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

Nice idea...will defintely add some more micro-managment. But it would force the use of other resources, and make for different components, and some good role playing type elements...

Kana

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

As long as I don't have to do anything because of it's inclusion, sure.

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

I think that 3-4 resources should be enough. I mean when you start adding different elements into the game as resources, we'll eventually end up adding the entire periodic table. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Although 1 resource I would like to see is some facility that actually makes ship crews(for those not using Master Computers). I think it would be cool to have to build academies where it turns out a standard amount of graduates or it's based on population size. That way you would have to make a balance between the number of ships you build and how many people are actually part of the navy.
So everytime a new ship is built, the amount of crew needed for the ship would be deducted from the 'pool' of crew. And if you build too fast, and you don't have enough crewmen, then you're ships aren't going anywhere, which I think would happen in real life. (Imagine asking a ship to depart without its captain, only 1 engineer, 1 chef, and only a couple of red shirts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif. That just wouldn't happen...would it?)

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

I like Atrocities idea about having troops and ship crews having crew health and being injured. That way the need for a medical ship wouldn't just be when a plague or two happens to break out somewhere. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
As for making unit groupings for troops, this is my idea that I got from another game:
For infantry: Unit Component Units Total Strength
Squad - 7 troops
Platoon 4 Squads 28 "
Company 3 Platoons 84 "
Battalion 4 Companies 336 "
Regiment 4 Battalions 1344 "
if you want to go further than,
Brigade 3 Regiments
Divisoin 2 Brigades

For armour: Lance - 4 tanks
Company 3 Lances 12 "
Battalion 3 Companies 36 "
Regiment 3 Battalions 108 "

Also, I think that fighters should be allowed in ground combat. So if there are any fighters on the ground for the defending side or any fighters 1 grid around the planet for the attacking side, those should be allowed in on ground combat.

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

It seems to me that I'm writing a bit much. I'll stop after this and come back later.
(Note: If any of the following has already been suggested, I'm sorry that I don't have enoug htime to read all 131 pages of posts. So please just reply and tell me that it has already been discussed and if you know, please also add what the general consensus was on the idea.)

I have a couple of ideas that could be intriguing and add a small dimension to the game. (I just don't know how feasible it may be.)
1. What if ships' shields had some sort frequency code, say a 4-digit number or code. So then you could branch this idea into having a technology in the form of a 'weapon' that wouldn't really do much damage, but a successful hit would scan some of the code or all, depending on how sophisticated the 'weapon' is. Something like what the Borg uses.
Also, this could also be added into the Intel field, where a mission could be to steal the code of an enemy ship, and when you confront the enemy, you would be able to penetrate their shields like a Phased Polaron Cannon.
Another technology, would be a device that could randomly change your code. So even if the enemy got part of your code in combat, it would be useless because your code would have just changed. (I know this sounds like alot from TNG, the Feds against the Borg, but I've always hoped to play a game as a Borg-like race against other races.)

2. What if ships also had a personalized ID code. My idea is that I want to steal other races ships and send them back in to their space to spy on them. Except, that the ship would get blown into pieces once I sent it into their space. So if there could also be another Intel project where you could steal ship ID codes and then steal the ship, you would essentially have a spy ship and the enemy wouldn't be the wiser. (Of course, there may be the problem that the enemy will see us capturing the ship in combat and whatnot, so then I would have to propose somesort of 'Communications Jammer', which would prevent the enemy from seeing combat, if that's even allowed. But I think I'll talk about that in another post or let someone else describe it, if they want to.)

3. Wouldn't it be great if ship/starbase/etc. weapons had different power settings. How many times have you tried to capture a ship and only wanting to take down their shields and maybe weapons but only had Large or Heavy mounted weapons to do the job. Sounds to me like using a chainsaw instead of a scalpel to do a surgery. If each weapon had say a Low/Med/Max/Overload settings then you could choose what level of punch you want. (For the Overload setting, I was thinking that if you wanted extra punch, you run the risk that the weapon may burn out and be useless for the rest of combat.) The different power setting may or may not influence supply. I don't know.

4. Finally, I think that there should be ship acceleration in combat mode, and planetary gravity as well. From what I've heard, the new combat screen will use hexes? If that's so, then when you start off combat, you should start a little slower and build up speed. Also, when you turn, depending on your turn radius, that should affect how many movement is used. So if you turn on the spot after going full speed, you will definately use more movement then if you were turning on the spot from rest or if you took a turn of a couple of hexes. About planetary gravity: if you're out of engines within so many grids of a planet, you should fall towards the planet and crash unless saved. Also, if you use a repulser beam, you should be able to push ships into the planet. This would prevent people sticking ships all around their planet to defend it with their ship weapons and WPs unless they want to see ships falling from the sky.
(On another note, do you think different ship speeds would work in normal mode, say Flank/Full/Half/Quarter speed to get from one destination to another. And going at slower speeds would mean using more movement for less distance but also saving on fuel and lesser chance of getting damage by storms/etc. then if you were traveling at Flank speed.)

I think I've wrote a bit much, but after not being able to post for a while, ideas just seem to build up and you got to spill them up.
Comment? Ideas?

