Blockades in 'mixed' systems.

[projekcja]

When I own 1 planet in a system while a rival empire holds another planet in the same system, and we both have starships in the system, I found that sometimes my planet is considered "blockaded" while sometimes it isn't. The only way to 'break the blockade' is to attack the enemy planet.

I expect to see 3 types of combats being possible:
1) They attack me, my planetary defenses fight alongside my ships.
2) I attack them, their planetary defenses fight alongside their ships.
3) 'Neutral engagement' - our fleets fight each either without the planetary defenses of either being employed.

I'd expect a blockade to be an option you can impose only if you're willing to expose yourself to engagement of type 3, while currently the only way to break the blockade is using attack of type 2. Maybe there can be an interface element should allowing a player to choose if their fleet engages in a blockade, and then one allowing the other player to break it in type 3 combat.

example: game_414, system Seralta.

[echo2361]

I definitely like the idea of giving the player control over whether his fleet will be blockading an empire's planet or not. I can think of a few situations where auto-blockading could get me in trouble, such as the one described in this thread.

[Gilleous]

Unless it changed since I last played the game, we are in auto war since diplomacy is not implemented yet. I imagine blockading only happens when at war and not when at peace.

[Arioch]

This is an edge case that will have to be ironed out when we introduce states of non-war. Currently, it's very unusual to be in a state where you've captured an enemy planet but there's still an enemy fleet in the system.

[sven]

I expect to see 3 types of combats being possible:
1) They attack me, my planetary defenses fight alongside my ships.
2) I attack them, their planetary defenses fight alongside their ships.
3) 'Neutral engagement' - our fleets fight each either without the planetary defenses of either being employed.

I'd expect a blockade to be an option you can impose only if you're willing to expose yourself to engagement of type 3, while currently the only way to break the blockade is using attack of type 2. Maybe there can be an interface element should allowing a player to choose if their fleet engages in a blockade, and then one allowing the other player to break it in type 3 combat.

I agree that this makes sense. But, I'm not sure there's a good way to implement an engagement model with these side effects in the context of the current strategic UI. This may be one of those cases where "realism" needs to be set aside in order to keep the game mechanics and UIs relatively straightforward.

To allow 3), we'd need to give players the option of seeking a deep space engagement with an enemy fleet in a system where both sides owned planets. However, if the enemy retreated from that attack, then, as per the current retreat rules, they'd be placed in hyperspace, and unable to come to the aid of their planets, or move to different star systems. That's an overly-harsh penalty for a situation where a player basically just wants to decline to enforce a blockade.

Thus, in a case where both sides had a presence in the system, I think we'd need to give fleets the option of refusing a deep space engagement. "Refusing engagement", as distinct from "retreating" is not a concept that exists anywhere else in the game -- as is this is a pretty rare case, I think players encountering it would likely be confused, both about why the option was there, and what, exactly, it did.