Feature requests
 

Got ideas, big or small? Put them here.

Re: Feature requests
 

Well, I do have a few ... sort of. I mean, some of them will probably look as if they are half-feature-requests and half-complaints, so I have no idea if they actually can be called “feature requests”.

Nevertheless, this is what I have, as far as requests go:

• Would it be possible to get an option of sorts that would disable item auto-installing when buying? Or maybe something like shift + corresponding letter to buy without equipping? I mean, it's not really necessary as it is, but in early game (and possibly later, I count sector 13 as early game) getting enough materials for crafting anything means doing a few trips and buying whatever cheap items there are, and changing the equipment back after every single station visit quickly gets a bit ... tedious, so to say.

• Would it be possible to get a hotkey for auto-shooting? Something like “v”, maybe, as it's near “f” and seemingly not used for anything. I mean, yes, I know it's just 1 key press less ... but when surrounded by hordes of puny monsters that multiply that 1 key less gets multiplied many, many times (and yes, I got an idea for that request after this one trip to a spaceship wreck infested with some weird eyes that multiplied until the end of time).

• Is there any chance of planets with caves getting notes or marks of some sort that are visible on the sector map, or maybe when being over the planet? It's not a big deal for the most part, but those who are completionists will try to go back to get all the caves cleaned once they get enough oxygen in the suits to do that, but flying like a moron over all the planets and landing on every single one just because there might have been a cave quickly gets boring.

And that's it for now. Maybe I'll get more ideas after playing more, or something.


PS. I know I'm just being mean now and all that, but there's a typo in the manual. In at least one place (only noticed that one, didn't read the whole thing) there's a word “effect” that instead should have been “affect”. But I'm only mentioning that ... I don't know, for the sake of completion, I guess. Most people probably wouldn't have problems with that typo anyway.

Re: Feature requests
 

Wow, Kazeto, for 'complaints' and 'mean', you sound pretty reasonable ;)

Anyway, when I saw you mention 'typo', I was mortified. Until I noticed it was about 'effect'. You may be technically correct (which is the best kind of correct), but I gave up on trying to tell those 2 words apart a long time ago.

Auto-Install:
I have noticed the same behavior when collecting crafting components. There's no reason we can't add an option for that.

Auto-Shoot Hot Key:
That was my intention with the "page-down" key. It is easily accessible from the numpad area, and not used for anything else. I feel like 'v' is slated for something...

Planet/Cave Note:
It is conceivable. But questions arise... Do you just want to know the existence of caves? Or how deep you've gone? What if you've reached the bottom? What if you have explored some, but not all?
- We would need the ability to very quickly calculate those variables, and to display them in an easy-to-understand and not-overbearing way...

This is exactly the kind of thing that this thread is here for.
Thanks!
Bob

Re: Feature requests
 

Ibol/Kazeto,
Perhaps cave stats (all the ones Ibol mentioned are awesome!) could be part of a tooltip that would pop up when the mouse is over the planet.

Or maybe you could have a Captain's Log component where we can keep a log/notes as we explore. Even a log that allowed one entry per sector would be helpful. There could even be a right click action when over a planet or a cave entrance that would be "record this in the log" if having a freeform log would cause too many save game problems.

I've already done the "I remember their being a planet with an unexplored cave a few sectors back" and have to go to all the sectors and land on most of the planets to make sure I got all the caves. That cost a few thousand credits for the satisfaction of having gotten everything (except the green and brown, irradiated?, planet since I haven't found a suit that is strong enough to handle that.)

Re: Feature requests
 

BTW,
It's probably too late for the manual but here is a good article for effect (which is a noun) vs affect (which is a verb). Even that article makes it clear that knowing which word to use is not always easy to discern.

Re: Feature requests
 

Funny thing is, I noticed because it was that particular word. And even that only because I once spent a week arguing with some stubborn moron on another forum about it; the guy ended up alienating pretty much everyone else who posted in that particular thread (long story, really) and I ended up remembering it. So yeah ...

In any case, there's the guide Cyberis had posted, which generally works as “effect” is usually a noun; sometimes it's a verb though, but in all of those cases you can use either “cause” or “produce” instead (so it needn't ever really be used as a verb).

