game report

[Mal]

This is an issue of upscaling; you're running at a much higher resolution than the target res, which is 1920x1080.

Ok; good to know.

[Mal]

shading.png (30.24 KiB) Viewed 18930 times

Shading

Based on the numerical data placed in this element, "18/35", a player would expect that shading to indicate a percentage of the population capacity used. As far as I could tell, that is not what it represents. If it does, excuse me.

I think graphical indicators should represent the numerical data that they are closely coupled with in the UX.

[Mal]

ships-83hfs.png (844.39 KiB) Viewed 18930 times

Ship Design

You are obviously far along in development, so I'm going to try to keep my comments about ship design short and sweet. Also, I'm not certain to what degree the unfinished technology tree is currently influencing design. My basic caution is that choices need to be seen as meaningful and significant.

If the "Maneuvering Engine" is build-in, then there is no player decision. I would remove it and use a "Booster" object in slots that boost the default speed.

Weapons' descriptions need to indicate some relative range to player.

Power requirements were somehow tied to the hull type, however, the details were unclear. Small ships with less weapons required more power than larger ships with more weapons? Reactors/energy should be more important in some way. Perhaps it could influence speed.

In the current combat system, turning seems less useful. Other that driving straight forward (and being first to move), it's purely a matter of greater combat power. Perhaps some type of ship initiative? It's too far along for such things I suspect.

I would recommend time to build as a separate property of the project's construction, but you already closely coupled the industry requirement to calculate it.

There are other items, but again, without a finalized tech tree they may be simply consequences of that.

[Mal]

p-report.png (258 KiB) Viewed 18930 times

Planetary Report

The planet report is very useful. I recommend giving the player the ability to sort the list by clicking a specific resource value. For example, if I click a food resource number, the list sorts (switching between ascending and descending values) for food.

Also, perhaps add a numerical value of turns to complete to the colored project element or text element below it.

A snit-pick, but at the top screen the order of resources are money, industry, food, metals, etc. Perhaps standardize that order in both places.

Finally, the industry resource values provided in the planetary report are for potential output, not the current actual output of industry. Notice how in the top screen value for industry it is "+0". I'm not actually producing anything at the moment.

This goes back to the posts about industry being somewhat of a wild card for players. It introduces a confusing complexity when paired with the other strategic resources. I was going to mention the influence resource as well about this, but I know now you already understand my viewpoint.

[Mal]

planet-population.png (458.31 KiB) Viewed 18929 times

Planetary Population

The system you designed for population and the different planetary sub-climates is very well done. I'm not sure the feature was fleshed out to its full potential, but most players (at first) are going to focus on ship building and combat for certain.

That said, I recommend adding empire color highlighting to the population characters in the same way you indicate units' affiliation. Re-enforce that theme to speed player understanding.

Regarding the population and significant figures in numerical values, based on your other design elements, the significant measurement resolution is millions. For a decision-maker (i.e. the player), keep your numerical values close to the needed resolution with perhaps one or two decimal places to indicate likelihood of change. That is a long-winded way of saying, population numbers should reflect values like 1.23 million for the player. What you track for your rules behind the scene should continue to be your integer, but the players decisions are based on millions of people.

When you display a resolution of "individuals", players will naturally believe they can work with individuals. This will cause unnecessary angst when it comes to moving populations around.

I also recommend you give the player the ability to abandon colonies with less than 1 million inhabitants. The rules behind the scenes in your transport mechanics, I believe, should work with individuals WHEN the population is less than 1 million. For example, if the total population is 240K, the player can move 240K individuals when the capacity of the ship is 1 million. That will mitigate a lot of micromanagement in terms of waiting for populations to hit the proper numbers to move.

Population in ships should consume food from the empire's food resource.

I recommend that building a ground unit should convert some population resource value.

I think that's plenty of feedback for today. Cheers!

[Mal]

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Pathfinding

Per the illustration, with the use of stargates, you may benefit from some pathfinding now that stargates are independent.

