Or, as a suggestion, give the PJI an ability that is high in antimatter cost, high in cooldown, low in duration that performs a system lockdown like the old style, but functions as it is now when that ability is not in effect.

The PJIs don't have to lock down a fleet to be effective. They just have to stall it long enough for your defenses to attack or to re-position a fleet.

Actually complete lockdown might be fine, *but only in the PJI radius*. So the enemy fleet CAN get past you, but they have to maneuver well outside the gravity well to do so.

Killing off the possibility of raids isn't a good idea, as it removes far too many strategies.

The cost in making such things an option is in the time and money of the developers... they could make your option, but that will eat up resources that could go towards fixing diplomacy.


I think the idea of slowing phase space travel to the PJI is a good one, and also slightly buff and keep its current slow down ability.

Make the slowing of phase travel an upgrade.

You obviously didn't get to the final tech tree.

I would much rather have many viable strategic options rather than the only one be to attack him. Gone is harassing, flanking, attacking his trade ships, fighting his economy, spying, diversions, sieging undefended planets, all replaced with the sole option of one single huge battle being your best and nearly only choice.




An intelligent player would probably recall his fleet to destroy the enemy's fleet though, since the opponent can either attack his economy, so his fleet gets destroyed and then he's wide open to counterattack, or fight his fleet, in which case the defenses turn the odds in his favor.

Killing off strategy isn't a good idea either, which is what you have done by insisting on your raiding gameplay mechanic.

First off, there is still plenty of opportunity for your raids - PJIs are on up in the tech tree, and even when people have teched up to them, every single world won't have them all at once - they cost time and money.

Second off, your raids aren't strategic, they are tactical. Forcing the game into a wide open dynamic, as you guys have done, without any possibility to create or utilize chokepoints, actually removes a good bit of strategy from the game, and degenerates the game down from strategy to tactics. It degenerates it down to an endless series of running around putting out fires. Boy, isn't that fun

When I was playing the game, that's all I did was run around and put out fires. Go out to try and grab a planet... no, wait, retreat, I'm getting hit! Rinse and repeat that dynamic over and over again, ad nauseum. No time to ever try and execute my own strategy, or even develop one, because there are just an endless series of fires springing up all around my empire at once because there is no possibility to control phase lanes. I simply couldn't play the game because I found that kind of mechanic extremely unenjoyable. I have only semi-stuck around on the forums to see if this will be addressed in any upcoming patch (basically hoping against hope), but I understand that it probably won't be - certainly not to the degree that it should be.

Why in the world you guys insist on ruining the game like this, I'll never know. I suppose it is just your taste in gameplay. But it isn't other peoples' taste. It certainly isn't mine. I suppose you guys win, because the game is already essentially the way you want it to be - congratulations.

You also succeeded in depriving phase lanes of a reason for existing. In that 1.03 wish list, you really should just ask the devs to remove phase lanes entirely (you think I'm being sarcastic - I'm not). Any time your ships are outside the grav well, they should then be in phase space - the lanes are unnecessary. This would suit your gameplay mechanic more, and would also remove the pretense that the phase lanes are necessary and are doing something, when they aren't. Wouldn't that be better for everybody?

Why do you even care? You've gone out of your way to remind us you uninstalled the game. Your observations are based on a single game you played and they aren't worth dick. You just enjoy reading your own posts.

In fact, I'll go now and put the request in for you

See? You're a complete narcissist.

You are the one who apparently enjoys reading my posts, because you keep reading and responding to them. Why do *YOU* care, dickhead?

I like this game. You hate it so much you uninstalled it. So what's your excuse other than that you're just an obnoxious little brat coddled by his parents and led to believe his opinion matters?

Do you think that by screaming at the top of your lungs and throwing feces around your nursery pen you'll get the developers attention?

I still reckon that Phase Jump Inhibitors should cause ships to have a % chance to fail to achieve jump power and receive a "no jumping" debuff for 60 seconds. You want to flee? Or to jump through enemy lines? Then you will need to be willing to take losses to do so.

The current system favors attackers far too much.

Heck, your "perfect defense point" argument with the blocking Inhibitors only works when you have only 1 access point to your empire. If you have 2, and are not Vasari (even if you are to some extent) then you actually have this scenario.

You have divided your fleet between 2 choke points, your opponent sends his fleet in its entirety against one of them. Your fleets are heavily outnumbered, and your static defenses have only limited-no effect. Your losses are probably on the order of 3-1 in the attackers favor.

I don't agree with the way kharma argues, but I agree with his point. A game where choke points can actually be held is more strategic and in most cases better than one where anyone can run rampant through your empire. The complaint that super weapons become a problem with the better pjis is a problem with the super weapons, not the pjis. Include counter technology to the super weapons, and this won't be an issue.

I'd love to see some way to place an inhibition on the actual phase lane, something like being able to slow down ships coming toward the system you plant the phase-lane-inhibitor in.

Sort of like the old movie where the guy starts running down the hall and it stretches out away into infinity.. heh heh..

No good reason at all? Increasing the time before a jump will enable you to cause more damage to raiding fleets, and thus lessen their numbers as they run through your territory.



Honestly, forcing to people doesn't sound more strategic, it sounds more convenient to players who don't want to deal with the stress (lets be honest) of pursuing enemy fleets. In terms of strategy, the current setup is definitely more strategic (it can't even be argued). For one, it allows one to split enemy forces, results in the enemy leaving certain planets vulnerable, and allows for ease of raiding. In the setup you're requesting, players will simply have to fight through defenses, which will usually be bolstered on the front line (where most PJI will be located)

Now if you want this, that's all fine and dandy, but I'm not keen on the idea. Perhaps, as Kharma stated, someone can mod it in for those that advocate it.

