Suggest - Features and Improvements

[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.

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?

it could just be an additional option under the move dropdown, no fancy clicking required.

[Captainspire]

I'm really enjoying this game.

If you need help for item techno babble, I'll give it a whirl.

Ok on to the refit screen.

Colors are something, at least, I need.
like this:
http://i.imgur.com/gUIrGo1.jpg
But this is better
http://i.imgur.com/rjkZy2H.jpg
This is better-er
http://i.imgur.com/7o8DeMw.jpg

With more technologies where is more clutter on the right and side scrolling menus or pop-up windows will help condense the technologies. Like

Weapons -
Energy - Lasers -(sub categories)
---------- Ion - (sub categories)
---------- Plasma - (sub categories)
Projectile -Gauss
Guided - missiles

I should have checked if transparent windows can be turned off because, at least to me, it looks pretty but gets distracting.

Also, having a menu bar at the bottom or slightly increase the Icon size above to go directly to the menu

I see Stockpile allows one to gather resources for a larger build, but how is this a benefit over just building it?
I was looking for a similar project that helps increase population growth.

[echo2361]

I use stockpiles to prep for building bigger hull designs I haven't quite finished researching yet, but I suppose I could just start building something else and then switch to the new hull when I have the tech as well so I guess I don't necessarily need the stockpile option.

Something that might make sense is if your navy is at the size you need, but you are about to go to war and want to be able to quickly replace your loses. You don't want any new ships now because they cost maintenance fees, but you'll need production saved to pump out replacements for the ships you're about to lose in heavy combat.

[Captainspire]

I hear you, yet I'm still at odds with stock pile

if I have 10 ships at turn 100
each ship costs 1000
the planet can stock pile at 100 per turn
The planet can build at 100 units per turn too (I never checked to see if stockpile and building units are equal)

if at turn 100 I choose to attack but fear I will loose 5 ships that's 5000 units or 50 turns to rebuild the fleet.
if I wait 50 turns to have the ready made 5000 units, by then the tech on my existing 10 ships would be behind
It will also take 5 more turns just to push out those 5 new ships.
I could have used the 50 turns to research a lot of other techs
or
I could have built 10 more ships already

Am I seeing this correctly?


============Edit===============
Another rough UI though for the Refit window

http://i.imgur.com/4v3Rmy9.jpg

[sven]

This is better-er
http://i.imgur.com/7o8DeMw.jpg

This, very roughly, is the sort of direction Arioch and I have been talking about going in a revamped design screen. Better color coding and type filtering options are both on the feature list.

Another rough UI though for the Refit window

http://i.imgur.com/4v3Rmy9.jpg

This is a cool look, but, tragically a bit impractical. The larger ships have too many configurable hardpoints for the boxes to all fit on screen, for one thing. And even if we could find a way of making it workable for larger hulls, the per-ship setup overhead would make supporting the UI a huge time sink

[sven]

I use stockpiles to prep for building bigger hull designs I haven't quite finished researching yet, but I suppose I could just start building something else and then switch to the new hull when I have the tech as well so I guess I don't necessarily need the stockpile option.

These are the sorts of situations where we anticipate people using the Stockpile activity. And, as you say, most of the time, it's not actually necessary to use "Stockpile" -- you could just build something else, then switch once your research was complete.

A little background may be in order here: At a relatively early point in the evolution of the game's design, I decided to go with a MOO2-like production system, one that allows production invested in one project to carry over to another, with no penalty for switching projects.

I'll admit that it's a kinda weird system, but, I find that it lets me relax a bit when choosing the production for any particular world, and that's a gameplay consequence I like. (It's also a feature Arioch and I have a history of debating -- he's been a strong advocate for more Civ-like rules.)

Anways. One of the side effects of the current rules is that there will, occasionally, be situations where you want a planet to start accumulating production in anticipation of making something that you're not yet able to build. In MOO2, players would generally do this by queuing up some expensive ship, then changing the production to whatever you actually wanted to build once you were a turn or 2 away from finishing.

