Suggest - Features and Improvements

[SgtArmyGuy]

Is the rally point mechanic still underway? I saw an old thread in which Arioch had already designed the UI elements for it. It would be helpful to get finished ships to automatically fly into a designated system after construction.

Also, relaying a wish from the Pelit forums: add a hotkey for cycling (idle) friendly fleets.

[zolobolo]

Refit countdown of 1 Turn after each change to Planetary Defense Structure

This is to
A: Reduce the advantage the player has over the AI as the latter does not refit to suit the current engagement
B: Disincentivize player from swapping out the loudout to suit the current engagement before each engagement. Currently this is incentivized as it is instantaneous and there is a large selection of very situational options. Meaning: depending on enemy force number and loadout + existence and loadout of defending ships and/or stations result in only 1-2 specific being effective at any engagement and all other loudouts for PD being inneffective.

This refit time would ideally be combined with the discussed change to a smaller ruster of dedicated defense weaponry for planets and sations so that they can support all types of defenses and each other and deal a steady stream of damage (and specials effect like EMP and ENV) to the attacker. A small roster where all combinations are somewhat effective would not prompt the user to adapt and the additional refit time would take away this motivation in 99% of the cases leaving only truly edge cases where adaption is rectified and worth the effort of the player

[nweismuller]

I propose that in addition to gaining planets, fleets, technologies, and ship designs when annexing an ally, that one should also have ships in their trade pool added to your trade pool. The fact that it doesn't happen now feels more like an oversight than anything else.

edited by sven: Yes, this was an oversight. Should be fixed in the next patch.

[zolobolo]

An indicator on the galaxy map showing which systems has a plan that would benefit from a population type selected for transport
The indicator could be something like a green plus sign and a pop icon above the system

This is to assist the player in more quickly finding planets where optimization is possible especially when more then a dozen planets are already managed. Ships already en-route to the system would mostly indicated well enough where additional pops have already been sent

A more efficient way of max pop optimization would be to utilize the pop menu available on the mods page, where filtering to planet types makes it more easy id distribute a pop type once a suitable planet type has been identified, but this method is admittedly less immersive and thus fun to use. I think that showing the information directly on the galaxy map (even if only the system and even though the pop needs to be selected for transport first) is more immersive and more fun to do then manually searching planets

[Arioch]

An indicator on the galaxy map showing which systems has a plan that would benefit from a population type selected for transport
The indicator could be something like a green plus sign and a pop icon above the system

If you select a colonist for transport, you can then hover the mouse over any planet and the tooltip will show you whether that population type will increase the population cap -- with a green plus sign and the size of the increase, or a red warning if the move will cause overpopulation.

[nweismuller]

The Artificial Sentience description text claims it provides +20 science per planet; actual observed game effects are +15 science per planet.

edited by sven: Thanks for the report. Should be fixed in the next patch.

[zolobolo]

If you select a colonist for transport, you can then hover the mouse over any planet and the tooltip will show you whether that population type will increase the population cap

Yes, I am aware of this indicator - the second scenario relies on this as when planets are sorted according to type, the player does not need to go through the whole list (it reduces the need to do that but otherwise uses this existing feature)

The reason I do not use it has more to do with immersion then practicality. Like to stay as much as possible on the galaxy map and know my way around my planets hence I usually think I know where which pop might go. Problem is that I am often wrong and need to click around the galaxy map a lot to make sure things are set up correctly in the end.

If you would like to stick with the list I would just recommend implementing the planet type filter in the production tab then - it is not that effective as when the player also sees via the pop icons what type of pop is already settled on the planets at a glance but should cut down on the procedure

Altogether I would prefer a solution which does not rely on trial and error at all: if the player is directed to points of interest or can see all relevant information at a glance, that makes micro MGMT much less so its good. For most the latter is even batter then the former

[PrivateHudson]

An indicator on the galaxy map showing which systems has a plan that would benefit from a population type selected for transport
The indicator could be something like a green plus sign and a pop icon above the system

+1. Also when placing immigrants.

