blockade

from GalCiv2 Forums
This follows a previous post about pacing and how any planet could drastically extend your range.

I have started a new game (huge galaxy), and done a lot better at the start. One of the thing that bothers me a lot is the "colony extends range" thing. Well, an alien civ colonized a 0-planet (now a 2-planet), and this allows it's whole fleet to come after me. I know it worked this way in GC1 but I always felt this was not very good. A small outpost like that should certainly have no way of extending the range of so many vessels : this should require more. First, one should decide what "range" means:
- is range a limitation by being out of communication ?
- is range a limitation by lack of "fuel" ?
- something else ?
Given the tech tree, it looks like range means "fuel" (which you store in greater quantity if you install special modules, and which is increased by logistics). Hence, the logic is that planets provide fuel to ships in their "range". The next logical step would have starports distributing that fuel to fleets in space by cargo.

I can agree that the game would be cumbersome (an not very fun) if one were to compute an exact fuel capacity etc. for each starport... But one simple thing could be worth doing, which was very common in the old navys: blockade.

There should be a simple command called blockade that a military ship could attempt. The effect would be to drastically reduce the range granted by the blockaded planet (starbase), and I believe it could add a lot to the strategy of the game: as long as the blockade is in place, the opponents ability to move around is severely limited. It gives meaning to the strategy of controlling the space and not bothering about planetary invasions. It also does not kill the strategy of establishing an outpost in enemy territory as long as you can prevent it from being both invaded and blockaded.

Yves
ideas
27,525 views 52 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
NIce idea

This would also give some advantage to the empire with more ships but not enough troops to launch invasions. While waiting to prepare an army the fleet is making itself useful in blockade enemy worlds. Blockades could also put pressure on the opponent to seek peace, say if I wanted to end my war with the Torians without destroying them, I could blockade their systems. This should also have an impact on trade, blockaded systems could have their trade routes suspended perhaps.

I really like this!
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Yup thats a great idea...
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
just like to say quick note that im new to the forums and send a quick hello.
but to the point, i think itrs a great idear, u could set up a blockade to wait until you can send some troops(and if u copy the udear from Master of orion u could also have planetary bombardment if this isnt already added). the blockade could freeze there econmic and current buildings so you can slowly drain there money. furthermore, you could blockade a planet as a diplomatic power, forcing a faction to make peace/war (weather you decided to be the UN or US )
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
How would a blockad cause that kind of limitation? Are you sending a small fleet to destory their fuel reserves or something?

I was thinking that a blockad could be used for attacking an invading fleet with more accurecy/power/speed or something similar.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
well a battleship can normally stay at sea for so long because supply ships refuel and gives it supplys (u would have this a hidden ingame thing) and if you blockade a planet, you cut of the ships supplys
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I like the blockade.

I like the concept of it halting trade routes and reducing range.

I don't know about halting the economy to the point of not building new buildings or ships. The blockaded should have a chance to build a counter-ship and remove the blockade. I think especially because the planet doesn't rely on the imperial government to build those things. One side effect might be the reduction of research by 3/4, since research requires more imperial communication.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
but if u could build ships to counter a blockade, then a blockade would be far little tactical, for example if u knew a empire was goin to build something big like a battleship, then u could quickly blockade that planet, stop that production unitl u could get reinforcements .
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
..Or, if you are at three planets and the opponent is at four.. If they move in a scout to blockade one of your planets, the game's pretty much over. They will be able to produce twice as many ships and will take you out of the game. I would hate to lose, or to win, because of who was first to get a ship into orbit and hold it there.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I think it might be best if the blockade reduced planetary production, say by 50%, to reflect to disruptive effect of a strong hostile presence, but it's not completely crippling. If your last world was blockaded and production stopped then it really would be game over. With reduced production at least you have a chance.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i agree with u there Ugleb except, if u are on ur last planet, it is mostly overall game over. also some ppl might rase and build a couple of ships at start of game and quickly blockade someone which would almost end them
Update
just had a quick go of MoO2 and the way they have done i relise is really good, if u blockade a system it also cuts of freighters which means if u block a planet with little or no food then the planets population will starve (also with GC2 if u have 1 planet which is ur food planet u could starve out a civ) also it does stop all production of a plent, which u find is useful
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I still think stopping all production is harsh, I'd like the final world to have some hope of breaking the blockade. Odds are they're going down anyway, but there's hope!

