Really? I didn't know that until now because it's so rarely useful, and now I've realized that it's even more useless than I thought. They seriously need to buff it along with strikecraft.
Wow defensive platforms are just gone once destroyed?
- Thread starter Kryndude
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At the very least, it would be nice to incorporate a tab into the fleet manager that lets the player manage their defensive platforms from a central location and rebuild destroyed platforms with one click.
Overall, station defenses need a radical re-imagining. Their capabilities in the game shouldn't mirror those of a mobile fleet; instead, they should serve primarily as a shield not a sword. It's in the name after all--defense platforms. However, the way it works now, stations are even worse on defense than fleets thanks to their minimal evasion.
What I would do is reduce the offensive capabilities of defense platforms while massively buffing their hit points, armor, and shields. A mobile fleet of equivalent power should always win against a station, but it should take much longer for them to break down the defenses allowing the defending player to muster their own fleets.
This would give defense platforms an actual role in the game without making static defenses completely unassailable.
Overall, station defenses need a radical re-imagining. Their capabilities in the game shouldn't mirror those of a mobile fleet; instead, they should serve primarily as a shield not a sword. It's in the name after all--defense platforms. However, the way it works now, stations are even worse on defense than fleets thanks to their minimal evasion.
What I would do is reduce the offensive capabilities of defense platforms while massively buffing their hit points, armor, and shields. A mobile fleet of equivalent power should always win against a station, but it should take much longer for them to break down the defenses allowing the defending player to muster their own fleets.
This would give defense platforms an actual role in the game without making static defenses completely unassailable.
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I wish they'd bring back the old fortresses as buildable defense platform replacements. It would improve fortifications immensely.
If you guys want bigger and better defence stations, there is a mod which brings back the bigger old ones which you can build around your starbases. Coupled with NSC, which expands the amount of modules on a starbase, it makes them extremely viable in holding those chokepoints.
One of the quirks of the DPs getting destroyed is an enemy won't benefit from them when they capture the starbase, like they do the modules and buildings.
There are maybe good mods with buffs out there. But managing the bastion's is a pain. There is no real indicator how strong the station is or how many platform are fielded. You have to count for yourself. And by this way an update planner for stations in general would be cool. The first ones are cool to build, but later, when you have to control douzens of chokepoints even the upgrading is a pain...
Maybe it's just me, but I find it extremely easy to manage my starbases, see their strength etc using the outliner. When it's time to upgrade, I just click each one in turn and it opens each starbase on the same screen, so turn it to the defence stations bit and just click through with the upgrades.
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This is something that has bothered me for a while and I really wish the developers would rethink it. Unlike starships, defense platforms do not have a chance to disengage, cannot retreat and they have no evasion. What this means is that even if you win a fight, the defense platforms will tend to get completely obliterated. Meanwhile most of the attacking ships will still be alive or have safely disengaged.
The result is that it's ruinously expensive, it takes forever to rebuild clogging up the starbase's queue, and annoying to micromanage.
Solution:
Ideally, what I would like to see is that after you build defense platforms, a starbase will automatically repopulate them over time. Invaders who capture the system will have to wait until the end of the war for the defense platforms to begin repopulating. Once a starbase no longer serves its purpose, you can permanently disband platforms and they will no longer repopulate.
The result is that it's ruinously expensive, it takes forever to rebuild clogging up the starbase's queue, and annoying to micromanage.
Solution:
Ideally, what I would like to see is that after you build defense platforms, a starbase will automatically repopulate them over time. Invaders who capture the system will have to wait until the end of the war for the defense platforms to begin repopulating. Once a starbase no longer serves its purpose, you can permanently disband platforms and they will no longer repopulate.
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Sometimes I don't understand pdx way of thinking In 2.0 they gave us the long awaited fleet manager to avoid micromanaging all reinforcements and stuff. Nice. But then they made the new Starbases and basically re introduced the same mechanic they fixed for ships in another place in that very same patch. WTF.
Add to that the fact that defense platforms are just bad (they generally can't go toe-to-toe with a cruiser, but they cost as much as one) and offer no help with piracy (why not? Why does a single strike craft hanger on a starbase reduce piracy over a whole shell of systems, but two of them on a defense platform attached to an outpost doesn't help even in the local system?), and they become very much something you only build under severe need, when you either don't have enough shipyards or you can't afford to go over your naval cap any more (naval cap: the sole advantage platforms have over mobile ships).
I like them, but then I tend to build sacrificial anchorages rather than bastions. Its quite funny having one of your 15k stations get taken by an enemy who only gains an 800FP station with 6 anchorages, having lost several ships and 2% war score in the process. Giving me time to react and giving my enemy practically no advantage what so ever.
yeah, this is how they should work. if they need their costs or maintenance increased to offset it, so be it. but as they are, they are entirely useless.
sounds like a colossal waste of alloys
I personally think Defensive Platforms should be replaced with a standing fleet of FTL incapable ships that protect the system that the Starbase is in.
Think of it like a police force.
Think of it like a police force.
While I don't love them, they function more as effective deterrents at chokepoints for me.
I wish the old defence stations and fortresses were still somehow in use.
I wish the old defence stations and fortresses were still somehow in use.
Defense stations at least kill some enemy ships, but when defense stations themselves die it does not penalize your warscore.
This can be useful for building warscore advantage.
This can be useful for building warscore advantage.
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Hm.... Yanno, I hadn't thought about it before, but if defense stations get an overhaul, they could create standard lock and shock tactics. IRL examples- roman legionaires locking an enemy in place with spears, then cavalry hitting the enemy from the back while they're worried about the spears in the front. Machine-gunners holding enemy positions down, point-men closing the distance and flanking them while they can't move. That kind of thing. In fact, you could possibly make them a deterrent against large fleets in particular by giving them AOE attacks- since they don't have any evasion, they MUST be more stable, and should be able to have bigger and better guns, right? I dunno. There's a lot that could be done with defense platforms in general, but as they are, i don't build them. It's usually preferable to let an enemy come into my space, then pinch them with a fleet from both sides. The defense platforms just feel useless at the moment. They don't do anything a well built fleet won't, and they don't do the stuff a fleet will do as good as a fleet will. Either their price needs to be cut down to like, a fifth of what they are, or they need to be fundamentally different.
Its fine that DS getting destroyed and stuff. whats simply not okay is the building costs and upkeep. that has to be halfed atleast.
Yep, DP are a joke. Right now, theoretically, you could have a nice station: that works only with ascension perk for defence plaftorms, Ion canon, citadel, defense supercomputer - all in all you have in invest a ton of alloys, a LOT of time to get a nice 45k end-game station. That station would be able to stop 30k fleet, maybe 40k - and by end-game that's a joke. In midgame you just can't waste alloys on DP, you need ships.
A solution to DP problem is either make then indestructible, much like the station itself, idea that was proposed a number of times (even in this very thread). Or, alternatively, switch their cost to minerals, but that's potentially a bad idea since you would be able to spam them everywhere starting from midgame.
But as it stands DP are a total waste of alloys.
A solution to DP problem is either make then indestructible, much like the station itself, idea that was proposed a number of times (even in this very thread). Or, alternatively, switch their cost to minerals, but that's potentially a bad idea since you would be able to spam them everywhere starting from midgame.
But as it stands DP are a total waste of alloys.
This is basically the best solution.
Without the platforms not rebuilding, they are useless and a waste of the now extremely important alloys.