I just thought of a cool idea...

So what would stop you from just making sure you couldn't block of your homeworld entirely?

I don't know, sounds pretty complicated and the Vasari version is so much better than the others its not even funny.

As Goa has pointed out, the Vas would so much more strategically & tactically powerful than anything the others could do as to be laughable in comparison. I think from a Lore standpoint, the "offensive" manipulation of phase space already exists in the form of Jump Degradation and Inertial Field.

I think an idea like this would require some significantly complex coding. I don't think it would have a lot of potential, to be honest...

The Vasari actually already have a similar ability. The Serevun Overseer, the Vasari's defensive support cruiser, has the ability "Jump Degration." When the ship uses this ability it will slow all enemy ships, that are jumping to the Serevuns current gravity well, making their jump speed 50% of the original speed. The ability requires 6 weapons labs and certain pre-requisites before it can be researched and implamented. So it is a close resemblance to your suggestion, and it already exists, but rather than redirecting it slows the enemy down; plus you must have a Serevun with at least 100 current antimatter.

You think a slight slowdown to jumping is similar to completely rerouting incoming enemy ships?

Well OK.

The Overseer's only used for repairing, anyway... in human matches, at least.

Actually, I think the Marauders Phase Out Hull or the Phasic trap is closer than anything to this...I mean, you are forcing an enemy ship into phase space against their will...the only difference between this and phase jumping is the whole movement component (which would be ridiculously OP though quite entertaining)...

It is similar in the fact that it affects enemy phase jumping.

I also just noticed the ideas at the bottom of the original post, and the TEC and Advent have similar abilities as the ones statted.
-TEC: Sova Class Carriers, the TEC's Carrier Capital ship, can learn the embargo ability to halt an enemy planets income and production.
-Advent: The Advent's super weapon is supposed to directly send culture to an enemies planet which, in most cases, turns out ineffective. The ability is best used on enemy planets close to your home planet, because allegiance there would be larger for you and lower if the enemy.

But both these abilities are overlooked either because a better ability is available, it's ineffective, or too expensive.

Well, I just came up with the idea and not the fully blossomed game mechanic. Let's say that you don't want players invading planet A, so you setup a Phasic Thingamabob at planet B, pointing at planet A. Now, all traffic to A gets rerouted to B. As a way of balancing this out a bit, you could make opposing player's travel times to and from planet B significantly shortened.

That way, if someone chains them together, while they are making it much more difficult to go straight to planet A, they are making it easier for the opponent to invade.

Still, it probably isn't going to happen.

They slow inbound hostiles.  300 ships taking longer through phase space than normal just because one ship pressed the button is pretty damn impressive.

Also, SOASE is pretty stupid and this ability used against a chokepoint could be a game breaker.

I dunno... it depends on how long the phase lane is. It could slow all the ships by 2 seconds total (completely negligible) if the phase lane is relatively short, or might slow them by 10? seconds total if the phase lane is long-ish - it's something, but certainly isn't that significant, and definitely isn't a game-breaker.

Is it worth the necessary 1200/200/325 plus 1400/250/400 in order to delay a few seconds? In games against decent opponents, it's almost never worth it.

wat

I would see it as an upgrade on the Orky, or the Titan.

For example:

Phase Maze 
Duration 20* seconds
100* second cooldown
some crazy AM cost*
Ships that attempt to enter the gravwell while the ability is active will be bounced off into random* phase lanes leading out of the gravwell. 
Affects:
- up to 20* ships (excluding capital ships and/or titans and/or cruisers)* OR
- up to 100* supply worth of ships OR
- 20%* of hostile ships that are currently jumping into the gravwell (in this case, remove duration) OR
- whatever other limit* 

* - mark values or mechanics that would be subject to balancing.

I'm pretty sure that ability could be made both balanced, pretty effective and fun. Since you can only have one Orky (or one? few? Titans), you would not be able to completely lock yourself out or stack those to send a 1000 supply fleet all over everywhere.

See, that's just the issue, game isn't coded that complex.

You mean that it would be impossible to code that? I'm pretty sure it would. With some tricks.

- select which ships are affected (like with the passive Overseer ability).
- take control over the unit away from the player (there are a few abilities capable of doing that).
- tell the unit to jump into a random other gravwell.
- teleport the unit to the place where it would initiate the jump (use Subverter's Distortion Field ability mechanics to do that)
- give it 9999999999 turn rate and phase jump chargeup speed bonus.
- cancel everything above when the ship is in phase space again.

