Well, to start with you seem to have just kindof repeated the point of 'what is stopping the defender from bubbling every moon' like you didn't understand what I said, the answer to that is still that the vast majority of those colonies dont matter and can be ignored, but then you made this point:
With regards to 'knowing you are under attack' I was thinking of newbies happily frolicking about on their home world and then suddenly losing it without ever having even seen any signs of the enemy.
It might be reasonable to say that the main design consideration for city shields would be: how many shield modules are you interested in producing to get it built, what radius do you want it to have, and how much damage would you like it to be able to take before it fails and goes into siege mode. Aside from that they could all be identical in how they behave (IE how long siege mode protects you). That would also simplify that mechanic into just being a flat three day timer or however many days.
You also remarked that they are 'lucky to know about this feature', I still think that you shouldn't be protected by game mechanics from the consequences of not knowing how to play the game. Ideally provide a tutorial (which exists) and clear documentation of how to defend yourself, and if you want no chance of dying, then live in the peace dimension which I still think aught to be brought back.
(01-25-2022, 07:51 AM)Deantwo Wrote: ...You can't just assume that an attacker want not wipe out every single little moon colony. That proves you have no concept or consideration for smaller more local wars. ...My take on this is that if you want to wipe out every world the enemy has just because it exists, and aren't willing to put in the time of day to do it, then maybe its fine if the game doesn't support that play style. I don't really see that wars of extermination down to the last pointless low QL moon colony are something of value that we should fight to keep.
(01-25-2022, 07:51 AM)Deantwo Wrote: ...basically I meant that your idea of "you know you are under attack because bombing" only mattered if you were actually on the world and in the specific city being bombed. ...This is a fair point, I would personally suggest that if you are a large enough empire that you will never visit a planet (particularly your homeworld) for the entire time it takes for it to be conquered, then its okay to be expected to listen to the fleet channel (which if I recall is where city notifications that they are under attack come over) and to check the mail. My memory is that cities start complaining as soon as you start shooting the shield (which rarely was built, but some cities did in fact do this).
With regards to 'knowing you are under attack' I was thinking of newbies happily frolicking about on their home world and then suddenly losing it without ever having even seen any signs of the enemy.
(01-25-2022, 07:51 AM)Deantwo Wrote: ... Of course a super-shield-thingy-building should need Cryozine, which then finally shoves this out of a bunch of newbie hands. ...Honestly that is a fair point, the super new person frolicking on their home world oftentimes wont even know shields exist, which does make some of my concerns there poinrtless in the first place. However, this would still be a technology in reach of very small empires, one of the earliest hurdles you cross is gaining access to shields.
It might be reasonable to say that the main design consideration for city shields would be: how many shield modules are you interested in producing to get it built, what radius do you want it to have, and how much damage would you like it to be able to take before it fails and goes into siege mode. Aside from that they could all be identical in how they behave (IE how long siege mode protects you). That would also simplify that mechanic into just being a flat three day timer or however many days.
You also remarked that they are 'lucky to know about this feature', I still think that you shouldn't be protected by game mechanics from the consequences of not knowing how to play the game. Ideally provide a tutorial (which exists) and clear documentation of how to defend yourself, and if you want no chance of dying, then live in the peace dimension which I still think aught to be brought back.