Suggest - Features and Improvements

[silentstormpt]

I'd like to recommend using a radial menu when interacting with ships(Starmap and Tactical Combat screen) and planets (Starmap and Tactical Combat screen). These should bring a easier way to give orders, release more space on the screen and helps touch screen users.

[JohnnyW00t]

Very minor things that I thought were barely worthy to pass along:

1. Options "autosave every turn" and "autosave every 10 turns" could be mutually exclusive, as selecting both has no advantage over just "autosave every turn".
2. Race selection screen - since there is nothing to choose on this screen beyond the race you want to play, so double clicking on a race could auto-advance to the next screen.
3. The scroll nub should be hidden or disabled ("grayed out"?) for windows when everything fits, i.e. there is nothing to scroll.
4. Clicking above or below the scroll nub doesn't page up/down (or change scroll position) for some windows. This seemed to be true for the windows with the graphical parallelogram nub not the ones with the circle.
5. When scrolled to the very bottom, the graphical parallelogram nub looks awkward against the bottom of the scroll area because the angled lines don't "fit" against each other.
6. Ship design screen - dragging the icon and dropping onto the text next to the slot should work the same as dropping over the icon next to it.
7. Research screen - double clicking on the technology name to the left of the check box should toggle the check box.

[Arioch]

Very minor things that I thought were barely worthy to pass along:

1. Options "autosave every turn" and "autosave every 10 turns" could be mutually exclusive, as selecting both has no advantage over just "autosave every turn".
2. Race selection screen - since there is nothing to choose on this screen beyond the race you want to play, so double clicking on a race could auto-advance to the next screen.
3. The scroll nub should be hidden or disabled ("grayed out"?) for windows when everything fits, i.e. there is nothing to scroll.
4. Clicking above or below the scroll nub doesn't page up/down (or change scroll position) for some windows. This seemed to be true for the windows with the graphical parallelogram nub not the ones with the circle.
5. When scrolled to the very bottom, the graphical parallelogram nub looks awkward against the bottom of the scroll area because the angled lines don't "fit" against each other.
6. Ship design screen - dragging the icon and dropping onto the text next to the slot should work the same as dropping over the icon next to it.
7. Research screen - double clicking on the technology name to the left of the check box should toggle the check box.

I agree with most of those, and Sven and I have talked about them.

The Options screen is very crude and temporary, and will eventually be completely overhauled, so expect that there will be weirdness there for some time to come.

[etherealblade]

I'm a moo2 fan and I love the artstyle of this game. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this. Of course I had to say this but please devs...feel free to focus on everything else and this obviously dead last. Even if you didn't envision this in your original desire for the game...PWEASE allow it so we can mod this in if we want.

Planet Killers anyone?

Stellar Converter
The Stellar converter beam consists of an intense plasma stream jacketed in a graviton beam. The Graviton beam maintains an intense compression on the plasma stream, allowing more plasma to be pushed into the stream while compounding the damage power of the beam. In addition, the Graviton beam is jacketed in a Phased tachyon beam, which will compound the damage even further. The Beam, upon impact with a planet or other target will rapidly cut through the crust and impact the core. The interaction between the target and the beam causes a massive release of energy, and the interaction between the Graviton beams and plasma are able to induce supercompression in the materials, creating micro-singularities, with a miniscule half-life. As the singularities decay, they produce antimatter and release tachyons. The antimatter reacts with the matter in the crust, causing a massive release of energy that assists in cracking the planet open, shattering it into pieces no larger than 20 kilometers. More info at
http://theshadowwar.wikia.com/wiki/Stel ... ter_Cannon

Intergalactic Mass Driver Cannon
One way to do this is to basically build a large railgun. To balance this, it could take up a hell of a lot of planet building slots and then be destroyed upon use.

Advanced Gravitational Control and Rocket engineering
Allows for the ability to target asteroids in space and hurl them against planets. Or strap rockets onto asteroids and have them slam into planets.


Mass Planetoid Energy Conversion
This planet killer is the most balanced because it comes at a great cost. You build an orbital structure that Is a giant mass to energy converter built in orbit. It converts your entire planet into energy and then projects that energy into a massive super laser that will wipe out targeted planet. Basically extremely costly to build, or perhaps a found artifact. It requires that you sacrifices your planet to destroy another.

