Starship troops

doesn't jive with the advent ships where you could get the ship but not the personnel that make them so lethal.

The advent have a capital ship ability that does that to frigates anyway, except via psychic powers. And when I saw this thread I thought it was a request for a starship troopers mod lol.

I'd like to be able to take over a (badly-damaged) capital ship!

I'd like to have to escort marines to a planet in order to capture it. If your troopships arrive too little too late u lose the battle and cannot capture the planet without bombardment.

Similarly u need half the marines to capture a half bombarded planet

i think there is a need for troops, but more on a level of taking over the planet. they dont have to show the footage of them taking control or even allow players to play it. But maybe have it so that Terran Planets just cant be bombarded. Nuclear Bombardment would cause the planet to be uninhabitable for a millinia. I know its just a game. But it would make the whole Fleet compisition change and give the player more options to work with. Maybe this special new crusier could have upgrades where it carries different types of troops to get the job done.

what if you can still bombard a planet but all the infestructure goes away; but if you capture it (after influence flip or with troops) you get all the upgrades (and maybe a fraction of the cost for orbiting logistic buildings?) to provide some advanage then the current system of kill, colonize and spend

This always confused me. If you blow up the planet, then How come the artifacts on them survive?

they're in fortified positions that they withstand the bombardment but an access tunnell collapses so you have to "re-discover"???

or the game engine won't allow you to remove artifacts part way through a game.

or you could retreive the artifacts by sending a troop ship to the planet, and send them back to your homeworld for more bonus-upgrades or somthing.

if you could retrieve artifacts you could just send them to heavliy defended planets, and how would retvieving some, let's say Planet AI work?

Would be kinda neat to use this Roman naval tactic in SoaSE. Before the Romans, the Greeks had ships called Triemes which were designed to ram and sink the other ships. Romans built biremes, not designed to sink the enemy ships, but to go along side, attach what is basically a bridge to the other ship, and then send a cohort aboard and kill off the enemy crew.

why not be able to sell the structures in orbit and the ships over taken for a discounted price. Just add to the gameplay. I think troops are an essential part of the fleet makeup. You need boots on the ground to truely control any landmass.

small stealth shuttle with troops used to steal and recieve artifacts, im not sure how it would work but it would make artifacts more imprtant. also the ship could act as a slower scout that drops listening posts that pick up more important info on your enemy, as well as taking over structures.