But I'm digressing so I'll stop that before I get annoying.


I guess, optimally, display if there are any cave levels, and if yes then if there are any that are not yet entered. So there would be three possible statuses:

1) No cave. No additional text.
2) Cave, fully explored. Additional text, something like “Fully explored cave” or just “Explored cave”.
3) Cave, with any levels not yet entered. Additional text, something like “Unexplored cave”, or even just “Cave”.

Mind you, keeping it simple would still work (for the most part, people do remember something about the cave being somewhere and about the cave not yet being explored, so unless they stop playing for a few days (or more; many people have good enough memories to remember bits like that for weeks even) just a simple information about caves being there likely would suffice.

And in the same vein, a detailed information about the cave could be used too. But then again, that one might spoil how many cave levels there are (assuming they are not essentially infinite; with mere 120 oxygen I can't really check that yet), and if there's a cave with just 1 spot blocked some people will go crazy ... it's easy enough to get crazy over the 99% exploration on planets with “urban” setting and blocked tiles, at least until that can be seen through.

Re: Feature requests
 

Kazeto,
I have been to the bottom of some pretty deep caves (11 levels) and every cave I've found so far does have a definite bottom. A few caves have only been one level deep.

Re: Feature requests
 

Early in the Beta, truly infinite caves existed.

Then, later, there was an exploit which would allow you to make caves keep going after a 'reward' level was generated. I assume those were also effectively infinite, as long as you kept the exploit going.

As soon as I get my copy, I'll see whether that is still in the game.

Re: Feature requests
 

+1 for the "Captains Log" idea. Right now im using wordpad to make small notes for every system (caves, lots of asteroids for mining etc.)Would be cool to have something like this integrated into the game itself.

Re: Feature requests
 

Unsure if this has been requested. But at the death (or end) of a game, I would love to see all my actions spat out to a text file or some sort of mission log that I could save and read for later. The cool thing about this game is that YOU REALLY ARE creating your own story. Would love to go back and read these stories.

Re: Feature requests
 

+1 - Being able to see the highlights would be great. I saw something like this at the end of Gunpoint where a couple of paragraph log entry was created that summarized the players performance. Being able to see a chronological list of sectors visited, planets explored, officers killed, quests completed would allow for the role playing aspect of the game to be strengthened.

Re: Feature requests
 

As your ship gets better and you install better reactors, you get to install more devices. However, the away party can only use one device (usually starting with Hand Scanners) no matter how good the suit or how many Away Team specials you get. As you get better suits, you should be able to use more of the devices, so some of the more interesting ones will not be abandoned in favor of the common ones (hand scanners and the various walkers).

Re: Feature requests
 

Another idea that is similar to JimSB (i.e. better suits, more simultaneous devices - which I +1) is better storage of those devices on board ship. I would like to either be able to: 1) store those at a base (perhaps for the low, low fee of 1 credit per 1000 turns per item) or 2) be able to install an Away Team Locker ship device that would suddenly make all away team gear fit in a single cargo slot. In either case, it's a challenge to have any cargo space when your away team has 6 - 10 devices.:smirk:

Re: Feature requests
 

Isn't this what crafting is for? During my games i mainly dismantle away team stuff i don't need and just rebuild it whenever neccessary.

Re: Feature requests
 

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing that. Now that you point it out, it's sort of obvious but never occurred to me.:doh: Just have to keep track of the needed parts to avoid consuming them in experiments.

-Dubious-

Re: Feature requests
 

I'm really enjoying the game so far! But I did have a few feature requests:

1) Dynamic music. I love the soundtrack, but right now it just plays all the tracks in order and then starts over. I'd love to have the music depend on where I am in the game (i.e. ambient tracks in space, frozen planet track on frozen planets, etc.). When I was listening to the soundtrack outside of the game I realized how each track really fits the place it's named after, so it would be nice if those matched in-game. But I have no idea how hard this would be to code. And I guess it could mean that the music tracks change a lot if players are flying around and landing on lots of planets.

2) I'd love an easier way to see what type of planet my spacesuit is suitable for. Right now it's hidden away on the stats screen, but it would be nice if it was listed on the suit itself (or maybe just on the tooltip for it). Also it would be nice to see what type of planets those "unexplored planets" are on the warp screen, so I know if my new suit is good enough to go explore them.

