Anti-Deep-Strike Waves Discussion Thread

[x4000]

From here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7803.msg65970.html#msg65970

The mechanics of this are still not 100% stabilized in my mind; it seems likely to be rife with logical exploitations and isn't in my normal play style, so you folks are going to have to help out with this one if you want to see it implemented.  But basically, it would be waves that get launched periodically (every 4 minutes?) against any non-scout, non-transport ships of yours that are way out in enemy territory -- say, more than 4 planets away from your planets?  That would penalize deep raiding without making it impossible. 

[Sunshine!]

I think this should work similar to the AI Eye function, except spawned from nearby special forces guard posts.  Alerting a planet out past a specific distance (should be past transport range) will trigger all nearby special forces to converge on that planet, and will also spawn large quantities of reinforcements from all those nearby special forces guard posts (within 2 hops?  3 hops?).  Those forces will pursue the deepstriking forces for as long as it takes (even to human planets, making retreating with a deepstriking force a risky proposition), and if not on a human planet when the offending forces are destroyed, will return to special forces patrol (or cold storage if there are too many), making repeated deep strikes dangerous because of how many special forces units you will end up spawning around the galaxy.

[ShadowOTE]

I like sunshine's suggestion - it would also work well with the suggestion made elsewhere for auto-AIP during deep raiding.

[shortstar]

You could create a mobile AI EYE that is cloaked and just program the little fellow to patrol no closer than a couple of jumps to the human settlements. If your raid fleet was to meet up with this little guy, things would turn out very bad. I would also make sure the ai had a shipcap of 20 on an 80 planet map. May be good also to have  the other Mobile AI EYEs move to worlds 1 or 2 jumps away from a triggering event.

[Yuugi]

While I'm not sure about cloaking the mobile AI eyes, I do like the thought of roaming defense systems like that.

Could force deep strikes to have to be more surgical in nature rather than going in with a large force sledgehammer style.

Stuff like that could at the same time keep minor factions like the Dyson from wreaking too much havoc deep in enemy territory a half-dozen hours before you ever encounter them.

Though I'm not sure if this may force players to have to spend too much time getting intel on a wide spread of planets around the one you want to strike, or alternatively take attention away from your strikegroup since you have to keep your eyes on surrounding systems in case the AI is closing in on you.

Maybe add a sort of warning that notifies you about this sort of defense becoming active against you as long as you have the systems it moves through scouted. So you have some time to react a good bit before totalhelldeath breaks loose around your fleet, without having to stay on the edge of your seat the entire time, which could get annoying.

Also, I like the thought of the AI getting the ability of sending waves into their own systems if they deem it necessary. They have those warpgates all over the place, why shouldn't they use them for defensive purposes, too? Waves aimed into deep AI territory may have shorter countdowns, too.

[Varone]

Wouldn't it be simpler to just have an extended supply mechanism? We have planet supply to build structures, then there is ship supply which extends four planets out from the nearest friendly planet.

Could also have a supply ship that acts as a mobile supply depot, therefore it has to be brought along on any deep strike raids, otherwise the ships that aren't in supply have to go into low power mode or can't use wormholes anymore when they go over four planets away from the nearest friendly settlement.

[shortstar]

Wouldn't it be simpler to just have an extended supply mechanism? We have planet supply to build structures, then there is ship supply which extends four planets out from the nearest friendly planet.

Could also have a supply ship that acts as a mobile supply depot, therefore it has to be brought along on any deep strike raids, otherwise the ships that aren't in supply have to go into low power mode or can't use wormholes anymore when they go over four planets away from the nearest friendly settlement.

Leapfrogging would make it too easy, I would think. I personally think deep raids are a valid tactic ie strategic bombers in rl. It is a very powerful tool, but the ai has almost no defense against it in its present state. I think the AI needs to be able to respond to deep incursions and mobile ai eyes would act as the radar to detect, identify(by number of ships), and send in reinforcements from the command center or the mobile ai eye itself. This would be the counter for rl and I think it would work here as well. If the ai eye was killed, then the player would incur a aip and possibly aip from killing the other eyes alerting to that region.

Using a method such as this makes blind deep raids almost impossible unless you get really lucky, and still allows the strategic option to use deep strikes where appropriate. It assigns the ai a counter for an assault on its territory, while also allowing a paced and thoughtful commander the ability to identify the "radar sites/ai eye" and eliminate them or avoid them all together with a watchful eye and quick thinking. This would turn what right now is an exploit into something that could still be a useful tool, while not being an IWIN button.