Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: devurandom on February 25, 2021, 03:56:19 PM
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Currently, the NPC factions often have difficulty defending their non-military worlds. Frequently, the only obstacle to raiding a planet is the local station. Similarly, players are well advised to have a military base on each planet. There is some overlap in patrols, but it is strictly infrasystem and is often not consistent. Planets can receive resources from other same-faction planets, but defense is highly localized.
To resolve this, I propose a dedicated interplanetary and intersystem patrol system similar to the existing trade fleet system. Each faction would evaluate the defensive posture of their planets and allocate fleets from their bases accordingly, with each level of base having more fleets and greater range. For instance, Coatl might deploy rotations fleets to ensure Chicomoztoc always has a defense force in orbit. Similarly, Jangala might deploy fleets to patrol the Galatia system.
This concept could be further expanded to integrate with the trade fleet system. If all markets have sufficient protection, a faction could send fleets to patrol key trade routes for pirates. e.g. A player waiting to ambush a trade fleet might be found by a Hegemony patrol and asked why they are hiding along the planned route of a large trade fleet.
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100% support on this. I see no reason at all that a hotfix after the main update is released to add in small military fleets to randomly dig between any route the AI considers sending a trade route. Why not even make it a response to trade going missing, or pre-emptive if a world is particularly lacking in resources.
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If all markets have sufficient protection, a faction could send fleets to patrol key trade routes for pirates. e.g. A player waiting to ambush a trade fleet might be found by a Hegemony patrol and asked why they are hiding along the planned route of a large trade fleet.
I'm all for this. It never made sense either in gameplay or lore that factions never actually guard their merchant routes. Indies and pirates relying on armed freighters and their own escorts is fine but larger factions should actually make use of their fleets to patrol shipping lanes.
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This idea seems interesting. It would definitely reduce the importance of stacking a ton of colonies in one system.
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That idea is good and dope, i liked that, if Alex doesn't implement he could give the modders means to do it!!
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I'd be very interested in this - military patrols away from their home systems are much easier targets for stealing ships from without getting identified!
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That idea is good and dope, i liked that, if Alex doesn't implement he could give the modders means to do it!!
Modders can do it right now, in a way Tiandong Heavy Industries does a somewhat related variant of this idea already with their mercenary escort fleets.
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I've been thinking about this for possibly far too long, so here's an idea about how this could work, without making it too micro-management heavy.
- All military bases/high commands get all their light/medium/heavy fleets pooled together and distributed across the players colonies. Perhaps a few are reserved for patrolling trade routes or other uses. Patrol HQs can only patrol their system, so they don't get added to the fleet pool.
- Fleets will leave the nearest possible military base to head to the colony they're protecting, so if you take out the defending fleets, and the nearest military base is far away, you might get free reign of the system until the new fleets arrive. This applies to the player too, so if you have your military bases on one side of the sector, and the rest of your colonies on the other, they might be a bit hard to defend.
- The player can designate a colony as a "priority" colony, in which case it will get a few more fleets assigned to it than normal, at the cost of every other colony that's not priority getting less, similar to how assigning ships/weapons as priority works (requires a high command in order to actually take effect, otherwise nothing happens).
One system empires will still be the best possible option, even under this new system, but it should make multi-system empires a bit easier to handle. Possibly replacing "colony" with "system" would work as well, though it would require communicating which colonies are in which system when you're assigning fleets.