Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

I think it would be a good idea to allow players to pick up thier own cargo from enemy planets. For instance, in the event of a stalled or stalemated invasion, there needs to be a way to "pull out". This is especially important because if the invasion fails, your ships won't fire on the planet while you still have troops there. In effect, your own troops end up protecting the planet. If the enemy isn't killing them, and they aren't making any progress, you end up with a situation where you're protecting your enemy from yourself. So yeah... not really a bug but something to be fixed anyway.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

Seems a reasonable idea. I always consider it to make more sense to invade a planet than glass it. It would make sense that if your ground forces don't succed you withdraw and resort to orbital fire. However why launch a ground assault if you haven't built up enough forces to guarantee victory?. I firmly believe in overwhelming force, don't risk defeat by applying less than maximum force.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

Well that's the thing, I thought I had enough forces - the enemy isn't defending his worlds.

It seems that the militia calculation isn't handled in any combat, it's just some "under the hood" thing whereby every turn the occupying force either takes the planet or reduces its population by a small amount. Effectively this has my forces stuck on the planet. I can't even kill off a few billion from orbit to make things easier, nor will it let me drop additional troops on the planet.

So yeah, a retreat option would be nice. Besides, I've given the AI plenty of chances to surrender. I figure if you threaten to wipe out the enemy 5 times in a row and each time he says "go ahead", eventually you're going to have to make good on your promise.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

It sounds like there must be some enemy units you have not killed on the ground. The AI will have a certain number of militia based on population + whatever troops they build + any WPs still existing. If you kill all of these the planet should be yours.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

Well, the planet isn't showing that it has any cargo, and I've had my troops there for about 15 turns so far. I haven't seen a single ground combat for this planet since I landed the troops. I've long since sent my fleet off to try to conquer the AI's other worlds.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

Is it different now, you have to destroy the WP? In se4 you could conquer the planet and keep any wp left.

Also, I was trying not to direct my initial question personally. It was a general question about making sure you have enough troops before invading.

Re: Feature Request: Pickup from enemy planet
 

What would probably be best is just to allow ships with troops onboard and the capture planet strategy to "attack" planets that already have troops on them, so they can drop additional forces, and then also have an option that allows you to take your own cargo from the planet.

One thing that Kwok could consider doing is increasing the amount of population damage occupying troops will do every turn they are on the planet. This might speed things up a bit. I believe SE4 had an option like this in the settings file.