3) As others said, it would be cool to eventually be able to get more than one away team device at a time. Maybe some high-level spacesuits could have built-in devices, kind of like the different ships with their built-in devices?

That's it for now, thanks for the great game!

Re: Feature requests
 

Just popping in after a week of the flu. Man, was I out of it.
Looks like stuff is pretty status quo, but i'll respond to some of Waltorious' comments:

0. Glad you like it! thanks :)

1. You're right, the tracks really do fit the areas; that is just excellent design on the part of the composer. the reason for the music playing the way it does is the last one you mentioned: I switch areas pretty quickly, and I just keep hearing 10-30 seconds of a song, and then switch to another one, which annoyed me.

2. displaying suit suitability is a great addition to the tooltip upgrade. thanks. (did you know there was a tooltip upgrade?)

3. There are already suits that come with powers. They become available after sector 20-25, and become more common the further you go. You can also find artifacts that provide suit powers, tho that is up to chance. There must be balance, there must be choice. You will never have everything at once (probably), but you can get a decent assortment of abilities.

Bob

Re: Feature requests
 

Hmm... I wonder if that might be improved with crossfades and/or careful decisions about when to switch tracks? For example, most players probably stop at space stations for very short periods of time, so a separate music track for stations probably doesn't make sense. But for planets I think it might work, especially if there are caves. Another option might be to let whatever track is playing finish as normal, but then only start new tracks based on where the player is at that time. This would make repeated landings on the same planet (to heal up crew) not reset the track.

But it's not a huge deal, and might be more trouble than its worth. Thanks for the explanation though!

I did not know that there was a tooltip upgrade, but I'm glad to hear it! One other thing I'd love to have in the tooltip upgrade, by the way, is a tooltip for the officer skills when hiring officers from stations. Officer skills are tooltipped after you hire them, but not before, so I'd have to look up the skill in the manual to remember what it does.

Awesome, I'm glad you already had the same idea! I'll look forward to finding those.

I did think of one more suggestion: My away team is now packing hand scanners, which are awesome, but it means targeting enemies is tricky because it will often default to targeting enemies that I can't actually shoot, because they are behind cover. This means I have to switch through lots of targets before I can find the one that I'm actually able to shoot. Is it possible to change the targeting priority to check if an enemy is behind cover and give priority to those that are NOT behind cover? This would make fights simpler.

Thanks again for the great game, and I hope you are feeling better!

Re: Feature requests
 

+1 on targeting priority. I really like the hand scanners, they make exploring the planet quite a bit faster, but engaging enemies does become trickier since it doesn't distinguish those that can actually be attacked vs those that are behind cover.

Re: Feature requests
 

Robots

This isn't a simple tweak, more a complete new sub-system, but hey, you asked for ideas.

Here goes - have a selection of pre-made robots that you can send on planetary exploration missions instead of people. NASA can do this already and I miss R2D2 & C3PO not being there.

Robots don't need oxygen although you'd need a specially hardened robot for a toxic atmosphere.

Perhaps they could have a 'mechanical reliability' readout/bar instead of oxygen. Travelling over rough terrain depletes the bar. Once it reaches 0 the robot fails and can only be retrieved by humans. Robots have a mechanical durability rating (like a suit oxygen rating), some being more adept at handling broken terrain than others.

Robots are inherently less versatile than people and might perhaps only move orthogonally.

Robots types should each have limitations. You'd want to use them to take risks that your landing party would normally be exposed to but on the other hand you don't want them to be as capable as human party.

For example;

Scout 'bot: Can investigate only, can't collect any goodies, can't attack creatures. Great at getting an idea of what's out there and where it is.

Biology 'bot: Will stun creatures and gather science data from them using all manner of probes and samplers. Ignores anything other than the native lifeforms. Doesn't show goodies.

Science 'bot: Will hunt out any goodies and collect them. Creatures are effectively invisible to them or perhaps just show as a generic, all purpose 'lifeform' icon.

Military 'bot: will automatically shoot anything that moves (including bunnies). Send them in to clear out the creepy crawlies. Will blaze away happily until they run out of ammunition.

