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This one's more of a longer term idea suggestion. It seems perfectly within the capabilities of polities in most Shadow Empire games to be able to develop a variety of active defenses against attack, especially as we already have similar systems utilized in reality. I had several ideas.

C-RAM
Conventional/Gauss/Laser/Beam CIWS Emplacement
Mobile Point-Defense Vehicle

While shields might overtake their role in the later game, these systems would be focused on mitigating the effects of artillery fire. Essentially, they would have a chance to reduce or eliminate attacks of bombarding units, protecting entrenched territory, assets, and armored advances in the face of missile bombardment. Improved technologies and optimization would increase their effectiveness.

Active Vehicle Defenses

These would be an extra component for vehicle models that provide extra resistance to RPGs and indirect fire that follow the same line of technology as C-RAM above.

Strategic Defense Systems
Anti-Ballistic Missiles
Anti-Ballistic Laser/Beam

There is no real defense against ICBMs in this game, so we're rather fortunate that the AI doesn't make judicious use of its nuclear weapons whenever it actually builds them. Nonetheless, anti-ballistic missiles do exist in reality and I wish there was a way to field them. Combined with energy weapon emplacements, they could offer a reasonable chance of neutralizing incoming ballistic missiles or at least knock them off course. In my head their "range" would extend for several hexes

Vehicle Shield Generator
This one's not quite in the same vein as the other suggestions, but I do find it strange we can field man-portable shield generators but not generators designed to protect individual vehicles.

[:)]

I'm agree with everything but CIWS. They will take role of shield generators in late-game and technologically impossible in early game (let's be honest - rockets are rarely used by AI, their artillery is main reason of your suggestion).

Agreed about the AI use, but PBEM encourages PvP.

ORIGINAL: Malevolence

Agreed about the AI use, but PBEM encourages PvP.

As I already said I don't feel them fitting our setting. Tech4 is ~ modern era. We aren't have any system capable to wide-area interception of artillery shells. Not even in actual development, lol. So it's too fantastic for us & to be placed in low-tech area, but if we put in late-game tech area - it will act +/- similar to already existing shield generators. And I'm against wasting Vic's time to add stuff almost identical to units we already have. At least not until we get our precious lava-sailing warships and sub-orbital planes [:D]

Wholly agree on the strategic defense systems. It feels like a weird gap in the game to have no way of countering ICMBs other than ICBMs of your own in a race to the bottom. While that's thematically appropriate for a post-apocalyptic game, it's not so great from a gameplay perspective.