Thanks for reading,
Aris

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

Noone is going to bite your head off if you repeat a suggestion that was already made... It just means that it is a more popular suggestion (marginally, but still http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif).

Damn that Star Trek for perpetuating so much junk science... There would be no such thing as shield frequencies in reality. There is no reason for an energy field to have to shut completely off and back on again so many times per second as Star Trek implies. Certainly, you could design your shields to do this, but it would be monumentally stupid... Read this site for more information: *link*

I believe that was the system screen. The combat screen will probably be floating point, as the combat engine will be "real-time."

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

TWO things (and yes I'm bloody persistent):

1. MORE THAN FIVE RESOURCES!!!!! Ok, 3 standard ones would be terriffic, but I want the ability to make a LOT of resources. If I want to make a Trader Game Mod with few weapons, many types of freighters and less (or perhaps more) intel, I watn to be able to make trading actually IMPORTANT... i.e. you have lots of Rads but you need min and orgs. Another player has many Biocrystals (which count as a resource of their own AND as min/org crossover) but little Rads, you could trade a lot of your rads for his biocrystals... Example 2: you need Chronosteel for the repair of the temporal armor on the warship you bought off a Temporal race, but you don't have the appropriate ability... but you DO have Psychic and Crystallurgy. You propose a trade with the empire you've bought the ship from: you get the Chronosteel you need to repair the warship, and they get Psychic Crystals they can trade with another empire to buy a much needed battlecruiser... and so on. Please?

2. You need to have the ability to build Resource Freighters or at least be able to mod them in. Small increments (say 5000 or less) will automatically be transferred, but if you have a Heavy Space Yard that can use 10000 per turn and builds a Super-Hyper-Ultra-BattleMoon of 100MT you will be restricted to half the build time... unless you build a large Freighter and set it on auto-shipments of 100000 a time from the production/storage hub and the Heavy Space Yard.

3. The ability to mod Vehicle Types. I mean, what you've got now is OK, but I want to be able to build ships not just as Ships but, say, for example:
-Generation Ships (massive vessels capable of carrying population etc, like a mobile planet)
-Capital Warships (the largest ships - save for the Generation Ships - you can build, with sizes reaching into the 30MT range and above, capable of fielding entire arsenals capable of blowing up a planet without use of a Tectonic Bomb)
-Civilian Capital Ships (diplomatic vessels, massive freighters, Exodus-class Relocation Transports, etc.)
-Deep Strike Craft (small warships capable of attaining great speeds to strike deep within enemy territory to harass soft targets to draw ships away from the front line, and then to dart back again - the cavalry of the skies)
-Front Line Warships (slow, lumbering behemoths with copious amounts of intrinsic armor, used for fighting in the front lines against other warships)
-Destroyers (fast warships with intrinsic Scanner capabilities - the only ones capable of penetrating the highest cloak levels)
-Warships (your standard run-of-the-mill craft reaching approx. from 300kT to 5MT)
-Small Civilian Craft (hospital ships, freighters, yachts, official craft, small freighters, etc.)
-Carriers (ships from 500 kT to well into the 20MT range, capable of carrying massive amounts of fighters into combat)
-Colony Ships (various types and sizes of vessels used in the expansion of your realm, from simple craft capable only of building a small automated colony (no pop but you can build facilities/units, you just can't use them) to massive ships, similar to Generation Ships, capable of taking a small Empire to a new destination far, far away - especially useful in massive maps)

and for fighters:
-Fighters (the standard fightercraft from 10kT to 125kT, not jump-capable)
-Starfighters (larger fighters, 50kT to 200kT, jump-capable but expensive)
-Shuttles (small, jump-capable craft that can fill diplomatic and exploratory roles)
-Cargo Shuttles (larger shuttles capable of carrying small amounts of cargo, also jump-capable)
-Ferries (larger shuttles, can carry small amounts of population or a diplomatic delegation)
-Landing Shuttles (think SW Lambda-class craft - non-jump-capable shuttles capable of dropping small amounts of troops on a planet

For drones:
-Guided Missiles (similar to the SEIV drones, relatively small, maneuverable things - though they can only use several types of small weaponry, and no large weapons)
-Cruise Missiles (larger drones, faster, less maneuverable, unarmed but capable of carrying larger payloads to a destination)
-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (large, slow, armores behemoths capable of carrying very large payloads to a target - however, you select a target and then you lose control over it, it cannot maneuver)
-Strategic Ballistic Missiles (similar to TBMs, but then even larger and jump-capable - the only jump-capable missiles)

Bases:
-Orbital Bases (normal bases, built orbiting a planet)
-Defense Bases (military defense bases, can be built anywhere)
-Habitat Stations (large stations that hold population - I usually create my own habitat stations with Cargo Bays now, they hold population for me to ferry to newly colonized planets so the initial buildup goes faster)
-Storage Stations (bases that do not require ANYTHING and can only contain various types of cargo bays)
-Colony Stations (massive bases that can carry lots of population and produce resources, like a colony you can construct yourself - handy if you're short on colonizable planets in the neighbourhood)

