Great idea. Will look into this one.

I think they're talking about something much like fighters who loose their carrier -- they're on a countdown, and eventually go "boom", but they do stick around for a (long) while.

I like the idea of degrading structures as long as they don't degrade as fast as fighters. You should have a chance at recapturing the planet before your structures go kabloomy.

alas, they bomb. alas, they are bombers.

actually its quite easy if the place isnt defended well, but even if it is its as simple as going up and over.

assuming the fleet is anywhere nearby, assuming you made a fleet, assuming you didnt spend all of your money on the defenses which are now degrading etc. etc.

and those arent big assumptions either, do you see the issue yet? its as simple as killing the planet and then bringing in a small elite force behind it and you've just won with minimal casualties (that could easily be replaced).

Well, this is the issue. It's not that simple to kill a well defended planet. (Of course against the AI it's simple, but actually anything against the AI is simple. )

There are planetary shield generators which could spoil your bombing. (Shield generators are easily defended with gauss cannons.)

And if your enemy doesn't has a fleet there capable of killing your siege frigates, well, his fault for just relying on his gauss cannons imho.

Of course this needs balancing against bombardment damage/speed of frigates and capitals, but it would act a good tactical option.

But you're right in one point. We need the ability to place structures in 3d for this. Some gauss cannons on the north and south pole of a planet are needed against small fleets which try to exploit the positioning of your gauss cannons.

Against heavily defended enemy planets you could try to kill their defenses first and then kill the planet without interference, or you could try to kill the planet first and then prevent the enemy from recolonizing while his defenses are still online.



Well, my flak frigates would make short work of your bombers.

Not necessary so. 5 flaks plus 5 siege frigates are able to kill a planet defended with up to 4 hangars (not upgraded planets, they take too long with just 5 siege frigates), provided the enemy doesn't has any ships there. (Against the AI for example.) Gauss cannons are irrelevant since you can avoid them.

But if you have a single Kol there, those flaks are quite fast space dust and the siege frigates will follow soon. Some Cobalts could do the same job.

But imho it's a moot point, most of the time, anyway. Since you usually have a small fleet on your front line planet anyway. (At least I have.)

That's too true. I think it would be a good idea to have another type of cannon that shoots missiles with a much larger range, but dies relatively easily when attacked, so you could have those defended with gause cannons to protect yourself. This would make an incentive to actually attack fly into the gause cannons range to kill the missile-cannons so you don't get sniped. As long as it's balanced so that they;re not like super long range snipers that can kill anything before it gets into range, maybe make them worth 2 tactical slots as well.

That would be similar to having missile frigates in your group, they're powerful & long range, but die in two seconds if they're attacked.

20 or so what? Flak frigates? Sure. Bombardment frigates? No way. Bombarding a planet takes a long time. Even without shield generators.

it takes no longer than 2, 3 minutes with a few siege frigs, it takes at least 30 seconds for a group of 4 bombers to kill a frig on their own. so I lose 4 siege frigs, you lose an entire investment of gauss cannons, logistic structure, a planet upgrade series and hangers etc.

oh yeah, thats a fair trade.

then either turn on him or destroy your own defences, dont make it so that there is a really cheap-and-quick way to kill a planet without a struggle.

I have to ask, what will happen to repair yards?

I usually build 2-3 repair yards and a huge clump of defenses. If the repair yards continue to acrue antimatter, they could prevent the structure deteroration altogether, or at least prolong it to a ridiculous extent. With just one yard, eventually the repair yard itself will die, but with two they can repair each other.