Matrix Games Forums

 Forums  Register  Login  Photo Gallery  Member List  Search  Calendars  FAQ 

My Profile  Inbox  Address Book  My Subscription  My Forums  Log Out

RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy?

 
View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
Users viewing this topic: none
  Printable Version
All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? Page: <<   < prev  1 2 3 [4] 5   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/21/2011 7:27:49 AM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: jalapen0

Really when it boils down to it, all I was asking for was for it to take a long time to capture a planet. It should also cause alot of casualties and infrastructure damage.


I believe that taking a planet is a relatively easy task in comparison to keeping it. You should have to keep garrison troops on a planet, for a while, to keep control of it. As it stands, you invade a planet, immediately pick up your troops and head off to the next one - effectively steam-rolling the AI.

Time to capture too quick? I'm not sure about that. Slowing down planetary combat doesn't strike me as necessarily resulting in an improvement to things. The situation remains the same - drop troops and bugger off. You get the planet and all the orbital defences to boot. Making this happen more slowly gives the AI a chance to react - but I'm not sure the AI -CAN- react, given what I've seen of its behaviour. AI needs some serious attention.

(in reply to jalapen0)
Post #: 91
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/21/2011 8:31:29 AM   
caerr

 

Posts: 113
Joined: 6/18/2010
Status: offline 		How about instead of taking ownership of the enemy capital, you would gain a sort of vassalage of it. The planet would remain in the hands of the enemy empire, but you would gain a small income/research bonus from it. There should also be a chance that the planet would try to break free if they notice you're weak enough/involved in too many wars.

This would fix the issue that capturing a homeworld just gives too big of an income boost and makes the rest of the game too easy.

(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 92
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/21/2011 9:05:22 AM   
Data


Posts: 3909
Joined: 1/3/2011
Status: offline 		+1

_____________________________

...Igniting stellar cores....Recharging reactors...Recalibrating hyperdrives....

(in reply to caerr)
Post #: 93
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 3:08:39 AM   
Erik Rutins

 

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline 		Have you tried the new beta update which made includes to homeworld defense?

_____________________________

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

(in reply to Data)
Post #: 94
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 5:00:22 AM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Have you tried the new beta update which made includes to homeworld defense?


I'm playing the beta now Erik, the biggest problem is that I can build transports that give me 60+ troops with a fleet of 12 transport...far more than enough to overcome the the defensive bonuses...

I also started a suggestion thread with some points that might help, or might not. http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2697367

If anything, I think increasing the size of the troop transport modules from the current size 8 to size 50 would go a long way to solving the problem.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to Erik Rutins)
Post #: 95
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 9:01:28 AM   
J HG T


Posts: 1093
Joined: 5/14/2010
From: Kiadia Prime
Status: offline 		I agree with Shark here. If you deconstruct the problem you'll probably understand that ability to transport ridiculous amounts of troopers so easily and early in the game is the biggest part of the whole issue. Fixing the size of troop modules would do miracles.


_____________________________

Nothing is impossible, not if you can imagine it!
"And they hurled themselves into the void of space with no fear."

(in reply to Shark7)
Post #: 96
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 1:13:55 PM   
caerr

 

Posts: 113
Joined: 6/18/2010
Status: offline 		Invasion difficulty is one thing, but should the player really be able to own enemy capitals? They just give so much income boost that any kind of balancing effort on behalf of invasion difficulty goes out of the window once you manage to capture your first homeworld.

(in reply to J HG T)
Post #: 97
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 5:26:45 PM   
ggf31416

 

Posts: 17
Joined: 1/6/2011
Status: offline 		It it was real life once you have total space supremacy around the planet the enemy would be pretty much doomed. The enemy ground forces outside targets valuable to your empire would be destroyed from the space and the ones inside would be forced to fight on your own terms, that is you could attack each target defended by 1000 enemy troops with 100000 of yours.