As you say Ewan, if you built a couple of cheap, fast, long range ships you could theoretically blockade opposition AI in the very early game and knock out one or two civs very easily, if planetary production halted completely anyway. That would be cheese factor.

I'm all for cutting off offworld food/trade supplies though, that's strategy factor!
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
one way of gettin round the small fast ship factor is to have a minimum ship limit to slow down producytion, or have it ever ship u have blockading it slows down 10% or 20%
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I always thought that you need to whipe out planetary defences to blockade planet. So small ships can't do that anyway, especialy on start of the game
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I do like the idea of supplies/blockades, but I think it's too late in the beta process to add such a complex feature. Maybe GC3 will have it?
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I do like the idea of supplies/blockades, but I think it's too late in the beta process to add such a complex feature. Maybe GC3 will have it?


Is it that complicated? It sounds relatively simple to me (no new screens etc) but I don't know.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
well if you think of ye-oldin day s, u didnt have to be right outside a wall to blockade a castle, (a gd chance of gettin shot by arrow). u could be the distrance of say behind the moon (all u need to do is amke sure no ships get past you, and most lily they will be unarmed convoys)
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
There should be a simple command called blockade that a military ship could attempt

The keyword is _could_. It isn't neccesary blockade is 100% successfull. A certain percentage of cargo will always pass. What percentage depends on strenght and number of ships in orbit. The blocade should only disrupt cargo and trade routes, and morale on the planet below. IMO it should affect production or research only through lower morale.
BR, Iztok
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
i like to take a more simple aproach to this and imagine a blockade happenin to a a city or castle instead, and if u had a blockade one of them , then no more tanks or catapults (or any other type of military hardware) could be built.
a way of making the game have more depth (without to much hassle and taking away fun ingame) is by makin resource like food and can be distribuated from system (and is transported by invisible freighters like MoO2) . This would mean that you would be able to have mining planets and had to have a steady amount of freighters to supply it to your production planets. this could also mean that you would be able to blockade certain planets to slow down there empires production. Also this adds new tactics like having insurgence to blockade there certain planets such as food and resource.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
i like to take a more simple aproach to this and imagine a blockade happenin to a a city or castle instead, and if u had a blockade one of them , then no more tanks or catapults (or any other type of military hardware) could be built.


In World War 2, during the battle for stalingrad (which lasted over a year and reduced almost every single building to rubble) there was a tank factory in the city. The factory continued to build tanks even after the roof fell in from German bombs and the fighting raged just a few streets away. The tanks would roll out of the factory unpainted and go straight into battle within minutes of passing theorugh the factory gate. Production finally stopped when the Germans physically captured the building. Supplies and reinforcements for the city had to be brought in across the River Volga while fighter planes strafed them.

So I think limited production is credible.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
While blockades of the type described by Ugleb (WW2 - Stalingrad) have often been effective, I fear the same can not be said at the planet level. A blockade will prevent resources from being brought in, but the resources of a whole planet would still be available. For a comparison, I find the blockades in MOO2 more of nuisanse value than anything else.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
best way to think about it instead of a tank factory is a shipyard (as in a water one and not a spce one ) a ship is going to need alot more specific and diffrent resourses (modern warfare need alot more technical equipment and the russains have always been known for doing things the simple ways)
Update- was thinking about WW2 again (hehe thx ugleb) and was thinking about when US sent supplys over to UK by convoys and i thought that would be quite a kool idear is was if there was a race being attacked and allies kept sending them supplys then u should be able to have a board blockade aswel l which would mean that you would be able to stop supplys and trade convoys (if ur blocking the planet trade should already be stoped)
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree with all that...but blocakdes are an important mesaure in Warfare... if normal Convential attacks don't work nowadays we got UN sanctions to replace that.... and a Big powerfull Ogre AKA The U.S. Military which enforces this codes With thier twist and the most powerfull nations and a few crappy ones got Nuke (ICBM) tech also a dif measure...
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
so i think if ur a good civ then u could blockade a evil one to get them to change there ways (for example force them to end a war with someone)
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
I would love to see blockades in the game. Would give it far more depth.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
If you surround a planet with your ships so they have no path they can use to get out, you have them blockaded -- they have to shoot their way in or out. Your success in blockading them then becomes a matter of how strong your ships are against theirs. I think this is much more like WWII than having an option called "blockade" that does something for you. In addition, the options "Guard" and "Autoattack" should be usable in combination if you can't totally box a planet with your ships.