Yeah I like that idea alot.

Now in the game there is a race stance right. The yor like you or dont depnding on the game. however if you think about not all the plaents under a factions rule are going to feel the same way. Yeah the Captial planet will most likely be totally loyal and in line with the race's view but what about that colony way out there. They might like you more thus the whole cultural superiority move.

What I purpose is that planets have a gradent from totally love yeah too hate you with a passion. Perhaps this could be indicated with a colored border around the planet blue to red.

What that would mean in game is that some planet the blue border ones you would need no or a few troops to capture and you would get the full population like a culural defection. the red ones on the other hand would fight hard and would rebel often unless you kept large forces in place.

You ask, how do we keep large forces in place since all we have is troop transports for the attack??? Well I think that this is a aspect of the planets popultaion. So at the planet management screen you can see the planets pop. Its military pop, which would be the number of people it could put under arms in a war, then its actual number of troops. At that spot you could click on that number and transfer them to planets under your control. Ones perhaps in high levels of revolt. no transport would be needed cause this is more routeen unlike the invasion nature of the troop transport.

But yeah I never liked the whole pop fighting back and eliminating when conqueored even evil groups like the Nazi's couldnt pull that off and why would you really. Occupation would add an intresting level to conquest also considering it would be easier to retake one of your planets assuming it did not like the invader better.

What else could this work with you ask??? How about the spyies. They could be used to insight your enemies planets with propaganda campaigns convincing them your worht joining. I figure you could also deploy them on your planet to prevent your enemies from doing the same and to bolster outlining planets to hate the people you hate, thought this could be more a building say a "Information Ministery" or something or a byproduct of some of the current building that bolster happyness like the mind control centers and what not.

I also agree with the idea of custom armies or atleast the development of certain doctorines say airborne, special forces, armor assult and so on. They would give you advantages in the fight like special forces would be an invasion tactic that eliminated some forces of your enemy and created confusing which dropped their soldiering.

On a eye candy note I would like to customize my land forces like I can my space forces but that another topic onto its self.

Hmmm... well, I'm back, and home, so that allows me to reference my rough design doc for purposes of clarity.

Now, on to response.

Vogar and AggieJohn, while that could be a possible alternative it wasn't quite what I was aiming for. Still, it's a good idea, and I like your ideas in regards to keeping the populace from suiciding themselves all over an invaders proverbial windshield. It would certainly be an excellent alternative if this doesn't work. Also, Aggie, yeah, part of this mod idea did include a thought about being able to customize your troops appearance.

Kodiak, I kind of think you misunderstood. I don't intend to add strategies, or at least not just strategies; I know that's easily doable, and I wouldn't even need to ask about it. Instead what I was proposing was a system in which you could design and 'build' soldiers much like you would a ship, except it needs to be transported and fights on planets.

Anyway, hopefully this wouldn't make things overly complicated; I'll definitely be entertaining alternate ideas as well. Feel free to pipe in.

If all we're doing here is making wish lists, my preferred setup would be as follows:

*Keep the heavily abstracted nature of the conflicts
*Turn the one week planetary conquests into prolonged siege/pacification operations. They would last until the planet either defected (some combination of loyalty, influence, and the willpower of the defenders) or it was militarily crushed. Every week, both sides would take casualties, with a heavy bias towards the attackers.
*Every turn a planet is under siege, the chances of it surrendering increase as war weariness and casualties wear it down. Once it surrenders, you take control of all surviving population and infrastructure.
*Invasion tactics speed up conquest at a cost. Mass drivers, for instance, might be destroying a significant portion of the planet each turn, yet would quickly cow the opponent. Mass drivers fired from orbit are much scarier than nukes.
*During the time that a planet is contested, all production and output ceases. The transport remains in orbit, and may be destroyed to halt the invasion (emphasizing space superiority during invasions). The attacker may reinforce the seige with additional transports. You can, if you so desire, halt the invasion at any point.
*If defensive tactics were implemented, you could use tactics like "guerilla warfare" to delay the invasion. Likewise, a tactic like "scorched earth" would allow you to purposefully damage your own tiles for every week the invasion continues, unless the invader pulls his forces out (which might be a viable option should the planet be extremely viable to you)