4X game with focus on no micro

There are 3 types of ground units:

- militia - auto created based on population, tied to a planet

- regular infantry - defend your planets, you have a single army then all the soldiers are auto distributed among all planets based on planet priotity (whcih you can change), it take a while to be redistributed

- storm troopers - offensive forces (can be also used as emergency reinforcement for defence), they are the only ones you have a more direct control, they are assumed to have their own transport capabilities (no trasporter ships needed), highly mobile, elite forces

Now the question, how the storm troopers should work exactly?

I was thinking along the lines of: you have 10 battalions of storm troopers, when you won a space combat you have an option to send to the ground "X battalions", then these battalions are fighting on the ground and are unavailable. After the combat the battalion is recalled to the base and need some time to be able to be deployed again. Just a quick idea to help it started :)

I think you've kind of answered your own question there! The exact mechanics can only come out through development and testing, but what you've written sounds like a good way to get started.

You might also want to think about limiting your shock troops' usage in a non-arbitrary way, so the player doesn't just end up using them like ordinary troops. Maybe they run out of supplies very quickly (sacrificed logistics for high mobility)?

I was thinking along the lines of: you have 10 battalions of storm troopers, when you won a space combat you have an option to send to the ground "X battalions", then these battalions are fighting on the ground and are unavailable. After the combat the battalion is recalled to the base and need some time to be able to be deployed again. Just a quick idea to help it started

I think too that you have already presented a solid solution. I could imagine some kind of mission. You start a new mission (conquer planet X) and put Y battalions into it. Then you can check the mission state (transportation->attack (loose some battalions)->regroup->attack->regroup->(manual abort or replenishment)..

sounds ok without lot of micro management involved.

You may have already considered this, but on top of what Cyberpunk and Ashaman already said; you might want to think about whether or not the player deploying the storm troopers can see the risk on the ground. Is he selecting a group of units without an ability to see the murky depths below? Could there be a lot of enemies? Where is the tactical decision? If he knows exactly how many enemies are below, is he running a risk of not being able to transport storm troopers elsewhere? Why wouldn't he want to just auto deploy all of them, unless he is for sure going to lose the fight no matter how many he sends down?

Why wouldn't he want to just auto deploy all of them

Yeah... that's one of the things that bothers me in my first solution.

Also the ability to "teleport" to anywhere they are needed.

Maybe something like: you deploy them on military bases (it takes time to travel, standard movement) and then from these bases they assault nearby planets (like 1-2 systems away max)? Assault does not mean they move (they still are stationed on the military base planet) they just launch an attack vs a planet (or launch reinforcements). Could be even automating (dividing forces equally between all planets within range that have any sort of ground combat going on (riots included :)).

Overall, ground combat is the secondary thing, the most effort & focus should go to the space battle (taking over the planet's orbit). So, ground combat here would be a mechanic to add a cost to the invasion and slowing it down (and also adding the mood :))

considering that the paradigm of troops is rather out of place in an advanced technological mileu, we are doing this only because it is entertaining to us, therefore we can select behaviour due to arbitrary criteria (eg. the AI behaviour was fun to program, or you're interested in trying things one way) and then casually construct a justification for ingame. so you could eg. say marines only go in after the others fail or anythnig else and just pretend it makes sense :)

Ugh, implemented it and it's ugly :(

I HATE the "drop ground troops" button. It's sooo annoying. There are two cases one where you have aboundance of troops and you drop them on all combats and second where you have a shortage and you click it on the first 1-2 battles and then nothing since you run out of troops (I'm not making real decision here as a player, just battles from the top of the list get the ground troops drop).

Besides, since I already won the space combat I wanted to just GET the planet (maybe not instantly, it might take time, no problem) and not deal with another type of combat (it's pointless strategic wise, I already moved the ships there so I already declared I wish to take over that planet, why the game has to bug me with additional questions there?) I do desire it, as a player, to be automated/abstracted. I don't want to deal with dropping troops manualy, it's not fun at all (I even made an auto drop option).

I have to redesign it. Ideas?

