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[Majestic7]

Rebellions should be fleshed out more. Killing the rebel armies should kill population on the planet, as you are effectively massacring civilians taking up arms. Foreign powers, especially the xenophilic fallen empire and crusader-types, should be able to intervene (and the rebels to cry out for help). The same with purges.

Regarding sectors, they actually work, they just have the long aim. So a sector first always builds farms to get maximum population, then repurposes tiles. You need to click allow redevelopment and possible respect tiles, then pour minerals in for them to build stuff. Majority of my research comes from research sectors, which are the only ones I really use. No idea if defensive sectors work.

[MrWiggles]

Defensive sectors seem to be kinda bad? I think they're meant to be what you use for neutral zones. You set up systems along your borders, and they're suppose to build defensive platforms.

In the games I've played, there doesnt seem to ever be enough room to have defensive sectors and the other sectors. Though maybe you're suppose to be highly reflexive with sectors and reforming as the need arises. But the 25 influence cost would suggest otherwise, and shit takes forever to get built. (Which I do like, but wouldnt really let you, make a sector into a netrual zone in short order.)

[Majestic7]

Defensive platforms are sort of unimpressive anyway... They can't be upgraded and they are quite brittle, even a fortress is easily splatted by a few big ships. Plus I wish we could design and upgrade starbases. So far, I haven't really used platforms at all... I suppose they might be useful for covering wormholes.

Speaking of which, I wish we could design and upgrade wormhole stations. We should be able to choose between cheap, easy to build wormhole generators and huge fortresses. Maybe do both for different needs. I kind of expected wormholing to be the turtling choice with forts and whatnots, but the infrastructure seems very vulnerable to raiding.

[Neonivek]

Defensive platforms and Fortresses seem 100% to be there to slow the enemy down.

Which would be fine if they didn't have such an incredibly high energy cost.

[MrWiggles]

1EC, man that is a lot.  And they're mostly a support structure. They aren't meant to be a stationary fleet.

[Neonivek]

1EC, man that is a lot.  And they're mostly a support structure. They aren't meant to be a stationary fleet.

They seemed more expensive to me. 3ec and 8ec for fortresses.

[Majestic7]

Description of the fortress technology states it should be equal to a fleet.

The way I see it, a fortress should be a moment to stupidity regarding expense, but work like the Maginot line; be an area denial system that likely won't see action ever. Smaller platforms are fast to build so they could be more of a support thing, as you could theoretically plop them in orbit of planets you are occupying, for example, to prevent easy recapture.

Now the platforms are too expensive to be worth it and the fortresses are too shitty to work as area denial.

[Sirus]

Stations in general need some improvements. The ability to customize them is a must for this type of game.

[Majestic7]

Another thing that would be needed is planetary defenses, like planetary missile bases or the like that take a tile. Alternatively, low orbit defense guns that damage bombarding ships and invaders. Maybe they could only be taken down with an invasion. Building fortress worlds should be possible, just not economically feasible. 

[LoSboccacc]

problem is exactly the same as that of the maginot line

now if fighter had system wide range, they could pin the enemy in combat either forcing a retreat (= free damage) or forcing the fleet into a local engagement ( = time for the fleet to arrive)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Alternatively, low orbit defense guns

or use those spaceport expansion slots for armor/weapons

[Majestic7]

Well historically Maginot line worked perfectly, since it was never attacked - it denied the area to the Germans. Current star fortress are trivially easy to destroy without incurring much in the way of losses to a proper fleet, so yeah... just no point in using them.

[Sirus]

Another thing that would be needed is planetary defenses, like planetary missile bases or the like that take a tile. Alternatively, low orbit defense guns that damage bombarding ships and invaders. Maybe they could only be taken down with an invasion. Building fortress worlds should be possible, just not economically feasible. 

Totally agreed. Also, I wonder if perhaps defending forces should be able to deal some damage to assaulting troops before said troops hit the ground. Anti-air fire, let's call it. Maybe scale the anti-air damage based on how intact the fortifications are.

Combine this with low-orbit defense guns and real proper space defenses, and invasions become much more exciting all around. It'll be a race on both sides, the attacker racing to capture the world before too much damage can be dealt to either his fleet or his troops, and the defender hoping that the defenses will hold long enough to get a fleet in position.

[MrWiggles]

Well, what I would probably do, is have an an anti landing phase, when invading troops are in the low orbit section, where any units on the ground get to make free attack, at say, 3/4 damage or half damage, and then if they are engage in ground combat, then they can do 1/2 or 1/4 damage to invaders with a attachment to allow to keep their full anti landing attack power when under duress.

Though honestly, I think for a space 4x game, it should just entirely ignore ground combat. It can never have enough depth to make it actually interesting without making it even more of a micro mgm sink. I would make it entirely about sieging down an entire system. And then have the game be smart enough to figure out when a system is no longer at the front lines, for it to "know" its subdued. And then give options to bomb the planet (to attack building, pop, and planet moral if present), glass the planet (just ruin it), or purge the planet (keep all the spiffy buildings). And have the option to provide it with food and energy.

[Orange Wizard]

Don't forget the option to simply annihilate the whole thing

[Retropunch]

I've found defense platforms pretty useful early game, and work really well as a retreating point for ships moving away from the main battle/needing safe harbour. I've found that when I've pretty much wiped out all resistance in a particular species, they still make a few ships and target things like my troop transports so it's great to be able to sort of put them back somewhere a little bit safe.

Overall, they're not great and definitely need improving, but as MrWiggles said, they're mostly sort of as a support. I had a pretty nasty border war going on and we could only reach a few of each others stars - having a few kitted out defense platforms really helped mitigate my losses. If the AI had also done the same it'd be useless, but it worked well in making sure I always had the upper hand.