Planets?

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:20 pm

In stock Armada 2 there are stations on planets. What do you think of giving planets an other role in FO? I could imagine some things:

- If you own a Planet, you gather ressources
- Starbases near a Planet are way stronger
- A planet can handle one or two buildings and increases some of their values. So if you put a Yard in its orbit, it builds faster, a research station researches cheaper/faster usw...
- Ships in Orbit of a planet recover faster from damage

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:21 pm

UNBALANCED IDEAS!!!!  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:25 pm

There is a multiplayer mode that requires you protect a planet for a certain amount of time, that is the only use for planets in FO that I can think of.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:32 pm

I'd like to see some more things, that persue me to think about another tactics than "build my strongest ship as often as I can, group them, attack". Planets would need other ships fighting them... would myake later gameplay more interesting.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:47 pm

No, it wouldn't.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:47 pm

I think that Doca and Co, deliberately removed the planets from FO; One reason was that the federation wouldn't really  bombard a planet.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 5:51 pm

They would if they had to, avoiding civilians or what they weren't sure about. A Planet that was only a Military base with no civilians is a target that wouldn't hurt Federation morals (assuming Armada2 could make planets work like that).

Bombarding civilians is immoral, bombarding a planet isn't.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 6:52 pm

I think it's a good idea. It would bring more focus on specific areas of a map. There is already a focus on designed choke points because whoever controls a choke point can essentially secure entire sections of the map for their own use as long as they focus on one area. The addition of "orbital bonuses" for planet bases would add a bit more variety.

For me, I tend to build higgledypiggledy depending on where my construction ships are and what I need to build. As a result my bases tend to be somewhat decentralised and not very "base like". If I knew I was going to get a % bonus to productions speeds by building my yards within a certain radius of a planet then I'd be more inclined to make a more tight knit base with bordering outposts.

I don't think it's an unbalanced idea because naturally both players would start with a planet and so both would get the bonus. It just encourages players to focus more on strategic points (other than the usual choke points). It would also encourage a bit more thinking about base planning: Do I spend my time reinforcing a forward position to prevent incursions or do I focus on developing orbital bases to get the production bonuses at the risk of having marauders running the space between my bases? Note the first option is defensive with more resources spent on stations and the second option is aggressive with more focus on maximising fleets.

You might also decide to go for back up strategies. You KNOW the enemy will go for your planets so you could do all the usual base building and fleet building around the bases but then have a little investment on the side to an out of the way open space base. This open space base would have no bonuses but would not draw so much attention as a base location around a planet that human players will have marked for expansion when they first see the map.


In terms of changing ownership of each planet it could be different for each race. Borg would assimilate as usual. Klingons would invade as it was in A2, Romulans would could invade too but it'd be more creative to use their more subversive side (perhaps taking a few ideas from galactic civilisations on inciting revolt - you could maybe use special energy of a planet to show it's loyalty to it's owning race) and The Federation could maybe have a diplomatic ship that uses special energy to try to intigrate the planet into the Federation.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 6:58 pm

  [url]//www.fleetops.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,3/topic,4065.0[url]

posted on January 29th, 2009, 7:03 pm

Read this thread
Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - why no planets?

[Phoenix]

posted on January 29th, 2009, 7:10 pm

Last edited by Phoenix on January 29th, 2009, 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Megaman

I like the idea of a diplomatic ship that spreads it's influence by using it's special energy. I read the thread you linked and I liked the idea about offering a cease fire as well. I'm not too keen on the Section 31 idea because I think it would give the Federation too much uberness and will also blur the lines between the other races and The Federation making each race less different once the Federation steals their tech.

I would apply the diplomatic ship with two abilities; one to convert planets to The Federation, and the other as say a 15 second ceasefire to all ships within a certain radius. The ceasefire would mean that if you were losing a fight you can cease hostilities with the winning fleet and pull out. During the 15 seconds neither side can shoot at any ship affected by the skill and the skill can affect all ships (including your own).


Dircome

That thread you linked has some good ideas. I may have to grace it with a post of my own once I have given it a bit more thought

posted on January 29th, 2009, 7:27 pm

I've read through most of the planets discussion in the thread above and - sorry I didn't think about earching for the old thread - there are some pretty cool ideas within it. I like the idea of bases that could get bigger or attributes you gain with colonizing some planets. Would make gameplay rather more interesting. With increased size of the planets, you could gain more. Interesting: There are three planets, two small or one big. But you could either take the small ones and get different abillities from them, or take the big one and get one big candy

I like it, but I've read in the "Why no planets thread?", that FO stuff already plans to give them some possibillities.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 10:09 pm

@Pheonix

I didn't come up with the Sec. 31 idea, other people did.

posted on January 29th, 2009, 10:29 pm

I didn't say you did

Other people came up with it, I was just saying that I'm not a massive fan of that idea. I liked the cease fire idea

posted on January 29th, 2009, 10:47 pm

Neither am I.