Voila, ship jumps in and almost immediately jumps out into another phase lane.

T'would be really cool IMO.

plant turrets near phase entry and blow them up.  more fun.

Turrets? Duh? Any sensible player will just jump on the other end of the jump-in arc.

Turrets are useless in any situation other than MAYBE dropping a dozen of them around a starbase if you're TEC or Advent. There's also a trick that allows you to colonize super fast with Vasari, by colonizing a planet and quickly ordering a turret and a repair bay built on the other end of the gravwell. That way you can send your Egg to another planet while the turret handles the handful of rebels still alive.

But in player vs player fights, Hangars with their super-useful abilities and repair bays are always the preferable method of wasting your tactical slots, not turrets.

I think invading a planet that is crowded with Vasari turrets equipped with the Disruptor Nanites ability is really annoying, and this is just an example. That is ofcourse only in early stages of the game, for later on you will ofcourse be able to repair your shields and hull points more easily. But still I dont think turrets are completely useless.

Turrets are an essential component of quick early expansion of any race in a reasonably spacious map, combined with a colony cap and a large fleet of combat scouts.

Outside of colonization, well-placed turrets have also actually decided the game for me a few times (as well as being the prime cause for at least one of my losses). If the enemy isn't spamming LRF or is Advent, placing a couple of turrets around your frigate factory(ies) can be extremely useful if the enemy attacks - turrets are quite durable and do a very large amount of damage, especially to light frigates and capital ships. If you have a turret or two around your frigate factory and force the enemy to focus on them instead of your factory, that can give you just the time that you need. In particular, defending with turrets combined with carriers can be extremely effective against those who simply love their Heavy Cruisers. (cough Sire cough)

Now, most players don't play Advent and focus on LRF spam, so turrets aren't often that viable except as a time-waster and damage-soak, but against some opponents, they are quite effective.

Turrets are also very useful for protecting your asteroid planets. A couple of turrets can cover the bombing range, meaning that any enemy capital ship attempting to bomb will take very severe damage (or die) while bombing your asteroid from 1000 HP to 0. Against an enemy player who goes cap-heavy, this can be a very effective deterrent / time-waster while you build up your own fleet or move it into position. While it's of course possible for a TEC or Vasari player to send along a good number of LRF to safely destroy the turrets, that will take some time, especially if their resources are already invested in a couple of capital ships.

In addition to being able to defend against short-ranged enemy ships, turrets are also surprisingly effective against starbases (Orkuluses). If I had an Orkulus, I would definitely think twice before moving my starbase into the range of just two turrets. Even if my Orkulus survived, it would probably take very heavy damage if it hadn't been upgraded.

It's also possible to build turrets close to the edge of a gravity well while an enemy Orkulus is building to do serious  damage to it while it's in progress and to scare it from moving in that direction once it's built. The counter to this is to jump in your Migrator farther back, outside of the range of potential turrets (you can only build turrets up to a certain radius from the planet).

Play Point Blank a few times against good opponents. That's what taught me the utility of turrets.

Now, it's true that noobs to Sins are very prone to overbuilding turrets in useless positions, leading many to think that those who build turrets often have no idea what they're doing - but that's not right. In the hands of someone who knows how to use turrets effectively, turrets can be quite useful and well worth their cost.

A couple of hangars with bombers are quite useful if you're trying to defend a particular world from attack by an enemy Orkulus in the early game... and strike-craft can be very effective at taking out enemy scouts and LRF if the enemy has no flak... but turrets excel in area defense and in buying you time before the enemy can attack your frigate factory or asteroid planet.

Both turrets and hangars have their place.

...

LRFs outrange turrets. Five LRfs can kill a billion turrets. What can be annoying about cheerfully wiping out helpless turrets from outside their range, knowing that every single turret is ~one less frigate in his fleet that can not move?

I'm not sure if the illum outranges turrets, I suppose it should, but even if not then you can just use bombers or a single starfish and all his turrets say byebye.

Turrets = waste of money unless they are to be used against rebels (which are stupid enough to attack them) or spammed around a key structure (starbase). In any other situation, you're better off with anything else.

The TEC and Advent LRF outrange turrets. The Illuminator does not.

Yes, if you give your opponent enough time, 5 of their LRF will destroy any number of your turrets. But that's all right. Defending, turrets are to provide area defense, to act as a damage soak, to buy time for you to build up your fleet or for your fleet to move into position. But if you use turrets alone with no intention of ever sending fleet backup (in other words, if you're a horrible player) then yes, turrets would be useless when used by someone like that.

