A Reward for Invading Rhakas? - No Spoilers

[IanD (OP)]

First, no spoilers here.

If you choose to invade a Rhakas colony rather than nuke it from space and are successful  I think there should be some sort of reward. I am thinking of a ruined ruin of at least colony size. There would be no possibility of anything remotely intact, but it gives a small incentive to put boots on the ground. In my experience that should give somewhere between 50-75 installations, but I don't know the actual range.

Perhaps the Rhakas should start building orbital defences if left alone too long?

[Migi]

Wouldn't ground units just destroy an installation via collateral damage anyway?
Maybe a hoard of minerals instead?

[IanD (OP)]

Wouldn't ground units just destroy an installation via collateral damage anyway?
Maybe a hoard of minerals instead?

The installations wouldn't be destroyed as they would be generated by the existing ruin mechanics. There would be nothing to see until the planet was conquered.

Minerals may or may not be present on the planet anyway.

[Gabrote42]

Minerals may or may not be present on the planet anyway.

Aren't they supposed to generate only on rich worlds?

[ArcWolf]

Minerals may or may not be present on the planet anyway.

Aren't they supposed to generate only on rich worlds?

Yes. IMO the minerals should be reward enough (and an almost habitable world).

[IanD (OP)]

A few minerals and an almost habitable planet is not reward enough to embark in a ground war, just nuke the place and send in the automines. There are lots of nearly habitable planets in the game. A colony which can to a little extent bootstrap itself is far more valuable and worth sacrificing ground forces for. Rhakas are no push-over and usually require and consume significant resources.

[nuclearslurpee]

I think the perceived issue is more clear if you compare Rakhas to their most obvious "competitors" in the world of spoiler NPRs:

I mean the Precursors. Precursors typically involve fighting some combination of naval, STO, and ground combat forces to secure the planet(s) they defend. In return, you obtain not only a nice planet with decent colonization potential and perhaps some minerals, but also often a hefty stockpile of prepackaged gallicite missiles and most importantly some alien ruins to exploit for fun and profit. The size of ruins does tend to scale with the size of defending force from what I know, as well.

By contrast for fighting Rakhas you get nothing special besides a planet and there are many of those in the galaxy to be frank. That being said I would not presume that we should get something more, I think of Rakhas as being more for flavor than any mechanical benefit, really they serve to make the galaxy a more dangerous place and to provide some flavorful ground force actions besides messy homeworld invasions. In that sense they are more similar to the other spoiler races in that you don't get much from actually fighting them, and what I've described in the previous paragraph is really an exception rather than a rule albeit hardly exceptional since they are so common comparatively. The thing about Rakhas is that they can, if the player wishes, be generally ignored which I will say is a unique mechanic at least.

[Droll]

I mean the Precursors. Precursors typically involve fighting some combination of naval, STO, and ground combat forces to secure the planet(s) they defend. In return, you obtain not only a nice planet with decent colonization potential and perhaps some minerals, but also often a hefty stockpile of prepackaged gallicite missiles and most importantly some alien ruins to exploit for fun and profit. The size of ruins does tend to scale with the size of defending force from what I know, as well.

The size of ruins does in fact scale. You can even modify the amount of precursor forces present on any given type of ancient ruin through editing DIM_ruins IIRC. You can effect patrol forces, ground garrison and orbital fleets independently. I've also added additional ruin types like "ruined ecumenopolis" with massive precursor defenses and massive amounts of installations.

[IanD (OP)]

author=nuclearslurpee link=topic=12862.msg157754#msg157754 date=1639744318] By contrast for fighting Rakhas you get nothing special besides a planet and there are many of those in the galaxy to be frank. That being said I would not presume that we should get something more, I think of Rakhas as being more for flavor than any mechanical benefit, really they serve to make the galaxy a more dangerous place and to provide some flavorful ground force actions besides messy homeworld invasions. In that sense they are more similar to the other spoiler races in that you don't get much from actually fighting them, and what I've described in the previous paragraph is really an exception rather than a rule albeit hardly exceptional since they are so common comparatively. The thing about Rakhas is that they can, if the player wishes, be generally ignored which I will say is a unique mechanic at least.

The thing I find inconceivable is the complete disappearance of a world spanning civilization without a trace. Under previous invasion mechanics where invasion with ground forces could result in complete disappearance of all structures and population of a planet it was in keeping with the mechanics. But that has changed and now seems unlikely. In fact home world invasions now frequently result in very significant spoils of war. the only time this didn't happen was when I invaded a home world  that had been previously subjected to invasion and nuclear bombardment.

I also find it improbable that the Rakhas, having lost their STOs do not attempt to replace and improve them, which is my current experience.