Ideas (well some pinched ideas from STars!! (I would have loved a sequel to Stars!) and a couple of my own.

I feel that the balance in defending/attacking is a little lacking. Were missing a lot in planetary defense, the fact that a troopship can get to

the ground without a shot being fired seems illogical, surely if the planet has anti-aircraft defenses then a troopship could be shot down. I

would rather nuke a troopship in the air (then live with the radiation) then let it land in my capital city. I also think the ability of Mass

drivers when attacking is too strong

To enhance defence I propose the following.

Allowing starbases to be constructed next to the planet with the ability to defend the planet (if upgraded see Designable Starbases), therefore you have to destroy the starbase before invading the planet.

More Defense structures - technology driven, from enhanced defence (soldiering + 25%) through to ultimate missile/beam batteries (soldiering +

100%) (so in DA you might have to sabotage the missile defence before invasion)

Add defense strategies, this may help counter the attack strategy, e.g. Mass drivers can be countered with EMP emitters (if you can't power the mass drivers then you can't fire them) very weak argument I know but havent really thought defense strategies through too well.


what would be really cool is Designable Starbases

Range of Hull styles and sizes

The sizes range from small (50 size components) but cheap (1000 bc) to huge (1000 size components - Death star like) and mega expensive (100,000

bc). Add a starbase designer (like ship designer).

It also means that each component will have size and potentially a cost. When building a starbase you choose a type military, economy, or

influence lets say we introduce 3 sizes of each of those small/medium/large of sizes (30,70,150) allowing you to build additional modules upto the

limit of the initial sizes i.e. (30,70,150) which leaves (between 20-970) for other types(military, economy, or influence) or defense/offensive

modules. (starbase logistics might need overhauling)

example

We have a medium starbase (150 size units)

We add a Military platform (30)
We add a economy platform (30)

90 units left.
We add 4 scanners each capable of scanning +3 and size of 10 each (cumulatively the scanning range could be something like (3+3+3+3/sqrt(4))

50 units left.
Finally we add the best 50 units worth of weapons/shields to it.

We could have extra components to choose from (back to the defense thing)

Planetary Shield Generator (100 in size) therefore only for the large starbase hulls (with this starbase must be destroyed before an invasion can take place)
Communications Jammers (Fleet captain would have a varying chance of being able to co-ordinate his attack) minus on attack or within it's zone a ship can destroy an ally/neutral/enemy ship and blame it on an accident (a percentage chance that the truth will be known - increased with espionage) If the truth is known the ally/neutral/enemy will have the option of ignoring/declaring war
Ship Repair Modules e.g. 10Hp per week (1 ship only)

I hear you say, what about constructors

Well we still need them to build the starbase/module or at least start the ball rolling but the module/base is constructed over time. (another of my issues with DL is that you can send 10+ constructors to an enemy planet and instantly build a influence base fully loaded and almost causing a full revold in 1 week. a bit unrealistic. also I think the enemy might have an idea of what the idea behind that is... but atm they do nothing,

Govenors

I'd also like to have collections of planets and set their ship construction/colony orders seperately (a bit like zoning your empire or assigning the smaller military capacity planets to produce constructors and the others to procude capital ships).

Ability to set alerts on certain thresholds, like if approval dips below 40 or if counter influence is greater than 3 or if a ship gets within 5 moves of a planet.


Another thing

I would love to be able to enforce my boundaries without resorting to war. what about if the speak to screen appears and they bargain for the ability to build there, I know I would sure love to tax them at a variable rate if I choose to do so, and fair play if I want to charge 10bc per week then they can charge me 50bc when I want to build that influence base next to their home world.


Also

Give me bigger maps like Super Mega Mega Gigantic (quad processor needed) Map


any comments?