Why is there no aggressive Mega-Structure?

[Wewius]

Hi there!

So as far as I know, there is not an "aggressive" Mega-Structure. I'm talking about a weapon like (you know this one was coming) a Death Star or some kind of "Mega Ship". It seems so logical too me to include a Mega Structure that supports an aggressive playstyle and while the Dyson Sphere surly helps to support a large fleet, it seems more like a "general thing" that any player with any playstyle can need.

It appears that the absent of aggressive Mega Structures is intentional and I'd like to hear the reasons behind this.

 

[Lothmar]

My guess is they didn't want to give peeps the ability to destroy planets yet, or intersystem fire for sniping at fleets, stations and leviathans etc..
But yeah I also think an offensive or defensive super structure would have been interesting.

By defensive I mean something akin to 'planetary/system shielding' - Any planet/system its applied to is a sealed environment. Pops cant migrate out of or into, however the planet/system cannot be bombarded or invaded under normal circumstances (if its system based maybe say that ships produced in those stations cant leave, or you have to pay a chunk of energy to open/close the shield). Maybe make special circumstances that the shield can be removed.

 

[AndragonLea]

Afaik the sensor array is the mega structure that is interesting for aggressive countries. It's a maphack building giving you total intel and knowledge of enemy movements, troop strength, key planets (food), location of dyson spheres and potential lonely troop transports to pick off.

You can't really be caught by surprise anymore, you see immediately if a given empire has been significantly weakened by a prior war, no closed border treaty can deter your mega spy and you can take all the time you want to pick out which planets you want. Be that because they produce all of the enemy empires food or because they have juicy traits, or because taking them will cause a dyson sphere or a partly finished ring world to fall within your borders.

It also helps you to send just as much force as necessary to take secondary targets, allows you to use corvette swarms to hunt down lone troop transports and makes it impossible for a weaker enemy fleet to escape and reinforce where before they could sometimes duck into a system you had no radar on and disengage.

Can't really see how some more fire power is supposed to compete with minimap omniscience.

 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

The existing megastructures are designed to appeal to aggressive civilizations as much as pacifistic ones. That's laid out very explicitly in the trailer, since you have the conquerors on one side of the fight and the federation builders on the other.

A fanatic purifier might not even expand that heavily - you could build a Tall civ and exterminate civilizations around you, using megastructures to stay economically relevant :^)

 

[Connll]

I admit I am kinda baffled at the fact that we will be able to build ringeworlds, Dysons Spheres and Habitats, but not Titans.

 

[Searry]

A gigantic fortress which can't be destroyed would have been most interesting. I mean, you could only disable it through heavy firepower and you could take the fort away from the enemy in a peace deal.

 

[Lothmar]

Enigmatic stations. Enigmatic stations~ Everywhere!

 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

An 'invincible fortress' wouldn't have much impact on the game though. You'd have to put some silly garbage on it that made the enemy attack it or something. And even then it would be questionable. Sure, 75% of your territory is invincible to attack, but you still lose the war when the enemy just goes to the 25% with their much better fleet (since they didn't built a blanket fort.)

 

[Lothmar]

A gigantic fortress which can't be destroyed would have been most interesting. I mean, you could only disable it through heavy firepower and you could take the fort away from the enemy in a peace deal.

An 'invincible fortress' wouldn't have much impact on the game though.

Granted is it's something that takes forces to fight like the Enigmatic Fortress then it's decent system support for the defensive. Put a snare station in range of the EF's range on the edge of a system and cause as much delays as possible. *moves in fleets on the flank*

 

[AndragonLea]

The invincible part would probably mostly be a gimmick unless you build it right over the planet - in which case it would come back online and allow you to send troop transports without having to fear that they might be wrecked by enemy drib and drab reinforcements or detachments.

I mean, unless you build it in a system the enemy has reason to pass through again and again, they'd just destroy it once to get whatever planets it might defend and then move on to the next nut to crack.

Would be hard to balance, though. I'd be very interested in fortifications in key systems (my food planet will need an armed chaperone, if nothing else), but unless it is better as or insertable into a flower formation of fortresses, including them does not make much sense.

I've seen a mod once that allowed you to build a super carrier that spawned an independent little fleet of oversized drones that would follow the fleet around and fight.

Maybe something along that line would be an idea. Instead of just being a tougher station, make it a station with a permanent, navy cap independent defensive drone fleet that can defend the system.

 

[GuardianGI]

Didn't one dev diary mention we would be able to build titans?

 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

We will, but not in this dlc

 

[zukodark]

I bet one of the two next major DLCs (we know two are properly planned) is going to be war-focused, with something like this as one of its selling point. The other is probably about some sort of combination of diplomacy, economics/trade and/or espionage.

 

[Olliganak]

It appears that the absent of aggressive Mega Structures is intentional and I'd like to hear the reasons behind this.

Simple, one of the next two DLCs is going to be war focused (can't do everything in a single DLC after all), and they are saving superweapons (which are pretty much guaranteed to be coming eventually since the devs have expressed interest in them) for that DLC.

Wiz said they are planning to do an overhaul of the the way wars work at some point, so my guess is that the next major patch, or the second-to-next major patch, will be war focused, and it will come with a war focused DLC that will have Dreadnoughts and Titans and Planetkillers and all that good juicy stuff. Let you go full Palpatine on everyone's asses.

 

[Crissa]

It's 'Utopia' not 'Apocalypse'?

 

[Olliganak]

It's 'Utopia' not 'Apocalypse'?

You joke but Apocalypse would actually be a great name for a War-focused Expansion.

 

[Connll]

It's 'Utopia' not 'Apocalypse'?

Tell that to the Stone Age natives in that size 12 planet in the system where I decided to make my Dyson Sphere...

Also, this is the update where I can finally serve Blorg Burgers in my restaurants...

 

[Slynx]

...repaired dreadnought (if only it was customizable and with xl slots)

 

[pteroid]

A gigantic fortress which can't be destroyed would have been most interesting. I mean, you could only disable it through heavy firepower and you could take the fort away from the enemy in a peace deal.

Like that big old thing from Legend of the Galactic Heroes? Eiserlohn I think it was called? The Liquid Metal Death Star

 

[WhiteWeasel]

It appears that the absent of aggressive Mega Structures is intentional and I'd like to hear the reasons behind this.

Given all of the hints from the devs, and the evidence listed here. It's that A) The map wide sensor and dyson sphere already have very useful military applications, and B) Super weapons are most likely reserved for the dedicated war expansion.