[zolobolo]

Show the result of a battle right in the notification window itself below the existing text: "Witnessed a battle...
e.g.: Result: Yoral Victory

Reason: The player already clicks on the battle notification on the right hand side, and then needs to click on the Summary button to see the result while the information itself is usually not critical. The existing Summary button can still stay to show the losses each side has suffered but would halve the necessary amount of clicks to see the result

[zolobolo]

+1. Also when placing immigrants.

That reminds me: Another reason I am using the galaxy map instead of the list is positioning.
When the selected pop is hovered over a planet in the list, it does not contextualize the location of the planet relative to other potential planets suitable for that pop. Like in the above example: we are searching for the nearest planet that would benefit from the pop type not just any planet.

Though the list shows ETA and also marks the target which is visible when zoomed out far enough (and these are great), it does not give an overview of the potential systems involved. In some cases you would want to avoid placing valuable pops too close to combat area, or fill in newly conquered territory with your own core pops and in such cases the list takes more time then searching and trying out the pop on that region of space (which might end in the player not finding any desirable location in the end at all due to available climate zones)

[zolobolo]

I propose that in addition to gaining planets, fleets, technologies, and ship designs when annexing an ally, that one should also have ships in their trade pool added to your trade pool.

edited by sven: Yes, this was an oversight. Should be fixed in the next patch.

Works like a charm everything is included now: tech, trade ships, ships and design templates

Also love the idea of taking over the design templates from the AI as before this I was wary of taking over control of another empire due to the micro MGMT involved in sorting out the new planets and ships, refitting them and managing them afterwards + the war(s) on their side.

I was looking at allies as a kind of governor that admittedly has less resources and tech but takes care of the planets and ships at a segment.
Now, annexing has an overall plus to the player as various ship designs can be combined in a fleet to merge their strengths and make up for their deficiencies - great idea!

[zolobolo]

Could an indicator be placed within the diplomacy menu to show when an ally will offer to merge with the player?

Now that I was looking forward to this occasion, I noticed, it wasn't clear when and if this will happen.
The empire that joined my faction in the end was the latest newcomer to the alliance whereas my oldest ally was dating back over 150 turns and I had a population x3 as them. Maybe the pop needs to be above x4 or x5?

[zolobolo]

Producible Androids are a great addition: will you include their image also for the research tech or something else showcasing their design or assembly like in case of Tinkers pop "production"?

[sven]

Could an indicator be placed within the diplomacy menu to show when an ally will offer to merge with the player?

Now that I was looking forward to this occasion, I noticed, it wasn't clear when and if this will happen.
The empire that joined my faction in the end was the latest newcomer to the alliance whereas my oldest ally was dating back over 150 turns and I had a population x3 as them. Maybe the pop needs to be above x4 or x5?

I may need to do some more balancing here. When I coded up the trigger for the 'offer_to_join' event, the triggering condition was just that an allied empire was 1) far weaker, both in terms of population and ships, and 2) allied for at least 20 turns. The exact equation is currently:

Code: Select all

our_power/ally_power + our_pop/ally_pop < .3

A better balance, I suspect, would be to make the likelihood of offering to join based on some combination of dice rolls and slightly more complex math. I think a very long term ally, even one that's only moderately weaker than you are, should still be willing to join with you, though it probably shouldn't be a guaranteed thing.

[zolobolo]

A better balance, I suspect, would be to make the likelihood of offering to join based on some combination of dice rolls and slightly more complex math. I think a very long term ally, even one that's only moderately weaker than you are, should still be willing to join with you, though it probably shouldn't be a guaranteed thing.

Interesting idea, but should the player know when this can be anticipated? If this is a desirable outcome and the player should work towards it, there needs to be some kind of feedback on it or the requirement communicated.

If it should be random, rare and basically outside of player control, it might be indicated in the text somehow

I support if this should be a rare thing as as much as I like the combined blueprint concept, it is till a lot of micro especially right after the takeover. In this regard it should truly be reserved for factions that would be lost on their own