I have an Idea that I have been thinking of for awhile.
Everyone complains about how defense pointless in this stage of the game.(which it is) Well how about only a certain amount of invasions are able to occur on one planet at a time? Well what I mean is this, say a planet has been alerted to a legion. Everyone may attack the planet but only the top ten damagers to that planet may invade it. For example...

Player #1 alerts planet X.
--------------------------
Player #2- 100 damage
Player #3- 85 damage
Player #4- 80 damage
Player #5- 70 damage
Player #6- 45 damage
Player #7- 38 damage
Player #8- 37 damage
Player #9- 2 damage
Player #10- 1 damage
Player #11- 1 damage
--------------------
Once the planet population has reached under 10 then the top ten players may invade the planet while every watches and hopes.
After all the top ten players have had their turn the planet is now immune to invades for that one alert period with that legion. However if another legion has it alerted then their top ten damagers may try for it.

This idea can bring defense back into importance and actually create a bit of fun as well. Instead of the boring, "I wonder who is gonna get this planet with 400k defense..." you could have reactions like, " Holy balls holy balls holy balls hooooooooooooooly baaaaalls I wonder if someone will get this planet with 200k defense!"

This will however take a lot of time with coding and what not but I believe that this as an update could help everyone in the long run.

Please post any comments or suggestions you guys have. Thanks

+1 contingent on more info. Like where you're coming from, though.

I was actually thinking of writing up an idea like ship actions for planets (i.e. once a planet has had x-number of offensive actions performed against it, it becoming uninvadeable for 12 hours), but I like the overall feel/spirit of your idea better.

Questions and comments:

So if somebody bio-vaporizes a planet into oblivion, that would mean only the person who hits the planet once to make it invadable gets a shot? Kinda mean. I like it! Same principle applies if somebody completely depops a planet, fails, then alerts it (gotta wait until pop is back over threshold)?

Would there be any invasion % bonuses and penalties for placing (e.g. spots 1-3 get a bonus, 4-7 get no bonus, 8-10 get a penalty)?

I'm not sure how often most people use viruses on planets (only time I have regularly use them is on inactive planets after failing), but would this significantly alter virus strategery?

Ahh, incentive into actually helping depop a planet instead of letting the big guns do it, then sniping them. You get my +1, dear sir.

Also, would this apply to planets like Exotica?

and how long would someone remain on the damage list? It can't stay there forever.

Go for it.

Won't stop Eots at all since we rarely need more than 3 ships to try.
We all beat on the population already so no problem there.

This will only hurt those smaller legions that actually struggle to invade planets with 50k defense.
They need those 10+ invade chances.

Hmm I actually don't know how it could effect Exotica. Ideas anyone?

And the damage list would go away right after the planet is done being alerted 12 hours later. Also if someone else tried to alert the planet during the 12 hours a message could pop up saying, "This planet has already been alerted to your legion".

if it's not broken don't change it + more work for Dan

I am confused as to how this really effects anything the complaint about defense not being able to do anything is because it is fixed where as players attack score is not, the big boys don't care if you have a planet defended to maximum ability they still have a 90% chacne of taking it.

For one it's his job to update this game. Learn that quick, also just because something isn't broken does not mean it needs to be altered.

update? like the new legion missions, new mission chain, 4 year reward, Thraccti ability. Altered? maybe later, once he finishes some of new content, but with a good idea.
I would give the idea a -1, in theory you're giving the weaker legions a 1/6th chance of taking the intended planet as compared to one of the top 10 legions who will nab it with a handful of tries(completely void the idea of limiting the tries).
All in all strong legions get the planet and weaker legions have a smaller chance.

Yet the weaker legions get a higher chance of keeping the planets they already own. You have to look at it from both sides of the picture.

top 10 isn't going to make a difference. When was the last time a planet had more than 10 invasions on the same alert?

What if the # of total possible invasions would vary with the legion's total strenght?

Yeah, this much is true. 10 attempts is a lot of bullets to dodge; even if everybody only has a straight 10% shot at the planet, that's still something like a 65% chance you lose it, so at least in theory it's not much different than how things are now.

Are flux probes and temp fluxes broken too?

This is a good idea, I would go with this.