Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That is not true. Not all players like economics and such, and some players do not like the lack of it.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

still could be labelled as the same kind of players - the kind that wants to study a stratagetic/tactical type problem.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

For determing which comps get damaged from a shot, how about an extra line that functions like HPs do now for determining which comp gets hit. The HPs would have no bearing on this calculation. This new ability has no bearing on anything but the calculations for determining which comp gets hit, and the calculation would remain roughly the same. So, you could have large, easy to hit, easy to destroy comps (like Warp Nacelles in a Star Trek mod, or solar sails). Easy to hit, but take little damage to destroy. Or, you could have really strong, small comps that are hard to hit, but can take a lot of damage. Think of the modding possibilities! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

So IF, would you want a scale from 1-10 as far as the order to be hit? All components at level 1 must be hit before any components at level 2, etc etc.

Alternatively, one could actually make a scale from 1 to 100, with the value determining the % chance of the component being chosen for damage versus other components. If you gave a component a 100% value, the component would be hit like armor (I guess there'd be an internal competition between all armor-like components). Then it would "roll a die" for each component after that to see if it is damaged. Then you'd have an internal competition between all the "winners" to see which one is actually damaged.

If either system were used, it would also be nice to have a set of abilities for mounts which would push the number either up or down (making the component more or less likely to be hit) with the obvious max/min being 10/1 or 100%/1%.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

No scale, just whatever values you want to use like now. Basically, the formula for determining which component takes a hit is this: Assign numbers to each HP of each component. For example, Bridge gets 1-10, LS 11-20, CQ 21-30, first engine 31-50, etc. Then, generate a random number in the total range. The weapon hits the comp corresponding to that number. I want this same system to be kept, but to use the new "chance to be hit" field instead of the HP field.

Actually, it would be cool if components remembered their damage, and each point of damage hit a random component. Or maybe that would get really complicated. But, each comp should still remember its damage (even out of combat). Repair bays could be made to repair HPs of damage instead of just whole components.

[ July 11, 2003, 19:21: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

yeah, what fyron said.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I don't know if any one said this, but how about having leaders? You know like fleet commanders that effect the way your tasks force acts. Also if there is land combat that is as detailed as the Space combat how about leaders for that too? Or leaders for espionage, research, economics, etc..etc.
I think that would be a cool idea have a limited amount of leaders, but then can choose what type we have, maybe like 50 leaders?

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Game setup options (or even special warp-opener abilities) that restrict created warp points to (a) the edge of the system, or (b) a sector in the direction of the target system from the star, or (c) both. (In other words, banning "instawarp nexuses" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, i said that already. It would be fun if that was added

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

What about an idea of an optional req that would allow / deny certain facilities / components or even tech areas based on race characteristics, for example, to deny race with ground combat below 80 (-20) developing large troops, and deny race with below 80 (-20) repair getting level 3 repair bays.

[ July 14, 2003, 05:59: Message edited by: Me Loonn ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Ooh, good idea! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
(Note, I am not doing this just to increase my post count, I'm doing this to show my support for Me Loonn's idea so it has a better chance of being included in SE5 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )
edit: all right, this post DOES have a point now, I also want to mention that there could be a line in SE5's equivalent of Happiness.txt for planetary overpopulation - people should get mad if they get too crowded in! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif (Of course this would probably mean you wouldn't want to start the game with a full planet, but that could be easily changed...)

[ July 13, 2003, 22:16: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Call me strange, but I don't like the idea of leaders. Unless every ship has a named Captain, which you can switch around between ships, and they bring their experience with them... and the training facility creates cadets, which can be transferred to the ships and gain experience... hmmm... OK, I'll rephrase my initial concept : I don't want leaders like in MoO2, I want something much more involved ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

A few more ideas (wonder if Aaron got tired of reading all these? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Components or facilities that require or preclude the installation of other components or facilities on the same planet - for example, installing Crew Quarters (instead of a Master Computer) would be a requirement for the Telekinetic Projector (or who would be doing the telekinesis? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

Make ships and classes moddable subclasses of some base "stellar object" class, thus making the handling of ringworlds easier (could be constructed like a ship but populated like a planet) and allowing the much-requested space colonies and ark ships

Ringworlds and Dyson spheres that take up multiple sectors (assuming there still ARE sectors http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Races that have different population masses, and lifesupport technology to reduce the amount of "overhead" space used in transporting population as cargo - early on, population transport could be like in Proportions (100 kT / 1M), but then it could reach P&N levels (20 kT / 1M) with advanced life support systems, and maybe even stock SE4 levels (5 kT / 1M) with some sort of molecular reconstitution technology http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If a planet were overcrowded, then plagues would hit them harder too... I guess they'd have a higher mortality rate as a percentage of total population versus a less populated planet.

