archive

Okay, so I'm playing versus the AI, and I set out to capture an enemy star system. I've got a lot of research and industrial muscle, so I go in with three carriers full of Medium Fighters. They've got Frigates, plus a smattering of light fighters and combat satellites, so I figure it'll be an easy fight.

Well, it isn't, but not because BM makes fighters less godly or beefs up the usual counter-strategies. It's not even because you need bombard weapons to finish off a planet, though that does set the timetable back somewhat.

No, it's because whenever I attack a planet, the fighters go straight for the planet itself, completely ignoring the satellites that are in orbit. It would be trivially easy to take two seconds and just blow the dinky little things out of the sky, but instead these rubes concentrate on slagging the planet while the satellites blow them up. Hey geniuses, the Resupply Depot and Research Labs on the planet aren't firing at you. If you'd get rid of the little buggers FIRST, you could smash the planet to bits at your leisure and NOT have a 50% attrition rate for the battle.

This idea is not new to strategy gaming, most well known example is Civilization III and upwards. That is, you need certain resources, accessible only at a few tiles of the map, to manufacture various units and improvements. Say, you need to mine Nividium to use Polaron beams, or farm Psylocibe fungi to build psychic weapons, and so on.

This lends a whole new strategic depth to the game. Some deserted asteroid belts become invaluable and targets of massive assaults, losing a Crystal mine means that Crystal ships can not be repaired once the stocks are depleted. Empires need to trade, and trade relations become extremely important. To find these resources, scanners of some given level may be required.