I've ended up converging on this strategy too! Just brainstorming, I also think enemy progression would probably be the next thing this game could move towards (maybe going towards more structured arrivals / fewer smarter enemies?), as well as probably expanding the player's "mission" beyond just "protecting Earth".
Yeah. Some enemy variety may spice things up. Not sure if it's easier to program in something that's more aggressive in engaging the player (enemy "aces") or larger, more capable enemy ship classes (frigates, etc). You could also increase the value of torpedoes by making a class of enemy shielded from regular guns. Bit cheap, but should be easier to program in.
Just thoughts. I've found this game fascinating, honestly, because it really highlights how orbital space combat would actually look compared to preconceptions one might have from the likes of Star Trek, Star Wars, NBSG, Battlefleet Gothic, Homeworld, etc. Well beyond the scale of this project, but I'd love to see an RTS game with orbital mechanics one day.
Thanks - I find there is a lot that could be done in this space! An RTS with orbital physics would be really cool. One question I keep coming back to is scale. If we're thinking about making things realistic, space and especially time are on massively different scales from most other games, so handling pacing is a challenge. So from a game design point of view I'm also exploring a bit more in this direction.
With the other game you have been working on/talking about, I could see both converging to a game where you switch between dual roles of commanding a larger force and having to plan out paths/times to intercept and pick your battlefields, and then taking control of the action directly controlling your fighter in combat.
If you want to get real realistic/"expanse"-esque, you could have the fights take place not when they actually happen, but with delays based on how long it would take to transmit info back to home base, so in the commander's seat the player has to make decisions about other things before they know the outcome of a fight that is theoretically happening concurrently
A few of my threads of thought go in the direction of that too! I've been trying out Children of a Dead Earth some more and keep thinking an open world gameplay (rather than mission-by-mission campaign) would be really cool, although then making the AI seems like it will be a lot of work. And indeed whether you play as a fighter / fleet commander / base commander also changes the whole thing.