Option to destroy planet would simplify game...

What we need is the Deathstar obviously!

ye that was asked for in the beta's and the developers consiously chose to leave it out.

With mods we porbably will be able to

You could even just make a longer lasting Fallout...or have it cost alot to clean it up...

Too many planets sometimes....

But a solar syatem with only 4 planets looks goofy...

And I want to be the ruler of galaxy not just a solar system...and what does it matter if half of that empire was inhabited by burned out cinders..???

I'd still be the winner...

From an immersion standpoint, you can't have the planet just go away, because then you'd lose the gravity well, so the doomsday weapon should convert the planet to a dead asteroid with a cool debris field, and logistics and tactical slots locked at their current values.

wishes != fishes

So... ah, a few Novalith cannons isn't enough???

Maybe wait for v1.03 when they increase fleet cap and add earlier surrender.

The solution should be called "glassing" Simply fuse the crust into one impenitrable piece.

Of course i can see the exploit on this already. You Could simply build base defenses and ship yards all around a planet then make it an uninhabitable defense base at any node.

Couldn't you just take a planet, colonize it a little bit, and build up some defenses on it to prevent the enemy from island hopping it? Thats probably exactly why the devs didn't put this in the game, is to keep some challenge in the game, rather than just destroying ALL the planets you don't want or need.

But I do have a problem with all these empty planets that I know the enemy could eventually find and put to use…and by this point in the game I’m no longer interested in colonizing.

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? 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.

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 …

You could just leave one ship around to watch out for them.. I mean if your chasing a broken enemy why do you need a huge fleet first. I have found that usually only 1 or 2 large scale battles, and its over for the AI other then the cleanup. Keep a couple of ships back to watch.. Or keep a couple in the GravWell of the STAR and keep an eye out.

Most likely though you would have better success with a Ship left at each planet. That way even if the little bugger (the frigates that are colonizers) gets lucky, it won't be lucky enough to get away. And you can finish of the new planet and be done with it.

They should have 2 additional methods of taking planets. The current one, where you kill everyone on the planet, then rebuild.

A glassing version, where you either reduce the planets usefulness, or render it completely worthless.

Or a version where you go in with the space marines (or whatever your species calls them)capture the planet intact (with it's population and it's infrastructure). The Space marine version should be the most costly, but obviously you can start turning out money and materiel immediately, so it's got it's benefits. I think the glassing version should be the cheapest.

It wpuld probobly simplify the game, but would also make it less fun. So a no from me

Didn't the devs indicate that the .03 patch would enable opponents to surrender? If this becomes the case, that might alleviate the overly long mopups.

I don't really care for the mopups either. I enjoy fearing my AI opponents, and when I've beaten them down big time and they no longer pose a threat to me, the fun factor goes down while there's still an hour or so of mopping up left to do.

Actually, a 'scorched earth' policy would fit especially well with the Vasari, since they're constantly on the run from some unknown enemy, only stopping for brief periods of time to harvest resources (minerals, slaves, etc.) It could also be made to fit with the other races as well, just in a different form.

Dunno, it does make sense to me. In the meantime, I just build up the smallest infrastructure possible on planets I don't need/want so I don't go into the red, and put up some defensive structures, maybe a shipyard for ease of resupply. Just because you have a planet doesn't mean you need to spend the cash to fully develop it.

It would screw up late game on larger maps. Both/all sides would annihilate the opposing team's planets, rather than risk the enemy recapturing them. Everyone would economically decimate eachother, then the game stalemates, since no-one is capable of fighting their way through existing defences.

Yeah, that's true. It still makes sense from a lore perspective, but gameplay > lore.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go crush those Advent hippies again.

If a planet is influenced by your culture, the enemy isn't able to capture it anymore.
Just make sure you have a planet with multiple broadcast centers and if there is no enemy culture influence, the enemy will be unable to use the surrounding planets.
It takes a while to have cultural influence multiple phase jumps away, but with time, your culture will spread very far.

What Photino said, also you die when you lose all your planets, this would make a huge seige/rush in late game ALOT more effective.

For example i played a game online last night and one of my enemys was quite powerfull. I launched a suprise attack at him and tied up his fleet with mine while i had 35 Seige frigates destroy every one of his worlds, now i basicly crippled him but the seige rush itself dident kill him as he recollonised his planets. He actualy managed to use his previous recources advantage to stage a comeback and counter assult my worlds.

In other words it was alot of fun. I a smaller empire was able to pull of a suprise attack (due to good scouting) and managed to even the playing feild against a large and significantly stronger empire. However if perminate sterilisation was an option and i had wiped him out... well if i was in that situation i would be pissed off, here i am with alot of money and orbital infrustructre but i was killed by a smaller empire while i was defneding other fronts.

All people would ever do was build up seige frigs and try to kill off enemy planets before there own were killed.

Options could be to blow up planets by turning them into astroid fields. and leave some resources and or make the planet unuseable by anyone without first doing 'cleanup' research on the planet.

The blow up planet weapon should have a cool down of an hour extermiatus shouldn't be taken lightly

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!



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.



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.