Hey, I understand the limitations with coding time and I am simply suggesting this not expecting anything. I think It would be really cool If the following things were included:

Planets not under your control can be taken peacefully (negotiations and trading) or by force. Certain ships could be given an arsenal of weapons designated for waging war against a planet. For example missiles that can be shot from space at cities, molten glass like from the Halo series, small ships launched from the capital ship to break through the atmosphere and execute bombing runs on the surface.

But the planets should not be taken without a fight. The planets should have certain defenses set up to resist invaders. For example, Cannons on the surface that can fire into space, like the Ion cannon from Star Wars, emergency standby ships that can be quickly launched into space to fight the fleet, and so on.

The planets you control should notify you when they are under attack and allow you to surrender or take the fight into your own hands.

Also, it would be a cool feature if you could blockade planets until they surrender or rally against you. This would cut off their connection to the rest of the universe.

Again, I understand if these features are unrealistic that is why it is just a suggestion. Thanks for reading!

A simple system to conquer planets will be a great feature, maybe they just have a "Defense" stat and you have to attack them with your fleet.

Yes perhaps attacking a planet should be no more complex than attacking a city in Civ, and like Civ city attacking if you succeed in an attack there should be a drop in the planet population.

Jason Schupfer wrote:Yes perhaps attacking a planet should be no more complex than attacking a city in Civ, and like Civ city attacking if you succeed in an attack there should be a drop in the planet population.

I agree, it should be realistic and on the other side simple.

All known history has proved that you cannot bomb someone to submission from afar, so why would it be any different if you are in a few small spaceships trying to bomb a massive planet with millions or billions of people spread out all over it?

Just like in Civ I'm sure you know it's not possible to capture a city using only bombers and battleships

To capture a location you need troops on the ground doing the capturing. For this you would need an immense fleet, capturing a planet like earth with force would require millions of soldiers and be a truly massive undertaking.


It would seriously break my immersion if all you need to do is fire a few space lasers at a planet to get them to throw up the white flag, then it's better imo to skip the feature at all.

If it should be done you wouldn't have to model any ground combat though, just make a ship component called dropship or assault ship and have planetary assaults require hundreds or thousands of them to be successful. Taking a space station could be much easier and done with just a few.


Fleets can provide supporting fire, but the main attack must always be ground forces unless your objective is total annihilation in which case thousands of nukes should be enough... (and leave a useless planet behind).

I suspect the purists won't like this suggestion, but perhaps the planet (surface) could be considered as a civilian only entity, i.e. you never engage in combat with the surface of the planet. This would mean that a planet's defence is solely based upon the craft/defences in orbit around it - if these are defeated/overcome/(re)moved then the planet is effectively captured/controlled.

I think this gives the same effect, but it does mean that there is no surface/atmosphere combat which might disappoint some people?

One consequence of this, is that the question of whether a planet can be destroyed is no longer relevant.

Ixos wrote:All known history has proved that you cannot bomb someone to submission from afar, so why would it be any different if you are in a few small spaceships trying to bomb a massive planet with millions or billions of people spread out all over it?

Just like in Civ I'm sure you know it's not possible to capture a city using only bombers and battleships

To capture a location you need troops on the ground doing the capturing. For this you would need an immense fleet, capturing a planet like earth with force would require millions of soldiers and be a truly massive undertaking.


It would seriously break my immersion if all you need to do is fire a few space lasers at a planet to get them to throw up the white flag, then it's better imo to skip the feature at all.

If it should be done you wouldn't have to model any ground combat though, just make a ship component called dropship or assault ship and have planetary assaults require hundreds or thousands of them to be successful. Taking a space station could be much easier and done with just a few.


Fleets can provide supporting fire, but the main attack must always be ground forces unless your objective is total annihilation in which case thousands of nukes should be enough... (and leave a useless planet behind).

94000 20 megaton bombs. BOOOM! No life left. And that's oceans, land, atmosphere, and poisoning all life on it.

Now, I actually have to agree with phil. Not because putting defenses on land is impossible, but past a certain point, it's cheaper to defend from orbital turrets, so that's what the people would do. Now, capture is different. A world that could be glassed at any second is likely to surrender without ever needing a ground force. If they refuse to surrender while under threat of being glassed, why will they surrender to ground troops? Ground troops in a space battle become irrelevant. Now, certainly nuclear bombs might leave radiation, slowing recolonizing, and glassing might stop it forever, but, as I said earlier, it's the threat and not the actual action that leads to the surrender. The only reason I can see ground troops being used is if you need the world completely intact, in which case a short-lasting bio-bomb might work better. A nanobot plague that spreads and only kills things with DNA matching humans, then waits 3 days and collapses into dust? No millions of humans charging in needed.

There is also the question of whats fun to do in a game.

Is it more fun to watch lasers and bombs wipe out billions of defenseless civilians on the ground?

Or watch an armada of dropships descend to annex them into useful members of your intergalactic empire?

Ixos wrote:There is also the question of whats fun to do in a game.

Is it more fun to watch lasers and bombs wipe out billions of defenseless civilians on the ground?

Or watch an armada of dropships descend to annex them into useful members of your intergalactic empire?

Uh, lasers?

Anyways, dropships would be cool, but really, if space lasers can be done easier, I would prefer them at least until we can be sure the overall game will be done.

Ixos wrote:All known history has proved that you cannot bomb someone to submission from afar, so why would it be any different if you are in a few small spaceships trying to bomb a massive planet with millions or billions of people spread out all over it?

Just like in Civ I'm sure you know it's not possible to capture a city using only bombers and battleships

To capture a location you need troops on the ground doing the capturing. For this you would need an immense fleet, capturing a planet like earth with force would require millions of soldiers and be a truly massive undertaking.


It would seriously break my immersion if all you need to do is fire a few space lasers at a planet to get them to throw up the white flag, then it's better imo to skip the feature at all.

If it should be done you wouldn't have to model any ground combat though, just make a ship component called dropship or assault ship and have planetary assaults require hundreds or thousands of them to be successful. Taking a space station could be much easier and done with just a few.


Fleets can provide supporting fire, but the main attack must always be ground forces unless your objective is total annihilation in which case thousands of nukes should be enough... (and leave a useless planet behind).

I agree with you completely, the heavy weapons would precede assault ships would ultimately capture a planet. Unless of course, the attacker isn't interested in capturing the planet and just want to annihilate entire cities! Once again, only suggestions.