Brainstomring: Status of Command Stations

[Lancefighter]

The delete key has nothing on a 10 million combined metal/crystal cost starship fleet. They do, however, fit into a single transport...

[rabican]

My log buff suggestion:

mkII: no enemy teleports. Double allied speed again. Immune to supply interference.
mkIII: provides supply two systems out.  Enemy speed reduced to 1/4 (so you can still cheat with a bitshift).

All higher marks would have all the abilities of the lower ones as well.

I support the translocating range reduction and durability increase of the mil stations.

You sure about that? The slowing effect is already powerfull as power puff girls. 1/4 would be awfully close to "i win button".

[eRe4s3r]

The delete key has nothing on a 10 million combined metal/crystal cost starship fleet. They do, however, fit into a single transport...

Transports? Transports are for people who don't like blowing stuff up ^^

I could see your point, if your suggestion were actually included 1:1. But you and I both know that is not how this is going to be balanced, because if you give us unrestricted teleport over the entire map you would give us one of the strongest abilities in the game. If not the strongest.

And I figure the point of this brainstorming is not to make all other stations irrelevant ;p (I would go straight for LOG MK3 if I get unrestricted teleport)

[Martyn van Buren]

I think that command stations are quite nice as they are now; personally I feel they do a very good job of creating an opportunity cost when you choose one over the others and each has a very definite use.  I use both log and mil on border worlds, and it seems to me that while each has proponents who think the other is underpowered, there's enough of a split that no change is called for.

I haven't tried mini-forts yet, but I do think if the mini-fort is making mil stations useless, it's probably the mini-fort that needs to be nerfed.  Taking island worlds is supposed to be a problem.

[Faulty Logic]

You sure about that? The slowing effect is already powerfull as power puff girls. 1/4 would be awfully close to "i win button".

I am sure. I have played a game where I got a relative speed factor of about 30, and I still had to be very careful, and still lost lots of ships. My proposal would make an rsf of 16 availible every game and you can frequently accomplish worse with grav turrets in the current game state.

[Zeyi]

I don't have any issues with any command stations at the moment. I haven't tried the new mini-forts out yet though (although I think they should be altered before military stations since they're new and people have generally been happy with command station balancing till now).

I personally use logistics, with military command stations on whipping boys or satellite worlds (unless the translocation has a negative affect, eg fabricators in remote locations on the planet).

Logistics stations should not be underestimated tbh, I recently played a 120 planet 1HW take everything FS game resulting in over 2500+ AIP and the highways I made from my FS cities/fabricators and major fleet building worlds were essential.

Any planet that didn't have ships traveling through often had economic stations. So I think they all serve their relative purpose well. If we were to add additional features to command stations I think these should be further knowledge unlocks rather than being bundled with the current.

EDIT: Was just reading a suggestion about logistics IIIs being able to 'warp' you to other planets - this to me seems very OP. However I like the idea and offer a counter but kind of off-topic suggestion- Since we have research and knowledge hacking why not add warp gate hacking. You enter a hostile planet, a special ship, lets call it the warp network interceptor allows you to select a *scouted* planet that has an active warp gate, you then spend x minutes hacking the warp gate and once its finished you can send a fleet through to the destination you chose. How the AI reacts (whether it reacts whilst hacking or on the otherside of the warp (or both) can be decided if anyone thinks this is a good extension of the idea  )

[Kahuna]

I think that command stations are quite nice as they are now

Ever used MarkIII Logistics Command Station? No? Me either.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Not that I have anything to add about balance, but I figure you should know that we're probably brainstorming here, rather than brainstomring.

[KDR_11k]

With logistics the question is whether they should be advantageous for combat or primarily for moving your fleets around through your empire. The current issue with the latter is that you need contiguous territory and pave it entirely with log stations to get fast travel.

Various ideas (not all should apply at once):
- As mentioned, make it impact intra galactic warpgates so log stations help with reinforcing.
- Make log stations increase speed on adjacent planets too (issue: This affects combat!)
- Increase the range at which log stations provide supply
- Make log stations increase the distance transports can travel from human planets before attritioning
- Make log stations provide other buffs to transports (speed? Durability?)
- Make log stations create travel highways that allow transports to teleport on intermediate planets (how should they be routed?)

Yes, most of these would encourage placing log stations at regular intervals but that has an AIP cost. The advantage would be easier travel between your remote planets. I don't think allowing wholesale teleportation across the galaxy would be a good idea, that would allow humans to completely avoid the threat of any planet in between.

As for mil commands, I think they should come with an included FF generator so you can save your FF cap for other stuff.

[Mermel]

Did anyone notice that all command stations double the allied movement speed?
That is not an logistics exclusive feature.

Or did I get something terribly wrong here?

[Draco18s]

Did anyone notice that all command stations double the allied movement speed?
That is not an logistics exclusive feature.

Or did I get something terribly wrong here?

Owning a system doubles your speed.  Logistics doubles it again.

[Mermel]

I was looking at the descriptions of the stations. So I guess there is a little mistake in... kinda every single one...

[Draco18s]

I should follow up my above post with, "at least, I think that's what's supposed to happen."

[KDR_11k]

Don't logs provide more than double speed (compared to other stations)?

[keith.lamothe]

All stations double ally speed.  Log stations also add +40 speed (I don't recall if that's before or after the combat style modifier or station-doubling is applied).