Haha.  Or maybe they can sell more games with Mortal Kombat approach; when you nuke a planet you see stuff gets blowned up and some blood oozes out.  When ships die they have debris and corpses floating in space.

When I first started playing sins I assumed that there would be an alternative to planetary bombardment, and given the role of culture I assumed it would be that. I was surprised the first time I lost a planet to culture that it just went neutral. I had just assumed that it would simply flip to the race whose culture had overthrown the planet.

I guess technically, with a culture 'kill', you don't drop any bombs, but given how difficult it is to take down a planet with culture it might be nice to see some additional rewards. Taking over the planet with all planetary upgrades would be a nice reward, I think.

My guess is that culture will be made a much better alternative to bombing in the next expansion.  It would be kind of cool to have an "invasion" tool of sorts, something slower than bombing, but faster than culture.  It could breakdown like this:

Bombing: Relatively the fastest, destroys all pop and infrastructure enhancements- Fits the Vasari lore the best

Invasion: Send in the Marines.  Fairly fast(rate could possibly be affected by planet type/planet bonuses/research), and a chance of maintaining most of the pop and some infrastructure upgrades(random depending on what has been upgraded)...downside is a hefty onetime fee as well as increased upkeep on the invasion force for the duration of the invasion(because invasions are expensive)  This doesn't really fit any faction really well because the Vasari control from orbit, the Advent either convert or kill outright, and the TEC has(implied) severe manpower shortages, making wasting valuable troopers on costly invasions unattractive.  However, space marines are awesome, so this could be the preffered TEC method*

Culture: Slow, compared to the other two, but it maintains pop with minimal loss(strife and such) and a much higher chance of maintaining more infrastructre upgrades.  Its downside is that it is slow and can be countered easily.  Fits Advent lore the best and the TEC pretty well.

But since we are talking about right now:  culture is the alternative the OP wants.  Oh, it takes too long or you just can't do it?  Tough, bomb the planet then.  It's called having choice and making hard decisions. 

*Another thought: The game(so far) takes place in and around TEC space, with the impliction that there are (normal) humans on(most) every planet....so why would the TEC want to bombard its own people(and more importantly, possibly costly war infrastructure)?  This explanation, if you accept it, could justify how invasion could be the "TEC method" of taking over a planet.

About the invasion, i was also thinking about other ideas : the siege fregate can not move when it invades. So, they would be more vulnerable to surprise attacks, they would need to be protected and it can create strategies where you engage an ennemy fleet, even if you can't win, just to destroy the siege fregates (because actually, they will run away).

Moreover, there could be some new tech that would improve the efficiency of invading (like upgrading mere marines to elite soldiers or heavy armored combat vehicules). you won't see the fight, as it takes place to the planet but this could make some great lines "Prepare to drop !"

For culture, i completely agree, it is disappointing and not very efficient. I succeeded in killing someone with culture once, but i was already having a big advantage so i could have done it military easily before starting to build broadcasting stations. Actually, i just use it for defense and for the 10% bonus in economy. By the way, the advent superweapon is completely useless. A

Converting the planet to your culture instead of making them neutral is a minimum.

"There is nothing like a big boom in the morning!" - Me

I just love to blow stuff up, even if you count millions of civilians, as long its a game!

Yeah gamerking345, NOVALITH!!! MOHAHAHHAHA

Most experienced players view the Advent superweapon as the strongest.  It's not used to turn planets neutral, but instead to deprive defenders of their culture bonus while giving you your own on the attack.  In a huge late-game fleet battle this is actually considered far more powerful than any other superweapon.