Imperator: I don't quite understand the methodology of your system for damage distribution, but totally agree with the concept! I just hope Aaron introduces something along these lines in SE5.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

A way, any way, to make planets drop Troops on other planets in Strategic combat.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'd like a variety of FTL options. You'd have regular warp points by default, but then the option to research other possibilities. Of course some ppl would disagree with this, so the option to mod them out/ turn them off would be necessary.

Stargates- a bit like warp points, but only artificially built and when you enter a stargate, you can exit at any ally-owned stargate of your choice. (barring the occasional random event ditching you in the wrong system, of course=-)

Direct flight- relativistic flight in a straight line from one system to another. Takes years and years and years (and a QR would be handy), but great for sneak attacks on "turtled" opponents.

Hyperspace- Maybe you could have a second galaxy map for hyperspace, sitting behind the normal galaxy map. Your ships would fly to the nearest entry point (or create one) then jump into the other map. This map would be much smaller than the other one so that ships can travel quickly from point to point, but with all the entry points proportionally distanced from one another. Ship encounters in hspace could be turned on or off in game setup. There wouldn't be any "terrain" in hyperspace either by default, but it would be cool if you could mod it in and/or build bases/ planets there for colonisation.

Infinite Improbablity Drives- Now I'm just being silly.

Oh, also, I'd like to see the option for monster maps. If I'm crazy enough to start a game with 10,000 systems and 200 AI players, that's between me and my (overworked) computer=-) By the time SE5 gets to it's fourth or fifth patch, we'll all be driving 8000mhz pentium VIIs anyway.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Yes, FTL! Definitely FTL, at least as an option! (Pay no attention to MOO3 this time, the fact that it combined warp points with FTL is NOT the reason that it sucked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Also, this is a bit cheesy, but how about shields and even armor that only works some of the time, or only covers specific components? You know how in Star Trek if they get the shield frequencies right they can get right through the shields? Well, something like that, only on the order of seconds instead of milliseconds. (And remember the Metools from Megaman? They were invincible... except for a second or so after they opened their shells to shoot! Wouldn't it be fun to install an impenetrable armor plate on your weapons, but require it to be opened in order to actually shoot? Gives you the real "evil overlord" effect http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">and my computer isn't intelligent, so YEEHAA!

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Troop combat in simultaneous suffers from the fact that troop transports drop all troops.
Maybe a "batch" system would be in order so that you can specify before an attempted planet capture how many troops you want to drop per combat turn. This would continue until the planet is captured or all troops are destroyed so if you capture a planet fairly quick, you would have enough troops to continue to the next planet in the same system.
This would make troop combat more fun

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Or just program it into the transport's orders : attack planet III, drop 30 troops. Attack moon IIIA, drop 10 troops.

Maybe it would be easier to do this by including new parameters in the strategies.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I'd love to see:

1) ability to save orders mid-stream
2) ability to open orders too see what orders you actually sent Last turn (didn't I wind up sending my fleet through that wormhole??!)
3) ability to send mail to yourself, so you can keep reminders
4) Ability to export mail to a .txt file
5) A more textured intel model

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Apologies if this has been said before in the thread.. but IMHO troop combat suffers FAR more from the problem that you can't drop troops from 2+ transports simultaneously. This makes it very difficult to capture large homeworlds intact, you have to beat them down first by bombing them. I should be able to drop 600 troops from 4 small transports and have that resolved as one round of planetary combat.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If your first wave or troops at least survives ten rounds without getting killed the other ships can drop reinforcments in a later round. But yes it would be better if the AI would asses how many trooops were needed and drop that many, or allow us to control it somehow with strategies.

[ July 17, 2003, 15:43: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

This is why large transport ships are so important. Also, try dropping super shielded/armoured troops in the first wave to "take a beach-head". Let your subsequent waves actually hand out the punishment.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Wow... never thought of that strategy... yeah, if my first transport's worth of troops can stay alive through 30 rounds of combat (yeah, right - works better in P&N with only 1 round http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) then any subsequent drops will continue to wear down the defenses!

more ideas...

