Fights have too few casualities?

[th_pion]

Fights take way too long imho. I did run multiple games in observer mode and what happens a lot is:
A and B fight over C's planet. A and B both build tons of ships and send them all to C's planet and instead of decreasing the fleets are increasing, because they don't deal enough damage to each other. I had this one silly game, where everybody (I think 5 Races in total) where fighting over this one Acution's planet...and the fleets just got bigger and bigger.

[MadMat]

Fights take way too long imho. I did run multiple games in observer mode and what happens a lot is:
A and B fight over C's planet. A and B both build tons of ships and send them all to C's planet and instead of decreasing the fleets are increasing, because they don't deal enough damage to each other. I had this one silly game, where everybody (I think 5 Races in total) where fighting over this one Acution's planet...and the fleets just got bigger and bigger.

This seems to be the case, though not as severe and frustrating as defender constantly pumping out ground soldiers (and to be killed instantly) to prevent a hostile takeover backed by thousands of armadas and millions of ships, even though they only have 10m population.

[Tridus]

Yeah, the speed offense needs tuning on the solar map. I guess I'd suggest that armadas and ground troops get created less often (but more at a time, so the overall amounts don't change), just so the window is larger when a fleet can wipe out opposition and attack the planet. Right now stuff gets created so fast that it takes forever to take out a planet.

I'd also want to see orbital bombing reduce the speed of population growth, as blowing stuff up isn't really condusive to a positive medical trend.

[kasnavada]

This is also an important point to solve...

Once I tried to defend one of my allies, it was like 15 years into a game. There was 50 armadas sieging, every time I took a defense action, their number went down by 2... I had to beat them up about 40 times total because their number replenished too, and then they managed to take the planet anyway. Resulting in game loss because the attackers were the strongest and I had no realistic way to get them back up to help build a federation.

As it is, there is no point defending their planets but for the reputation... but if the guy is going to lose, it's better to raid its tech to death before it's hopefully lost. Is that intended ?

[th_pion]

This is really silly...almost every Obser mode game goes the same way right now:
All races fight over one planet, but they produce more ships then they lose and the fight just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

[Draco18s]

I've been watching the Skylaxians try and take over the Burlust homeworld since...oh when they became spacefaring (you know, like five years into the game and its now 3030).

The Burlusts have 0 armada defending their planet with 639 attacking armadas with a combined strength of 213,338.  Population has only dropped below double-digit millions in the last few moments (I haven't been watching it, when they started their attack at 10k strength the Burlusts had 280M pop and it would GO UP, peaked around 310, and last I checked--about 3 in-game years ago--it was still over 100M).

Oh, and I can't bomb the planet's surface myself, because I can neither aid nor go-it-alone against the Burlust armadas....because they have none.

[DBrickShaw]

Something definitely needs to be tweaked here.

I've been absolutely loving this game so far, but I've given up on my first play through as I'm fairly certain it's no longer feasible for me to win. I've united every remaining race except for the Thoraxians under my federation, but the combined might of my federation is no match for the Thoraxian home world. Here's what their home world has looked like for the past several hundred solar months:

http://i.imgur.com/eIh3MAa.png

The population seems to fluctuate between 6m and 10m, and I've sped my way through hundreds of solar months with dispatch missions hoping it would fluctuate to 0, but so far no luck. The only other feasible means for me to win at this point would be to backdoor the Thoraxians in through the Skylaxians, but I think it would literally be faster to play a new game from scratch than to fix their relationship from its current state.

[th_pion]

you guys actually have a different problem then me, but yeah groundcombat is in a bad state aswell.

[GC13]

I really hope that whatever is causing this is fixed. It's annoying for a state of war to exist where one side is crushingly dominant but nothing happens. If they're not bombing simply because they don't wish to then they need to end the war. If they are bombing and the population is holding steady because enough ground troops who are tough enough are able to repel orbital fire with their pecs then that's definitely not alright.

It's all really opaque, and I hope that very quickly the game tells you more about what's going on. "The Peltians have started bombing the Thoraxians. I'd say they're cute when they're angry, but... Yikes." Plus accessible stats for the bombardment or invasion comparing the forces, their strengths, and how the fighting has been going.

[Tridus]

Something definitely needs to be tweaked here.

I've been absolutely loving this game so far, but I've given up on my first play through as I'm fairly certain it's no longer feasible for me to win. I've united every remaining race except for the Thoraxians under my federation, but the combined might of my federation is no match for the Thoraxian home world. Here's what their home world has looked like for the past several hundred solar months:

http://i.imgur.com/eIh3MAa.png

The population seems to fluctuate between 6m and 10m, and I've sped my way through hundreds of solar months with dispatch missions hoping it would fluctuate to 0, but so far no luck. The only other feasible means for me to win at this point would be to backdoor the Thoraxians in through the Skylaxians, but I think it would literally be faster to play a new game from scratch than to fix their relationship from its current state.

I'm glad you posted that one, it's a great example of the problem. Do you by chance have a save file? You can attach it to a post on the forums and it'll help to come up with a fix.

[DBrickShaw]

I'm glad you posted that one, it's a great example of the problem. Do you by chance have a save file? You can attach it to a post on the forums and it'll help to come up with a fix.

Good point, the save file is attached with this post. I hope it helps

[Azurian]

There should be an option to obliterate the planet like in Enders Game, or at least cause earthquakes and destroy the landscape.

[Draco18s]

My ship has an orbital bombardment ability, but I can only use it when fighting ships that are present in orbit.

Which is basically "never"

[Azurian]

My ship has an orbital bombardment ability, but I can only use it when fighting ships that are present in orbit.

Which is basically "never"

Should be recategorized to have the ability to directly lower the population of the planet if used in combat. You have 8 races that over time can research some really advanced stuff, there should be a Tech that allows you to create a cannon to bomb a planet from space, like in most 4x games.

[Faulty Logic]

My ship has an orbital bombardment ability, but I can only use it when fighting ships that are present in orbit.

You should also be able use it when raiding for tech (or any mission over that planet).