In the real life the coalitions forces managed to take control of Iraq in a few weeks despite being outnumbered by the Iraq Army and outnumbered over 1:100 by the population. Obviously in real life numeric superiority it's not required anymore to take a large country and a planet shouldn't be too different.

The problem is not that enemy homeworlds are too easy to take, the problem is that they are to easy to keep and they provide benefits inmediately.
Conquered planets should provide their benefits gradually, for example when the planet is conquered none of the population pay taxes and the tax paying population increases by 25M each day the planet it's controlled (2 years for a 18000M planet). Also large planets should attempt to revolt and if their original owner sends troops to regain the planet they should support these troops.

The AI also should attempt to regain space superiority and land troops on their own planet when it's being invaded by the enemy.

(in reply to caerr)
Post #: 98
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 7:56:21 PM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ggf31416

It it was real life once you have total space supremacy around the planet the enemy would be pretty much doomed. The enemy ground forces outside targets valuable to your empire would be destroyed from the space and the ones inside would be forced to fight on your own terms, that is you could attack each target defended by 1000 enemy troops with 100000 of yours.

In the real life the coalitions forces managed to take control of Iraq in a few weeks despite being outnumbered by the Iraq Army and outnumbered over 1:100 by the population. Obviously in real life numeric superiority it's not required anymore to take a large country and a planet shouldn't be too different.

The problem is not that enemy homeworlds are too easy to take, the problem is that they are to easy to keep and they provide benefits inmediately.
Conquered planets should provide their benefits gradually, for example when the planet is conquered none of the population pay taxes and the tax paying population increases by 25M each day the planet it's controlled (2 years for a 18000M planet). Also large planets should attempt to revolt and if their original owner sends troops to regain the planet they should support these troops.

The AI also should attempt to regain space superiority and land troops on their own planet when it's being invaded by the enemy.



It all comes down to the enemies willingness to fight for their home.

For a better example do a search on 'Operation Downfall' and see what would was projected to happen during an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands where the troops and populace were both well trained and highly motivated.

Conquering a homeworld should be very difficult, IMO.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to ggf31416)
Post #: 99
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/22/2011 9:58:28 PM   
adecoy95


Posts: 420
Joined: 3/26/2010
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: diablo1

So the ai sucks more or less? Well you won't find that in X3 Universe as the Xenon come at you with destroyers very early in the game. I've lost everything in systems bordering them. I'm glad some of you are honest and really tell what this game is like. I was fixing to buy it but I think I shall wait much longer now until they create a challenging ai like X3:Terran universe.



you think x3:terran conflict is challenging? i have killed battleships with a full fleet escort in a medium fighter.

about the topic at hand. i think that the whole homeworld situation is a symptom of another, bigger issue.

homeworlds are far too valuable in late game. worlds grow so slowly, you can push to the end of the tech trees in several places while your worlds are only pushing 0-2k income from taxes. you can somewhat reduce this by manually controlling the taxes, but the ai cant really do this.

it only gets worse when you start grabbing independents, the ai wont grab them as fast if you really try to get them.

but the worst culprit by far are the lost colony's, oh lawdy... if you grab one of these you have a second max population world! and thats crazy!

if in most of my games now i try to limit independents, to give the ai a little bit more of a breather, but i cant disable lost colonies.

< Message edited by adecoy95 -- 1/22/2011 10:07:32 PM >

(in reply to diablo1)
Post #: 100
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 8:04:38 AM   
Data


Posts: 3909
Joined: 1/3/2011
Status: offline 		you can edit them out

_____________________________

...Igniting stellar cores....Recharging reactors...Recalibrating hyperdrives....

(in reply to adecoy95)
Post #: 101
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 10:05:36 AM   
Jim D Burns


Posts: 4013
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline 		Another possible solution to the problem might be to increase the time it takes to capture a world based on the world’s current population size. So large home world sized planets should take several years to capture no matter how large the attacking force is, though higher odds should help the timetable of course, but no taking a multi-billion pop world by storm anymore. All the while the planet serves its own empire as usual, allowing the planet to build new troops and ships if they can during the fight for the planet.

