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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0009151AI War 1 / ClassicSuggestion - New Unit Ideas - AI-Specific UnitsAug 6, 2012 3:33 pm
Reportermartyn_van_buren Assigned To 
Status consideringResolutionopen 
Product Version5.051 
Summary0009151: Anti-raid SS squadron
DescriptionThis would be especially important if one of the ideas that makes it harder to use bombers get implemented, to make sure raid SS's don't wind up becoming the dominant way of destroying most guardposts, but I think raids are good enough at their job that there should be a few more circumstances where you can't use them.

I'd suggest creating a rare structure on the order of interplanetary armor/munitions boosters specifically to counter raids. I think that when they detect a raid starship on any adjacent AI world they'd spawn three or four very very fast suicide melee units that go straight for the raiders --- slightly faster than raiders and set up such that if they catch them you're going to lose three or four raiders. They'd have little enough HP that your starships should be safe if you can get them to a turretball or a fleet blob. I think the spawning structure would also want to be pretty vulnerable; if you could get yours raids to it or dropped in a transportful of bombers that should solve the problem.

My hope with this is that it would generally let you keep using raid starships as you do now, but once in a while you'd have a "RUN AWAY!" moment when one of these squadrons warps in as you're trying to hit an ion cannon. They would need to have very conspicuous graphics so that yo don't lose raid SS's to them cheaply by not noticing them.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightFeature Suggestion

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TechSY730

Aug 6, 2012 2:50 pm

reporter   ~0027418

Last edited: Aug 6, 2012 2:51 pm

Why should raid starships explicitly be treated specially? If it becuase they are the best at their job, then that is a property of the current balance, not their exact identity. (Generally, I find it distasteful for logic to key into an explicit specific ship type, as that logic could start missing stuff as more types of ships are added)

I'd say just generalize this logic to be react to any starship (or possibly starship or above) class ship that has FF immunity and is not a melee or self-destructing ship.
It would just so happen that there is only one such starship that would fit that restriction right now, Raid starships. However, if more are added, then these would also react to these new raiding threats.

martyn_van_buren

Aug 6, 2012 2:57 pm

reporter   ~0027419

Yeah I agree that specifically targeting one ship is distasteful, but i'd feel really bad for the poor siege starship if it had something enormously fast and destructive chasing after it. I also feel like we should preserve the possibility of starship-only strategies. Although that said, if it was a rare ship and fleet ships did hard-counter it, that might not be so bad; it could be something that hunts isolated starships. So yeah, I guess I agree; if something like this targetted all starships it would really only be a problem for them if they're operating alone --- which, as you say, for the time being only raids are likely to be doing. So I agree :)

TechSY730

Aug 6, 2012 3:16 pm

reporter   ~0027420

@martyn_van_buren
Yea, if it is situational enough, a explicit ship type rule would not be so bad.

However, the plasma siege starship does NOT have general FF immunity, so it wouldn't fall under the special targeting logic of these things. As I proposed, only starship (or possibly bigger) class stuff that is not melee, not self-destructing, military, and has a full immunity to FF would be treated specially. It's just that right now, only one ship type satisfies this filter, raid starships, but that could change in the future.

Basically, I am suggesting any ship satisfying those restrictions be substituted into where Raid starship is in the suggestion. Right now, it would mean the same thing, but that may not always be the case, and it would be nice for these "anti-Raid" structures to automatically pick up on a new "big" ship type that satisfies similar goals to the existing raid-starships.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Aug 6, 2012 2:37 pm martyn_van_buren New Issue
Aug 6, 2012 2:50 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0027418
Aug 6, 2012 2:51 pm TechSY730 Note Edited: 0027418
Aug 6, 2012 2:51 pm TechSY730 Note Edited: 0027418
Aug 6, 2012 2:57 pm martyn_van_buren Note Added: 0027419
Aug 6, 2012 3:16 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0027420
Aug 6, 2012 3:33 pm tigersfan Internal Weight => Feature Suggestion
Aug 6, 2012 3:33 pm tigersfan Status new => considering