The obvious thing to do is give the planet itself defences such as nukes and what not to launch at bombarding ships.

tbh a lot of what has been said has been very valid criticism.

The turrets are extremely exepnsive compared to the production of a MOBILE fleet that can destroy them.

On larger maps there is virtually no point in building defense - by the time you get there the enemy has either wiped out half the planet or moved on. And yes scouting is good - but what is 2 phase jumps when you have 20 planets and your 5/6 away!

currently the way the fleet cap scales and defenses are structured - it is actually a negative to expand... it will punish you for capturing more planets - 2000 supply ? in a multiplayer game if you split your forces up to defend your fleets can end up to small to cover the areas you own. THe idea that the guy with 10 planets has the same economic capabilties to field the same ships as me with 20 is ludicrous! and with buildings having no real affect at this level - fleets are my only defense.

now you will say that i will get to those techs faster - but because of the income decrease due to a larger fleet supply this isnt really the case - you lose so much resource that anything extra you gain will be minimal. the problem is that the size of the fleet you need to defend your empire as it grows is not proportional to the fleet cap increase.

im actually in a ffa game atm - i have taken over an entire star. however i cant succssesfully move from this star because there are several other powerful empires that
a) can defend any half fleet i send because they have big fleets too
if i send my whole fleet i get invaded by at least 2 others.
c) no matter how many defenses ihave there it wont cause them to be slowed enough to get anyone back to help

so basically im at a stalemate and am being disadvantaged because i have the biggest empire and the most space to cover. If i could succsesfully defend a planet (with a much smaller fleet) - even if its expensive then i could continue to expand and the fleet cap isnt an issue. with the way defenses are at the momment i cant really do this - i get no real advantage in a 1500 supply fleet battle - defense doesnt mean jack.

defence is nerfed a little. I can have a fleet and many guass platforms (say 10) and a repair platform. But siege frigates en masse can destroy a maxxed out population quicker then I can destroy them. Siege frigates have to cost more to build, be weaker, and hit softer and take up a bigger logistics spot. They should be completely toast against any other space craft because, as i understand it, their weapons are for planets. I alt+missle platforms to focus on one siege frigate at a time while I summon a bigger force, and this is still too slow. You have to be able to field more ships without having to own so many planets. Maybe it should be researchable as in the betas (planetary upgrade). Otherwise ever game is really the same: grab as many planets as you can and start hitting the other guy. The AI must be really bad at playing itself since from med to big galaxies it expands far faster than we can . . . which means the other AI's must be idiots. You keep trying to defend yourself against the above mentioned AND pirates (who at the very begginig have hulls in excess of 1100 HP's, and you don't get to enjoy the other parts of the game like empire building and trade and diplomacy with other nations. I have tried 3 games so far after having started since beta 2 or 3, and so far I am a bigger fan of beta 4!!!

^^^ I have trouble fielding fleets of 8 ships with 3 planets and 3 asteroids. Something is wrong there. and yes, I play on normal and am getting owned.

having looked at this from many sides, i feel i can safely say that the best idea so far is the PJI at both start and end of a lane = closed lane. it means that the issue of enemys jumping past outer planets to raid the interior is taken care of. since this is a very high end tech, and costs a fair amount, it dosent prevent raids throught most of the game, but rather provides a reason for defence in depth.

With this one limitation, the annoying commando seige friget moves go away, replaced with the more resonable raids on the perifery of an empire.

oh, and about the recall structure, the Visari have that already, its called the phase stabelizer. and a huge perk for them I might add.

I feel there's something wrong with defense and jump inhibitor too. An ennemy fleet shouldn't cross a choke point with lots of turrets and a correct defensive fleet and quietly walk in my deeper territories. What am I supposed to defend the most ? We should have the tools to defend strategic point and the attacker should take a risk to invade an ennemy territory. At least we need ways to trap him.

Also, why not add a powerfull but costly jump interdictor building that would close a phase line (it should be available when there's more that 1 phase line of course).

Having just given up on a game because of this very issue I'll chime in.

