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.