Katorone wrote:Games like GalCiv do the same. Except that in those games there's a kind of arms race going on, while in LT the only one racing would be the player.

There are many games like this.
You increase your "power", hopefully defeat all opposition, and win. GAME OVER.

If you try the same in a sandbox game like X3 where there is no winning condition then the gameplay stops making sense.
When you have a high "fight rank" in X3, you may get a mission to protect a convoy... and it's going to be attacked by ships that are 1000x as expensive than the entire convoy - cargo and all. Naturally you are expected to destroy them. Over an over again. A mission like that makes absolutely no sense.

If the player always has the choice of simply bringing 10x the ships and brushing away any tactical issues with brute force, then you don't need to bother balancing anything in the game. It's pointless if numbers are guaranteed to trump tactics.
That's why I suggested limits to the force any faction can field locally.

Gazz wrote:That's why I suggested limits to the force any faction can field locally.

Limiting in what way?

Would you impose a limit on the amount of ships that can enter a sector, before the gates leading to this sector refuse to service you?

Arming gates could be a good tactic perhaps.
Suppose ships that have just used a gate/jumpdrive can't power their weapons and shields immediately. Next step, arm the gates of core sectors.
You'll be able to surprise attack a certain sector by slowly building up your forces (much like channels were flooded on IRC after join limits were imposed). But once you're deemed an enemy, the gates would fire on every one of your ships jumping in.
Though this needs a weak spot that the player can overcome.