strip to core balance proposition

Isn't it already research lab dependent? Main factor there is that Vasari caps can count as labs as well. Being a researched tech, I'd assumed it would stop working if you lost the labs, or does that not happen?

strip isn't research lab dependent. Means once it is researched it stays researched whether you have labs or not.

They already nerfed the Strip to Core pretty hard.

Everyone and their uncle who doesn't even play the game thought this would be the Titan ultimate.

And really why wasn't it? It was good enough for AL to have a Titan Ultimate that only takes a planet un-upgraded.

Having Maw strip a world of all resources would have far outclassed AL's ultimate. Now you get it by purchasing it and can use it anywhere.

Ship board labs, capital income and mobile rulership are all great by themselve. Though I would move the capital bonus income to the Titan if you lose your homeworld.

Meh, last nerfs were pretty substantial.  Methinks there are much more pressing concerns then SttC these days.

It's not a nerf if it were to be changed to a titan ultimate. This is what you call a redesign.

I'm assuming if it started as a titan ultimate and was redesigned to be a global action like it is now you would call that an unecessary buff

Maybe we should give advent something different for it's ultimate and give them a tier 8 research that allows them to steal any planet, lol.

I realy think making it the VL titan's ultimate would have been perfect and more fitting to their theme. Just have their massive ship eat up the resources instead of having to colonise first.

I was kinda dissapointed to find out this wasn't the case

Stripped to the core is balanced at the moment.  Really most focus should be on vasari rebels for balance, imo.

Stripped to the core is hardly balanced at the moment. It's more tolerable now is a more accurate assessment. My only statement centers on VL would be MORE powerful than in Trinity and as good as the rest of the factions had it's Titan held STTC and NO ONE would have had issues with it. 

The fact it is globally available now means people addicted to it cry fowl if you suggest a redesign.

VR will likely get similar nerfs to a grossly overpowered feature in the game.

I don't see the overall design changing for either, just pointing out had different designs been followed balance wouldn't have been an issue.

I expected strip to be tied to maw. And not sure why they made it global.

If stripped moved to maw it would still need for process to take a min or so to complete. During this time titan should be vulnerable.....

As for current eating frigates abilities.... Perhaps it could do both just AOE for frig should be smaller.

I also think that all research available even shield hull weapons etc should need to have research labs operational. Only problem I see with that is that few well placed kosutras completely disable research for a race and could drastically reduce fleet survivability and firepower

Other ideas...

Make it only be cast by Titan (similar to Jarrasul's Drain Planet), make Strip to the Core last 1 minute again to all planet types, and add it as Lvl 6 ability to the Titan, instead of The Maw. Make it a channeled ability and you gain all the resources at the end of the ability cast-time (like 4 minutes CD). Should fit better to them this way (also, make this ability usable only after the same Research chain is done).

Or, make the research chain as it was before, and have it 3 levels, with a Planet maximum to each level. Let's say 3 levels, and each allows a player to tuck in X planets of any type (like 2-3 per level, how many would you require after all?) Or the levels would allow planet types to be stripped (like 1st level Dwarf Planets and Asteroids, 2nd Vulcanic and Ice while 3rd Terran and Desert planets); again coupled probably with a maximum number allowable.

Should this suffice?

well yes certain poor design decisions were chosen, yet the developers favor vasari so in that light, its quite obvious why they were chosen.  They go deeper into a design idea and find ways to make them even more OP then what they originally were going to be with a simple design idea.