All planet killers should come with negative social interaction effect. They should also be allowed the options to disable at game start for those who love to struggle endgame with ai races that just take and retake planets.

[AzraelRavenwing]

maybe Streamline that bottom tab down abit. it seems abit clunky to me.

[Arioch]

Planet Killers anyone?

We do have plans for Tier 4 "superscience" techs, with weapons like the Stellar Surge Beam and Black Hole Projector. We want to concentrate on balancing the Tier 1-3 technologies before we worry about introducing the over-the-top late-game techs.

maybe Streamline that bottom tab down abit. it seems abit clunky to me.

"Streamline" in what way?

[AzraelRavenwing]

To me it just seems like it takes up abit to much of the screen like Im viewing the map through a viewing port when I aint got anything selected between it and the top bar.

[AzraelRavenwing]

Ok I tweaked my screen resolution for the game and it seemed to help. I tried the Ashdar and they are pretty fun. Humans seem to be abit...handycapped. Maybe lower the number of Pirates in the game?

[PsyDev]

There are SO many suggestions to sift through, I don't know how you find the time, Sven, honestly! That being said, I have not found the time, so if what I'm going to suggest has already been mentioned, please forgive me Basically, I would like to see a more elaborate research window. Obviously, I'm thinking of MOO2's research pick/discovery screen. I know it seems like a small thing, but it adds a level of immersion that helps the player better identify with their chosen species. Thanks for your consideration!

[AzraelRavenwing]

Ah I got another suggestion from playing. and this is for the Transports. Say if I get a planet with a secondary race on it, like the Squid looking things, And I want to move them from one planet to another, but it wont let me due to auto chosing the highest population. Id like to be able to select what type of population I want to put in my transporters. Just a thought

[Dinkelsen]

Ah I got another suggestion from playing. and this is for the Transports. Say if I get a planet with a secondary race on it, like the Squid looking things, And I want to move them from one planet to another, but it wont let me due to auto chosing the highest population. Id like to be able to select what type of population I want to put in my transporters. Just a thought

There is a workaround for that kind of operation: Go to the planetary report screen (main planet screen), shift-left-click on the picture of the race you want to move and the population movement is triggered. Now mouse-over the destination system and drop off the population on the planet you like to move them to.

[Arioch]

We will add a new UI element for the case when there is more than one colonist type on planet, which will present the user with a mosaic of icons representing the available colonist types, so that you won't have to use the workaround and can specify population type with any population move command (or embark command).

[rattle]

Would be nice if ship design was improved so you are not as limited with 6x this weapon, 3x that weapon but given more flexibility. This is where MoO really shined IMO

Are there any plans?

[Arioch]

Would be nice if ship design was improved so you are not as limited with 6x this weapon, 3x that weapon but given more flexibility. This is where MoO really shined IMO

Are there any plans?

I would like to redesign the ship slots so that there are more individual slots (as opposed to fewer, grouped slots), allowing you more choice and flexibility when outfitting a ship. But I wouldn't like to go the MOO route in which each ship was just a generic empty container in which you could fix X size points worth of any equipment you choose. I think carriers and heavy cruisers should look distinctive.

One things that we might consider adding is allowing miniaturization as technology increases, allowing the same hull to potentially mount more of the same weapon as time goes on. The potential problem here is that this would probably increase the frequency with which you will need to refit your ships, and so would probably require a more sophisticated "mass refit" option.

[JohnnyW00t]

A few more suggestions from me. I imagine many of these have already been thought of.

1. Allow for deletion of old designs from the ship design list screen, rather than having to go to the main menu. Maybe have an X in the corner over the large icons for each design?
2. Make creation of the first edition of new design cost resources, as a "first prototype" penalty. This wrinkle suppresses the urge to create new designs every time you research a new technology.
3. Add an "auto" button on the ship design screen that drops in the "best" technology that you have for every slot.
4. Add an "auto upgrade all" button on the ship design list that drops in the "best" technology for ALL your ship designs in increments the version number if there were changes made.
5. Have a check box on the combat screen for "automate battle" that let's the AI take over for your side but lets you take manual control back over at any time.
6. Have a check box on the combat screen that toggles "fast animations".
7. Have some UI on the combat screen that allows you to "auto resolve" the rest of the combat from there.
8. Allow flagging of one or more enemy ships for capture, so that if you "auto resolve" or "automate battle" the AI will direct your ships will try to board those flagged ships while attacking the others.