In a 6 player FFA I was dominating every aspect of the game. Then about 4 hours in the tide changed. I was constantly being attacked on all fronts by large fleets of 4-5 cap ships and 25 or so siege craft. Using my full fleet cap I was able to fend them off using choke points but it was impossible to go on the offensive at all.

If I left the defenses to defend, my planets would be bombed to rubble before any amount of defenses could kill the attackers. If I move in a fleet to defend, the second I have the advantage the enemy bugs out. If I chase them they just hop away so I can never do any real damage. If I then try to go on the offensive the AI attacks me from all sides. Again if I fall back they immediately do too. I had to spend 30 minutes hopping back and forth between two planets to kill 2 cap ships with my fleet of 5 because they had the TEC shield regen ship and only gave me a 10 second window to do damage each jump. That is extremely frustrating...

The defenses are unable to adequately defend your planets. There is no realistic way to force an attacker to hold in place so you can defeat them, the PJI are not nearly sufficient for that. Last you can't even chase someone back to their home planets as they will just keep retreating between two planets for hours. If you follow them deep enough you simply leave yourself open to attack from the other players instead.

Oh. I like #33's suggestion a percentage failure would be a great compromise... And the more you have in system, the higher the percentage is, with a limit.

I too think turrets are a little under strength.

Sometime I think choke point are silly, I mean Planet is 360" and everywhere, unless you cover your fleet 360 each planet, I guess it's choke point, I dont know why enemies have to jump in one path way, why not many path like it's could be on west side of planet or east side of planet, unless sun or star are in way of jump, in space there more room to get out or get in unlike on old way of battle fight on land here limited in earth. Limted one jump inhibitor? Space is very huge and easy to go anywhere up, down, under, right, left...in Middle age, it's easy to keep people safe inside the castiles' wall but hard to be attacker (unitll gun age, I guess) while in space it's hard to keep earth and moon safe while easy to destory.

Lets just break the whole game while we're at it with dumb fan-submitted suggestions. Megaships, Dreadnoughts, even just a nice little I WIN button you can punch when you're tired of playing.

I should really get into multiplayer and wipe the floor with all you little whiners because the AI just isn't challenging me and since you all seem to have trouble even playing a 1v1 game I assume I'd just give you a humiliating loss that would compel you to uninstall the game in shame.


Forums: Defense is useless.

(Patch 1.04)

Forums: Offense is useless!

Make the novalith have to orbit a planet to kill it?

Eh, I don't know... superweapons are always touch and go.


Patch 1.1

Forums: Finally a freakin' balance.

If you look at older logs this point was argued to DEATH!    PJIs were always never quite right.

First they blocked all traffic, outgoing and ingoing.
a. not realistic in Multiplayer
b. Stalled the game if someone took a choke point
c. Uber Fleet of death only way to combat it

Second they locked traffic to systems you had control too
a. noncolonizable planetoids were open (an enemy could jump from your world to a magnetic cloud to your world)
b. With cannons there would be complaining that you couldn't reach it in time

Thirdly they now delay jumps
a. by too little
b. Not effective for defense due to fluxuating entry points (negates all defense)
c. If it is a delay it should slow enemy movement TO the planet and speed your movement from it.

As for Defense platforms, orginally thier range was up to the phase lane exit. If you clustered your defenses ANY fleet could be destroyed. All it took was a focused field of fire.
After the range got moved back it still didn't take that much to destroy a fleet. Now without any flak defense the cannons just get torn up by strike craft. But if a ship gets in the way a field of fire can kill it.

Hangers and shields are the way to go.  

Defense is useless? i don't think we're playing the same game then... If anything, sins is a turtle's delight.

As for people avoiding systems, well, i don't seem to have that problem against multiple AIs, i just build 1 phase inhibitor as far from phase lanes closest to enemy territory, surround them with a bunch of gauss cannos (or whatever) 3/4 hangar bays with fighters only and 1 repair bay.

Unless you're dealing with bomber spam, this layout should hold out long enough for you to get your fleet into the systems and fight a damaged fleet. If you play with TEC, slap a shield generator and there's no much tehy can do against your planet