Components/facilities that have a specified chance of randomly failing - you have enough solar sails on your spy ship to provide enough power to move and cloak without needing to resupply, but one fails deep in enemy territory and you drop out of cloak! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif You only put one Colossal Mount Yamato Cannon on your superdreadnought worldkiller, but it fails right in the middle of a crucial battle and your fleet is crushed! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif Your plaguebomb escort is fleeing from a colony it just plagued when its engines fail and the enemy boarding ships catch up and steal your bioweapons technology to use against you! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

edit: btw, this was actually inspired by an example in my statistics textbook involving making sure there were enough solar panels on a satellite to ensure a 97% chance the satellite wouldn't run out of power, so you can thank the author for this idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

This one could probably be implemented in an SE4 batch, but you know how you set your "AI minister type" (Aggressive, Defensive, Neutral, or - in P&N - None) in the .emp file? I'd like to be able to check and even change that in-game to suit my current strategy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ July 17, 2003, 19:54: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

There are only 10 rounds of troop combat per battle. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Another major problem with troops IMO is the inability to review the combat to see what happened. I would love to be able to do this so that one could asses how effective a certain design is. Since you can't I don't really bother with any varies troop designs. Just stick 3 cannons on em and see what happens.
(PS this applies to simultaneous combat, I recall there is a sort of review in single player mode)

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I've said it before and I'll say it again cause it really bugs me. I would like SE5 to know what 'percent' means. Combat sensors should allow your weapons to hit 10% (or whatever they are rated at) more times than they would without them. They currently do not act that way.

(and yes I know some people will say 'that is exactly what they already do' but they are wrong. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

and just to make Katchoo happy, some cowbells. they can tell you when your ships come home.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

shift-left click and select a production for many orbital space yards at once.
I'm in the process of construction 4 sphere worlds at the same time. To accomplish this is first build 21 orbital space yards. Then you have to click each and one of them to give the order for 10 platings, 10 cables and 1 sphereworld. Off course, the space yard list scrolls up every time so you have to scroll down the list to see where you were. You can now shift-left click to select several orbital space yards but you cannot give open a construction queue.
It would be cool if you would get the normal construction queue and the build orders that you have given would be applied to all the orbital space yards you had selected.
This would save a lot of time and clicking.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Mass multipliers!
I got started thinking about this when I realized that the Tractor Beam III is no better than the Tractor Beam II (see separate thread), and I thought, "hmm, what could make the TB3 more useful?" So what if there were "mass multiplier" abilities that multiplied the effective mass of a ship, for purposes of propulsion, tractor/repulsor beams, and gravitic sensors? A heavy mount tractor beam might have a 150% multiplier to ship mass (only applicable when fired), for instance, to allow your ship to tractor ships 50% larger than itself. Or an inertial damper might have a 75% multiplier, making it 25% harder to see with gravitic sensors and require 25% fewer engines! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

edit: Oh, and how about storms that jam/unjam long range scanners!

[ July 19, 2003, 22:21: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Here's another idea... you know how there are weapons which only damage a planet's conditions? Well, something even more useful would be weapons that only damage a planet's VALUE! (Oh, and allow these weapons to be used outside of combat, like stellar manipulation!)

Actually, perhaps an option for stellar manipulation devices should be to make them combat devices, so you have to actually get in range to use them and can't just set your strategy to "don't get hurt" and then destroy the planet from afar http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif Of course then the definition of "combat" would have to be extended as you could engage in "combat" with an uninhabited planet in order to change it to asteroids http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

edit: Oh, and something along the lines of this in SE5's equivalent of Happiness.txt:

This Planet Gifted := 200
Planet In Empire Gifted := 40

In other words, you can't go around trading entire planets full of people without getting them pissed off at you... imagine if the US tried to "sell" North Dakota to Canada to pay off the national debt http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif (Hey, didn't Dave Barry suggest that once?)

[ July 25, 2003, 06:05: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

One little idea: ship type deception.

A component that would allow you to display another ship type to all other players than it is in reality. If the ship has this component you can select any other ship type you have and all other players will see the faked identity! Mimic your colonizer as baseship or vice versa!

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good idea. Make it work like cloaking device so ships with good detection could see through it. I was thinking this idea myself a while ago. There was another game out that used this idea but I can't remember what it was.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">VGA Planet had an add-on that gave the Lizards the Chameleon device, that could make ships appear as other ships.
It was real fun to see enemy raiders attack what they belived was a small transport only to find it to be a T-Rex battleship, whoa ha ha!

[ July 25, 2003, 14:38: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Make Armor a serious contender vs Shields for ship defense.

Be sure to make them distinct, though...
Cheap and hard to repair vs expensive and quick to recharge for example.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think you can have that already in SE IV by giving the armor more hit points.
But what I would like to see in SE V are multiple levels of shields and armor. Then you can give each weapon unique possibilities which level and shield can be skipped and you can create a never ending research tree that gives you better shields and armor and better weapons that defeat this better defenses and so on......

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ed: If you throw in both Dakotas we'll give you 25% off all beef exports for then next 5 years too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

All the ideas for SE5 are pretty amazing... I'd love to see even half of them implemented! I'd also like to see a speed modifier to combat. I figure that a scout going 8 movement in combat is going to be harder to hit than the same size scout moving only 3 in combat. In the B5 mod I've got some ships moving in excess of 10 movement in combat... shouldn't these ships be harder to hit?