Weapon Platforms:
-Civilian Defense Battery (small and ineffective but cheap and quick-to-construct installations capable of carrying not much more that three weapons. Good for defense early in the game)
-Missile Silos (installations that can launch "drones" - i.e. guided missiles, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. They require Silo Controls, which you can also design here. How many Silo Controls you need depend on the kind of control components you use - larger, more advanced control stations can control more silos than a low-tech Missile Control Bunkers)
-Fortresses (Large defense installations with surface-to-orbit weaponry and heavy surface warfare weapons - they'll defend the planet from enemy troops. It's a good way of securing your planets from enemy takeovers)
-Defense Installations (similar to current Weapon Platforms)

Mines:
-Normal Mines
-Self-Replicating Mines (when mines are destroyed, a certain number of them are reinstated the next turn - I've posted something about this before. Check a few pages back)

I think you get the idea. I know I'm crazy.

Ok, so it became 3 things... but the first 2 I was persistent in. The third came somewhat on the fly.

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

Micromanagment killed BOTF and Rebellion. Micromanagment made MOO3 one of the most horrible games of all times, aside from it just being one of the most horrible games of all time.

Micromanagment is fine, but excessive micromanagment is bad.

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

OK, but I STILL want the option to DETERMINE how much micromanagement I want. If I want massive-scaled Empires with fleets of thousands of Dreadnoughts, colonies in hundreds of systems and populations reaching into the trillions, I won't need much micromanagement. But if I want a more small-scale game I love micromanagement. And what's the micromanagement in the ability to add more unit types?

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

Actually, you WILL be able to add your own unit types... and I haven't read over all your suggestions but it looks like most if not all of them could be implemented as custom vehicle types in SE5!
And Aaron has said there *will* most likely be spaceborne populations on worldships and such, presumably something like the Alternate Reality races of Stars! only much more flexible in where they can put their population centers... hidden nebula colony anyone? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

Side note: pushing "show all" on this thread is sort of dangerous. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

One thing I don't know if its been mentioned: keep Starfury's mod structure! Picking a mod from a menu when you start a game is much easier than changing path.txt manually every time.

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

I'd ALREADY gotten that... I'm sorting posts "Newest Post First" so the first page contains the latest posts.

And I still think diplomacy should be overhauled (if that hasn't been done already). Think like EUII. Not just for the "points" system, where the victor gets to demand things (like military access or captured territories) from the loser, but also in DIPLOMATS. Just sending a message yourself is dangerous in intergalactic politics... you let the diplomats handle that. You get a certain number of them per turn, or if you have such-and-such amount of pop, or you can produce them. Would make diplomacy sooo much deeper...

Example:

You (the Atla) have been at war (with the Boota) for years, and you're both ready to call a truce. You were once the most powerful factions in the Galaxy, but a long war has depleted both your resources. You're economically aground, your fleet is smaller than the amount of rocks in a Tiny asteroid field, and you've both lost over half your colonies. But you're still spread out wide. You send a diplomat/an ambassador/a delegation/whatever, assasins for as far as I care - but another faction (the Coa) has been rising to power recently, and their position is in jeopardy if you two (A and B) call a truce and start expanding again. The three other remaining factions (I won't think up alphabetic names for them, just call them D, E and F) are squibbling like infants and thus could be easily overcome by either of you two (A and B). C therefore needs to stop you from making peace or perhaps even an alliance so that he can continue his rise to power in the galaxy. Well, back to the current situation: A is sending a diplomatic envoy to B. C needs to stop it. What C does: He builds/uses several cloak-capable warships with transponder jammers (they hide the faction they belong to, should also be able in SEV, handy but large and expensive) and/or gives them transponder signatures like B's ships. He thus intercepts and captures or destroys your diplomatic envoy - and for all you know it's B trying to keep your diplomats away from his ones to prevent them from making peace against his will. A and B are once again poised for war. This time, in the interbellum (assuming an armistice had been signed a year or so before) they have had the chance to develop some proper technology, and this time it's sure to consume the GALAXY. They both have warp point creators, QRs, cloaking devices, solar destroyers, tectonic bombs and such (OK, in one year this is impossible, unless they traded with D, E and F.) If war breaks out, the only ways to victory would be opening warp points around the borders into other people's territory, forcing the other (with a weak battle fleet) to destroy the sun in that system as soon as a warship enters, taking perhaps half an Empire with it. This way, eventually, the entire Galaxy will be annihilated in a super-war. (I know I'm ranting.) Then what do you do? (assuming you're A) Go paranoid and open warp points around his borders? Open one directly to his home system? Or be wise and not be deterred by one setback, and send another team of diplomats?

It's RANTING ON what I've just been doing, and I know it.

Also, as stated somewhere in the above mess:

Transponders.

Transponders and their corresponding frequencies could be very handy for sneaky backstabbing attacks... I.e. each empire has a certain transponder signal. If one of your ships detects a ship with the signal of empire B, even though it is CLEARLY from empire C, it will show as an empire B ship. Who knows? Perhaps B has captures one of C's ships, or perhaps he's traded for it. If the ship then attacks, you will automatically break off connections with B (like Sharon did with the Palestinians a couple of days ago, even though he cancelled it about three days ago) and perhaps even declare war on them. This way, C (who was in control of the ship all the time) will have triggered a war between you two (or at least bred mistrust). Or you could have ships that HIDE their transponder frequencies - it looks like a C ship, but it could also be B, D, E, or F. What do you do? Let it pass your defenses, perhaps to strike at your Homeworld? Or do you attack it, risking a war with any of five empires?

