Invasion of AI Planets too easy - please change

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: Fishman

ORIGINAL: taltamir

there is no need to make things TOO hard...

As opposed to too easy, with an AI that doesn't do its damn job?

Yes, exactly as opposed to too easy. things are too easy, there is no need to make them too hard. Some of the suggestions here are terrible and would make things insanely difficult, but not REAL difficulty but "fake difficulty"... it would just make things tedious.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

The idea with having all planters automatically recruit troops to a 10% of their tax means that every planet has a sizeable force...

No, it means LARGE planets have sizeable forces, MAYBE, but SMALL planets have insignificant forces not worth the bother and upkeep to recruit in the first place. Garrisons have a minimum effectiveness size. Anything smaller than that, namely, about the size of a transport or two, is not worth the upkeep to hire in the first place!

1. Transports can pick up troops from those planets, so it is worth it.
2. Not every WORTHLESS BACKWATER planet needs a huge and massive garrison to make it invasion proof... it should be easy as pie to invade such worlds

ORIGINAL: taltamir

planets shouldn't be uninvadable, and if some of the suggestions made here were incorporated planets would be a huge and PITA undertaking to invade, near impossible, and require massive effort and massive amounts of troop from hundreds of worlds to take one damn planet... it would take forever to wage war.

That actually sounds rather realistic. Have you seen what a major hassle it is just to invade a backwards Middle Eastern country? On the other hand, if invasions become sadistically difficult, rather like it is in real life, bombardment may start sounding more attractive.

First, in regards to IRL
1. for your example, it was easy as pie to invade those countries, they folded quickly. having a few casualties that are blown out of proportion in the press is a different thing.
2. the surge worked wonders, sending more troops works... and we are still at a tiny fraction of our actual capacity.
3. do we really need to go on that kind of tangent?

Second, in regards to the game.
1. Fuck realism. You want realism? there is no such thing as warp, the reach of lasers is "anywhere within a star system", "there is no sound in space", and I got a dayjob instead of being the megalomaniac conquerer of galaxies. (among many other issues)
Realism should only be given a sufficient nod to to avoid breaking suspension of disbelief.
2. You should not need to mobilize troops from hundreds of worlds to conquer one.
3. If you DO require mobilizing troops from hundreds of worlds to invade one, then how the hell would you invade anything if you only have 50 planets or less? how would the AI ever invade anything?
the answer is they could not and would not.
4. The troops do use bombardment... putting "nuclear exterminators" on a space ship and nuking everything on the planet dead is completely different to using conventional bombardment tactics, which your troops obviously use.
5. I am not spending 3 weeks of IRL time micromanaging the conquering of one pitiful 5 planet alien empire if I have a 100 planet empire. Sorry but it is not happening.
AI should invade more (invade you, and invade for you when you enable automation), and should keep a slightly larger basic garrison, and maybe make troop pods take up more space (so you have less troops per ship)... but don't go too far on those. Don't implement even half the "features" suggested in this thread since they would ruin the game.

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

Yes, exactly as opposed to too easy. things are too easy, there is no need to make them too hard. Some of the suggestions here are terrible and would make things insanely difficult, but not REAL difficulty but "fake difficulty"... it would just make things tedious.

There are two kinds of difficulty in the world: Easy, and hard. If it can be done, it's easy. Otherwise, it's hard.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

1. Transports can pick up troops from those planets, so it is worth it.

Actually, it's not. What happens is that you tell the transport to load up. It goes to this minor shithole planet. It picks up 1 troop. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to load a 20 pod assault ship ONE TROOP AT A TIME?!? If these planets were simply completely undefended, "load at nearest planet" would instead find a proper place to load up at.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

2. Not every WORTHLESS BACKWATER planet needs a huge and massive garrison to make it invasion proof... it should be easy as pie to invade such worlds

This logic is exactly why I don't make it so. You would THINK so, but then you go and land smack in the middle of Hell as your troops unload onto what is supposed to be an easy undefended planet only to be slaughtered as there are 500 legions down there. Why are they there? Well, they're waiting for their dropship to come and pick them up, duh.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

4. The troops do use bombardment... putting "nuclear exterminators" on a space ship and nuking everything on the planet dead is completely different to using conventional bombardment tactics, which your troops obviously use.

What are they bombarding with, then? They don't seem to gain an actual BENEFIT for possession of total air superiority, as would realistically be the case, so they aren't receiving orbital support from your space fleet.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

5. I am not spending 3 weeks of IRL time micromanaging the conquering of one pitiful 5 planet alien empire if I have a 100 planet empire. Sorry but it is not happening.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

AI should invade more (invade you, and invade for you when you enable automation), and should keep a slightly larger basic garrison, and maybe make troop pods take up more space (so you have less troops per ship)... but don't go too far on those.

The problem with this concept is that it is a directly opposed arms race. Clearly, what we need are empire-level controls for determining exactly how much we should betroopen a planet, so that we don't have to micromanage how troopenacious we wish to make a planet. Heck, even LEI had a better control for this: You could designate how far you wished a planet to be betroopened, and the AI would take over from there, making sure that the planet remained appropriately betroopened. Then if I wish to betroopen a planet with 500 legions, the automation will make sure it remains so, recruiting replacements when some fall in combat or are removed by transports, and I can be confident that the planet will always be properly betroopened.

[Rustyallan]

Some thoughts from reading this thread.

Invasion difficulty slider.
This will raise/lower the cost of troops.  When you feel invasions are too easy, move the slider and AI empires get cheaper troops and start maintaining more of them at each planet

Designated troop centers.
Sure, every planet can raise troops, but we should be able to designate a gathering point for them where troopships can pick them up for invasions instead of picking up one...at...every...planet...

Global/planetary garrison controls.
Designate an empire default for garrison levels and be able to edit it at a planetary level. This could be similar to taxes with a checkbox for the AI to manage garrison levels based on various factors which could include population, starport level, development level, rare resource, and invasion difficulty level. Any excess forces above the designated garrison are sent off to the nearest troop center.

[taltamir]

What are they bombarding with, then? They don't seem to gain an actual BENEFIT for possession of total air superiority, as would realistically be the case, so they aren't receiving orbital support from your space fleet.

Obviously "troops" is a combination of airplanes, tanks, ships, soldiers, etc etc etc.
What you think troops means soldiers? it even has a picture of a tank.

[Fishman]

Doesn't matter what the troops consist of, they're clearly not SPACESHIPS that can bombard people FROM ORBIT, so they are not bombarding. Shelling your opponents with trooper artillery is not the same as bombardment within the context of the game. Although given how many people are killed in a troop fight, one can conclude they're clearly going at each other with some pretty heavy stuff.