When a robot is exploring the surface the map could show up as grayscale or infra-red like to drop the visual feedback down a notch and to give you a sense of immersion of sitting in your landing shuttle and looking at the feed sent from your 'bot.

Every now and then the link will go on the fritz (planetary or atmospheric interference) and the screen shows white noise for a turn.

Or maybe something big and nasty just ate your 'bot.

Cheers,
PLugger

Re: Feature requests
 

PLugger,
I think that robots would change the mechanics of the game too much without much payoff. Redshirts (i.e. non-officer crew) are pretty much robots now and suits/oxygen and officer inclusion are the primary ways to tweak their basic stats. So, I'm not sure that robots would add anything essential and would make an accessible game more complicated. That's just my two cents worth.

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi, Plugger, and welcome!

That seems like a decently well thought out system. It certainly would require a lot of work, but I can see how certain things would be implemented.
It would give me a chance to write a pure AI, and the player would just watch what it does, possibly unable to control the bot. And the idea that they wouldn't be able to actually pick anything up is interesting in itself.

Perhaps something similar to that (though smaller and more focused/less universal) would eventually work itself into the game...

Unrelated update on the "captain's log" front:

Re: Feature requests
 

* smarter auto-explore - I've died too many times because the thing glitched and sent me to the other side of the map to run out of air.

* smarter auto-explore - Too many times I've been mangled/diseased and I'm heading to the shuttle to get healed when I run out of air. The logic then immediately sends me away from the shuttle to die (another) horrible death.

* smarter auto-explore - Protect the captain/officers and don't run off on a suicide mission. Avoid known/discovered hazards and plants when in automatic movement mode.

* turn safety back on when you leave a planet - Sometimes I freaking hate the bunnies with a passion and want to murder them all. That does NOT mean I want to target a friendly spaceship and get ganged up on. [Died twice that way.]

Re: Feature requests
 

Zircher,
I agree that if a feature, like auto-explore, is in a game, it should work well; OTOH, I don't use it -- I like the adventure of manually exploring stuff; otherwise, why play the game. I'd rather ibol spend that effort on other bugs or features that could enhance gameplay more generally.

I also don't tend to turn the safety off but if I did, I would want something very obvious to remind me that it was off. Maybe there could be a flashing message similar to when you are running out of O2 that reminds you of that or your suggestion of safety auto-disablement when switching from planet side to space and back. Or maybe when the safety is off and you have targeted a friendly the target reticle could turn green telling me it's a friendly or flash letting me know that I'm about to attack a friendly. Actually an IFF indicator (red for enemy, green for friendly, white for neutral, and flashing green red for targeting a friendly with the safety off) would be even better.

BTW, what do you have against the bunnies? :confused:

Re: Feature requests
 

Traffic hazard. On a difficult terrain map with twisty paths, bunnies can get you hurt or possibly killed (such as when running back to the shuttle with low HP and low on air or diseased -or- you're getting ganged up on by hostile natives and your escape path is blocked.) Did I mention that I die a lot in this game? :-)

Re: Feature requests
 

Zircher, please be aware, I have already begun reworking the auto-explore. I started on the first day we talked about it. It's certainly not done, but I've already made progress.

Those updates may or may not make it into the upcoming patch 1.0.1, which is being pre-tested now.

As far as safety... yes, perhaps there should be a quick and easy visual indicator as to whether it's on or off. I'll give you another 'perhaps': auto-turn-the-safety-back-on. Not a bad idea, but some players might find this intrusive... It used to be that you actually had to carefully select your targets with no safety at all...

maybe there should be a "safety per race" kind of thing, where it lets you set which races you will or won't target... decisions, decisions...
and lots of dots...

Re: Feature requests
 

How about being able to install at the shuttle on away team missions rather than having to return to orbit.

Re: Feature requests
 

JimSB,
I'd love that too but you have to admit there is an element of strategy involved when you have to do all of that in space rather than at the surface.

Re: Feature requests
 

Mad at my shuttle pilot, he landed on a cave entrance and obliterated it. Now if that would have put the shuttle on the first level of the cave, that would have been a hoot.