And, in combination with the jumble above about Diplomats:

You would also need to be able to sign general treaties yourself, using messages with another empire. Say, you could use this method to declare war, sign an armistice, demand/accept unconditional surrender, propose a small trade but not much else. To sign a truce or any other proper treaty, negotiate about the terms for a surrender, propose more complicated trades (i.e. with ships, important techs, lots of resources, units, etc.), you need to send a diplomat. The negotiations would have to last several turns (1 or 2 for an armistice, up to 15 for a Partnership treaty) and you should also be able to place an embassy in the other empire to make things go more smoothly/speed up negotiations/make them like you more/etc.

Also, you should be able to play on after a surrender. (assuming it wasn't total and unconditional) You could buy or rent a ship/ships from someone to start your Empire all over again. Say, the enemy occupies almost everything and demands your surrender. You stand no chance. If you don't accept, you'll be destroyed. You buy one single colony ship full of population somewhere waaay outside your home system from one of your allies. You surrender your home system... but keep your colony ship. You can then start anew.
Also, if someone demands your surrender, you should be able to give it to him... or at least for as far as he knows. You could also just give him several outlying worlds with one full of pop and all ships in there and perhaps also some outside of what he knows, but you should still be able to retain that which he does not know you have. What you can't see you can't claim.

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

I want oxygen nitrogen nebulas and nebulas that I can mine for resources. I want hidden planets in nebulas and nebulas that increase or provide a positive bonus to the ship and crews, planets, or bases within them.

I want money to be worth something so can build ship hulls and sell them to others for cash. I want those hulls, once bought, to be able to have weapons or other components added to them.

I want to build a basic ship, sell that, and the customer customize it to their own specs with their own weapons.

I want to be able to build captured designs. IE if I capture a Phong ship, or they surrender to me, I want to be able to build "phong" ships in addition to my own. This would be a great tool for espinoge and such.

I want a comodity system where we can mine or aquire rare resources and be able to sell or use those resources to make new and exciting technologies. For example mine heavy metal from a black hole and make support struts for Artifical Warp Point Colliders. Mine gold and or platinum to build super conductors and or really advanced electronics.

I want a 3d map star map system with the ability to go off the grid with a fleet of ships and send them through the emptiness of space between systems without the use of warp points. (Very slow, but with hyperlight engines make the process speed up.)

I want ancient events to be added to the events like ancient mine fields that encompus an entire system. Anciet battle moons that act like death stars when found and used. Ancient travel systems that allow players to move cargo from one planet to another instantly. (Think Stargates)

I want both a light and dark universe where a player could move between the two equally sized galaxies via a modified warp point or other phenominon.

I want multi facited galatic maps with 255 system quadrants, 4 quadrants to a galaxy with up to 4 galaxies per game. (One big huge map borken up by levels that a player can move between)

I want the ability to use planets based weapons to protect near by warp points. Think long rang particle cannons or something like them.

I want the ability to claim a planet simply by landing a marker on it. "I claim this work in the name of Atrocities Empire." Then send a colony ship when I have one available.

I want my Commander / Hero system - simular to the way I describe it and not the way other have diluted it.

I have many many more wants, but not enough bandwidth to post them.

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

I want more cowbell.

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

UNLIMITED size maps...

Interstellar warp-point-less travel. I.e. you build a massive dreadnought, but oh! you forgot the size of the warp point in your system. Fortunately, you know a system nearby with a warp point big enough, and fortunately your dreadnought is equipped with MASSIVE engines. You send it on an interstellar sojourn to the system. It would take a little while, but it would work. Would also be nice for Generation Ships :-)

You CAN'T see how many systems there are or where they are at the start of the game. I.e. line-of-sight galaxy exploration. Would add to the realism factor, and IMO would not deduce from playability too much.

More ship pictures. DEFINITELY more ship pictures. Perhaps even REDUNDANT ship pics. Would be handy for modders :-) you want a massive starship-of-the-line? Fine, you just use one of the redundant pics to prevent confusion with smaller unworthy craft like Dreadnoughts!

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

I must confess I am quite disappointed, it barely took a few minutes to display all the posts, and some 150 mb of ram. Truly, I had expected something more impressive. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

You will be able to add in as many ships as you want just like in SE IV. The only catch will be they will need to be 3d files in X format with a polygon count of less than 1500. (Est)

Right now, for SE IV, there is the Neo Standard pack that adds in a ton of image for the stock races and there are many sets, most of mine for example, that are neo-standard.

Neo standard sets have about 20 + more ships and images per ship set that various mods call for. Images such as Baseships, Heavy Dreadnoughts, Heavy Destroyer, War Station, Fighter Huge, etc.

