I know I'm beating a dead horse but is there anyway to revamp the ship edit/design screen?



Basicly you click on the type of teck on the left, it makes a centered popup that lets you select tech that can be assigned to that slot.

And don't forget what I was hoping for a year or so agohttp://stars-in-shadow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29&p=1645#p1645

Sven and I are currently planning out in detail all of the remaining things we need to do before launch, and a Ship Designer revamp is definitely on the list.

We'll take everyone's suggestions into consideration when we do, though I can't guarantee we'll do everything that was suggested. But there is certainly room for improvement. At the very least we need to color-code the component types to match the slot types.

-most important issue is to explain the function of each component very accurately.


-other helper would be to color code/tag the components on the right side so that I know at the first glance which type of slot it can occupy without first having to select it.

Is there a way to counter shield piercing weapons like Railguns ? E.g. "Hard Shields" that negate or at least diminish the effect ?
Shields & weapons are ramping up with tech levels, but armor stays mostly in the same ballpark.
So weapons that ignore shields carve through ships like cutting a cake

For Example the Gremak Cruiser:

This is something that we'll address as part of a weapons balance pass. In my opinion there aren't currently enough clear advantages and disadvantages and variety between the weapons, which I think can be fixed with some simple but deep tweaks -- adjusting the mechanics and special effects so that each weapon sits in a more clear place in the range of capability, and so that there are appropriate countermeasures. One of the things I want to do is to change some heavy weapons (like Flak, Plasma, Hellbore and Torpedoes) to use a damage template instead of simple direct fire, so that range can be limited but bolstered by an area of effect.

It was my initial intention that the railgun would have to-hit issues at some ranges, and that Force Fields and higher would diminish or resist kinetic shield-piercing effects. Hit chance is something that isn't communicated well in the current UI, so we may need to find another limiting mechanism.

Arioch wrote:It was my initial intention that the railgun would have to-hit issues at some ranges, and that Force Fields and higher would diminish or resist kinetic shield-piercing effects. Hit chance is something that isn't communicated well in the current UI, so we may need to find another limiting mechanism.

Right now, I believe Force Fields and Temporal Displacement Shields are both entirely immune to kinetic weapon piercing effects. Which isn't actually well communicated in the in-game docs, and probably also makes them a bit OP. As a very general trend, I think it makes sense that kinetic / armor strategies are stronger in the early game, and weaker (relative to energy weapons / shields) in the late game. The power curves we have right now are certainly subject to some adjustment -- but, I agree that a "better" fix would be to explore how the kinetic and energy weapon types could evolve to fill different tactical roles -- rather than simply both being direct-fire weapons with differently shaped power curves.

Another impression on the weapons: As human, I've found that the Laser techtree kept me afloat for quite a good time.
The X-Ray Armor Piercing mod was the cherry on top
With Rapid Fire mod my (Heavy&Turbo)Lasers had enough punch, to not bother with other direct fire weapons for quite some time.
Only around Neutron Beams the Lasers could not keep up.

Only downside was that Lasers feel like a dead end.
You won't "change" the tech like with other beam weapons (ion, disruptor, neutron, primary beams, etc).
After reaching the end of lasers, I had to get out of my deep dug well and start again with ion beams, heavy ion beams, etc.
Which where underwhelming compared to high end lasers

Turbolasers eventually lead to Primary Beams, so it's not exactly a dead end; but the choice is whether to invest in cheaper and more incremental laser upgrades, or to take a bigger plunge into ion beams.

Arioch wrote:Turbolasers eventually lead to Primary Beams, so it's not exactly a dead end; but the choice is whether to invest in cheaper and more incremental laser upgrades, or to take a bigger plunge into ion beams.

I've gone both ways and had success. I like it when games offer this kind of tech differentiation. Making me pick between incremental improvements to existing weapons or investing in a totally different, but eventually more powerful tech is a nice way of giving players interesting options to choose from. Much better than just straight laser -> ion beams -> death beams and so on.

As I understand it, there will be certain technologies which aim to help the various alien populations cohabitate peacefully on the same planet. Given that the Gremak are slavers, how will these technologies be different for them?
I believe the Gremak should receive increased production(money and industry, but not science) from other races to simulate the effects of being enslaved.

As part of the population morale mechaic, there will be an explicit state of enslavement, with special characteristics to represent both the advantages and disadvantages of using slaves.

The details are still being worked out.

Is it right that we can see design of enemy ships on strategic map? I think it's huge advantage for player.

Something that might be interesting is specialized designs; we already sort-of have some as race-specific designs, such as the Yoral's Frigate, the Orthin's Gunship, the Teros' Escort Carrier, and the Phidi's Torpedo Destroyer and maybe the Trade Ship and Armed Merchant, which are basically this; a small ship built around a specific kind of slot. Having a design with a larger number of system slots but few (or no!) weapon slots may be interesting for building support vessels for complementing a fleet; by the same token, a small ship with a heavy weapon slot (think spinal mount) could open up more design options (currently the Orthin can do this with the Gunship, but only by late game) and make Heavy Lasers and their ilk more relevant before the Battleships start hitting the space lanes.

A few observations after the iron re-balancing:
- Iron is now really are resource you have to look after. Yay!
- The AI can no longer afford to spam destroyers mindlessly. Yay!
- I can't spam trade ships mindlessly. Boo!... Just kidding, Yay!
- Re-fitting an old design can still come with a hefty iron price tag for the new toys. Not sure if yay or nay.
- Since all fleets are more modest sized, missiles really lost their dread. Boo
A weapon slot dedicated to point defense was enough to no longer get hit by any missiles or fighters.
Maybe make missiles/fighter a good bit harder to hit ?