Secondly, how about hologram projections (sorry if someone mentioned this specifically) that allow you to multiply the number of ships in a fleet by producing phantom ships? Boy you could have the other guy chasing a single scout with 8 hologram projectors = a fleet of 9 ships!

[ July 25, 2003, 17:41: Message edited by: jimbob ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good idea. Make it work like cloaking device so ships with good detection could see through it. I was thinking this idea myself a while ago. There was another game out that used this idea but I can't remember what it was.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

when you click on a ship or fleet its orders are displayed.

When you right click on a planet / unit / item it takes you there.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

A newbie's list.

I love the game and spend entirely too much time playing it. But overall I'm hoping SEV is opened up a bit and allows different strategies outside of primarily conquest.

1. Ability to split planet production between projects.

This would be nearly identical in functionality to the existing research and intel screens.
Say I'd want to construct mines at a rate of 2 per turn, but still would like to build research centers.

2. System comparison screen.

Sometimes I'd like to look at an entire system to determine what needs to be built there.
So something like the planet screen but by system with units, ships, facilities listed by planet in that system.

3. Peaceful or Diplomatic win conditions.

I just don't feel the need to defeat EVERY race.

4. Ship routing through supply points.

When I send a ship three systems over it would be nice if it automatically visited a resupply base at every system.
Yes, I often forget to set waypoints when directed ships/fleets.
I'm slipping this in at the four slot to disguise the how whiney it really sounds.

5. Allow some elements of the scoring to be modded.

Again, the scoring seems to favor conquest/empire building which limits how the game can be played.
Perhaps something as simple as score = (a * pop^na) + (b * tech^nb) + ..., where a, b, na, and nb would be user defined values.

6. Better Intelligence and have it play a larger role in the game.
      Clearer algorithm for how intelligence works and how to improve success/failure.
           
            Perhaps this can be improved by allowing the overpurchase of the selected intelligence item.
                  For example 10k points 1X effectiveness of an item, but 20k points gives you 1.25X.  So that by paying 10k extra points, the chance of success is improved by 25%.

7.  Move intelligence button onto main view and off the politics screen.

8.  Add ship warnings to the map or log screens. 

Too many times I've had enemy ships slip into my sectors without me noticing. 
It would be great if this just pointed out races with Non-Intercourse or War pacts. 
A user option for selecting what Messages are received would be even better.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

3. Peaceful or Diplomatic win conditions.
Try the "Galaxy at peace for X turns" condition.

If you can get all the races to stop fighting, and come to a peaceful coexistance, game over, you win.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

AI Diplomacy, IMHO, I would like to see the AI intell tweaked up for most of the races, some are still to easy to use intel against.

just some ideas Mac

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I would like to see facility effects stack between families (but not within the same family). I would also like to see all modifiers multiply rather than add. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

It would be better if we could choose for each component, facility etc. if each ability on it stacks or not. Basically, take all stacking abilities (of the same type) on a ship, add them up (multiply, whatever). Then, compare to all non-stacking abilities. The ship gets whatever of these bonuses is best.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

movable Space Stations, Battle Stations, Starbases like in the Delv Mod, its great to be able to move them where you want them

just some ideas mac

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Put a note in the log when a ship doesn't retrofit.

Tell me why a planet is rioting.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

The wait clock, that comes up when loading the game, couldn't the handles move around?
That would be the most valued and used improvement, almost enough to name it SE5 by this update only http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Aaron!

I'm a long time se4 fan... i bought both se4 and se4 gold http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

please please add these - they are THE MOST IMPORTANT imho

1. Save partial turns for multiplayer games... with current pbw games, a turn often takes more than a few hours... ie, more than a couple of sittings - please allow partial saves turns. Better yet, when you hit end turn, allow the system to load that 'turn' file and continue issueing commands, thus modifying the players turn file.

2. SHIP combat INITIATIVE. please add something which interleaves the ship movement and shooting in combat... base it on speed and experience please -- fastest and most experienced crews go first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Don't let ALL ships for one side go first... it just wrecks the game.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I would like flexible, moddable retrofit options.

For example, an organic race that can retrofit ships to larger sizes at the expense of experience.
It would simulate organic growth, and the race could be restricted to only building baby-escorts, then growing them slowly into warrior-dreadnoughts with incubator-training facilities.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Make Emissive Armor stack.

Not that the emissive effects should stack together and apply to every shot, but that each time an Emissive component is damage the Emissive bonus is taken off anew.

[ July 29, 2003, 16:36: Message edited by: Loser ]