Suggest - Features and Improvements

[nathanebht]

The new merger of empires is a neat feature. Believe it just takes being an ally for a long time and having great relations. However, it would make more sense for empires in dire straits to merge with someone than some ally who has no big problems.

If an empire is down to one or two remaining planets, it would make sense it would merge with some neutral empire. Or the planets should revolt and become independent.

Do AI empires merge? Haven't seen this happen.

[zolobolo]

Question on Human Transport art: In case of all races the cargo transport modules are colored striking yellow - I assume for better recognition what they are carrying an find it a great idea that fits into the general UI concept perferctly), but in case of Human transport design there is barely any yellow present: there is still some yellow there but the overall Human concept of beign "beaten and worn down" seems to have gotten the better of them.

Was this intended or have the Human transports been finished before the idea of prevaling yeloow has been decided upon?

Also noticed that some races randomise the module placement on the transport like Ashdar, Orthin - the later even on colony ships.
Even though the Human transport has 6 unique module for cargo which can be combined endlessly 6 on the power of 6 times for unique appearance of the cargo and colony transports, they are not randomised - is the randomisation not working here or have they not been designed as modules but a single object?

[zolobolo]

Display the amount of additiona ltrade routs a space station generates when slecting the station - same for the Fuel Station Module itself

Possibly: a new or existing tech to slightly increase this amount (if it is visible might as well be dynamic as well to make it more interesting)

[zolobolo]

Uplodaed game_7551

AI (Haduir) declare war on the player although almost all of its forces are underway (most of which taking between 6-10 Turns to arrive)
This is compounded by their territorry in range of the player being undefended (at least by ships) and a large portion of their forces having to travel across now enemy territory

The game leading up to this was perfect thanks to the new diplomacy system: a strong alliance forming against the player by Gremak, Tinker and Haduir, but this surprise declaration of war put the Haduir into an inpossible situation: their main planets have been lost within a few turns before their forces could even arrive to their oirignal destination (10 turns are infinity during end-game)

To avoid such situation the AI should avoid declaring war when the mayority of their forces are not available to attack or defend against the faction they plan to declare war upon unless forced by their ally to do so and they woudl rather risk annihilation then loosing the AI

Another option would be to prevent the AI from sending miliatry forces so far away (colony ships and outpost transports could be excluded from this limitation): by checking the defence/attack prios the Yoral worlds seem to have been highly prioratized consdiering their relationship with Colonials: Aurelon II seem to have been correctly identified as a key defensive position (being valuable and close to a bunch of other empires), but Gaia was not

[rhinoinsomniac]

i don't know if this has been suggested before (probably but 53 pages and various other forum posts is too many to search thru) but i'm a little disappointed with the slavery mechanic. i quite enjoy that they can be worked to death and experimented on but the morale penalties to everyone except Gremak bothers me. i need to test whether that penalty is permanent and if not how long it lasts. if it's too long-lasting it makes slavery not worth it as anyone except the Gremak imo - and then the Gremak must enslave all races to avoid that penalty - no bigoted exceptions like allowing Yoral to hold secondary citizenship cuz then the yoral would eventually all get unhappy from the cruelty to races that aren't their own and protest or revolt. (actually i really just want to enslave and be cruel to humans since they're boring without upsetting everyone else - perhaps i'm asking for something overpowered)

i would also like to be able to enslave certain native races - like the ones that have a farming bonus and are humanoid. enslaving the spice mongers and the plant researcher guys wouldn't make much sense (unless they kept some of their bonus - like specialist slaves). the wolf-like ratmen things that inhabit hives should have increased combat power while rebelling as slaves if we were able to enslave natives. i think i might just mod it so that i can enslave the lummox and the capricious snowmen. also just like the enfi - yoral and teros should have 3 labor but still no research and no money since they are already efficient workers.

the morale penalty that comes along with overworking and experimenting on slaves - i think it would be neat if an empire could research something that allows this penalty to be ignored. the downside of researching it would be a hit to reputation with all other empires as if the empire had descended into hedonistic cruelty or something and are now comparable to the gremak.

[zolobolo]

i quite enjoy that they can be worked to death and experimented on but the morale penalties to everyone except Gremak bothers me. i need to test whether that penalty is permanent and if not how long it lasts.

The effect stacks with each purschase of slaves, enslavement, overwork or experimentation but is temporary and decreases over time

It also probably effects the oppinion of the overall races of you displayed on the diplomacy menu (this is just a guess as the number there is not broken down) and this in turn should affect how other races approach you in diplomacy

You cna also counter the negative effect by fereeing slaves, building markets and researching moral boosting tech

Ensalvement of minor races is intentional for balance sake: some of these races are purposefully there to limit the usefullness of the planet

Some races outright ignore slavery altogehter (besides the Gremak): you can find minor race as major race (Tinkers) that don't care at all and you can combine these races well if you aim is to build a slavery focused empire: but you are right, you best enslave everyone else in this case

[Arioch]

Most negative population morale modifiers caused by a one-time event (including slaving) have a limited duration, after which they expire.

