Suggest - Features and Improvements

[Gyrfalcon]

I like the new distinction in icons between completed production when there is something else is in the queue (two wrenches) and when there isn't anything else ordered (one wrench) However, I'm not sure I like that clicking the single wrench drops me directly into the production screen without a chance to see where the planet is on the main map.

ETA: I'm talking about the behavior when I click the single wrench icon on the right side, to be clear.

[Arioch]

I like the new distinction in icons between completed production when there is something else is in the queue (two wrenches) and when there isn't anything else ordered (one wrench) However, I'm not sure I like that clicking the single wrench drops me directly into the production screen without a chance to see where the planet is on the main map.

ETA: I'm talking about the behavior when I click the single wrench icon on the right side, to be clear.

I understand what you mean. The alternative is to have to make two clicks to get into the production screen. I'd be interested to know what other testers think about this after they've played with it for a while.

[projekcja]

I like the new distinction in icons between completed production when there is something else is in the queue (two wrenches) and when there isn't anything else ordered (one wrench) However, I'm not sure I like that clicking the single wrench drops me directly into the production screen without a chance to see where the planet is on the main map.

ETA: I'm talking about the behavior when I click the single wrench icon on the right side, to be clear.

I understand what you mean. The alternative is to have to make two clicks to get into the production screen. I'd be interested to know what other testers think about this after they've played with it for a while.

I'd prefer making two clicks. when clicking into the production screen I always click out of it to see info like where the colony is, how many factories/lab slot it has, if it has enough people to staff another structure etc. I find going straight to the production screen annoying.

[sven]

Your theory appears to be correct. It does now remember that I've set it to windowed. It did not remember position or size, which would be nice.

The dangerous thing about remembering position and size is that I need to also include appropriate sanity checking logic, to make sure that I'm not placing the window somewhere problematic. (People playing on laptops with secondary screens are a tricky case to handle well here, as the monitor configuration can change between runs.) I agree that this could be a good feature, but, if I don't do it properly, it could also be a source of extremely frustrating bugs (1). So officially, this is a "low-priority feature" atm.

[Gyrfalcon]

So officially, this is a "low-priority feature" atm.

Definitely not a required feature to ship it. I should probably go put it on the Suggest list.

[projekcja]

At the early game many ship designs have "light slots", in which you can only place PD lasers/PD coilgun/anti-missile rockets/PD ion cannon etc, i.e. only weapons designed to intercept rockets. I feel like this leaves the player with no meaningful choice, as all of these weapons are basically the same. I'd rather see normal laser/coilguns etc also fitting into 'light slots' (at half the quantity), thus allowing the player to choose between a weapon that's better at intercepting rockets, and one that is better for anti-ship damage. The name of the light-slot could be changed so it's not confusing, though to me it doesn't seem needed, as my intuition says a normal laser is 'light', no pun intended.

[sven]

At the early game many ship designs have "light slots", in which you can only place PD lasers/PD coilgun/anti-missile rockets/PD ion cannon etc, i.e. only weapons designed to intercept rockets. I feel like this leaves the player with no meaningful choice, as all of these weapons are basically the same. I'd rather see normal laser/coilguns etc also fitting into 'light slots' (at half the quantity), thus allowing the player to choose between a weapon that's better at intercepting rockets, and one that is better for anti-ship damage. The name of the light-slot could be changed so it's not confusing, though to me it doesn't seem needed, as my intuition says a normal laser is 'light', no pun intended.

A broad hardpoint rebalancing pass is on the TODO list, and I think this is the sort of change worth considering during that pass.

Right now, medium hardpoints can mount anything short of true heavy weapons, while light hardpoints are very restricted. Expanding the class of weapons that can be mounted on light hardpoints to include the non-pd versions of all the currently allowed weapons might be good adjustment. Missiles would still be medium+ only, of course. And some medium weapons, like disruptors, might not have a light version (as there are currently no PD-disruptors in the game). But, letting players mount Lasers, Turbolasers, Coilguns and Ion Beans could make sense.

