Re: Next patch requests
 

"Is this a glitch or intentional?"

I think that's intentional. Those weren't troops, those were *militia*. Defenders generated on every colony, based on the colony's population. Normal troops, you kill them and they stay dead. Militia only stays dead as long as some of your troops survive (i.e. stalemate) otherwise it regenerates; I assume that's the militia recruiting more soliders.

Phoenix-D

Re: Next patch requests
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gandalph:
It would be nice if we could get the AI to build defensive capabilities on a newly colonized planet before building facilities just as we human players do. If the newly colonized planet is breathable/huge, it can be 30+ turns before defenses go up, making it an easy target to capture/destroy.<hr></blockquote>

That would be very good. Just allow the inclusion of units in the planet construction file so you could build some weapon platforms first before building facilities.
Another small but IMHO very valuable addition would be the race specific anger modifier (I made this suggestion before but until now withour effect):
You specify in the politics file something like this

Number of race specific modifiers : 2
Race specific modifier race 1 : Terran
Race specific modifier amount 1 : 20
Race specific modifier race 2 : Phong
Race specific modifier amount 2 : -20

The race with this politic file would react very hostile to the Terrans but be very friendly against the Phongs. You could specify as many races as you want. This would prevent the alliance of "mortal enemies" like Eee and Drushoka that we see now. It would also allow you to reduce conflicts between AI's in a solo human player game without making them all declare war on you when you select the "team player mode".

And another old suggestion: starting tech levels (as in SE III).

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: Q ]</p>

Re: Next patch requests
 

I like the love / hate relations file idea.
That way is possible to make better mods like star trek / star wars.

Re: Next patch requests
 

You know how you can re-name ships?

Well, add a drop-down dialog box for the
re-naming box, so that instead of having
to remember a ship name, or have a print
out next to you, you can just rename a ship
by going down the list of design names...

Do it like so...

http://cgibin.starpower.net/ryanwolf/suggestion.jpg

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: MKSheppard ]

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: MKSheppard ]</p>

Re: Next patch requests
 

MKShep:

I really like that idea! I can't tell you how many times when I've gone to name a ship and can't remember which names have been used nor come up with a new one...

Re: Next patch requests
 

I think racial anger modifiers would be great - something that would allow you to represent long standing hatred between races!!

Would also be nice if you could set anger modifiers for use of certain weapons or actions - so you can set an AI to react negatively to a race that uses a planet killer.

One thing I would love to see is more abilities for Warp Points (and other stellar objects) - top on the list are :
1) Delayed transit Warp Points - Set a time delay for how many turns before the ships get through, or alternately set a movement cost to use the Warp Point so you can tell a ship to jump and it will stay 'in queue' until it pays the full move cost.
2) Warp Points with auto close time delays - These warp points will automatically close after a set number of turns. This would better allow the simulation of 'warping' through space (imho).

Would also be cool if they get the restrict tech to ship type thing working.

Re: Next patch requests
 

OK, maybe these aren't appropriate for a patch, but I can ask.
1) Scenario Editor
2) Add genetic engineering area (to biology tech tree?), which would allow you to colonize other atmospheres. Obviously, each race would start with one of these techs for free. Would help the AI a lot, since it is too stupid to shift captured pop around.
3) I like the idea of restricting colony modules to a specific planet size, but I only like it if you could research the other planet sizes. So a Gas race might start off with only Huge and Large techs, but could research the other sizes.
4) Allow players to use racial points to buy techs at setup. At least some techs. For example, you could have a space-rats race that is stupid and unlovable but that breeds like ... well, like rats, and that can colonize both rock and ice or both O2 and CH4 atmospheres. Another example: a cowardly psychic race, with lousy offense and defense, but it starts with mind-control tech (but no prelims to it).
5) Anything that will help no-planet races/monsters come into being.
6) Allow the option, in Single Player or HotSeat, of manually entering combat results. The player(s) could derive the combat results in any fashion of his/their choosing: dice, RTS, arm-wrestling, StarFleet Battles, etc.

In a nutshell: Add variety wherever possible!

Re: Next patch requests
 

1) Improved ministers.
2) Improved ministers.
3) Improved ministers.
4) A popup dialog box for colony ships asking "Do you want to leave the planet without loading population?"
5) Hard code the QNP system. The current system makes no sense. The easiest/best way would be to make the engine size, cost, supply storage, and supply usage proportional to the hull size. The same could be done with the bridge, life support, and crew quarters. There would be reductions for colony ships and transports, but their combat speed would be way down.
6) Add a "Maintain current formation" option to combat so that if the leader moves forward 2, everybody moves forward 2, and if the leader moves back 2, everybody moves back 2 instead of trying to wheel the entire formation around.
7) Make mines and minesweeping less than 100 percent effective. There should be a chance that a mine will miss and that minesweeping will fail.

Re: Next patch requests
 

a miraculous patch that somehow keeps the strategic and design playability of SEIVG but then jumps to a 'Homeworld-esque' visual extravaganza on the tactical side

yeah yeah I know - no chance but I keep on smoking this shoe polish and hoping!

Re: Next patch requests
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ahhh! No!!!
Even though I love QNP, and am pretty much using it exclusively, it SHOULD NOT be hardcoded.

Adding it to the default data files is fine, but for goodness sake don't hardcode things like that!