In SiS, you can use the "Stockpile" activity in the same way; though if you forget about the planet, instead of accidentally making something you don't want, you'll just end up with a huge stockpile of wrenches.

[evil713]

Can spacebar also count as hitting the end turn, both in the galaxy map and during combat?

[evil713]

Should vipers and Pulson launchers have the missile tag instead of a medium and large tag?

they are energy torpedos, but art has been done on them so if they just had the torpedo tag you would never see the turret art.

they would not be using munitions right being energy? can the missile and torpedo tag take that?

[Unbroken]

I use stockpiles to prep for building bigger hull designs I haven't quite finished researching yet, but I suppose I could just start building something else and then switch to the new hull when I have the tech as well so I guess I don't necessarily need the stockpile option.

These are the sorts of situations where we anticipate people using the Stockpile activity. And, as you say, most of the time, it's not actually necessary to use "Stockpile" -- you could just build something else, then switch once your research was complete.

A little background may be in order here: At a relatively early point in the evolution of the game's design, I decided to go with a MOO2-like production system, one that allows production invested in one project to carry over to another, with no penalty for switching projects.

I'll admit that it's a kinda weird system, but, I find that it lets me relax a bit when choosing the production for any particular world, and that's a gameplay consequence I like. (It's also a feature Arioch and I have a history of debating -- he's been a strong advocate for more Civ-like rules.)

Anways. One of the side effects of the current rules is that there will, occasionally, be situations where you want a planet to start accumulating production in anticipation of making something that you're not yet able to build. In MOO2, players would generally do this by queuing up some expensive ship, then changing the production to whatever you actually wanted to build once you were a turn or 2 away from finishing.

In SiS, you can use the "Stockpile" activity in the same way; though if you forget about the planet, instead of accidentally making something you don't want, you'll just end up with a huge stockpile of wrenches.

That's what stockpile does? Damn. Here I was hoping that those tiny, otherwise-useless worlds could have their meager industrial output redirected to my shipyards.

I also had a thought for how science stations can work: first, have them provide a small bonus to research naturally much like the Scout Lab of MOO2. Second, place locations throughout the map where bonus RP can be 'mined' by ships with this system - areas such as nebulae, black holes, neutron stars, etc. Each of these spots would have a finite pool of research that could be gathered, and all the equipped ship has to do is sit in that system for several (20 or so) turns for maximum benefit.

I'd also suggest adding a 'reclaimation module' system that does the same sort of thing as the above, except it gathers resources from any sort of debris field, whether it's map generated or leftover from a battle while providing a small bonus to ship repair (although a vastly inferior one to any sort of real autorepair system).

[Arioch]

Should vipers and Pulson launchers have the missile tag instead of a medium and large tag?

they are energy torpedos, but art has been done on them so if they just had the torpedo tag you would never see the turret art.

they would not be using munitions right being energy? can the missile and torpedo tag take that?

The Viper and Pulson are missile launchers, but they haven't yet been properly implemented. The version in-game are placeholder beam weapons.

That's what stockpile does? Damn. Here I was hoping that those tiny, otherwise-useless worlds could have their meager industrial output redirected to my shipyards.

We have some ideas for making the system more complex when we adds mines and metals to the economic model. More on that later.

I also had a thought for how science stations can work: first, have them provide a small bonus to research naturally much like the Scout Lab of MOO2. Second, place locations throughout the map where bonus RP can be 'mined' by ships with this system - areas such as nebulae, black holes, neutron stars, etc. Each of these spots would have a finite pool of research that could be gathered, and all the equipped ship has to do is sit in that system for several (20 or so) turns for maximum benefit.

That is essentially what we have in mind.

[Captainspire]

I use stockpiles to prep for building bigger hull designs I haven't quite finished researching yet, but I suppose I could just start building something else and then switch to the new hull when I have the tech as well so I guess I don't necessarily need the stockpile option.

These are the sorts of situations where we anticipate people using the Stockpile activity. And, as you say, most of the time, it's not actually necessary to use "Stockpile" -- you could just build something else, then switch once your research was complete.

A little background may be in order here: At a relatively early point in the evolution of the game's design, I decided to go with a MOO2-like production system, one that allows production invested in one project to carry over to another, with no penalty for switching projects.

