Make there be a defense chamber upgrade for shields specifically for stations

[boomchacle]

Call it "fortress shield upgrade". it makes shields resist nukes, have 5 times the health, 5 times the regen but take 3 times more energy and take up 90 percent of the stations reactor power. I am sick of not being able to make non HB stations without trolls being able to just nuke them into oblivion. Also, Point defense takes a lot more shots to kill nukes than you'd expect, so even if you hit a nuke 30 times with light point defenses, it might not even die.

 

[jstenholt]

Yeah, that sounds unbalanced as hell, even with those downsides.

You could always make more powerful point defenses.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Stations do need a buff of some sort. They're sitting ducks; vulnerable to the simplest of tactics and cannot trigger AI response fleets in the way NPC stations do. Besides, no one complained when ships could use ion, punch and pierce defensive effects while stations could not.

Instead of creating a new chamber type, how about...

- adding additional levels to the existing defensive chambers (for stations only) so you can reach higher shield and armor resistances (for the specified weapon/damage types)?

- boosting turret range and accuracy (on stations only) to make stationary anti-ship and point defense turrets more effective?

- Allowing always-on scanning and jamming on stations; provided the appropriate chambers are installed and power supplied?

 

[jstenholt]

Stations do need a buff of some sort. They're sitting ducks; vulnerable to the simplest of tactics and cannot trigger AI response fleets in the way NPC stations do. Besides, no one complained when ships could use ion, punch and pierce defensive effects while stations could not.

Instead of creating a new chamber type, how about...

- adding additional levels to the existing defensive chambers (for stations only) so you can reach higher shield and armor resistances (for the specified weapon/damage types)?

- boosting turret range and accuracy (on stations only) to make stationary anti-ship and point defense turrets more effective?

- Allowing always-on scanning and jamming on stations; provided the appropriate chambers are installed and power supplied?

I'm absolutely on board with those.

 

[Cluwne]

In addition, Schine could pull their heads out of their asses and add a "reinforced" mode to stations like what EVE Online has - a unique form of defense, exclusive to stations and possibly deployables.
That way defenders at least have a chance to put together a fleet and have a fight before their station is blown to pieces.
With visible timers both the attackers and defenders know when shit will hit the fan and can prepare for it.
And if we plagiarize further, they can also add the "lattice" mechanic from Planetside - tl;dr: to capture/damage a station you have to neutralize other stations in the system that protect it. So if you have several station in the system you can configure them to protect one another, always leaving one or two that can be damaged/captured.

Finally, you could connect owned systems into bigger "system lattice" that gives stations in inner systems ridonkulous damage reduction, so that while working behind enemy lines remains possible, it won't be the most effective tactic available.
So, we solved the problem of stations being more fragile than neo-liberals' ego. If stations had special roles you could pick, not unlike the chamber tree, that specialize it, granting huge bonuses to certain activity, like processing minerals to capsules or manufacturing blocks from said capsules, while penalizing everything else, like reduced capsule output from raw resources on a shipyard, or slow s/y build speed on refinery station, we'd also create an incentive to expand beyond homebase.