That would add an epic feel to the invasions and allow defenders time to recover from the shock of a huge invasion and get reinforcements to the scene if they have them. At the same time the attacker would need to bring in his own reinforcements to replace badly depleted units as the years wear on. You’d have to greatly increase the time it takes to destroy a combat unit, but that would be a good thing I think.

I don’t think it’s beyond comprehension for very large planets to have to take at least 10 or more years to be fully conquered militarily. Even longer if the defenders can keep a steady stream of reinforcements getting through to the planet from his other empire worlds.

Long fights like these would allow time for large relief fleets to form and move to the location in an effort to break the siege. Several large attempts like these should be possible when you’re talking about a home world planet. I would be happy to see back and forth fights last 50+ years if each side kept pouring reinforcements into the fight.

You might handle it by creating a planetary control bar that ticked a small amount in favor of the side that wins the majority of ground battles that month. Then the size of the planetary control bar would be governed by the planets population, so small worlds go down relatively fast and huge worlds are massive efforts lasting years.

Jim


_____________________________


(in reply to Sabin Stargem)
Post #: 102
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 1:23:46 PM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline 		Jimmy -

I don't see how slowing down ground combat will help.

First, the AI must be able to respond appropriately with troops. If you're playing an "epic" game, then unless it's VERY late in the game or that opponent has been successful in its aggression against another AI, the AI under siege will quite simply lack the resources to be able to make, transport and land troops. Remember - ostensibly the orbital defences have been creamed - you've probably concentrated most of your firepower over the world being invaded, so the AI is going to have to bring back everything possible to counter it. Can the AI realistically get enough troop? Can it get its transports past the siege force?

Second, will slowing down the ground combat actually change anything? If you're dropping 200+ troops on the target world, then how much will the devs have to slow down the combat before it makes any difference? AI usually has a max of 20 or so defending troops. 10-1 odds. The devs would have to make it hideously slow for it to make any difference.

Third, extending the time required to the length you're suggesting to 10+ years would make it practically IMPOSSIBLE for anyone playing a non-warmongering race to win. Given a government like democracy with its nasty war weariness - that empire will have a civil war and split long before the invasion is complete. Your suggestion would make races with reduced war weariness virtually unbeatable, short of a quick nuke campaign on their HW - which presents its own issues.

Finally, I'm not sure what your objection to the "taking a multi-billion pop world by storm" is based on. Iraq was crushed in - what - 1 week of active battles? Or was it 2? War is getting faster and troop concentration is going down year by year. If you're asserting that it's unreasonable/unrealistic to quickly invade and suppress a population - then I'm afraid that military trends are strongly against your assertion.

No, I disagree with you that ground combat speed will improve this. This is looking much like a StarCraft zerg-rush. If you're running around with 200+ invasion troops in your back pocket - well, you should have won long before that, and any balance problems are of your own creation. Pat yourself on your back and start a new game - you've already won.

(in reply to Jim D Burns)
Post #: 103
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 1:30:47 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline 		Are you actually comparing invading a weak middle eastern country to invading a planet,lol.

_____________________________


(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 104
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 2:02:13 PM   
Jim D Burns


Posts: 4013
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
Jimmy -


The name is Jim, use it or don’t reply to my posts. Cheap childish insults like this bring nothing to the discussion and will rapidly earn you a green button.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
First, the AI must be able to respond appropriately with troops. If you're playing an "epic" game, then unless it's VERY late in the game or that opponent has been successful in its aggression against another AI, the AI under siege will quite simply lack the resources to be able to make, transport and land troops. Remember - ostensibly the orbital defences have been creamed - you've probably concentrated most of your firepower over the world being invaded, so the AI is going to have to bring back everything possible to counter it. Can the AI realistically get enough troop? Can it get its transports past the siege force?