[Arioch]

For starters, art assets for 1/2-size medium weapons don't exist. But even if 1/2 size medium weapons did exist, they would do essentially the same amount of damage as a PD weapon currently does. If not, the damage of PD weapons could be increased. I don't see a difference there worth the explosion in the number of required art assets.

Also, I think that weapons should have minimum size requirements. I don't particularly like the MOO model in which hulls are just generic containers for components, and there's no functional difference between a battleship hull and a destroyer hull except the amount of components each can hold. A destroyer shouldn't be able to mount 1/4 of a heavy weapon. Light hardpoints are meant to be specialized for point defense.

[projekcja]

Light hardpoints are meant to be specialized for point defense.

This sounds reasonable to me when considering a few light hardpoints on large ships full of other things, but on the smaller, lower tech ships like the Gremak Destroyer - which currently has only light hardpoints, and is the only low-tech constructable ship without orbital infrastructure, I feel its just wrong.

It also sounds reasonable to me that at some point later in the game you design a small ship with PDs to quickly move into positions where it can protect larger ships from missiles, but I don't like making your first ships use PDs - specialized type of weapon designed to shoot down rockets, as the only choice, and the main anti ship weapon as well.

I like the fact I cant just put missiles in every slot of every ship, as I see it as realistic that putting lasers on your ship doesn't always have to come instead of more missiles, and it does allow for more variety in combat. Maybe just make missiles not fit into medium hardpoints (or turrets?), and replace some light hardpoints with mediums on the basic small ships?

[Arioch]

The Gremak hulls are currently missing the missile ports that they're intended to have. That will be fixed when we go through and do a revision of the ship hardpoints.

We will also revise which techs unlock which hulls, and which require which level of orbital infrastructure, to make sure that there is a sensible flow for each faction.

[sven]

I like the new distinction in icons between completed production when there is something else is in the queue (two wrenches) and when there isn't anything else ordered (one wrench) However, I'm not sure I like that clicking the single wrench drops me directly into the production screen without a chance to see where the planet is on the main map.

ETA: I'm talking about the behavior when I click the single wrench icon on the right side, to be clear.

Just for reference, Arioch and I decided we mostly agreed with you on this one. In the latest builds, the behavior when clicking on the wrench icon is simply to select the report in the bottom bar.

However: If you click on the wrench a second time, when the report is already showing, you will jump into the production menu. There's a similar shortcut for research reports -- clicking once selects the report, but clicking a second time opens up the Choose Research screen.

[evil713]

right now we have the distance you can travel, and other ships appere on the screen from the other empires, but there really is not a sense of how far my sensor field is, or how much of a boost my scout frigates give.

[evil713]

im finding with swarm tactics and many smaller ships with focused weapons I am spending a lot of time getting them to all face the same way.

now with a band select fleet I can move them or get them all to point in the same direction, however it would be nice if I could point them all at one spot on the map, like the thing im trying to kill.

[sven]

im finding with swarm tactics and many smaller ships with focused weapons I am spending a lot of time getting them to all face the same way.

now with a band select fleet I can move them or get them all to point in the same direction, however it would be nice if I could point them all at one spot on the map, like the thing im trying to kill.

The UI is awkward, but, something much like this feature is already in the game.

If you've selected a collection of ships, and left-click on the + next to "MOVE", you'll reveal a "ROTATE" option. Left clicking on that will get you into a multi-ship rotate mode. (Left-clicking again will trigger a rotate order.)

A "rotate to face" option could be a good bit of extra polish -- though I'm not quite sure what the best way to expose it in the UI would be. Maybe if you left-click on an enemy target in rotate mode, all ships should do the minimum viable rotation to bring their forward guns to bear on the target?

[sven]

right now we have the distance you can travel, and other ships appere on the screen from the other empires, but there really is not a sense of how far my sensor field is, or how much of a boost my scout frigates give.

sensor range circles wouldn't be hard to add, and it is on our list of features to get in eventually. we just need to decide how, exactly, the UI should work. the simplest option is probably just to put a "show sensor range" button somewhere in the top bar.