Bombing your own troops is not what "preemptive" means...

[spacefiddle]

...jus that really. I suppose the intent was to balance the option, but in execution it's just silly. Having massively powerful ships in orbit should be a *benefit* to your smaller attacking force, not a way to kill them yourselves...

Maybe restrict the option to the middle-tier ships? I feel like making it a module wouldn't work, because you'd have to tune too many things around it (like ship slots), but some other drawback besides "kill your own people" should be used. It's PREEMPTIVE. That means I shell the enemy BEFORE MY TROOPS GET THERE.

just sayin'

[Kornstalx]

Ground combat doesn't exactly work like that. You unload all the troops once, and every turn the battle continues until everyone is either dead, or the planet falls. You can even have your ships fly away and leave the system, the combat will still continue each turn.

If indeed preemptive bombardment causes collateral damage (which I'm not sure of), it only makes sense for it to not do so on the first turn of combat. Because every turn after that, that you are choosing the premptive bombardment tactic, you essentially ARE hitting your own troops.

[DA_Kimika]

The Preemptive bombardment is not what is attacking your own troops. What that is, is either an improvement the enemy has built or some other benefit that states "Do X amount of damage to attackers on first wave" Or something of that nature. I actually feel Preemptive bombardments are rather week in retrospect. I would like its damage to be related to class of ships in orbit, rather than just a flat/set amount.

[spacefiddle]

That's... not... what preemptive... means....