Not if the planet is allowed to continue building troops of its own. This capacity could be reduced or increased as the control of the planet shifts back and forth between sides.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
Second, will slowing down the ground combat actually change anything? If you're dropping 200+ troops on the target world, then how much will the devs have to slow down the combat before it makes any difference? AI usually has a max of 20 or so defending troops. 10-1 odds. The devs would have to make it hideously slow for it to make any difference.


Yes it will. Sure 200+ troops will probably guarantee you get the tick on the control bar each month. But the control bar's size is dependent on world population (perhaps 50 mil per tick) so you can’t really speed things up any faster other than guaranteeing you win the monthly tick.

But if you then also have to maintain the blockade for 10+ years (to prevent the planet rebuilding orbital structures and to stop outside reinforcements) and defend your own holdings at the same time? That is a huge change to the sail up and drop everything rush we see now.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
Third, extending the time required to the length you're suggesting to 10+ years would make it practically IMPOSSIBLE for anyone playing a non-warmongering race to win. Given a government like democracy with its nasty war weariness - that empire will have a civil war and split long before the invasion is complete. Your suggestion would make races with reduced war weariness virtually unbeatable, short of a quick nuke campaign on their HW - which presents its own issues.


It’s a simple scale increase. So for example if making epic planet fights increases the time to take a planet by 1000% or whatever, then simply change war weariness to scale with the change.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
Finally, I'm not sure what your objection to the "taking a multi-billion pop world by storm" is based on. Iraq was crushed in - what - 1 week of active battles? Or was it 2? War is getting faster and troop concentration is going down year by year. If you're asserting that it's unreasonable/unrealistic to quickly invade and suppress a population - then I'm afraid that military trends are strongly against your assertion.


Iraq’s population is about 30 million. Compare that to the almost 7 billion people on the planet and you haven’t even scratched the surface of conquering anything on a planetary scale.

Add to that the fact that the Iraqi army was totally outclassed by the US and your point is no longer valid to the discussion. In game terms Iraq’s military was tech 0 or 1 and the US was at max tech.

To put it another way, the Iraq war took 6 weeks I think, but to make things simple let’s say a month. So 30 million people conquered in a month.

Now 7,000,000,000 people divided by 30,000,000 people equals 233 months of fighting. That would be 19.4 years of fighting.

A better comparison would be WWII. Both sides were within 1 or 2 tech levels of each other, and huge percentages of the worlds populations had to be conquered to end the war. That took about 6 years (39-45) if you ignore the early Sino-Japanese conflict that started in 1937.

Now factor in the fact only about one third of the world’s population was actually conquered, the rest either being the conquerors or not involved, and 10+ years of fighting no longer seems an implausible timeframe.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
No, I disagree with you that ground combat speed will improve this. This is looking much like a StarCraft zerg-rush. If you're running around with 200+ invasion troops in your back pocket - well, you should have won long before that, and any balance problems are of your own creation. Pat yourself on your back and start a new game - you've already won.


Um isn’t changing all that the purpose of the discussion?

Jim


< Message edited by Jim D Burns -- 1/23/2011 2:22:41 PM >

_____________________________


(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 105
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 2:10:38 PM   
Jim D Burns


Posts: 4013
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline 		double post, deleted


< Message edited by Jim D Burns -- 1/23/2011 2:21:54 PM >

_____________________________


(in reply to Jim D Burns)
Post #: 106
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 4:09:31 PM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

Are you actually comparing invading a weak middle eastern country to invading a planet,lol.


That was my thoughts exactly when I first read it. Like I said, Operation Downfall would have been a better example...and it would probably be too small scale.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to ASHBERY76)
Post #: 107
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 5:31:30 PM   
gmot


Posts: 123
Joined: 11/22/2010
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
Another possible solution to the problem might be to increase the time it takes to capture a world based on the world’s current population size. So large home world sized planets should take several years to capture no matter how large the attacking force is, though higher odds should help the timetable of course, but no taking a multi-billion pop world by storm anymore. All the while the planet serves its own empire as usual, allowing the planet to build new troops and ships if they can during the fight for the planet.