I'll admit that it's a kinda weird system, but, I find that it lets me relax a bit when choosing the production for any particular world, and that's a gameplay consequence I like. (It's also a feature Arioch and I have a history of debating -- he's been a strong advocate for more Civ-like rules.)

Anways. One of the side effects of the current rules is that there will, occasionally, be situations where you want a planet to start accumulating production in anticipation of making something that you're not yet able to build. In MOO2, players would generally do this by queuing up some expensive ship, then changing the production to whatever you actually wanted to build once you were a turn or 2 away from finishing.

In SiS, you can use the "Stockpile" activity in the same way; though if you forget about the planet, instead of accidentally making something you don't want, you'll just end up with a huge stockpile of wrenches.

That's what stockpile does? Damn. Here I was hoping that those tiny, otherwise-useless worlds could have their meager industrial output redirected to my shipyards.

I also had a thought for how science stations can work: first, have them provide a small bonus to research naturally much like the Scout Lab of MOO2. Second, place locations throughout the map where bonus RP can be 'mined' by ships with this system - areas such as nebulae, black holes, neutron stars, etc. Each of these spots would have a finite pool of research that could be gathered, and all the equipped ship has to do is sit in that system for several (20 or so) turns for maximum benefit.

I'd also suggest adding a 'reclaimation module' system that does the same sort of thing as the above, except it gathers resources from any sort of debris field, whether it's map generated or leftover from a battle while providing a small bonus to ship repair (although a vastly inferior one to any sort of real autorepair system).

I finally broke down and used it.

When my ships were days away I used stock pile on the planets I would used to refit the ships. When they got there, instead of taking 4 days more to refit, it took 1. I can see the strategic advantage when you have larger ships as well.

[evil713]

Suggested Mod for antimatter tier energy and plasma weapons: Focus

Focus acts like rapid fire, doubling weapon output, however it has a dramatic difference.

Focus halves the range of turret weapons, forcing the ship to get closer to use.

However for fixed weapons it halves the firing cone not the range, Giving a fixed antimatter tier weapon double damage but a narrow cone in which to use it.

[JohnnyW00t]

When selecting ships for an encounter, I could use a right click menu with "select all of same type ship" and "clear all selection of same type ship" so that I do not have to de-select all of my military transports. In situations like the one pictured I am just using auto combat to clear the planetary defenses so I do not want to put my transports in danger.

Untitled.png (1.34 MiB) Viewed 23423 times

[JohnnyW00t]

Some miscellaneous suggestions:

• When scrolling a system that has gained the focus, only scroll until that system clears all overlaying sidebars. Currently the focus system scrolls to the center. When a system is on the edge of the map this causes a lot of blank area to scroll into view unnecessarily.
• You might delay scrolling when a dialog has just been closed. There are dialogs (such as the research screen) for which the close button is in the top right corner. After clicking the button you get an annoying unwanted scroll because the mouse cursor is still in the corner briefly after the button press.
• Sometimes I find I want to toggle my minor systems from research to trade or visa-versa. It would be nice to have a right-click drop down menu from the production sidebar with the base items like Trade, Research, and Stockpile on them. Currently I click through a couple of screens to do the toggle, and then the planet production sidebar scrolls back to the top every time so I have to pull it down again to get to the next planet I want to toggle.
• The planet production sidebar could use an option to put those planets without production specified at the top so that I don't have to scroll down and search for them visually every turn.
• Towards the end of a winning game you run out of major research items. This in itself is not a problem, but I find that I have a lot of minor research items that I don't care about. It would be nice if the popup "you haven't selected a research" dialog on the "next turn" button would have a check box to disable that warning. At this phase of the game I don't care what is being researched, and that dialog on every turn (because the minor items go so quickly) gets annoying.

[evil713]

Suggestion, weapon art pass on weapons in larger mounts.

im noticing that if you have weapons that fit in larger slots shots do not come from the barrels but from the point between them. Im just saying some parrell beams and in the rare case triple parrell beams would be nice where applicable.