Good to hear that the patch is in the pipeline already. :-)

Re: Feature requests
 

It amazes me how many people are landing their shuttles on caves.
I believe I've fixed that, but I guess we'll see once you guys start flying around...

Re: Feature requests
 

It would be nice if when you are on fire entering a water space would put it out or wash the burning chemicals off.

Re: Feature requests
 

ok, but what if you stepped on liquid ethane/methane? (ok, I suppose those don't occur on oxy-atmo planets, so you might noy explode... would sure be a funny YASD though!)

Which brings to mind the fact: should you be able to burn on non-terran planets?! That never occurred to me before.

Re: Feature requests
 

If by burn you mean with flame (oxidation) I guess not but if you mean burn by a transfer of heat then I would suppose you could do that on any kind of planet.

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi,

It would be nice to be able to explore the Galaxy and not exterminate all forms of native life in the process.

If there was a 'stun gun' you could zap creatures, on planets, and they would turn into an icon, just like a commodity or item. You could then collect them in the same way and take them back to your landing shuttle.

They'd, just like a commodity, take up a cargo slot on your spaceship but as a living creature (in a force cage) they'd consume, say, 1 supply per turn while onboard. If you ran out of supplies on your spaceship you could, at a last resort, gobble up the critters but at a high risk of disease.

You could sell your biological specimens at Banker Stations. Perhaps only some of them accept biologicals, not all.

Prices would be randomly determined based on the level of the creature. But...the price you received would increase exponentially if you were selling a 'Set' of like creatures (eg. same sprite but different description, even if it's only a different name tag). The bigger the set the more the reward.

So now, in my ideal world, you could have a career as a collector of living biological specimens. You'd have an incentive to hunt down particular creature types and build up your sets. Kind of like a butterfly or big game collector of old who used to roam the wilds of Africa.

I'd imagine that this would be pretty straightforward to implement (unlike my previous idea of robots although I wasn't intending them to be autonomous) as it piggy backs off existing game mechanics.

You could finesse it by having an officer specialty ('Zoologist') who'd get you a better price for your critters and m-a-y-b-e having the occasional 'creature got loose onboard and killed some crew' situations unless you had a special 'secure Cage Containment' device onboard.

Not sure about the bunnies though. Zillions of different types. Would it be ethical to go bunny hunting? Maybe only evil bunnies. Perhaps if you took them to a certain embassy you'd get a great price 'cause they consider them a delicacy?

Or would that just be really bad karma.

Cheers,
Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi plugger.

Interesting how your mind works. I like it!

Cheers,

Re: Feature requests
 

Cyberis, thanks for the burning justification!

Plugger, wow! now that is an interesting idea. You are not the first to suggest non-violent means of survival (meaning that it is something players want)... And you even outlined in terms of things the game already does.
Nice!

Re: Feature requests
 

Got another idea. Been down to the cargo hold and cracked open the box of Narcotics marked 'Red Wine'. I think. Or it might have been 'Red Pills'. Red Something.

Planetary Events

A lot of the fun from tromping around unknown planets is managing your oxygen. Once you get a suit that negates the need to worry about this the challenge appears to drop off somewhat. You also spend a lot of time planet side so anything that serves to spice it up would be a plus, hence the idea of random planetary events.

I could think up bucket loads of these as could, I'm sure, anyone else. But I'll restrict mine to ones that meet the following criteria;

• Easy to implement (easy being a relative term given that I don't have to do it)
• Have a meaningful impact, eg. they're interesting
• Avoid randomly killing, or penalising, the player
• Gives the player scope to make a tough decision

The events would all follow a standard format. If the random gods decide that there was to be an event on this particular planet at this point in time then the player would receive a warning using the games existing pop-up message functionality, eg. 'The Away Team notices Earth Tremors'

The warning would be specific to the event and would give the player a heads up that something is, or could be, about to happen.

Mechanically once the pop-up warning is shown there would be a set time period of 'x' number of turns that would elapse where nothing is guaranteed to happen, eg. 5 turns.

After this, each turn there is a % probability of the event kicking in, eg. 2%.

