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Author Topic: Station military option, "Harddock with Phase Ships and Assault with Marines"  (Read 629 times)

goduranus

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In a lot of the sci-fi fictions, there is a space station so powerful that they are very hard to take down in a straight fight, so the attacker sneaks on board with a team of commandos to attack from within. Since stations in this game are immobile and spin at a constant rate, there's nothing they can do to stop phase ships from unphasing inside their docking bays to disgorge a load of marines(as discussed in the phased cargo ship thread).

So, I would like to make a suggestion that a dialogue option under "Consider Military Options" be made for this, then the player can select a number of phase ships and marines(like the old boarding interface).

The phase ships would have their CR consumed as if they were deployed in combat, and the outcome is RNGed depending on station's size, the fulfillment of the colony's marine demand, total number of marines deployed by the player, and the player's Ground Operations skill. Possible outcomes would include complete destruction of the station, the destruction of some station modules, or damage and loss of phase ships, depending on how successful the boarding action was.

The effectiveness of this ability will be limited by the limited crew slots of phase ships against a very large defense rating of the station, but this can be offset by by a fleet with many dedicated ships equipped with "Additional Berths", or possibly a new phased Valkyrie Mk-2, since those large crew transports don't have a Mk-2 conversion yet.

Sinosauropteryx

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I like this idea, it captures the Death Star trope nicely and opens up other ways to play. So far there's only 1 kind of ship that really excels at handling stations, which makes them pretty boring to deal with imo. I have some questions.

Can most phase ships make it up close to a station through its entire range without overloading? It's not something I've tested so I have no idea.

Would it be hull size limited? I have trouble picturing an interior space within the station that can hold a Doom.

Will the AI attempt this tactic on you? How does one protect against it? If stealth docking is a known tactic then coutermeasures would exist.
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Plantissue

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There's a discreptancy in the game that if you try to unphase inside a ship (or station) in battle, the ship cannot and will be forced out. As it is, there is no need to make phase ships even more useful, and practically speaking, if such a thing was possible in universe, you would expect docking bays to be defended strongly. A station should have more marines of their own than a phase ship could carry. It has one point of vulnerability. Why wouldn't docking bays be fortified?
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Ed

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This could be an option if you can reach the station undetected in stealth mode, or unlocked with skills.
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