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

Were it not for telescopes, I would agree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif 16th century astronomers and mathematicians were able to make a decent map of the space surrounding Sol. Perhaps some limited range around your systems for the system locations you can see, based on technology level? Of course, this all depends on how large the map is supposed to be... Some sort of control over the distance each square on the galaxy map represents would be great. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

I know you've created a lot of shipsets, AT, and I know about neostandard, but I mean EVEN MORE ship pics. Oh, and (I know it's been mentioned b4) MORE entries for the pic in VehicleSze.txt. Now, it's pretty limited. NOT good. Limitations are BAD.

And I meant exactly such types of exploration, Fyron. Telescopes, deep-space probes, unmanned explorers, old probes you regain contact with (think Voyager and Pioneer projects)... Also, if you explore far, I still think systems should be able to be hidden. I.e. you've got a massive Terran Empire spanning half the Galaxy, and you've explored all you can (with no stellar manip), and you think you've explored it all, with no more systems - then, suddenly, an alien power opens a warp point to your systems.

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

SE2 had that; you could only see your own home system and any other systems you have explored on the galaxy map. That idea was scrapped in SE3 for *realism* purposes, as it was assumed that any decent spacefaring civilization would have telescopes of some sort to at least see the stars with http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Now hidden *non-star* systems, that would be interesting... maybe a flag on each system type whether it's visible or not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

Hidden non-star systems, hidden star systems, systems hidden because of nebulas all around them... you could think up any number of reasons. Also, the galaxy map should not necessarily work with the principle "systems need to be connected with warp points". You should have a galaxy map in itself, with the warp points being additions. This way you can open warp points into "empty" sectors to find anything. Lone stars, rogue planets, nebulas, black holes, anomalies, even full planetary systems - perhaps even with an Empire in them.

Also, the SEV change to 3D has me worried. Settlers IV was a FANTASTIC game, Settlers: Heritage of Kings (demo) is OK as a game in its own right, but as a Settlers game... ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE.

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

its simply so much cheaper to create great looking art in 3d than it is 2d. look how many 2d pics are just pics of 3d objects.

i think Imperator Fyron was talking about how much better Realtime was for balance- that's so very true. Actually- I'm curious, is it the realtime combat change or the 3d change that bothers people? I can't see how the 3d change for systems maps is going to be bad.

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

I think both bother a lot of people, but not because they're bad features. What people are worried about is that implementing realtime and 3D might take away from time spent on improving gameplay. I, personally, don't expect this to be an issue, as I expect Aaron will take however much time he needs to do a good job.

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

The maps are still 2D.
IIRC, they'll be hex based instead of square as well.

Think of having the screen zoom smoothly in from a system-view to a colony and stats view when you click a planet for example.

Not in processor time...
The 2D pics that you see here rendered from 3D models can have a zillion polygons, and take an hour to render once without causing any problems in SE4.
You have to use really low poly, and thus blocky, and relatively ugly models in order to render 30 FPS of a combat involving hundreds to thousands of ships.

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

its cheaper in $$ terms. much cheaper, for what you get. The requirements are of course higher. One curious example of this is the original MechCommander; the graphics were done with 3d models that were used to generate many many frames of 2d animation. This kept the requirements low and the game fast and had really quite excellent graphical quality.

you'd be surprised what can be done with relatively low poly models and low quality textures; the game "Dawn of War" can scale pretty far down and still look good, for example.

One bonus of this game is also that it won't have to be rendered at 30 FPS; that's an arbitrary requirement. A game like this could be perfectly servicable at 10 or 15 FPS; only the truely dedicated are likely to start combats that drag it down to 3 or 4 FPS.

Furthermore, there is always the recourse of computer-calculated combat, which is what will presumably used for multiplayer (and probably for truely large battles) regardless.

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

Man there must be over 5,000 great ideas in this thread. Two years ago I tried to mine it and make one post and I could only get about a fourth of the way before I gave up on it.

I would challenge any one here to make a comprehensive organized list of suggestions and put them in word format for downloading. The challenge is on the table boys, any takers?

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

I'm not gonna try it. I've got other things to do this month, you know!

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

Halo Ring World/Dyson Sphere SYSTEMS.

Think: you have a star, and perhaps a number of planets, but the edges of the system are not just normal edges - YOU'RE IN A MASSIVE HALO RING WORLD/DYSON SPHERE!!!!! Would have to be a special type of system... You can colonize it, and another can too at the same time, without you making direct contact. (if you're on opposite sides of the system) It should be able to hold TRILLIONS of people, with perhaps a limit of one per galaxy/sector. You still need to be able to build ringworlds and sphereworlds, and they will still be very big, but not the biggest you can get - just the biggest you can create yourself. Would certainly be nice if coupled with "ancient relics" of a "lost pan-galactic empire with technology beyond our comparison". It's been proposed before. Ancient derelict ships, massive super-weapons prowling the galaxy, ancient colonies that get reactivated when examined, cryo-chambers containing the sleeping bodies of those ancient beings...

