why.* It might have been that I was new to the game and had no idea what I was doing, though.

Base Stockpile ceilings have been raised a bit since the tile days, I think. They probably just aren't needed when the base stockpile is "big enough" for most vanilla needs. Aside from replenishing a lost fleet quick.

Stockpiles probably could make districts more efficient... somehow. Or play in to trade value, somehow.

Anything else would require new mechanics with questionable worth (e.g. planets stockpiling resources when cut off by enemy fleets, this overlaps with devastation though).

For the military academy, maybe it could level up Def armies (largely useless) unlock planet decisions to level up/train generals to have certain traits in the planet's general slot (niche but could be interesting). Perhaps as part of a crime overhaul enforcers and planet defence armies could be factor it in too. That's a stretch though.

 

[gamerk2]

I use resource silos a lot in the late game. I might be weird tho

I use a mod where they are upgradable, and thus do provide a decent chunk of Amenities/Trade which can overcome the need for a Holo Theatre in some situations. The base building stinks though.

 

[SirBlackAxe]

As others have said there's not too much you can do since armies aren't particularly relevant.

• Flat increase to army recruitment speed
• Ability to construct two armies in parallel (like having two shipyards)
• Generals assigned to a planet with a military academy gain some xp every month
• Armies landed on one of your own planets with a military academy gain some xp every month
• Have them increase your empire's per-species army cap
• Increase soldier output on the planet: +1 naval cap or +1 defense army
• Create a Garrison Commander / Chief of Staff ruler job that the building can add. Probably producing society research for military theory tech in addition to the standard unity and amenities.
• Have a flat bonus to naval cap so they produce the same amount as a fortress while using fewer pops
• Grant a bonus to military theory research speed

Most of these could also allow for higher tiers of academy that increase the bonus.

 

[Gromit]

Maybe if it could have upgrades to produce armies at the various veterancy levels, it wouldn't be so bad. Veterancy in this game does need redoing though. Elite requires 10k lol.

 

[Echo Candor One]

I use a mod where they are upgradable, and thus do provide a decent chunk of Amenities/Trade which can overcome the need for a Holo Theatre in some situations. The base building stinks though.

My storage planet, Junkdrawer IIa, is critical to the integrity of the empire.