[jimbob]

I voted that the Attacker has the advantage/imbalanced to favor the attacker... but I don't think that this is a bad thing. This appears to be the way things really are in warfare, the attacker has the advantage of mobility, whereas the defender is left to try and defend all points equally - which means that he/she/it must distribute a limited number of resources across a larger front (see Sun Tsu, French Maginot Line, etc). And so, one could build up a massive "fleet" of starbases over a planet, and you will have (IMHO) an equally powerful force (kT for kT) vs. a mobile fleet - but you can only defend a single planet with it! The advantages of special base mounts and accuracy are perfect - but it's the disadvantage of immobility that matters.

That said, I think some defensive improvements should be made. Not to make defense stronger, but to make certain things useful:

Satelites are USELESS as things stand. I mean honestly, who besides the computer ever uses these things (ok, maybe to drop as sensor buoyes, but that's it). My suggested change is to introduce a fleet formation for satelites - even if all satelites within the sector must be arranged in a single fleet. Now you can leave 'em in a single clump, two clumps, three or more clumps.. maybe even have some in higher orbits relative to the planet...

Mines shouldn't be thought of as a impenetrable wall, but I do agree that they become useless once sufficient numbers of minesweepers are produced. I think that mines need to be overhauled for SEV (should that ever happen).

Now for my rant. If you wanted clear thinking, the best I can offer is above. Everything from this point on is highly subjective if not incoherant:

As for fighters, yeah, they're fairly useless too. High end PDF will wipe them out, they are not upgradeable, and carriers don't carry enough of them. Because you can't change 2 of the 3 complaints above, I think only solution would be to rebalance by decreasing the accuracy of ALL weapons (including PDF) by 30 to 50%. Then all ships, drones and bases should have their to hit value increased by the same amount (ie. now escorts would have a defensive bonus of only 20% instead of 50%). However, satelite and fighter defensive values should not be changed at all. This would make them weak, but more capable of dodging shots/harder to actually hit (seems realistic to me). Because all weapons have a crappy chance to hit, the attack advantage enjoyed by fighters would also become significant... finally making them worthwhile to research and build.

There's my Looney's worth (1.00 $Cdn, .02 USD).