Intriguing idea. Something I've always wanted to see in 4x games is more strategic control over actual planetary invasions. Perhaps its beyond the scope of DW, but I'd love to see a lengthy invasion with reinforcements being brought in as you've described. To me seems perfectly realistic that battling for control of a whole planet (especially a homeworld with presumably highly motivated defenders (should be homeworld bonus for that) would take a long time. And the invaded empire would pull out all the stops to bring its troops/ships from elsewhere to stop the invasion from succeeding.

Would I also like so see is separating the world out into sectors so you could divide your invasion force to focus on various sectors, and then win control (or lose of course) of a sector at a time. Of course, that would work best if sectors were related to planetary facilities. So no tactical control obviously but strategic decisions to make for invasions beyond simply how many troops to dedicate. This would well with having different troops types, as we discussed in other threads (or maybe this one, can't remember).

I think this would greatly enhance any 4X game without adding too much RTS micro-management of invasions. Usually invasions seem like an afterthought in a 4x game whereas they are critical to winning a game and should be treated as such.

(in reply to Jim D Burns)
Post #: 108
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 7:58:05 PM   
Data


Posts: 3909
Joined: 1/3/2011
Status: offline 		this would prolong the game quite a bit but an option to automatically resolve planetary battles would satisfy those that are not intersted in this (i also would like to see lengthy invasions with reinforcements)
not sure if you can find on youtube this but Space Rangers 2 had an interesting idea for planetary battles, a mini game within the main game

_____________________________

...Igniting stellar cores....Recharging reactors...Recalibrating hyperdrives....

(in reply to gmot)
Post #: 109
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/23/2011 11:12:32 PM   
gmot


Posts: 123
Joined: 11/22/2010
Status: offline 		I have Space Rangers 2 and loved that game. Frankly the mini-game RTS of it is my least favourite part of the game, compared to the other parts. Definitely wouldn't want any RTS component to DW.

(in reply to Data)
Post #: 110
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 1:34:50 AM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

The name is Jim, use it or don’t reply to my posts. Cheap childish insults like this bring nothing to the discussion and will rapidly earn you a green button.


Tetchy, ain't we? Being called "Jimmy" is an insult?

Trust me - if I'm going to insult you, I can do far better than calling you "Jimmy".

You're a Yank - you had a president who was referred to as "Jimmy". Was that a derogatory term? Give yourself a couple of dozen "green buttons" - your country has managed to elect and then slur your own president.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Yes it will. Sure 200+ troops will probably guarantee you get the tick on the control bar each month. But the control bar's size is dependent on world population (perhaps 50 mil per tick) so you can’t really speed things up any faster other than guaranteeing you win the monthly tick.


You're making suggestions as "tweaking", whereas they are wholesale refactoring of the code. Rewrite the ground combat code from scratch. You're asking for a LOT of work from CodeForce for a pretty trivial gain. And then rebalance the war weariness, since you WILL be at war for literally DECADES. Not to mention all the racial bonuses and such. You haven't thought this through - your myopic "fix" creates cascading problems.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Yes it will. Sure 200+ troops will probably guarantee you get the tick on the control bar each month. But the control bar's size is dependent on world population (perhaps 50 mil per tick) so you can’t really speed things up any faster other than guaranteeing you win the monthly tick.


Hold on - you're invading with 10-to-1 odds and you're suggesting that it takes a DECADE to win???? I can't think of many military engagements where 10-1 wasn't resolved pretty damned quickly.


quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

But if you then also have to maintain the blockade for 10+ years (to prevent the planet rebuilding orbital structures and to stop outside reinforcements) and defend your own holdings at the same time? That is a huge change to the sail up and drop everything rush we see now.


A HUGE change indeed. Congratulations. You've just made the game unwinnable using a democracy government - they'll fall into civil war. And that's only the beginning. How will this change affect Ikkuro and Securans, with their pansy troops. Will it help them because it takes longer to kill their rubbish troops off, or make it impossible for them to win, since each successive "tick" will mean that the invaders are winning and gaining experience and thus strength with each round of combat?