Campaigns/map goals. Say, if the above is true, your goal could be to get at least five trillion people on the Dyson Sphere, and oter colonies must be under 1 billion. Or, your goal would be to revive the ancient beings from hibernation - a (constantly) ongoing project that you need to divert resources to manually. Think: "To revive the ancients, you will need: 100 million research points, 10 million intel points, 10 million minerals, 50 million organics, 100 million radioactives, 500 billion Star Credits, and at least 50 generic alien artifacts and the following specific artifacts: Alien Cryo-Chamber Blueprints, Alien FTL Starship, Alien DNA Bank, Alien Cryo-Research Data Storage Dump and any number of Alien Cryo-Chambers with a total of at least 100 aliens in hibernative state." Or: "To assure the safety of the Galaxy and the state of peace between your allies, you must destroy or conquer the [%RaceName1] and have at least the [%RaceName2] and three other allies left alive." Or: "The Galaxy is getting unstable. The Galactic core anomalies are in a state of quantum-chroniton flux, and the Galaxy will be destroyed in three hundred years. You need to either stabilize the anomalies or find a way to escape destruction by opening a warp point to the Greater Magellanic Cloud. To stabilize the core anomalies, you will need to research "Quantum-Chroniton Stabilizers". To open a warp point to the Greater Magellanic Cloud, you will need to research "Interdimensional Warp Points"." Where the two techs are WORLDS apart from each other, and you will not be able to research them both since they start off with different base techs from the very beginning.

Or series of maps (and thus games) that together form a campaign. I.e.:

-First Scenario: Early Exploration. Goal: a total population of 500 billion. Briefing:
We stand at the brink of a galactic adventure. We are ready to traverse the warp points at the edge of our system and explore the galaxy. However, our home planet has massive overpopulation, and we need to bring many people to new colonies. However, since population growth is so slow, we will need to GROW our population before we can start exploring the galaxy in earnest.

However, deep space probes have discovered two large, well-established other races in our vicinity, who appear to be at war with each other. You must be wary of sudden and unexpected attacks. We do not know if their attitudes towards us are hostile or not.

-Second Scenario: The First Wars. Goal: eliminate the [%RaceName1] and [%RaceName2] presences in this area. Briefing:
We are now well established. Our population is growing steadily. We are poised to make great breakthroughs in many fields of science. However, two large colony ships have recently arrived in this vicinity. Their early expansion is alarming. They have already eliminated one of the races in this sector, and are now firmly established in their former territory. The two races appear to be allies, so little chance of them wiping each other out. Also, the other race in this vicinity will not respond to reason and says it can take care of the new threat itself, without our help.

Regardless of whether or not the other race here will choose to ally with us in the coming conflict, we need to eliminate the two newcomers if we are to push further into the Galaxy. It would, however, be easier if the other race here would ally with us.

And so on.

Would be really fun.

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

Ahhh! Head pain. Tell me you're not labouring under the delusion that Bungie came up with those things. They existed a wee while before Halo, trust me. Go pick up a Banks novel some time (and they probably existed prior to him as well).

Not trying to come down on you or anything, but that irritates me. It irritates me enough to make me delurk. That much.

Um. Time for something positive, methinks.

- Formula based tech levels. Good, so long as they don't result in ridiculous power inflation
- Real-Time battles. Oh yes. Oh yes oh yes oh yes. But slow real time. A spaceship that weighs a million tons or so is going to steer like a cow. Plus, players need time to strategise, even in real-time.
- Better yet, no seams between the battle and system screens. Have everything in real time. Let ships move in and out of the battle zone. Reinforcements, retreats; moving lines of battle. Delaying tactics while a fleet gathers around home world.
- No redundancies. Or, at least tone the problem down a little. Yes, new tech is going to make your smaller ships obselete. But, turning a ship of the line in its prime into a jumped up shuttle craft with a turn of the ship construction tech is a bit irritating. Not to mention urrealistic. Smaller ships should be good for some things.
- Like speed. Implement newtonian physics; if a big mother of a carrier wants to outrun a tiddly gunboat it better have a hell of a lot of engines. And link chance to hit to transversal velocity; if they're faster they can dodge better.
- And cheaper. Obviously the power : cost ratio should improve with each generation, but it should be cheaper and faster to build smaller ships- enough to make a difference.
- Sublight interstellar travel; yes, please
- Ground combat. Ever play superpower 2? [censored] game, but interesting world view. It was a globe that you could rotate as you wish. If you balanced things right, you could have people managing a ground war and a space battle at the same time. And if you could make it fun at the same time, that would be grand.

And I'm done. I don't think I've justified half of that, though...

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

It will only inflate your modding power by ridiculous amounts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
If you want damage to go up proportional to the square of the tech level, sure. If you want diminishing returns on a sine wave curve, go for it.

As for the rest, much of that is moddable into SE4.
QNP is a somewhat popular feature. (You either love it or hate it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif) Keeps small ships relatively useful, automatically scales fuel use to ship size, and lets you customize your speed/weapon/shield percentages to whatever balance is called for by the strategic situation.

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

I am NOT thinking that Bungie made up the fricking idea of Halo... I just like the name. And, in actuality, such a ringworld WOULD probably be called a "Halo" regardless of Bungie. And it also adds a bit of variety. See: "Dyson Spheres are massively upscaled Sphereworlds." "Halo Ring Worlds are massively upscaled Ringworlds." And: "Ringworlds are massively upscaled Ringworlds." What the CRAP am I talking about in my last sentence?!? I'm not a follower of the Haloist religion
(that's what I call people addicted to Halo) nor do I worship Bungie. I've never even PLAYED Halo!

