Nukeitall Nukeitall

Planetary defenses: not very appealing?

▼

Planetary defenses: not very appealing?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Like the topic says, I am looking for opinions on planetary defenses.

Currently they seem to be not very useful given their (relatively) extreme manufacture/build time, and most wars will (sometimes anyway) be over by the time the thing sees an end to construction. Key worlds will be siezed and fleet fights will be exchanged in often fast and brutal fashion, often resulting in planetary invasions within a few turns of a war being started - the things never get done in time unless rushed. Even if rushed it's usually better to make a fleet to avoid having to defend against a planetary invasion. (The offense bonus is staggering most times, especially if they use a special attack)

My proposal is this - retool the things. Somehow. Make them cheaper, make them a super project, give them an aura radius, something. Anything. I like the concept of planetary defenses, but they need something to make them strategically good to use, like military starbases.(which are a good example of valuable static defenses)

Thanks for reading.
18,509 views 30 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree. The fleetmanager is useful to prevent lightning fast invasions. Otherwise just blast the enemy to the kingdom come before he can attack anything. First strike is the best defense.

Here's another point of view that I don't think has come up yet: the galactic archievements.

Which one you'd rather have? Some speculative defense system that might be 100% useless especially if you play it right or some soldier or minituralization upgrade or a big happiness/diplomacy/influence bonus. I rarely have plenty of free room on the planets. Most of it is in use and even the archievements are a slight pain to fit in.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I never build them. If I had the ships in orbit around a planet and someone unfriendly came calling, I'd put them into a fleet and attack. I can ALWAYS see them coming at least one turn out so there's no reason I couldn't do that. If I read their combat system right, the attacker has an advantage anyway, since he shoots first. So I prefer to defend by attacking.

The main thing is I have to pay attention.

I have certainly fought planets defended with the omega defense center (the one which puts them into a fleet) and I agree that IF you wait until they attack you in orbit it makes sense. But I don't wait.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The game already has a pretty strong attacker bias (attacking ships fire first). So it's really no surprise that defensive buildings are virtually useless.
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I never have built any defensive structures on my own, but in my current game the Torians surrendered to me after the Drengin pounded on them for awhile and every single planet I got from them had Orbital Fleet Managers. This has prompted me to plan a war of attrition with the Drengin. I've been stacking up heavy fighters on those planets and as soon as I wipe out the Korx I'm going to spark a war and just sit back and watch the Drengin fling their fleets at my newly won planets. Even if I lose a few it will pay off as I'm not really doing anything with those planets and while they attack them I will be sneaking around the back with a strike force aimed at their homeworld.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with making them starport upgrades. They would actually be worth building then.