You haven't even considered the taxation impact it would have on the owner of the planet. With the chaos and destruction of planet-wide combat, the economy is going to grind to a halt. The invader may not really care if he wins or loses - he's wiped out the economic output from that world for at least a decade - not to mention the damage to environment and development. It's not just the attacker who has to concern himself with maintaining a decade-long siege. The defender has to deal with his economy being crippled for a decade at least - no matter what he does. Remember, the ENTIRE combat process is slowed down, so kicking the invaders off is ALSO slowed down.

Simple fact - you haven't thought this through. You're suggesting a wholesale reworking of the invasion mechanics, and not giving ANY thought whatsoever to the secondary impacts of the change.


quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Iraq’s population is about 30 million. Compare that to the almost 7 billion people on the planet and you haven’t even scratched the surface of conquering anything on a planetary scale.

Add to that the fact that the Iraqi army was totally outclassed by the US and your point is no longer valid to the discussion. In game terms Iraq’s military was tech 0 or 1 and the US was at max tech.


First off, you're WRONG about the tech. Iraq was using tech that was about 25 or so years out of date. That's hardly the same as Maxos Blaster armed escorts versus Death Ray armed World Destroyers.

Second, you've obviously missed the point - once again. It's a trend in military engagements for troops to be more spread out as firepower and range of their weapons increases. And engagements are getting quicker and quicker all the time - the old days of pitched battles over days are long gone. Modern engagements are won decisively in a very short period of time. More mobility, more lethality - it adds up.

Iraq was an example to draw your attention to the increasing speed of warfare. But since you're not getting the message - well, you need to do some reading.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

To put it another way, the Iraq war took 6 weeks I think, but to make things simple let’s say a month. So 30 million people conquered in a month.

Now 7,000,000,000 people divided by 30,000,000 people equals 233 months of fighting. That would be 19.4 years of fighting.


*sigh* You really don't get it, do you?

It's not 7-billion divided by 30-million - you're talking about PLANETARY invasion. Millions of troops dropping out of the sky with kill-o-zap guns. They aren't rolling across the desert in petrol powered tanks - they're DROPPNG FROM THE FREAKING SKY! Combat will be spread out all over the freaking planet - and each victory/loss will inevitably mean changing control of millions of people.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

A better comparison would be WWII. Both sides were within 1 or 2 tech levels of each other, and huge percentages of the worlds populations had to be conquered to end the war. That took about 6 years (39-45) if you ignore the early Sino-Japanese conflict that started in 1937.

Now factor in the fact only about one third of the world’s population was actually conquered, the rest either being the conquerors or not involved, and 10+ years of fighting no longer seems an implausible timeframe.


Huh? What? One third of the world's population? Bullcrap! Most of the world's population was untouched by the war. South America, India, Africa and North America, Australia - sod all land or population changed hands. The number of Europeans and Russians involved was minuscule compared to the ENTIRE population of the world.

Check your numbers - you have no idea what you're talking about.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Um isn’t changing all that the purpose of the discussion?


No, you're asking for wholesale changes to address what's essentially an end-game situation. If you haven't won with that advantage, then you're artificially extending the game. And you're not considering the effect for any earlier stage of the game. Is that what you really want? A game that's balanced for the end-game situation, but is horribly unbalanced for early to mid game?

< Message edited by Kayoz -- 1/24/2011 1:35:33 AM >

(in reply to Jim D Burns)
Post #: 111
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 1:48:27 AM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

Are you actually comparing invading a weak middle eastern country to invading a planet,lol.


DING! Wrong! Thank you for playing, Mr. Ash.

You didn't read the post. I pointed out the trends in warfare. You completely missed the warfare trends. Iraq isn't significant in itself - it's an example of how trends are going. Fewer troops per square meter. Quicker, more decisive engagements. That's how war is going. Look at the changes in warfare from the ancient Greek phalanx, to the modern armour blitzkrieg - it's the trend.

