Here is the problem, and it’s your problem, not a game design problem. You leave planets for the enemy to make use of behind the lines and you expect them not to? Which part of “eXpand” is missing from the 4X glossary for you?
Yeah! Dear god, did he really expect to wan to play the game the way he wanted to!? Where the heck would we be if we went off all willy-nilly paying to attention to the way the developers "intended" the game to be played! Thank God this was only a minor nod to Alpaha Centauri, I certianly couldn't handle that kind of freedom anymore!
Seriously, if they can get a colonizer off to a fringe planet you glossed by on the way to try and blocade their homeworld, they pretty much deserve to and you’ll have to go hunting them down like rats. Leaving your own colonies behind in order to keep them from using the things. The necessity to hem in the enemy, deny them resources and bases, and continue wearing them away is a core staple of the 4X genre and one I’d be loath to give up under any circumstances.
Tell 'em brother! That 'ol 4x ahma'jigger is the bread and butter. Do people really think they should be rewarded for blitzing through territories, that anti doctrine! No real empire I can think of blitzed anything, most certainly not in weaker unorganized territories in order to gain logistical advantage.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t like a world-destroying technology that changes a system into one with a Dead Asteroid core plus a Special (like Plasma Storm or Asteroid Field), but that’s largely because I want to use that particular death as a coup de gras insult for the particularly annoying. That said, the Advent’s Deliverance Engine is typically insulting enough to keep bombarding a last world with as your fleet bears down …
Okay in all seriousness, I swear some companies must pay to have people troll around verbally berate people for being anything short of apologists for their products. Chiding this guy for wanting to do something as simple as ignoring part of the vast vacum of space in order to economize his movement doesn't earn him a tough lashing. I hadn't really thought about SoaSE's lack of any kind of mines or area denial tactics until he brought it up. This may sound like a harsh rant, but it gets old seeing cooperate apologists attacking customers. This is what beta testers are for. Blaming him for Ironclad dropping the ball isn't fair.