As with this case, the current path from Rasalgethi to Castor is 12 turns (ETA). However, the optimum path is the stargate link between Rasalgethi to Rastaban and then one jump more to Castor. That is only 2 turns.

You could leave it up to the player to figure these things out, but in the interest of reduced micromanagement you might consider it.

If you haven't already created the graph and pathfinding, how is the AI navigating such problems?

[bjg]

You could leave it up to the player to figure these things out, but in the interest of reduced micromanagement you might consider it.

It's more than just micromanagement. How do I figure out the distance (and the travel time) between systems I don't have ships at?

[Mal]

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Race Description

I recommend all race descriptions show a character illustration above the text to help remind the player what race is being described. It is shown in other contexts.

[Mal]

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Ship Combat

It's a very simple system. So much so, I was actually ambivalent to whether the system was completely automated or not. If it is totally automated, you might avoid complaints about some lack of control issues and adversary's AI.

Movement and speed are stilted--the only real decision is holding or advancing forward. No "maneuver".

That said, your AI must FIRST attempt to gain a position where it can damage its target without being damaged itself -- if such a position exists. Don't advance forward if you can strike without being hit.

Missiles and fighters seem too slow. Also consider that planets might not need to be restricted by fighter and missile magazine sizes. In other words, make the attackers advance under some withering fire in order to destroy defense bases. Planets also need integrated point defense regardless of defense bases.

Those were the most prominent issues I experienced.

[Mal]

carry-capacity.png (179.51 KiB) Viewed 18918 times

Carrying Capacity

Consider including specific details about carrying capacity for each climate zone here. Used, total, etc. Outline how that climate zone data creates the "population" property already displayed -- like a balance sheet.

Overall, perhaps also consider some additional metrics between population and climate. For example, would a ecumenopolis be a climate or something defined by population size meeting capacity? What are the implications for unrest?

Is Fertility tied to reproduction, farm production, or both?

Do the solar day and orbital period properties do anything? If not, consider removing them.

[bjg]

Movement and speed are stilted--the only real decision is holding or advancing forward. No "maneuver".

Maneuvers could still be useful if you have only 3-5 ships. Maneuvering a single Dread Star fighting a swarm can change defeat to a victory.
However, the battlefield is quite small, limiting the use of maneuvers. If battlefields get bigger the turn cost will become a limiting factor - some inertial stabilizers/nullifiers might be beneficial then.

[Mal]

That about covers my comments from my first game.

If you want some specific mechanic tested, let me know. Otherwise I'll wait for some significant changes like the technology tree updates.

I would run another game using the Humans, but I don't see much difference there beyond the starting conditions. If you wanted to differentiate Humans (and add interesting mechanics for all the races), I would look for space-based resource sources. So trade, industry, mining, etc. source modules built into ships and bases. A faction that could potentially thrive without planetary colonies. An empire that lost "the war" could evacuate into uncharted space to reconsolidate.

That reminds me, I recommend that empires balkanize before being utterly defeated.

Anyway, cheers!

[sven]

Finally, the industry resource values provided in the planetary report are for potential output, not the current actual output of industry. Notice how in the top screen value for industry it is "+0". I'm not actually producing anything at the moment.

Good catch. This should be fixed in the next patch rollout. (Versions 18196+). Thanks again for all the detailed feedback. It's all good stuff to have, even when we don't have time to respond to everything.

[Mal]

Good catch. This should be fixed in the next patch rollout. (Versions 18196+). Thanks again for all the detailed feedback. It's all good stuff to have, even when we don't have time to respond to everything.

Glad to help.

I would caution, however, that the list of potential industry resources is a good way to find and select planets to build shipyards above. If you zero those numbers out when nothing in being built it's going to make it more difficult for the player to assess the empire.

I suggest finding a way to make the overall industry indicator at the top of the screen more like the others instead.

[Arioch]

Frankly in the planetary report all I care about is potential wrench output, not actual wrench output. I want to know which of my planets has the highest potential industrial output, so I know which planets to allocate expensive production to.