I've also used these names (Halo Ring World, Dyson Sphere) in the Capship Mod, simply because I like them better than the standard names.

And IF you have (the option to select) real-time combat/gameplay, why not implement FULLY Newtonian propulsion? That big Super Star Destroyer is slow when it starts up, but give it enough time and it will accelerate to a greater speed than a Hunter Assault Craft (NOT stolen from Metroid, the Hunter is the fastest ship in Capship) at start. However, it will not slow down that fast - and maneuverability will also decrease. For straight-line journies, you could be accelerating up to halfway, and decelerating for the rest of the way. That's realistic. (In "The Cassini Division" a ship flying from Earth (orbit) to Jupiter needed to accelerate half the journey, and decelerate the other half.) Would also allow massive carrier motherships and super-battleships to outrun small hunter-killer craft if they simply keep accelerating. Also, you could use this method for sublight interstellar travel. Say, the Galaxy's warp points are approximately crescent-shaped, and your enemy's home system is just three squares away from yours in the galaxy map, but you'll need dozens of warp jumps to get there, and his borders are well defended. Now, let's also assume that stellar manipulation is out of the question. You could simply build five super-battleships and have them moving to the enemy home system from the rear. Surprise attack. Probably'll knock him down for years.

In accordance with the above, let's not make the galaxy system-based - let's just make it one big system map, with sectors. You would still have warp points, but short-range interstellar distances could be traversed with sublight ships. Would IMO be fun.

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

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but... All indications from Malfador have been that interstellar travel in SE5 will still be dependent upon the classic SE warp points. No other form of interstellar travel will likely be available... :-|

Isn't "halo ring world" redundant? You are saying ring twice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

I think Halo or The Halo is a good name for a ring world, but not a good interchangeable term.

Also, just some thoughts.. did anyone else think the Halo ring world was reallyreally small? It would have to be spinning ridiculously fast to keep from having to use gravity generators of some kind, wouldn't it? To say nothing of maintaining an artificial sun! (I've only played the original Halo; when it came out on PC. *shrug*)

Also, I wouldn't expect an empire building game using newtonian propulsion any time soon; strategy and tactics are far too dependent on it and extremely tough for an AI to handle...

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

Well then, maybe newtonian propulsion for SEVIIIhttp://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Halo Ring World... well, I just like the name. "Halo" or "Halo World" is... well, less... how do I explain it? I dunno. I just like the term "Halo Ring World" better.

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

Oh and btw maybe Malfador could incorporate interstellar travel (probably sublight (sleeper) ships, perhaps FTL travel like hyperspeed, warp drive, hyperspace and so on - hyperspace would also be cool, if used as in SW: with a whole new Universe where ships travel through and could collide with "shadows" of real world objects, perhaps even fights in hyperspace would be possible - where hyperspace would get severely diturbed in that area. Or perhaps ships could suddenly drop out of hyperspace somwhere entirely NOT where they're supposed to be. And so on.) in SEVI or SEVII. Perhaps SEVIII.

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

Well, I was just thinking, maybe something could be set up where using a warp point drops a ship out of the game for x turns; that would probably help pseudo-ftl a bit.

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

Sorry. My brother is a Halo fanatic, whereas I'm left wondering exactly how much more bland you could make a setting if you tried. So I jump at the first sign of Bungisms. Bungisms? Bungeisms?

Um. Weren't Dyson Spheres built around black holes? Nevermind.

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

The original Dyson Sphere requires a sun; the theory is that if you put enough orbital habitats around it you cant see it anymore.

It just sounded cool so it got slapped on all similar concepts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20010702.html

Dyson spheres.

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

Feedback Loops. Say, for example, shields. If an enemy weapon hits a feedback loop shield, there is a chance that a successfil feedback loop will occur and a certain amount of damage will be done to the weapon that hit the shields. Say:
-Feedback Loop Shield I: 10% chance to deliver 10pts of damage to the weapon that hit the shields.
-Feedback Look Shield II: 20% chance to inflict 15pts of damage.
-Feedback Loop Shield III: 30% chance to inflict 25pts of damage.
Somewhere along the line (probably lvl III or IV) the tree will split, into shields that deliver more damage (Type Is) and shields that will have a greater chance of damaging (Type IIs). This will continue until:
-Type I Feedback Loop Shield [%RomanNumeral]: 60% chance to inflict 100pts of damage.
-Type II Feedback Loop Shield [%RomanNumeral]: 100% chance to inflict 60pts of damage.
And perhaps it would not stop at shields. Perhaps also armor, certain weapons, or certain power cores. But ONLY if it was THAT component that got hit.

