I'd like to start out by saying that I don't have a clue whether any of this is possible. But there's some pretty wild suggestions on this forum, like the configurable star base topic, and the different housing, so I figured it would be worth a shot.
MoO1 had some really epic ground battles. You could take a large part of your population, throw it at another planet, and watch the fireworks when your marines smash into their ground troops. The best part was that the transports had a chance of reaching the planet through space defenses -- whereas in MoO2, a single frigate with one PD laser cannon could protect a colony from a hundred transports. On my custom race topic, I pointed out that this especially hurts the Bulrathi, since they're great at ground-pounding, but not so hot when it comes to space combat. Since you have to obtain space superiority before you can begin landing troops, I think this makes things harder for them and other combat-oriented races.
I have two ideas here as to how this could be done. Probably neither is very plausible without access to the game's source code, but bear with me:
1) Noncombat ships could show up on the battle screen, and be designed, just like combat ships. In MoO1, you could design your own colony ships, so this would like that. Thus, you would fly the transports over, and then attempt to land troops by having them attack the planet. Of course, they would have to survive any planetary or space defenses to get there. Neutron blasters in particular could really hurt their chances, since they would both damage the transports and kill soldiers inside.
Maybe the transport ships could be allowed to board ships in space combat, as well, where their troop complements could come in handy. They could equip assault shuttles, or other mods, to help. There are all sorts of places this could go -- I'll leave further fleshing out to the readers' imagination.
2) Simpler than completely revamping how the game handles non-combat ships, maybe a fleet with just transports could still be given the choice to attempt a planetary assault, in spite of space defenses, if they attack as soon as they enter the system. Enemy ships and/or planetary defenses would damage some percentage of the transports, based on their firepower and the transports' speed and armor. If the planet is only protected by a couple of laser frigates, it's possible that most of the transports could get through; if there's an entire fleet stationed over the planet, and the colony is loaded up with missile bases, fighter garrisons, and ground batteries, they'd be very lucky to land any.
In either case, it'd be nice if leaders could be stationed on transports, so that land commanders could try to help even the most futile assaults.
If marine ground assaults were made more powerful, it's possible that the troop defenses on the planets would need to be made more powerful to cope with it. I have a few vague concepts on how this could be achieved, but since it's a moot point in the absence of the above, I'll let that problem rest for now.
Revamping planetary assaults
-
- Posts:119
- Joined:Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:49 pm
Re: Revamping planetary assaults
perheaps it can be implemented in moo4, but i doubt it can be done in moo2.
good idea to save and later use![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
good idea to save and later use
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests