[FEEDBACK] [7.5B7+] A problem: Stations, combat balance, and faction response

[Ragnos28]

i feel like the first change, and I would imagine the easiest change, would be to have forces respond to attacks. The lone destroyer killing a defense station happens ALL THE TIME currently in my game.

I even made a beefy defense station for HoP who is losing ground to ANT and PAR.... with a couple free floating defense platforms to dry and draw enemies into the defense stations range, where the rest of the station would obliterate them. It wasn't a monstrosity, but it had a solid 13-15 or so defense platforms spread out. It got taken out by a single PAR destroyer over the course of 20-30 minutes, in Holy Vision, with zero response from HoP... HoP was constantly suiciding their fleets into ANT space while allowing PAR to take over Pontifex's Claim.

Forces responding to attacks seems like the most logical solution. Attacks against stations, or even an enemy destroyer entering the sector. A PAR destroyer shouldn't be able to enter Holy Vision and just fly around and do whatever he wants to do. He should be tracked and attacked and destroyed.

The attackers should also be "buffed", a single destroyer is not much of an invasion force.

[adeine]

The attackers should also be "buffed", a single destroyer is not much of an invasion force.

They're often not meant to be. It's stray destroyers that get distracted on the way to elsewhere and end up taking out half a sector on their lonesome.

Pirate factions with no standing army have zero response to this by the way.

[Y-llian]

The biggest issue is that NPC factions are completely unresponsive. Not only do they lack tactical and strategic capabilities, but they also fail to react to obvious threats—like seeing 1I and 3K at a gate and immediately sending their defense fleets to that sector. This seems to be part of a broader lack of situational awareness.

Agreed and related to this, is how NPC factions treat all sectors as equally important / unimportant. If the Argon lose Argon Prime, there is no concerted effort to retake such a culturally and economically significant sector. It’s like the Federation just doesn’t care that their home planet is under blockade. The same goes for any of the other factions’ home systems.

While we certainly do need NPC fleets to be more reactive to invasions, we also could do with sectors the factions will always want to control, for cultural / historical reasons e.g. Argon Prime, Earth etc. or sectors that are strategically important for energy production and raw materials.

Personally, I’d like to see the NPC factions have a sector grading system.

HQ / Home sector. This should be a sector with good workforce bonuses to help SYs and Wharfs for crew output. These sectors should be regarded as “must have”.

Core systems. Sectors bordering the HQ that’s important for raw materials and energy.

Border systems. These are the sectors for expansion, which can be unowned or owned by enemies.

One of things I like about Stellaris is that the player and NPC factions need to register claims on systems, it’d be really great if X4 had something similar. This way, we’d know which systems mean something to whom and the game would be richer for it.

Argon Prime (or any HQ) should not be taken by a few lucky destroyers who just happen to outrange station defences. Fleets should immediately descend on mass on any would be invader. You dare attack our home? Be prepared for a fight!

[Ragnos28]

The attackers should also be "buffed", a single destroyer is not much of an invasion force.

They're often not meant to be. It's stray destroyers that get distracted on the way to elsewhere and end up taking out half a sector on their lonesome.

I've seen a lot of disccusions about making stations OP, in this thread, see the "drones with torpedoes" idea, but not much about how the factions attacking forces are expected to deal with the new "Death Stars".

Pirate factions with no standing army have zero response to this by the way.

That is because pirate factions don't have governments, SCA and FAF for example, according to the diplomacy tab.