I know this topic has been talked about before, but I wanted to start a fresh thread on strike craft balance in regards to Entrenchment. I would prefer to see new abilities and techs to better defend against strike craft, rather than to nerf them. These ideas are meant to add a chess like move / counter move depth to the game; so each of these would have to be balanced so that one side wouldn’t have a major advantage against any other side.

My Ideas

Tec: add a flak burst ability upgrade to Guarda frigates. This would allow them to better engage strikecraft, without making them more powerful against other ships. This would allow Tec to trade offensive firepower for mobile strike craft defense. This would also leave their stationary defense somewhat vulnerable to heavy strike craft; unless supported with ships.   

Advent: Add an Interceptor option to advent strike craft (available as a researchable tech). This third type of strike craft would excel at anti-strike craft roles, but do little damage to anything else. Since these interceptors would be taking up strike craft slots, the Advent would also have to choose whether to weaken their offensive capabilities to gain increased anti-strike craft firepower.  

Vasari: add an anti fighter missile attachment to Vasari defense platforms (again, available as a researchable tech). With each missile platform acting as an immobile anti-fighter frigate, Vasari would be very tough to attack with strike craft. On the other hand, the Vasari wouldn’t get any improvement to fleet defense against strike craft. This would make a Vasari opponent who spasm strike craft potentially strong on defense against Vasari fleets, yet weak when they try to assault Vasari worlds.