I have no idea if this is possible with the game code of if its too hardcoded to alter but would it be possible to create a mechanism for taking over a planet owned by another faction without bombing it out of existance first?

 

My suggestion would be to have a class of vessel that acts in the same way as the current colonisation ships but takes a lot longer. An invasion/assault class.

 

For the Empire it would obviously be a ground assault class although samller Star Destroyers were capable of landing so maybe add it as an ability to those ships too? All tactical built stuff is destroyed however.

 

CIS, again these guys are 'evil' so would go with assault and occupation, Driod Planetary assault ships or an ability added to their Big ships that carry all the droids.

 

Republic - less force more persuasion with these folks. Allow Jedi ships to convert populaces and give them a clone assault option from certain vessals, maybe the Victory SD's that could actually land on planets.

 

Alliance - Again these guys didn't really fight but more subvert systems. Not really played as these guys as I actually dislike the Alliance and Mon Cal's are just lame but woudl easily be possible to give them some sort of delegation ship or blockade runner and a 'Rebel Strike Force' or Freedom Fighter Landing Craft.

 

 

This would of course need to take a lot longer than a planetary bombardment but has the huge benefit that you don't have to rebuild from the ground up which makes little sense. The more advanced the planet the longer it takes to control this way giving its owner a chance to retaliate. Fluff wise it would be great to see fleets blockading planets while their teams take over on the ground.

There is a way called culture and allegiance.

Yea but doesn't that only work if you are near your own systems? I was thinking more along the lines of being able to infiltrate a more distant galaxy and take it over, especially one further away from the current theatre of war. If you play with small galaxies this is redundant but on larger scales it could prove vital to the survival of some of the races, especially if you're playing a more 'true' campaign where the empire owns most of the galaxy or some such

Only way is culture, due to engine restrictions.

Ah well, let the bombing continue then....

You aren't the first person to ask this, there have been multiple requests/questions on the Sins forum regarding this very subject.

This would make this much closer to how Rebellion plays, which would be awesome. But no it's not. Expect if this were ever implemented, it would be the first thing going into the mod.

Come on people! Work arounds.

 

Make the majority of weapons (if able to) do 0 damage to planets.

 

Then give the ships that are able to assault planets, a weapon which launches a lander at the planet? and boom. damage/takeover is in process.

That sounds similar to the Insurgency ability that the MC80 Diplomatic Cruiser has; unfortunately what you are suggesting simply isn't possible. You cannot "take" a planet from another player like you can with ships. Edit: ...Actually I should see if that's possible, to use Comandeer on planets. Not hopeful, but let's try it anyways!

i'm new to modding in this particular game, yet I find it hard to imagine there isn't some way we could do it.

 

Do we actually like bombarding every planet into dust? AFAIK bombardment within the SW universe was actually rare, I mean yeah they did it, but not for conquest. Taris, Alderaan, etc etc. Perhaps only the YV would actually bombard a planet, kill it's populace, and then conquer.

 

I found many a workaround for total war mods and scripting, gimme a while to think on this as I upgrade my skills here.

It's actually impossible. This is one complaint that even players of stock Sins have; it's hardcoded.

Fair enough, hardcoded sucks. I'll still try and think of work arounds (graphic replacement, unit editing, so only a couple of units can 'bombard' planets, but in fact they are bombarding them with dropships, etc...)

Fair enough, hardcoded sucks. I'll still try and think of work arounds (graphic replacement, unit editing, so only a couple of units can 'bombard' planets, but in fact they are bombarding them with dropships, etc...)

The ships that can bomb planets have been chosen to do so; you can control which ships bomb planets. Though your dropship idea, while a bit of a workaround, wouldn't fit in SoGE as there are multiple abilities which clearly depict bombing and destruction, such as Base Delta Zero.

Found this on the stardock forums:

 

Population doesn't represent population alive, it represents population that is registered for taxation. When it reaches 0, not everyone is dead. Bombing destroys infrastructure and in the chaos, records are lost etc. The time it would take a colony frigate to repopulate from 0 would be thousands of years long which is obviously incorrect lore-wise.

 

Or you could do a workaround by giving transports (and other ships that carry ground forces) the ability to culture flip planets

That would be silly, and wouldn't work well. Personally I like to think of population as representing the overall economy and population data of the planet. With bombing, factories, schools, and other buildings are destroyed, which reduces the income, and thus tax flow, of that planet. "Building" population can represent getting better census data, or investing in factories/education/etc.

Wait... idea...

two buffs, first deals 1,000,000 (or some outrageous number) to the planet, then the next one activates colonize (after like 5 seconds or so). Is that possible?

That's possible but would completely kill game mechanics. The AI would also rush planets with them, and there is also no way to factor in culture/allegiance into abilities. It also might colonize the planet even if it isn't destroyed, however I highly doubt this.

Well it could be a level 5 ability or something... for like the DCS or maybe even a super-ship...

It's extremely overpowered. At most I'd give it to a supercap, and make it a level 8 ability.