A defense station that can cover the entire system to defend it?
How would you do it
I do use fighter/FAC bases.
They’re not very effective, in my doctrine at least, yet I want them to have enough positions for juniour officers.
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One static station to defende a full solar system, which could be some billions of kilometres wide?!?!
Never thought such a thing.
Surely, not a station using direct energy weapons.
Even if you build missiles having the range to reach the limits of the system, it takes many hours, maybe days, for them to arrive there, surely loosing their target.
So, why?
But, if you think of a mobile station, or one being tugged… it is a ship. Maybe a large one. But definitely a ship.
Therefore, in my opinion, an useless hypothesis.
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The closest you’d get is a network of stations to cover jump points and colonies. Ideally you use missile stations due to the range. Or like serger said utilize fighters / FACs / any other short range JP-incapable craft you’d care to develop.
In my opinion a dedicated defense fleet is much more suited to defending a star system by itself. Mobile enough to catch any isolated or retreating enemies and flexible enough to divide itself into smaller task forces should the need arise.
If you really must have one station you’d need near perfect vision 100% of the time on hostile craft and some very patient and long range missiles.
In a previous game I created “Seed stations”.
Bit of an evolution to the commercial carrier. It was a relativity large station that had hangers, full sensor suite, cryo, cargo, and various modules. some mines and refineries. etc.
It was an all in one station that I could tow over a newly identified colony parked it in orbit and seed the planet with infrastructure and colonists once that was complete it became the colonies primary defense platform.
It had a decently sized commercial hanger with 10 Beam ship FACs
It was a bit inefficient with the cargo and colonists but the idea was, build a number of them stock them up and then when I find a colony dispatch them with a set it and forget it template order list.
They arrived dropped everything and assume defence duties.
the civies then picked up the job of delivering new colonists and supplies through the civ job window.
Worked great in the early game I had build a second generation of them then before I retired the game.
As it was commercial MSP wasn’t an issue and with the stations maintenance module it was creating it on the planet that had DUG available. So new colonies quickly become fleet supply outpost.
Early game beam ship fighting raiders was an awful chore though.
edit: just to add also these where eventually superseded with proper defence stations once the new system and my empire supply logistics caught up. The seed station was then ether restocked and sent somewhere else or it was dissembled for its minerals.
Maintenance modules don’t create MSP. Only maintenance facilities do.
Ahh yes your right. The station had a maintenance facility and fuel refinery on aboard in the big cargo hold that were dropped to the planet on arrival.
its been a few years now since I played that Campaign. lots of updates since then I wonder if it still a viable strategy.
Were it lacked inefficient use of material it made up for in reduced micro and quick deployments.