WALL OF TEXT INCOMING Start and end will be marked with " " (Irrelevant to the suggestion following, it´s just some context)
I love this mod... I absolutely do, nothing can glue me a total of ten hours like a good match against the AI does in this game. I decided to ramp up the heat though... make me feel like I truly was fighting for survival as I discovered the covenant´s genocide intentions...
So I got into the level creator, and devised a map with Capital planet victory in mind (simulating the risk of earth being taken and losing). It was -and is- stupidly fast paced: 7 star systems in total, each having 3-6 colonizable planets and 2-4 asteroid belts. These were enough objects to have some economy but you needed to expand if you wanted to stay alive late-game... and once you expanded, you couldn´t forget your original solar system either, with just around 3 jumps from your cap, if the enemy focused on it you would be beaten easily, all while your fleet was all away trying to find their own Capital.
The AI itself was no slouch either with everyone set to Heroic and to "Fortifier" (Good lord the hangar defenses and Haven starbases IN EACH FREAKING PLANET!! It was also very aggresive as I expected and its resource economy outpaced my own) you had to be in your toes and not waste ANYTHING.
I gave myself an AI Ally, as I put us both against four other enemy AI´s (simulating Covenant numerical superiority), everyone was spread out in the galaxy, though; close enough for a surgical strike, far enough for help to not arrive in time.
I tried building myself a good economy foundation, then getting to the system´s star to spread to other systems. I thought I was in a good position as I kept putting anchor stations on everything I had... I was one jump away from reaching THE most important part of my system, the star... then a single pink scout appeared at the other side of the gravity well... it was one of the four enemy AIs.
And I knew what that meant... I FORTIFIED EVERYTHING in that asteroid belt of mine(no Planetary defenses though; no Smacs, Hangars, mines, NOTHING) that meant... a single Anchor platform would have to do... I just had to upgrade it fast enough and bring my 3 cap ships -and some paris´s (I hadn´t invested in fleet upgrades due to upkeep) to defend it meanwhile... Easy right???
YES, quite easy actually; the combined firepower made mincemeat of most of pink´s ships... one or two of his caps in there too. I had firepower, hull points, and a shiva for the Anchor... enough for most concerns; no matter what Pink threw, I could stall him long enough to win with my hull points and DPS...
...
Then HE showed up, Light blue... another enemy, he had joined the fray with his caps and CCSs, and just IN **** TIME as a Pink Super destroyer with even more CCS spawned... I had slow thruster movement enabled (felt more tactical) and those WERE. THE. MOST. HORRIBLE. MOMENTS. OF. MY. LIFE.
I rushed to an adyacent world where I was producing some new caps and told them to GO HELP NAOW, I saved the game and... saw my Defenses/Fleet get anihilated time and time again before help arrived, the only time the Anchor survived long enough and my reinforcements arrived I also saw the arrival of... Green, with his Caps, CCSs and... yet another Super destroyer jumping right behind my "desperation/last hope fleet" they got utterly anihilated before they could even see how **** up they were...
That left a sour taste in my mouth when it happened, no doubt...
But I didn´t give up, I Load/Saved-whored my way into nuking the Super destroyer, saving my fleet and then letting my Anchor tank it until nukes could eliminate the clouds of CCSs that abounded... I told my help fleet to retreat from the hole where it came and waited for Green´s fleet...
I had destroyed Blue´s and Pink´s fleets... and I could still fight, I had endured them, So would I do with him.
When Green finally approached I nuked his ass to oblivion with the three capitals and anchor nukes I had, SD, Caps, CCS included and I was... alive.
And I had to capitalize on it: I kicked my production into full gear as I told every ship I had to head for the star and HOLD IT, If I didn´t use this precious time to make another line of defense/fleet, I wouldn´t be even able to get off my system... and I wasn´t up to getting rushed with SDs and Slavation Class´s at my only line of defense.
Next time, when I had to endure again, I was more prepared, had a bigger fleet. and I was getting stronger meanwhile, I had held the line and now it was my revenge... I got my capital fleets and set my next target.
Blue was the first to fall to me , he didn´t make it easy though, an hour later, Pink got destroyed too, and finally after another hour, green fell down...
Three out of four... and the fourth one hasn´t made a move against me yet... strange.
I start an exhaustive research and I find him... and his fleet, patiently waiting -and anihilating- anyone that gets into their star... I had three capital fleets by this point. I expectate and see what they have... they have a BIG fleet and lot of caps, including ten(!!) DDS carriers and a Titan.
I wait for the final battle, the last push...
I need to attack them from behind, and at the same time for best result.
...
...
Then as my fleet has finally reunified. I give the order, everyone starts to move in to jump and- OH **** Capital fleet number three has jumped already! oh, oh.
Powerless I see how one of my capital fleets goes in unsupported into the meat grinder... well I suppose they wanted the glory of spearheading the assault then... by the time rest reach them, only three capitals have survived...
I still made them pay afterwards with nukes
Anyways, by then it was just a matter of time to absolute victory... although he didn´t make it easy in the end with his Despeartion titans, and a pack of two salvation capitals, this just bought him some borrowed time.
...
...
...
Many times when fighting the AI, I end up finding lots of scouts near my inner planets, roaming without a purpose and unmolested (no defenses in there) meanwhile their entire fleets NEED to destroy an isolated station that doesn´t 100% deter them from just jumping to the next planet.
This makes it very tense when you only have that single line of defense before they get to your squashy planets, but once thing improve after that, it becomes rather easy when you have several lines of defense as the AI just hits itself against those brick walls... which means that you don´t need to really have your planet fully defended with Smacs and Hangar defenses like earth was which is kind of a shame.
But changing that might be impossible due to hard coding.
The following idea might be also impossible due to hard coding, but I want to share it anyways. seeing as the slip space gate does something similar after all.
I would like to know if it would be even possible with the hard coding there is (Obviously this wouldn´t be added as it would wreak havoc with a lot of things... it´s just an idea)
If ships could slipspace to any planet they have discovered... this means that you would MUST NOT let a single scout past your defenses into a squashy part of your empire, or worse into your capital as it would mean you´re done.
There would still be tension even into the game´s end because your capital might get discovered and screw you if you don´t have defenses.
The pace of the game would be completely changed.
I don´t even know what would happen... It´s just that I had to express the idea.
Yarg, curiosity killed the cat...