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[eidolad]

The System Defense Planners Bootcamp (SDFC) has a new director, and she gave a speech at the StarSector War College at 12 noon local system time:

"Greetings.  Too many times in systems that have warring factions, we have observed the system defense fleets destroying each other and leaving battlestations undefended.  The raid of our sister planet by the Unaligned Player Fleet, whomever they are, resulted from this vulnerability.

As of today, we no longer advocate fully independent system defense forces for major colonies.  In addition to regular system defense fleets, all orbital military installations WILL now have permanently assigned starship garrisons that remain in close orbit to the battlestation.

Yes, this is expensive and not feasible for initial orbital works...there just isn't enough resupply and berthing/recreational rotation available for the ship crews.  In fact, colonies under size 5 just cannot support this new doctrine.  No, the Combat Readiness of these idled ships will not be stable/optimal across the board...given that the garrison will be not be first-line crews, 100% ready, trained, and rested, 24 hours per system day.

There are aspects about the starship garrison that I should point out:

a) The garrison will be composed of 100% combat ships.

b) The garrison will have no fuel, cargo, survey, troop transport, or intra system movement capability.  None.

c) The composition of the garrison is up to the planetary administrator.  Phase-ship frigates only?  Or:  all missile cruisers with expanded Pilum magazines?  As you wish.

d) The garrison behavior will be:  form one or more "defend points" at: either flank, and behind the battlesation.  One, two, or all three, will be utilized at the discretion of the planetary administrator.  The garrison MUST stay in close support to the battlestation:  quite literally under its guns, so to speak. 

Note:  we won't expect pirates or 'Pathers to always conform to this tactical doctrine.  That was a joke, people." 

[Other journalists attempted to interject questions.  Our staff refrained from doing so as per our standards of conduct]

"I'm sorry, I'm not taking questions at this time.  In closing, I want to say that:  No, the illegitimate and likely fraudulent galactic video feed of the [REDACTED] Star Fortress falling to the Unaligned Player Fleet does NOT sum up the situation.   The purpose of this doctrinal shift is pragmatic and achievable.  To summarize:  Fixed installations cannot defend themselves without close support from mobile units.  We must offset the vulnerability of our fixed installations.

I appreciate your attention and I am proud of this appointment and will do my very best.  Thank you."

[Tartiflette]

Actually I was thinking about making a mod that would have added a new "Garrison" defense structure to effectively do just that yesterday...

[eidolad]

huzzah!

[eidolad]

A "Garrison" structure would be interesting: 

The above structure could perhaps be "raided or disabled via special forces action"...which is an interesting game mechanic:  you "raid" to cause the garrison to wander away...opening the base up for attack in the future.

The other small idea would be to make that garrison "hidden" until you attack...then the starbase "launches" those ships.  The uncertainty factor should be larger when deciding to attack the premier space defense platform for large colony/homeworld.

Though I would argue that really the defending fleets are the primary defense...

[intrinsic_parity]

This would maybe make station bounties a bit more challenging as well. Currently they are much easier than similarly priced person bounties, compounded by the fact that you can buy fuel/supplies from the station before you destroy it. Having a garrison fleet that always shows up when you fight the station would be a good change imo.

[Megas]

If stations are always have a fleet on standby to defend (unless killed first), I guess that kills smuggling on all markets that do not have Free Port?  Cannot sneak in if there is always a guardian fleet (from the garrison) hovering next to the market.

System travel does not require fuel, but no fuel would prevent "Gank Burn" that the AI loves.

compounded by the fact that you can buy fuel/supplies from the station before you destroy it.

Buy anything they have for sale, not just supplies and fuel.  Then raid the station to double dip before the kill!  It does not take that many marines to raid pop-up bases for a profit even if few marines die raiding.

For core worlds, raiding for blueprints is what I am most interested in.  Once I get all of the blueprints, I leave those worlds alone.

[intrinsic_parity]

I was imagining just some ships that show up in the battle with the station, not an actual fleet always orbiting and preventing raids.

[Megas]

I imagine that is what the defense satellites and mines from a Star Fortress are for.  For lower-tiered stations, they are not wealthy enough to afford all those defensive bells-and-whistles.

[intrinsic_parity]

I just thought it was an interesting way of making station fights more difficult without directly buffing the station

[Thaago]

Yes, I think the idea is of a fleet not on the campaign screen, but just "attached" to the station to aid it in battle. A garrison. Like how the drone fights or alpha core mission work, it is activated through dialog.

I like the idea, as fighting against station + fleet is both harder and more interesting than pure station. And the early pirate stations are a bit too easy for their reward.