This is pretty close to what you have, but what if after winning the space portion of the battle around a planet, the Player is asked how much of the invading fleet he wants to invest in fully capturing the planet, with a minimum of 1 fleet or wtv. Capturing the planet at this point is always guaranteed, but how many/ the health of fleets deployed this way can make the capturing process take less time. Once the surface-side resistance has been subdued, the fleets could return to spaceship form.

There could be different factors that affect the capturing time, like policies/edicts, morale, unit X caps faster on rocky planets and slower on gas giants, etc.

The key difference here is that after committing units the Player won't have to spend time worrying about the outcome of the battle. This method sort of removes any potential for defensive ground combat, though (maybe a garrisoned fleet could slow the cap time?). Maybe the capture process could be halted if any friendly fleet reaches the planet, eg: Player A bodies the fleets around Player B's planet, and commits a small force to cap the planet, and sends the remainder of his army off on other conquests. The capturing will take 8 turns, so Player B has enough time to order a fleet to haul ass and get to the planet. When the fleet arrives, the invading ground troops are destroyed, thus ceasing the capturing process. Player B has full control of the planet once more, and Player A vows to leave behind a fleet or two next time, to support the ground troops, and prevent any disrupturing of the capture process.

This is pretty close to what you have, but what if after winning the space portion of the battle around a planet, the Player is asked how much of the invading fleet he wants to invest in fully capturing the planet, with a minimum of 1 fleet or wtv. Capturing the planet at this point is always guaranteed, but how many/ the health of fleets deployed this way can make the capturing process take less time. Once the surface-side resistance has been subdued, the fleets could return to spaceship form.

No buttons that ask things, I HATE, HATE, HATE that stupid button, every time I see it in game I want to smack my monitor :) It's the first time I sooo pasionetly hated a button I made :D

There should bo no decision about ground combat *after* combat, I would move the decision to *before* the combat. Like you prepare ground forces first (move them to nearby/border planets, build military bases near the frontline, etc) and then these auto engage (within a certain limited radius) after the space forces cleaned up the orbit.

I fully agree with the "capturing time" mechanic. It perfectly fits the rest of the game. The planet should be taken over eventually as long as you control the orbit, if you have poor ground forces it should just take longer.

This method sort of removes any potential for defensive ground combat

I'm perfectly OK with this.

Maybe I will describe how it works now (it's implemented):

You have a pool of recruits they are divided into regular infantry (90%) and stormtroopers (10%). Each planet has defenisive priority (1-9) it's set automaticly (bored planets having 5, near borders 3, capital planet 8 and the rest 1) you can modify it manually between -3 and +3. Regular infantry is auto redistributed between planets based on these priorities.

Stormtroopers are more under your control, they are used for attack (you have "Drop stormtroopers" button after you win a space combat) also you can manualy garrison them on a specific friendly planet ("Deploy stormtroopers" button).

Overall it's not that bad, the distribution of regular infantry (defensive) is fine (the player basicly wants them on border planets). Also the "Deploy stormtroopers" order is fine, you can use them to reinforce a chokepoint planet. But the "Drop stormtroopers to invade a planet" button is super ugly and annoying.

The thing is, apart from "Deploy stormtroopers" order (reinforce a planet) you don't have any meaningful decisions and it's basicly a chore and a micro :)

Thoughts:

So, after stepping back and thinking about what I actually want as a planet I got these: the current auto distribution on troops (border planets get much more) should stay but without any priorities (me setting +1/-1 is stupid) instead there should be some sort of "reinforce this planet" marker, I put it on a planet and it gets more troops. Similarly I would prefer some sort of "concentrate offensive troops here" marker which I would put on a near border planet and then, once I send my fleet to get control over the enemy planet, my ground troops from the nearby "concentration" planet would auto launch a ground attack (not sure how exactly it should work, but I would definitely want to be rewarded for preparing the ground troops early, like moving my supply depots near the enemy, build some bases, concentrate troops, something like that).

I would also want some "deply some anti-riots troops here to suppress/prevent a rebelion" marker :D

These are my thoughts as a player.