LOL right back at you. Or rather - LTR - learn to read.

(in reply to ASHBERY76)
Post #: 112
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 2:48:13 AM   
HectorOfTroy


Posts: 312
Joined: 1/9/2011
Status: offline 		Guys, it's a game and not real life.
So there's no point comparing it to the Middle East and USA. The main thing should be finding some way to make it work better in the game, not findinga way to make it more realistic.

(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 113
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 6:43:44 AM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline 		HectorOfTroy -

The trends in warfare was brought up to point out the flaws in Jimmy's arguments calling for decade-long invasions. You're completely correct - if it isn't balanced and it isn't fun, then it doesn't have a place in the game.

However, my biggest problem with Jimmy et al, is the lack of consideration of the knock-on effects of the changes they're suggesting. Game design requires a lot of balancing of priorities - and they've given absolutely no thought to issues like war weariness and economy. "Make it slower" isn't the answer but that's all their myopic view can see.

(in reply to HectorOfTroy)
Post #: 114
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 6:55:58 AM   
J HG T


Posts: 1093
Joined: 5/14/2010
From: Kiadia Prime
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: gmot

I have Space Rangers 2 and loved that game. Frankly the mini-game RTS of it is my least favourite part of the game, compared to the other parts. Definitely wouldn't want any RTS component to DW.


Off-topic:

Aye. RTS in SR2 was kind of change of pace and cash-machine for me, nothing more.

HectorOfTroy has a point. Trying to make A GAME "realistic" isn't the way to make game more fun and interesting to play. Sometimes you have to make game a bit unrealistic to make it feel "realistic" and fun.
Also, using real-world warfare examples to describe how planetary warfare should be around year 3000 is pure, random speculation.
Heck, I think that most races in DW could have nano-machines that could easily disintegrate any planet, or its defences, completely in matter of days or weeks. Also, antimatter weapons; Single shalecracker warhead could destroy moon sized objects instantly. Biological warfare, Von Neuman machines, genenetically modified soldiers and/or fauna, the list goes on and on. I won't even try to describe what hypometric weapons could do in the right hands.

Sorry for wall of text. The main point still is that we are playing game that isn't nowhere near "realistic" and we should develop it with that in mind. Games are meant to be fun, challenging and interesting. Realism is many times more of a burden than help for games.

And my suggestions are still to increase the size of troop modules and to do something to Homeworlds supreme value issue.

Ahh... the coffee fuelled morning rushes.


_____________________________

Nothing is impossible, not if you can imagine it!
"And they hurled themselves into the void of space with no fear."

(in reply to gmot)
Post #: 115
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 7:04:12 AM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline 		Kayoz: Huh? What? One third of the world's population? Bullcrap! Most of the world's population was untouched by the war. South America, India, Africa and North America, Australia - sod all land or population changed hands. The number of Europeans and Russians involved was minuscule compared to the ENTIRE population of the world.

Check your numbers - you have no idea what you're talking about.

Not entirely true either. While a large portion of the world's population was not affecting by actual fighting, they were in fact affected in other ways.

Did you know:

Most South American countries did declare war on the Axis by wars end?
Many of the non-combatants were responsible for supplying materials to build war supplies to the belligerents?

Some that had direct combat operations:

Mexico supplied an air force unit to the Philippines Campaign
Brazil entered the war in 1942 conducting ASW operations in the South Atlantic and providing 25000 troops and air force personnel during the Italian campaign.

The following countries declared war on the Axis Nations following the Pearl Harbor attack:

Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Czechoslavakia, China, Philippines

Additionally, these nations joined in Declarations of War on the Axis nations at various points during World War II:

Before D-Day: Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iraq, Bolivia, Columbia, Iran, Liberia, Peru

After D-Day: Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Chile

This list is in addition to the Countries that actually saw fighting.

For the Axis:

Japan, Germany, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland and Thailand took part in actual combat operations.

My point being that to some degree or another World War II did in fact have some effect on the world's population...while some of them might not have seen direct combat, they did support the war effort in one way or another. Now does a farmer in South America actually know he's participating? He might not, but his crop very well could go to help feed one of the fighting armies.