U can colonize a planet with enemie pop. using Culture?

okay, look, this is the way i see it, the game is set in trader space, so each soverign planet already has a human population with human infrastructure... so, im not sure with advent, but the vasari wouldnt have to bomb a planet, so much as destroy any land based defenses and set up their orbital lock down structures, as they dont need land based infrastructure so much, advent would have to do the same probably but set up any land based C&C centers, TEC would have the least problems, as they can adapt any of the soverign planets' existing structures, and would probably even have a bonus because they would best understand how the soverign tech works

however... that would be largely unbalanced... and very complicated... this is a game, there is no necessary reason to over complicate things, and for balance, the simpler the better.

so, my arguement basically is that rather than making a specialised way for each race to colonise planets, leave it as is, sure its not the most realistic, or the most proctiacal, or the most morally comfortable way to do it... but its a game, and its war.

if it makes you feel any better, think of it like this: "Infrastructure", could mean weapons and ammo factories, land based defense systems, C&C centers and systems etc, it says so in the little blurb about the Vasari, they dont populate planets with their own people, but use the locals as cheap labour and taxable citizens etc. that said, if you'd really like a change to the way planets change hands, maybe TEC nukes could be interchanged with space-to-surface precision missiles to take out precision targets, and radiation-less nukes for the larger C&C centers.

however, i think that sending in ground troops as and unneccesary change. to be honest, im indifferent either way (though i think the TEC heavy fallout upgrade is totally stupid), one argument i can see FOR troops is for planets with upgrades or useful features, that way those thigns can be preserved.

but i have to say, that making a change to a video game because of a weak stomach or being an incredibly morally conscious person, is wasteful. if its for a good reason, that imporves the game, fine, but for the OP's reason, just a waste. im not being personal, but its the same old arguement with swear words, its a word! being upset by an assortment of letters, is silly, YOU are the only one who gives the word power, and YOU are the one letting the word offend you. same with video games, if you think that a game mechanic is morally wrong or offensive, well, to be blunt, build a bridge and get over it. i realise it may not be easy, and that the word you used was it makes you un-easy, but.... its a game, simply a way of facilitating one aspect of play.

so, i could re-iterate my points and make more points, but its late and i cant be bothered... that and ill probably just offend the OP some more. believe me i do not intend to, im simply saying that changing a video game mechanic because of an irrational un-easiness due to killing numbers (which in themselves are in-conclusive as to what you are actually killing/destroying), is stupid and wasteful.

i would like to, however, finish on this note: do you remember the game lemmings? where u get a number of little green men, 5 pixels high, and you have to assign jobs to them so they can direct the civilisation to the safety of the exit door? well, i used to play that when i was 5, and one of the game mechanics was that once you set a lemming to the blocker job, the only way to win the game was to wait till all the other lemmings got the the exit door and then detonate all the remaining blocker lemmings. i would cry and cry and cry and curse the world and the developers for not programming in a better way to finish the game.  i do know how you feel, but Sins is alot less personal than lemmings, and the changing a game because mass genocide makes you uneasy, well, not a good enough reason for me, sorry, but it isnt

easy solution: just pretend that the "6000" represents the politicians, then you'd be doing that planet a favor by getting rid of them.  2nd solution, just wait for those 6000 politicians to bribe you with 1 trillion $$'s for no dam good reason.  oops, too close to home.

In multi star system games...

Step 1: Fortify your planets

Step 2: Build Novaliths on as many planets as possible.

Step 3: Set all Novaliths to autocast

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit.

Exactly if you want games with fluffy cloud heaven and cute kitties with rainbows I suggest you find something else. In war people die in miserable surroundings. Even in peace much suffering exists in the world. Just take first person shooters if you shot somebody like they do in the games there would be lots of blood and gore and pain or people crying and dying painfully. People dont flop around in silly manners with ragdoll physics.

War is hell you cant sanitize it without burying your head in the sand. Evil exists on a massive and all encompassing scale. To represent reality or war or society you need to stop being ignorant of the cold hard truth. Most people want games like this to depict war and "society" realistically as possible with certain exceptions so you cant make this a 8 year old game. People resent it when somebody tries to sanitize a game or act like their mother with a v-chip.

The OP doesnt seem to realize he isnt bombing planets he is causing a program to lower the number next to a text line that says population and planet health. Nobody has died yet.

that certianly clarifies things...