Hypothetical situation: I have a ship with no intrinsic offense modifiers and a Combat Sensors III. It is fighting a ship with 100% defense minus. That would give me 165% to hit chance. But the game only shows 99%! I want my 66% extra to hit chance! How? Well, critical hits! Percentages above 100 (or 99) would count as a percent chance to inflict a critical hit. These could be, for example:
-Double damage to the shields.
-Piercing armor.
-Taking out a certain component outright.
-1.5 times the damage.
-Blowing up all the engines in one shot, inflicting collateral damage too.
And so on. I would CERTAINLY appreciate it if at least you would have the ability to mod these into SEV. And you could perhaps even be able to mod your own critical hits, similar to Weapon Damage Types. You could create a critical hit type (with low chance to occur) that would only take out the bridge or master computer. You could create a critical hit that simply pierces the ship right through, destroying 4 armor, 2 outer hull and 1 inner hull component. Think:
[|][|] 2 armor pierced by the weapon.
[oo] 1 outer hull comp pierced.
[xx] 1 inner hull comp pierced.
[oo] 1 outer hull comp pierced.
[|][|] 2 armor pierced.
Or a critical hit type that would automatically destroy a certain amount of tonnage (think blasting a warp nacelle loose from an ST ship, or destroying one of the "claws" on a Xi'Chung ship), or one that would cause a lot of damage to a certain type of component (think aiming for the engine block, or for the lateral fighter bays). The possibilities are HUGE, and would be fun - a small craft could turn the tables on a massive Dreadnought by taking out its bridge and auxiliary control in one lucky hit, effectively crippling it, giving it the ability to stay at long range and pound the Dreadnought from a safe distance.

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

MightyPenguin, I like you idea about ground combat. What could also be cool is that by clicking and selecting on a colony, it could unfold into a map where you can play out ground combat.
Also an idea for ground combat, is that depending on the characteristics of a world, it can affect where facilities can be built, how the world looks like(eg. world is 70% water and 30% land, so there must be parts of the world that are not connected, so you may need dropships to transport from one continent to another; also if the world is forested, there will be trees that can hinder troop movement depending on density, or icy world which makes it slippery for movment; you get the idea).
So please let there be a great ground combat. It would add a lot to the game.

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

I've always thought that plagues never happened often enough and they weren't very complex. Simply 'outbreak on planet x', send medical ship to planet 'plague cured', the end. Plagues go down for the count wwwaaayyy to easy.

Here's an idea: 2 different types of pathogens, say plagues and viruses, just to add some diversity. Next they all have different levels, so level 20 plague/virus is much deadlier than level 5 plague/virus. There'll be a 'death'(can't think of the right word at the moment) factor which indicate what number or what % of population dies. Also, an evolution factor, depending on the level, the plague/virus mutates at different rates. So at level 1, mutation factor could be every 5.0 years (very easy to kill), but if left untreated after 5 years, it would mutate into level 2 and its 'death' factor and mutation factor also change to make it slightly more deadly. Of course, the game wouldn't start off given you a level 20 plague with a 'death' factor of 0.15 and mutation factor of 0.5 years.
In turn, this means that medical technology would also have to change. Different types of facilities to find cures at different rates(this could be stackable to get bonus antibiotic/antiviral shots.) So there can be an element of urgency where you have to discover a cure for a certain level plague/virus before it mutates or the vaccine you discover is useless and you have to keep on studying to catch up. That's why it will be good to stack the abilities of the facilites.

You see, reading a Biology textbook has more uses than just for academic knowledge. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

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

Weapons that can only target certain ship sizes. In Capship, I've created several anti-capship weapons - meant as fire-support against capital warships, but there's no reason why you wouldn't simply use them on an Attack Scout to destroy it in one shot.

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

note : smallest capship (capital warship) in Capship is 4500kT. Attack Scouts are 200kT

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

Plagues and viruses? Plagues, viruses, bacteria, environmental medical conditions (i.e. frostbite and such), chemical waste accidents, spaceborne diseases, etc. etc. etc.

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

Btw, one question: it's been said that the max poly limit for ships is 1500. But is it possible to create a ship with more polys and have the game load it, at the cost of tactical combat FPS?

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

That usually holds true for other games so I'd say it's a definite maybe. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

Ok, thnx http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I've never made any shipsets and don't plan to make any soon, not only because of my massive lack of design software (the program that approaches it the best on my PC is Paint) but simply because I do not have enough inspiration (yet). Just wondering. In another thread, someone (I think it was AT) said he'd been working on a ship (Battlecruiser of some race or other, I think) and that the poly count was waaay off. Another person said he'd been working on a Terran battlecruiser and it had 150,000 polys and still it wasn't finished. I just hope that these huge (in poly count) ships will still be able to be used by SEV.

So AT, you could start making Star Trek shipsets in earnest! (Not that the ones in existance now aren't relevant, I just mean that you can make full-3D ST ships... can't wait to see a Jraenar dreadnought face off against an Excelsior or Sovereign class starship and see them flying around each other, admiring them from EVERY angle... (the admiring mainly goes for the Excelsior or Sovereign, but what the heck.))

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

So is the number low by comparison of other games...like for example SFC 1, 2, 2:OP?

Kana

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

Here's some examples:
UT 2003 - 3000
HL2 - 7500
ST: Armada 2 - 1000

As you can see, the more modern games push more polies. So the answer is yes, the limit is a little low.