We call it ground combat but in fact, true ground combat is only where there is a control battle. Beyond this scope it is closer to naval combat and is largely determined by space combat parameters. The recent Solo events, specifically the rare moment somebody started resisting and doing something creative in what may be a first in a decade has identified a few features along with some bugs. We are not concerned about the bugs per se – these will be fixed in due time- we are interested in making this area of the game flow better.

Most of the areas we will be raising are purely for discussion - if something is a bug we are going to fix it but we are not making any other Ground Combat changes without general agreement from people who are involved.

We have many areas that we feel need attention - this is not an all or nothing. If there is a large objection to an area we want to have time to discuss it and try to change peoples minds (including ours) and if there is a faction generally against it (that is routinely involved in combat), after discussion, we are not going to make that change.

Diplomacy, War and Unnecessary Complications
It is clear from discussion that players would prefer to contest a system thereby keeping a conflict both localised and having a clear strategy.

Under the current system in order to contest a system a large force of trained troops need to be stationed in a base within the system. This means that they cannot be used as part of an assault on a base in the system while maintaining the system claim. Contrarily however, a defending base that is reinforced can further boost its system claim.

As a consequence the attacker is likely to have reducing counter claim while the defender will increase, causing the system to revert to the defenders and interrupt the assault. This has the unwanted side-effect that it is preferable to simply declare war on FoC and any other faction that may wish to drop off ordnance to the defending base rather than simply add everybody to the enemy list along with sensible DNT lists. As such contesting systems is proving to be an underused strategy in all but velvet revolutions.

We need to explore options that cope with limiting the influence a suddenly burgeoning defending base has on the current claim but also the issue with an invading force having to either split their forces into an attacking GP or passively contesting the system claim in order to continue attacking without the necessity of modifying relations with all factions.

Possible proposals for improving this would be:

• GPs attacking or stationed at claiming bases count towards the system claim (claim fixed during combat)
  
• Starbases under attack contribute less to the system claim.
  
• Consider other things to add to control of a system, like politicals based at claiming starbases and government.
  
• Allow ground assault starbase to first check to see if it can contest system as part of the attack (to bypass relations).

• Don’t need to hide GP’s very often.
  
• Don’t need a lot to scout a location.
  
• Do negligible damage.
  
• Have no control factors.
  
• Have no crew factors.

• Fix skirmish from arriving GP’s pulling attacking GP from Control Battle
  
• Ensure arriving cavalry added to attacker or defender side correctly
  
• Add order to cease control battle for attacker without moving
  
• Show shield interference on each round
  
• State clearly long-range is the same as space – limits targets to Max Targets
  
• Remove control battle as soon as nobody is targeting it from the starport.

• It has 0TU’s on the day of creation though the attacking GP may have 300TU’s accumulated. So we would like the defender to have 300TUs - they did originally have this but changes to GPs spawning with 0Tus were also carried over to the losing GP without consideration (as it uses the same function).
  
• It does not have any of the civilian movement vehicles that would be appropriate to take - like shuttles/trucks
  
• It is spawned in the starport rather than sector and is in battle.
  

• Only has four rounds of pre-boarding combat – we could consider changing this to 5 (round 0) to be in line with platforms in naval combat.
  
• Needs to run combat efficiency pre-boarding.
  
• Platforms can not currently use ground enemy lists so they can not use ground ordinance like ground fighters - should this be possible.
  
• If so, from orbit or need to be landed?
  
• If so uses ground bombers/fighters/ordnance round zero?

• There is currently no weighting on ground parties, it's purely random as to which one is targeted in space combat (long range ground combat) - we would like to add some weighting if you are firing with ground combat weapons - so that you do not shoot the smallest target.
  
• We would like to allow ground parties be able to initiate long range ground combat with some other position on the planet via an order.
  
• We would like to increase the default targets for GPs / Starbases to a higher number
  
• Starbase shields restart value decays rather than going straight to zero after begin dropped.

We call it ground combat but in fact, true ground combat is only where there is a control battle. Beyond this scope it is closer to naval combat and is largely determined by space combat parameters. This is why a ground party can set max targets – this is necessary when attacking multiple positions across a planetary surface.This is also why a starbase, even with starbase shields should have a modest max-targets as it means if the planet goes FUBAR and there are outposts and GP’s shooting, last thing a massive starbase wants to do is fire all its artillery into a large and well shielded outpost rather than a large GP in the same sector.

When positions are however involved in a control battle, any arriving position that is drawn into the control test should always contribute to the attacker or defender. As such they should not be using long range weaponry against other positions in the control test. The attacker should not have its civilian items targeted by other positions in the control battle (though these items may be subjected to splash damage). Arriving positions should not engage specific targets but rather their material should always be divided amongst the opposition based on relative size.

Docked ships should be dealt with through boarding actions and splash damage not targeted individually through sector range combat.
Arriving GP’s are subjected to skirmish test to determine if they are stopped for full battle. Ships that arrive are automatically stopped for battle if they trigger an enemy list.

Remember the dark days of pre-relations when all starbases had everyone on the ground enemy list to stop unwanted ships landing in starports? It all went tits up when the CIA, BHD and CNF starbases on the same planet (in Borderlands?) all tried to wipe each other out.

So we coded it so that ground enemy lists extended only to the sector to prevent further shenanigans.

The legacy of this has reared its head – it is now the case that a starbase with a clear space enemy list but with active ground, support and defend lists will only use its planetary range weapons if it is drawn into a space battle or if it is returning fire. This is not a problem in terms of the code – it is behaving correctly to the specifications at the time (feature not a bug).

Essentially there are two ranges:

• Short – which covers sector and control battles – currently governed by the ground enemy list.
  
• Long – which is all ranges beyond sector up to an including space. This is governed by space enemy lists.