[rhinoinsomniac]

i was considering a few things and this made me realize that the race most suited to partial slavery (not enslaving everyone - just select races or small groups) is actually the Phidi since they rely so much on markets. I know it's very anti-fluff (against the lore) and that just strikes me funny that the Phidi would be better slavemasters than the Yoral or even Humans. I suppose one could play with a very market heavy playstyle if one wanted slavery not as Gremak but that still just strikes me funny. It seems to me Tinkers, Gremak and possibly Phidi are the only factions that could benefit from enslaving peoples. i say this because enslaving only some of the race upsets the others - enslaving all of them means limiting them to just a few planets and experimenting or overworking every once in a while since having too many slaves requires large forces to keep them under control and exploiting them often would upset the free races of the empire. I guess I just think slavery is wonky.

i still think it would be great if we could research something that allows those morale penalties to be ignored so that slavery could be exploited full on but partially (like enslaving only humans in your empire) - with the consequence of having a major diplomacy hit with every faction except maybe Tinkers and Gremak. of course, if morale had some effect besides just whether people revolt then maybe enslaving people wouldn't even be a temptation (i realize enslaving people can be used to prevent them from protesting and revolting)

[zolobolo]

Orbital structures might be displayed within the territory zone near the system (in a semi-random position) they are present in. The goal being:
1. Make the individual empires territory representation even more unique on the galaxy map
2. Provide information on system fortification, or hub worlds withouth having to use systems information screens

Style: The existing models could be listed above or around the system similalry how Stargates are laready marked but that would not serve the purpose of style and make the system icons more convoluated.

The icons could instead utilize the "empty" area between systems within an empires own territory zone. For this purpose the models could be displayed in a greyed state and worn-out lines to match the style of the GUI and emphasize the feeling of the map as being a "map". This is an autoamted alteration (utilizing the new zone and empire-icon display funciton) of one of my previous suggestions to allow the player to draw on the map marking points of interest and occured to me when clicking through numerous one-systme enclaves of other empires seen below. The individual images could be positioned with the help of the function currently responsible for positioning the empire logo

I have tried to demonstrate this via the brush but sadly could not grey out the models myself right now - in contrast the actual model on the right hand side is in to stark of a contrast and does not feel like part of the map but rahter as a selectable obejct which of course should be avoided

The same method could be used also for marking pirates, Marauders or Harpy nests depending on how stylized the map itself should be

[rhinoinsomniac]

i've noticed in my last few playthroughs on normal difficulty ( the strategic AI improvements really make the game so much harder ) that the AI hasn't really built starbases. The Tinkers have their mobile outposts but other than that i haven't really seen defensive platforms being used. I think maybe the AI is prioritizing ships now (as it should cuz they're a mobile defense) but I suggest that the cost of defensive platforms in metal go down for the AI or something. I never use them myself unless i have an incoming invasion, and a surplus of metal and cash.

[rhinoinsomniac]

did a quick search but i might have missed it if this has been suggested before. a couple select all buttons would be nice. like select all troopships, select all combat ships. when i'm warring i like to run around with a large cohort of troopships and combat ships. i'd like to easily be able to select all troopships and send them to places without having to individually select them all to separate them from the combat ships.

i know about the thing that allows you to select some ships and then right click to select all the ones you didn't have selected. is there something like select all troopships already in the game and i'm missing it?

[Arioch]

did a quick search but i might have missed it if this has been suggested before. a couple select all buttons would be nice. like select all troopships, select all combat ships. when i'm warring i like to run around with a large cohort of troopships and combat ships. i'd like to easily be able to select all troopships and send them to places without having to individually select them all to separate them from the combat ships.

i know about the thing that allows you to select some ships and then right click to select all the ones you didn't have selected. is there something like select all troopships already in the game and i'm missing it?

The difficulty here is that since units are customizable, they are not always clearly typed and so it may not be straightforward to categorize them. But it's worth thinking about.

[zolobolo]

The difficulty here is that since units are customizable, they are not always clearly typed and so it may not be straightforward to categorize them. But it's worth thinking about.

Wouldn't the same concept used in the Tactical map make sense?: double clicking selects all the ships in a fleet that have the same chassis.

I would speculate that there are very few players that use the same chassis for several designs, and even if so, there is almost no room for variation when it comes to troop ships: it is basically impossible to configure these as combat ships and evne the phidi variant is inefficient as such

Beyond the additional function for doubleá-clicking on a ship within a fleet sleection window, all the other interractions could stay the same

Only drawback is that the player might nullify a custom selection done so far by accirentaly douple clicking on a ship to add and needs to start from the beginning: this might occur if there is a huge fleet with lots of ships with tiny icons and the player clicks through them rapidly

[Arioch]

The difficulty here is that since units are customizable, they are not always clearly typed and so it may not be straightforward to categorize them. But it's worth thinking about.

Wouldn't the same concept used in the Tactical map make sense?: double clicking selects all the ships in a fleet that have the same chassis.

That's a possibility.

[rhinoinsomniac]

well, in the diplomacy screen the ship counter for factions differs from the fleet ship counter on the interface. it seems to detect only ships that have weapons. so there's some logic there separating ships by combat ability