It is of course obvious that peoples in Europe, Asia, India, Africa, Australia, North America, and the Pacific Rim were directly affected by the fighting...that only leaves the South American continent that was not directly involved in fighting, and even the South Armerican nations played a part in the war, some of them through combat missions. In other words, it would seem that a lot more people were involved in the war than were not involved in the war.

That's the reason it is called World War II, most of the world did participate in some form or fashion.



_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to HectorOfTroy)
Post #: 116
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 7:13:04 AM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline 		Shark -

The original statement from Jimmy was:

quote:

A better comparison would be WWII. Both sides were within 1 or 2 tech levels of each other, and huge percentages of the worlds populations had to be conquered to end the war. That took about 6 years (39-45) if you ignore the early Sino-Japanese conflict that started in 1937.

Now factor in the fact only about one third of the world’s population was actually conquered, the rest either being the conquerors or not involved, and 10+ years of fighting no longer seems an implausible timeframe.


Note, he said 1/3 of the world's population was conquered. I refuted his claim that 1/3 of land/population changed hands - which is grossly inaccurate.

(in reply to Shark7)
Post #: 117
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 7:30:32 AM   
Jim D Burns


Posts: 4013
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
Note, he said 1/3 of the world's population was conquered. I refuted his claim that 1/3 of land/population changed hands - which is grossly inaccurate.


It was a rough estimate, but probably close to accurate. We’d need a population census report for the era, but considering about half of China was conquered by Japan, I doubt 1/3rd would be far from the truth. Countries that were totally or partially conquered during the war:

France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Finland, big chunk of Russia, North Africa, about half of China (includes Manchuria and Korea), Burma, Siam, Philippines, Dutch East Indies, and Japan.

Jim


_____________________________


(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 118
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 7:32:34 AM   
Jim D Burns


Posts: 4013
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
The original statement from Jimmy was:


Now you're just being an ass. PLONK

_____________________________


(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 119
RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? - 1/24/2011 7:39:44 AM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Kayoz

Shark -

The original statement from Jimmy was:

quote:

A better comparison would be WWII. Both sides were within 1 or 2 tech levels of each other, and huge percentages of the worlds populations had to be conquered to end the war. That took about 6 years (39-45) if you ignore the early Sino-Japanese conflict that started in 1937.

Now factor in the fact only about one third of the world’s population was actually conquered, the rest either being the conquerors or not involved, and 10+ years of fighting no longer seems an implausible timeframe.


Note, he said 1/3 of the world's population was conquered. I refuted his claim that 1/3 of land/population changed hands - which is grossly inaccurate.



Actually, he might be closer than you think when you look at not one side conquering the other, but all territories that changed hands at least once.

Most of Europe, and a large portion of the Ukraine was conquered at one point by Germany.
Most of Northern Africa was conquered by Germany.
More than half of China's land area was conquered by the Japanese.
Add to that all of Indochina, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Indonesia, Micronesia, Papua/New Guinnea, New Britain, the Marshals, the Marianas, part of the Aleutians, the Philippines and the Solomons were Conquered by Japan. Also, include numerous small islands that I can't even begin to list.

Then it reversed...

His esitmate, considering the population concentrations, is probably not far off. And to be honest, Europe and Asia were far more populous than the Western Worlds (North and South America) at that point in time. Population in the America's in 1940 was somewhere around 260-300 million, for Asia was over over 1 billion, and Europe was ~600 million. Asia had at that time, and still does, roughly 60% of the world's population.

Obviously, not every citizen of Asia or Europe was conquered, but a large portion of them would have been. I would be cofortable in saying 25%-33%, given the 1940 population concentrations.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 120
Page:   <<   < prev  1 2 3 [4] 5   next >   >>
All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> RE: Taking enemy homeworlds way too easy? Page: <<   < prev  1 2 3 [4] 5   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts


Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI

1.906