Phase inhibitors, can be allowed to block all traffic rather than just slow it, and this could be something toggled by the player at the beginning of the game. But there could be adverse effects to all traffic being stopped--the owning empire would have a decrement to his economy because of inability for trade ships to pass, for example. In addition, I think a PJI should take up a massive number of tactical slots, so that very little other than one or two Gauss cannons could be fielded by the planet within the grav well. A fleet could be remain in the grav well, but since supplies from other planets could not reach them through a PJI, that garrisoned fleet might have to suffer some penalties, perhaps to attack and defense. Finally, since a PJI could stop all traffic, one must assume that the allegiance of the so-equipped planet to the to the Capital world would diminish, even if it is very close to it in terms of the number of jumps. This further decreases the economy and increases the risk of overthrow.
Finally, I think a PJI that can stop a fleet from phasing altogether would be so expensive and technically difficult to produce that a limitation on the number of them that a single empire can use is reasonable.

actually its already been done a couple days ago. someone did it in i think he said 5 min and put it up for download. shouldn't be to hard to find it.

A 3 stage research upgrade for slowing enemy phase jumps down between your planet, and a 3 stage high level research for holding enemies completely (10 seconds for each upgrade) and warning you about enemies trying to phase jump through your planets (through the "Threat Report"), as I suggested, is ideal to make as an starting point for rebalancing the PJI as far as I can tell(and also makes the PJI "super" to use in the later stage of a game, be it a medium or large map).
Im all against oversimplified solutions, and deepen the PJI aspect would be good for this game.

I think "Phase Jump research" can be an entirely separate branch of the research tree, with not only gradations of phase jump inhibition available at higher levels, but also other types of things available, including the ability to open an entirely new phase lanes to more and more distant systems with the highest levels of research. This was something implemented in Space Empires 4, but can be a bit unbalancing, however.

I think there are a lot of strategic possibilities with this, but would have to be extensively tested and not put into a simple version upgrade.

Listen here, you little asshole:

1) One of the developers told me to post on this, and even gave me the links to post to.

2) I don't owe you a damn thing in terms of an explanation. As I told you the other day in another thread when you were standing on my dick, I am here, I will post on any topic I like, whenever I like, as often as I like, and I will say whatever I like, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Period. Paragraph.

3) I told you then that if you wanted me to "go away" in your words, you could buy my copy of the game from me. But you didn't take me up on that offer. So I will tell you again, get off my dick.

Sure, but my point was, why would someone who advocates the OPPOSITE gameplay mechanic from the one I advocate want a slightly buffed PJI? It seems that they would want it dropped altogether.



Well we can be "honest" just like you can. You guys who wanted the nerfed PJI just didn't want to deal with the stress of looking at strategic points on a map and figuring out how you could use them strategically (lets be honest), you didn't want to deal with the stress of actually having to face defenses and figure out how to crack them, etc. Basically you just wanted to grab your units and impatiently send them wandering around looking for something undefended to harass - sort of like an arcade game or something. No strategy, just make it up as you go. Nerfing the PJI was more convenient to you and your gameplay mechanic.



Ahhh... "ease of raiding!" So you wanted... convenience!



Yeah, I mean who wants to have to actually fight through defenses!

I think you proved your point. Your gameplay dynamic is much more "strategic," and we are the ones who wanted "convenience." Got it.

Of everything recommended so far, IMO the best idea so far seems to be the implementation of all the following:

1) Reduce the speed of the attacking fleet in a Phase lane with a PJI on both sides

2) PJIs affect more/all of the grav-well

3) Increase the jump delay effect of the PJIs

The amount of each will obviously need to be play-tested for balance.

Sorry, but that statement is not making an ounce of sense to me.




What's stressful about dealing with defenses when the a.i., in most cases, can deal with it for you? Heck even you were originally complaining that "defenses suck", remember? No offense, but I'm not sure what's so stressful about having most of the fighting taking place on the front lines, or looking at some arbitrary strategic points on a map. Then someone made the claim that PJI's should be the primary target in attacks, but that would entail having to fight through defenses, which, if you want to know the honest truth, sounds boring. Why should I be constrained in my strategic thought? I'm not sure where the concept of "arcade game" arouse from, because most of the arcade games I've played follow the concept you've recommended; fighting through defenses one at a time. Oh, and you mentioned the battle of Thermopylae as reasoning for one of your complaints. In the 2nd Punic War, whilst Hannibal was stuck in Italy, the Roman army simply circumvented his forces, and laid siege to Carthage, thus recalling him from this conquest.



Yep, since it will be surely constrained the setup you recommend.





Obviously not too many people, or it wouldn't have been voted out of the Beta and subsequent final game, no?

Listen, if you want someone to mod it in for you, fine by me.

Here is an idea. Phase Inhibitors work like shields. As more ships try to phase jump out/into the gravity well its situated in, the charge up/travel speed is increased. That way, small raiding parties can still pass the outer defenses, but sending a large fleet is delayed greatly, and sending them in piecemeal is a great way to get your units blow up. It also encourages players to send a small party to blow a phase inhibitor up first so there main fleet can move in more effectively.

LOL - I'm a developer. If I wanted to mod it in, I could do it myself in 5 minutes. But I like playing against humans, and I can't do that online with a modded game (at least that's usually how it works).

Look, you're absolutely right - this game was built around what those beta testers wanted, and if they had wanted my gameplay mechanic, that's what we would have gotten. But they voted out my gameplay mechanic, just like you said. So that pretty much sums it up - the game is what it is. I'll just have to wait for something else.

Thanks for the feedback.