It was my understanding that homebase invincibility was a temporary thing until more of the game could be fleshed out. (Yes, I'm looking at you, permission module.)
To be honest, I'm not too sure how much we're considering the planned features and how they'll affect this issue. I'll try to see if I can list off some, and how they'll do this, and then come back to integrate them.
- FP System: I believe I heard one of the Schine staff (not sure if it as Calbiri or Schema) talk about what they want to do with this a while ago. When the quest(right name?) system comes along with the improved trade guild functionality, FP will be used as currency for these as well as bartering with other factions. This adds more incentive to use faction points, and thus you'll be more likely to run negative.
- Improved faction permissions: A glaring issue right now, is that the current permission module isn't specific. A big reason that faction admission is low is because there isn't much control on the inside. You have to worry that any new recruits might be trolls and will wreck your station. It doesn't really allow for tiers of trust, because you can't control specific parts of your structure permissions. Improving this will (likely) lead to higher faction populations, and therefore more activity.
- HP/Armor System: I'm going to take a reasonable guess that this will make your stations a bit more resilient to weapons, which means that they are better defended. This will prolong the time it takes to destroy armored stations, and make battles more pronounced.
- Shipyards: This means that you can automate your ship-building, and will no longer have to sift through your storage modules every time you need a new ship.
- Warp prevention: Players can be prevented from jumping away when this is implemented, which will make fights more meaningful. When you come to fight, you come to fight.
- Thrust/Mass mechanic changes: Hopefully this will decrease viability for titans, but we will see.
These cover a few core issues with factions and combat right now. Here is a way to change the current system, while keeping in mind what will be added.
Once FP becomes a more meaningful resource, factions will be spending it, which will affect the budget. I do agree that the current method of FP generation needs to be changed however, because I don't think this will make enough of a dent. I propose that FP is also affected by the amount of ships a faction owns, and the mass(?) of stations claimed. Of course, this will also scale with the kind of ship, so that capitals aren't treated the same as fighters. That will need to be discussed here however, as I'm unsure how the classification should be done. The reason I say mass of stations claimed is because I think that size should be taken into account when determining the FP deduction. Docked ships count toward this, so that you can't just keep your ships unfactioned and docked to be safe.
When the better permissions system comes into play, we'll have better control over the faction members, which lowers the risks of recruiting new people. This bolsters faction activity, and means that faction battles shouldn't be as short.
Hopefully rails can be incorporated into shipyards, because that would ease the automation process with magrails. But even if they aren't, shipyards allow for ship production through factories and lets the player continue to focus elsewhere. It also opens up the opportunity for shipyard factions to produce ships onsite, instead of just designing them. That will open up a niche for smaller factions who just want their blueprints made in a safe area, at a cost.
The HP and Armor system will make stations more valuable posts for factions to have, and be more stronghold-y. At the very least, it will increase the amount of damage needed to destroy them. This opens up the possibility for sieges, as it would make more sense to capture stations and use them as outposts in your ongoing wars.
Now comes the ship/combat overhaul that is needed. With the thrust/mass mechanics changes, hopefully alongside other nerfs to larger ships, battles won't be as risky. You won't lose your supertitan in a skirmish, you'll lose a cruiser. Factions can now use more ships in their fight against others. You can be prevented from warping away, so coordinated strikes are better than rando-raids. I'd also shoot for some other change, I can't remember what it was, that prevented core-drilling. That needs to stop.
Pirates are supposed to scale in difficulty outwards from the galactic center. This will make living on the edges more dangerous, and will hopefully lower the amount of people living out there, or those who leave right away.
The last thing I can think of that's needed most is an actual reason to maintain presence in multiple systems. I think that an economy overhaul is needed for that, kinda like what is proposed in keptick's analysis thread (yes I know it's been pointed to a bunch, but it's the best I've seen to do this).
http://starmadedock.net/threads/an-...n-interactions-and-resource-acquisition.4613/
With this in place, it will be more viable for factions to stay in multiple areas at once, which can incur a high FP loss if they get attacked.
This is kinda as far as I got at the moment, I'm a bit burned out. Please tell me if the planned features were misinterpreted, and add feedback. Please note however, that this is supposed to supplement what has been proposed, not replace it with what we already know.
End of the wall.
