You can't build on enemy worlds, and that's perhaps as it should be. Instead, I'd welcome a system for defences, containers and other useful objects which can be deployed in the field. These could mesh well with the item designer. The possible ranges for their attributes would have to be limited, and they would use volume inefficiently compared to buildings of similar size. Some examples to think about:
Earthworks: Defensive trenches or parapets. Must be dug personally with a shovel, so harder work than just grading with the F11 menu.
Electro-Barb Wire: A length of wire which slows movement speed and inflicts damage on avatars moving through its area (defined like a room void).
Czech Hedgehog: Puts down a barrier of limited max size. Immune to collision damage, so unlike tents and other objects cannot be run over by vehicles.
Barracks Tent: Allows troops or pilots (in the future) to be garrisoned on a hostile world when their mothership departs orbit.
Field Hospital: Carries a surgery station.
Storage Chest/Tank: Holds ammunition, med kits, fuel etc. Whatever is needed. Can be accessed by vehicles and troops within a certain range.
Power generator: Portable generator, draws from storage tank. Charges weapons and shields, etc.
Deployable shield: Creates a bubble shield of limited max strength. Protects against transporters while active.
Sandbags: Provide cover. You would have to design them for your race's specific height.
Bunker: Sturdier than sandbags, provides all-round cover.
Field Artillery: Ultra low-yield weapons bays mounted on gun models. Stationary but with more punch than vehicle weapons; operator is vulnerable to small-arms fire. Can target other field encampments and defences.
MG Nest/AA gun: Like a guard tower, but lower hp and must be physically accessed by a vulnerable troop.
These would presumably be balanced so that a well-aimed fighter's bomb could take out a whole camp, unless it's shot done first, but weapons bays couldn't target them. They would durable enough to become familiar little enclaves to dueling players, but nowhere near as strong as a captured city. Defenders could also build them, of course.
Deployables are neutral, so they don't count as an enemy presence on your world, and if you have physical access to them you can use them, regardless of your empire. Push forward and take an artillery park; it's yours instantly to use against them. Can be cleaned up from a claimed planet if there are no enemy units present.
The way I see it, defences like these could lead to immersive situations: you log in to your space house, hear the guns in the morning, just as you've done every morning for the past three weeks. You can see flashes in the distance as the enemy's forward camp exchanges fire with the city walls, smoking craters around their wire walls. Supply shuttles come and go in the distance, occasionally harrassed by your friendly fighters. It would give ground combat a more definite sense of place: you might actually remember famous battlefields like Monte Cassino, Caporetto, D-Day...
Earthworks: Defensive trenches or parapets. Must be dug personally with a shovel, so harder work than just grading with the F11 menu.
Electro-Barb Wire: A length of wire which slows movement speed and inflicts damage on avatars moving through its area (defined like a room void).
Czech Hedgehog: Puts down a barrier of limited max size. Immune to collision damage, so unlike tents and other objects cannot be run over by vehicles.
Barracks Tent: Allows troops or pilots (in the future) to be garrisoned on a hostile world when their mothership departs orbit.
Field Hospital: Carries a surgery station.
Storage Chest/Tank: Holds ammunition, med kits, fuel etc. Whatever is needed. Can be accessed by vehicles and troops within a certain range.
Power generator: Portable generator, draws from storage tank. Charges weapons and shields, etc.
Deployable shield: Creates a bubble shield of limited max strength. Protects against transporters while active.
Sandbags: Provide cover. You would have to design them for your race's specific height.
Bunker: Sturdier than sandbags, provides all-round cover.
Field Artillery: Ultra low-yield weapons bays mounted on gun models. Stationary but with more punch than vehicle weapons; operator is vulnerable to small-arms fire. Can target other field encampments and defences.
MG Nest/AA gun: Like a guard tower, but lower hp and must be physically accessed by a vulnerable troop.
These would presumably be balanced so that a well-aimed fighter's bomb could take out a whole camp, unless it's shot done first, but weapons bays couldn't target them. They would durable enough to become familiar little enclaves to dueling players, but nowhere near as strong as a captured city. Defenders could also build them, of course.
Deployables are neutral, so they don't count as an enemy presence on your world, and if you have physical access to them you can use them, regardless of your empire. Push forward and take an artillery park; it's yours instantly to use against them. Can be cleaned up from a claimed planet if there are no enemy units present.
The way I see it, defences like these could lead to immersive situations: you log in to your space house, hear the guns in the morning, just as you've done every morning for the past three weeks. You can see flashes in the distance as the enemy's forward camp exchanges fire with the city walls, smoking craters around their wire walls. Supply shuttles come and go in the distance, occasionally harrassed by your friendly fighters. It would give ground combat a more definite sense of place: you might actually remember famous battlefields like Monte Cassino, Caporetto, D-Day...
