Tactics Discussion: Defense "Stations"

[Ryugi]

So, I stumbled upon this idea after making my first few stations and seeing they weren't capable of mounting many defenses of their own.  That, and after seeing a little bit of action unfold in a multiplayer server and learning more about interactions, I started thinking of ways to defend my interests from attacking enemies or possibly other players that might get a little shooty.  In short, I want to get opinions on "Defense Stations."

 

Now, as most people know, "Stations" in the base game can't do a lot for themselves in the way of defenses.  You need system defenders or some means to protect them, either that or dump tons of money on making them blocks of HP and Shields so it would take ages for anyone to break through them.  However, ship AI is notoriously hard to manage, and in some servers, fighters seem to cause a lot of lag.  So your options are limited when fighters are pests at worst, and your AI ship captains are pants-on-head silly sometimes and could be kited away from stations by another player attacking them.  Enter the "Defense Station."

 

I use quotes because a "Defense Station" isn't technically a "Station" in game terms.  What it actually is, however, is a small to medium-sized ship that lacks any main engines, outside of possibly thrusters, is made of tough, durable materials, carries gyros for turning to face enemies, and is a pool of HP and Shields that will sit diligently around your stations to shoot down baddies that get too close.  You crew them with Gunners, Engineers, and Mechanics, equip them with shield upgrades and weapon upgrades, and whatever weapons you desire.  Then, you place them near your actual stations to provide fire where it matters most.

 

Because you don't have to worry much about maneuverability, they can be made of tough materials like Ogonite Armor, and you can have more room for shield generators and other such things to make sure these things are pretty tough to crack for their size compared to any standard ship.  Also, since you don't need as much crew, they're cheaper than a defense ship of the same size, or any ship of the same size, technically.  They'd lose the defense of mobility, but gain the defense of...well, more HP and shields than a standard ship, and their slots could be used for more weapons and shields as well.  After all, one of these things doesn't really need to warp around after you place it somewhere.

 

So, I wanted to present this concept to you guys to get your take on it.  They definitely have downsides.  They aren't designed to move around like a ship, so they'd be hard to reposition without a refit, and an enemy could potentially use that immobility to target weaker parts of them.  And, for all I know, they might simply ignore other players attacking your stuff since I'm not familiar with how the AI Captains deal with that factor without you in-system with them, even after giving them orders to follow.  But they'd be very useful against pirates or hostile NPC factions for less than the cost of a standard ship.

 

All that said, what do you guys think?

[NovaRemnant]

I've thought about doing the same. The glaring issue with them though is that if a player can out-range them, then they're screwed, so you'd need to place the longest possible range weapons that you have on them. In the future, it'd be nice if you could build actual defense stations with a range buff on them, but I don't see that being implemented anytime soon.

[Ryugi]

I've thought about doing the same. The glaring issue with them though is that if a player can out-range them, then they're screwed, so you'd need to place the longest possible range weapons that you have on them. In the future, it'd be nice if you could build actual defense stations with a range buff on them, but I don't see that being implemented anytime soon.

 

This is true.  However, it's also possible that people might be using the same ranged weapons depending on the stats of the factory weapons on the server.  It could turn into a range game, but at the least they would buy you time to start jumping across the galaxy to fight off the invaders attacking your stations.

[Sable Phoenix]

Why can't stations just mount weapons?  They're already made from ships as a base.

[Pob]

Yes you can do that, I've basically done that on a ship on my creative mode game I use for ship designing.

This particular AI seems to be stuck in patrol sector and the area he wants to patrol is 40km away after the 3rd pirate attack he was too far away to intercept, I had to chase him down then strip out his engines to keep him from running off.

He does spin around a lot though.

 

my suggestion might be turrets, they are a staple of most cockpit space games, make the ships small and cheap use a lot of them.

crew quartes, shield, integrity field, generator, wrap it in a bit of armour, a pair of long range cannons one top one bottom scatter a load about all within range of each other, any enemy ship coming near will need to deal with multiple targets