Conquest of Solar Systems

[Yurk Embassy]

Honestly, I believe what Norm said about returning to the original loyalty system is the best option. Remove building damage entirely, unless the flags have been captured and the defender's city is under "conquest" as they'd technically be in for a bit when the loyalty flipped over. Yes, it will allow military buildings to fire at the attackers in safety, but I don't see this is a huge issue considering how much of an advantage attackers currently have

I however get the feeling that narrowing down the siege system to loyalty would dismiss other factors and raise absurd questions like: "why can't I just bomb his city if there is literally nothing tangible that stops me from doing so? Not to mention you wouldn't care much for the locals' loyalty if your plan is to ravage the entire city; an enemy shipyard, for example, might not be a viable position for you to maintain afterwards, and destroying it entirely before retreating back into your territory should remain a possibility.

I think there needs to be a physical barrier that stops you from blitzkrieging the crap out of your target. Some of us have been talking of a planetary shield system. Allow me to suggest a more detailed idea of the way it would work.

It would be a building capped at one per planet, that'd require the typical components for high-tier, tech buildings, along with perhaps materials required to make shield generators. That would basically be the one thing that everyone would want to establish as fast as possible on their homeworld. Once built, there should be a thirty-minute to one-hour countdown before the shield is raised (to prevent another shield being instant-raised during the late stage of a siege), as one could assume such a shield would need to charge quite a bit before turning on.

Once the cooldown is over and the shield turns on, there would be a huge force field with an absolute ton of HP. Nobody except friends and Empire citizens could cross it (or maybe Neutrals, too, I guess it could be handled in the Policy tab or the building's F10 menu). The shield would need to be continuously bombed for a certain amount of time (it would be unable to regen if it has been shot in the last hour), forcing empires to station Officer-commanded ships or to remain on site themselves for hours straight, and giving the defender more time to react before actual casualties start piling in. Of course, assembling a larger attack force would also be more rewarding, as they would be able to down the shield faster. Maybe a cap on how much maximum damage per second the shield would take (excess damage would pretty much be wasted) could balance that, but at the end of the way, it's only fair that greater numbers give a certain advantage over your enemy. I also think it would be fair if breaking the shield destroys the generator itself and forces the owner to build a new one afterwards.

Lorewise, it could be an invisible force field of some sort. It would stop intruders from trespassing it, and you could assume it would produce a small gap to let friendlies in and out upon detecting them. It should not be allowed on moons (less mass meaning less natural gravity, that would interact with the way that shield works), as moonbases should remain relatively easy targets to pick on.

What do you guys think? I feel like it would leave that sense of ruleless freedom Hazeron has, by making the obstacle to constant blitzkrieg physical and concrete, rather than just "rules being rules."