Yes, that works if you never send in your fleet to help defend your planet.

But if you're a decent player, your fleet should never be that far out of position, and the time bought by the turret (preventing the enemy from attacking your frigate factory or from bombing your asteroid planet) can often be just enough.

The turret was never meant to stand on its own. Turrets are useful if you're very close to sending in a fleet to help defend (but for some reason can't get there quite fast enough).

Turrets aren't about stand alone defense, they are purely to buy time for fleets to arrive.

Also, while 5 lrfs can kill turrets, it would take FOREVER to clear a few turrets supported with a repair bay which is almost always built with turrets.

Which is all nice and fluffy, BUT:

I think the TEC should have their own warp or jump gates (like the ones in Cowboy Bebop) that they can build to jump directly from planet to planet. Sure its a copy of Vasari technolgy but im sure a few things could be sorted out

I am not seeing a compelling gameplay-related reason for such an addition...

A few turrets can also help provide a safe haven for your fleet or ship(s), just like a stationary starbase. This can be very useful when, for instance, you're retreating with a heavily damaged capital ship and the enemy is pursuing (early-game). In addition to having repair platforms, you could also consider investing in a few turrets. 3 turrets alone will do 120 DPS - significantly more, actually, if they're firing on an Advent fleet, because Disciples (LF) are so weak to turrets. Your damaged capital ship can be easily provided with sufficient cover with just a few turrets like this: the enemy has to either enter the turrets' range and take heavy losses, or let your capital ship repair itself to full hull strength again.

Of course, a fleet of your own would generally be a better counter, but if for some reason your own fleet is out of position or if you don't have a frigate factory on that world with the repair platform, turrets can be a lifesaver. Especially against Advent.

I can't believe this thread is still going... I just had that idea and then kinda wrote it off when I thought about the practicalities balancing it. Since it's still going and the discussion seems to have drifted, here's more ideas:

• All advent ships, and it's different for each kind of ship, get a good bonus in culture. This feeds into their culture-strong theme, while still limiting the effectiveness: you either have to attack without the bonuses or wait to build up culture before you attack. Examples of how this is different than current mitigation bonus: Illuminator (In culture, the Illuminator's beams slow opposing ships), Gaurdian (In culture, Repulse causes a small amount of damage), Destra (In culture, the Destra's plasma shots cause a small amount of hull damage over time). Possibly research unlocks all the bonuses, but each bonus is part of the ship. Maybe have some kind of visual affect for advent when they are in culture, so that everyone knows what they're up against.
• Capital planets have a unique, free, starbase. Moving the capital moves this starbase. It can be upgraded, but should be a different starbase than our current ones (I would say initially not as powerful either). Helps protect against rushes, adds more visual variety, everyone wants a starbase on their homeworld, and you can have it so that destroying this special starbase removes it's capital status.... enabling better AI forfeits, enabling MP option 'Player is defeated when they have no capital planet'
• Heavy duty turrets-basically Giant versions of the current turrets that can assist in battles in adjacent gravity wells. Shouldn't do more damage. And maybe cant shoot at short range.
• If completely re-directing phase travel doesnt sit well, can always have some form of static phase disruption. Something that randomly alters the arrival time of ships in transit to a planet. Sometimes faster, others longer. But enough that you could be seriously messing up their assault. Or even just flatly increasing the time opponents take to travel to your planets (could be an improvement for phase inhibitor).
• Allow TEC to eventually buy off a whole pirate base. They get the base, the platforms, the ships, everything. Multiple TEC factions? First come first serve. But if theres multiple pirate bases...
• TEC Mark II research. Late game tech, doubles everything: the hp, shields, cost, fleet supply, and damage. You switch the factory over to Mark II mode and it builds a Mark II of that particular ship. This leverages the TEC's fantastic cash reserves to help bolster their late game fleet. For all intents and purposes, you have the same fleet, but its concentrated to increase survivability and hopefully make them more potent (2 ships in the framework of 1). Side benifit: less ships on the screen means less CPU resources.
• Some way to lobby a neutral world to join you. I say send envoys, meter starts to tick down until you auto-capture the planet. TEC might accelerate this by spending money. Advent might get some speed bonus depending on the amount of culture present. I don't know about Vasari (they want to enslave anyhow). A planet captured this way will have some population already present and will maintain it's militia until destroyed (won't attack you, but also isn't under your control).

This is off the top of my head... yes, I'm baulding.