Suggestion: Garrison Fleets & Misc Combat changes

[Blackthorn99]

Hello Dev team & Forum Community,

I signed up my account to make this post; I normally do not post on Forums and would rather just browse but I just had to put in my suggestions. First off, I've watched the first 8 or 9 videos of the "All hail the Blorg" series and I really like the way the game is shaping up.

However, I have some constructive criticism on War and Combat. While watching the video I found the space combat to be claustrophobic. The ships got extremely close to each other and swarmed around each other like fish in a school. While I realize that game speed was often on very fast, the corvettes seemed to fly around more like fighters veering sharply then what I am used to from traditional corvettes or frigates.

Would it be possible to change the ship AI to maintain more distance when engaged and their movement physics more shiplike and less like a fighter?

Another suggestion I have to make Wars more interesting, in my opinion of course, is to implement garrison fleets ala Total War series (possibly generated by spaceports / military / defense stations and scaling with upgrades). This mechanic would be to assist the AI & player defend the large swaths of space an empire could potentially control and to reduce the propensity for 1 battle = war over because you wiped out their whole fleet. If a garrison system was implemented before launch or via DLC if before launch is unrealistic, you could rebalance the spaceports / military / defense stations around this fact so that defense isn't too powerful requiring huge attack fleets to conquer a planet.

Lastly, in the 8 or 9 videos of the "All hail the Blorg" series I have yet to see any fighters or carriers in the game. Do they even exist in Stellaris?? Are they just later tier Tech??? Yes to either of these would make me a sad panda because fighters are extremely common in space games of all types and it would be a shame to not have them in Stellaris or locked behind a mid-late tier Tech that is randomly given to you. In this instance my suggestion would be to make the tech unlock more common if it even exists and if fighters don't exist, please consider including them at some point.

Thank you to the devs for making such an interesting game and my hope in general to all who read this post to take it for what it is... the expression of a genuine desire for an awesome game with some personal feedback based on what I've seen so far!

 

[swiftsvre]

All right, let's see:

Ships behave differently in combat depending on what combat computer you select for them. You can equip all of your ships with a defensive one to have them try to maintain stand-off range. Of course this won't necessarily keep your enemies from trying to swarm your fleet, but then again who are we to assume that aliens would fight space battles the same way we humans would be inlined to.

As you seem to be watching the shorter installments on YouTube you probably did not get there yet, but in the last stream we have had an extensive war with multiple fleets being wiped out, only for other fleets to pop up again and continue the fight. At the moment it does not look like it is "wipe one fleet and that's it" at all. That being said, you can equip space stations and space ports (I think) with fighter bays so that they can contribute a garrison of sorts to the system they have been built in.

Fighters exist, but the carrier module needs to be researched first and can only be slotted onto cruisers or battleships. They have not featured prominently yet, but they definitely exist.

I hope that answered your questions/addressed your concerns.

 

[barny]

However, I have some constructive criticism on War and Combat. While watching the video I found the space combat to be claustrophobic. The ships got extremely close to each other and swarmed around each other like fish in a school. While I realize that game speed was often on very fast, the corvettes seemed to fly around more like fighters veering sharply then what I am used to from traditional corvettes or frigates.

Would it be possible to change the ship AI to maintain more distance when engaged and their movement physics more shiplike and less like a fighter?

I didn't like that either. People are saying "well those are still early game weapons and you can get different ship computers" and so on, but even with earlier weapons ships should keep more distance to the enemy. It is not like they are trying to board the enemy ships by swining on ropes.

 

[Safehold]

The easiest way to dodge battleship guns is to get close and cut the angle.

Has anyone ever tried to shoot a small and fast target rotating at arm's length from them at a certain speed?

"Leading" a target doesn't work when the target is moving faster than your turret arms can rotate.

 

[HighGain]

Just to further answer the OP's concern on system defense:

- Overall, I see significant improvement each successive week / stream. This week the AI provided a much greater challenge. In particular, I was happy to see defending AI fleets make a stand at armed space ports to combine fire power rather than sprinting to meet a larger invading fleet. Still, work remains for the Paradox team.

- Early in this week's stream Wiz commented on the fact that the AI had not fortified their star systems with any defense stations (nor even better armed / protected star ports)... a problem they needed to look into. As a result, the current stream is still not reflective of the defense balance in the game.

- Implement Garrison Fleets? I believe the devs have already gone in a different direction to achieve this effect... with defense stations using the "FTL magnet" capability. I don't know if you caught / heard this part of the discussion, so I'll explain this magnet to the best of my ability. The devs touched on it a couple times... including I think last week. As explained, this magnet draws all incoming FTL paths / wormholes towards it, so that the enemy fleet arrives right next to the defense base. I'm not sure if this magnet also helps keep an enemy fleet fixed within the base's weapons range or whether after the initial volley, a fleet can maneuver away from the base and strike at other targets. Regardless, other posts I read suggest that the purpose of such defense stations is to serve like EU4 fortifications; you must take them out before you can maneuver freely in the region / star system.

- Strike craft could also be used for defense? I share your enthusiasm for fighters & bombers. I haven't seen the capabilities and ranges of strike craft. I'm presuming that you could add hanger modules to bases. However, I have no idea whether such fighter / bomber squadrons stay close to their respective base / carrier or if they have the ability to strike across a star system. Might be neat if squadrons from a space port could provide support to a nearby defense station under attack.

Hope this helps. I'm just looking forward to more Stellaris insights next week...