The player, having received the warning, is effectively given a grace period to get out of dodge, if they want. After that the event is in the lap of the gods. A 5 turn grace period gives you enough time to make an immediate start back to the landing shuttle and, most likely make it safely. The low % chance of the event happening also gives the player scope to keep on keeping on gambling that it is unlikely to occur anyway, or that they'll finish what they came for before worrying about it. Push your luck stuff, that cranks up the tension.

Here's what I came up with for events. The Duration for all of them would be continuous until the Away team lifted off from the planet.

Meteorological Meltdown
Warning: 'The Landing Party have been contacted by their ship warning of an impending Storm'
Effect: Visibility drops to one or two squares regardless of scanners, suits etc. Fog of War over all map, even area's already traversed. Position of landing shuttle no longer marked on map (telemetry interference).

Radiation Roast
Warning: Ship warns of an impending stellar event that'll shower planet with radiation
Effect: All equipment has their tiny electronic brains fried to a crisp. Weapons (melee and ranged) and Devices stop working (auto repaired once back on the ship). Suits are considered shielded and will hold it together long enough to get to safety.

Shake and Bake
Warning: Away Team shaken by Earth Tremors
Effect: Earthquake! Landing shuttle damaged. Away Team will have to repair it in order to leave planet. Once they move onto the square with the Shuttle there is a % chance it'll be repaired each turn, say 10%. Got enough oxygen? There's also a 5% chance that Shuttle can't be repaired.

Shake and Bake if Away Team in a Cave
Effect: Fog of War throughout. Rockfalls, darkness, badness. Randomise location of entrance and exit from what they were before.

Exo Eclipse
Warning: A moon is moving to obscure the Sun
Effect: Nightfall! The landing map screen is shown in grayscale (Away team have switched to Infra-Red vision). Nocturnal creatures come out to play (All lifeforms on the map go up a notch in capability and lethality)

What's that Rattle?
Warning: Something appears to be wrong with your suits.
Effect: The Away Team suits start malfunctioning. Double oxygen use (2 units per turn, instead of 1)

If the idea was a goer you could even turn it into one of your modular text files where you could specify an event applying only to certain planet types.

+1 Persistence effect for reading this far.

Cheers,
Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

When I'm over {this}, I would like to see {that screen} displayed by default as follows:
* Bank Station: Cargo, alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.
* Planet/Ship Wreck: "Away Team Gear", alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.
* Anything else: "Installed Ship Components" (primarily for various CD status), alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.

Note: where "X" is "User Defined" and should include the option to choose a default screen with no alternation.

Additionally I would like to see the ability of assigning my own hot-keys to all "buttons" that do not already have one. Most especially for "Installed Ship Components", Cargo, "Ship Devices", and "Away Team Gear".

-Dubious-

Re: Feature requests
 

Plugger,
I put "zoologist" and "planetary events" in my notebook, meaning big ideas that I think would make the game better, and are within scope and possibility.

Zoology will most likely end up as a quest type (go get me X different kinds of Y species, and possibly requiring melee attacks)

Planetary events will be planned basically as you have outlined, and of course, modified by me.

If anyone has ideas for planetary events, I'd love to see them. I've added "flood" and "lava eruption".

Re: Feature requests
 

Geomagnetic storm during which your ranged attacks don't work
Gravity fluctuations on High Grav or dying planets which caused per move status damage
Meteor strike that obliterate areas of the planet, hopefully not where you are at.
Heavy lightning storms with possible damage to a square or two at a time obliterating loot or monsters, causing away party damage and if the shuttle is hit, disabling it for a few turns (no OX, no takeoff)

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi,

Here are a few more Planetary events.

What's up with Smith?
Warning: Ensign Smith has a bad twitch
Effect: The stress, the stress. Ensign Smith loses the plot and kills half the away team (rounded up) before finishing himself off.

There is something Big out there
Warning: The Away Team notice unusual tracks. Bigfoot?
Effect: A big, scary monster (way overpowered for the level) spawns behind the Away Team (between them and their landing shuttle). No warning is given of the monster spawning.

Who said we are lost?
Warning: Magnetic anomalies have been detected
Effect: The Away Team have become navigationally challenged. The landing shuttle is randomly relocated and it's position isn't shown (unless within LOS) for a number of turns to reflect the Away Team having to reorientate and find their bearings.

The sensor is on the blink
Warning: Sensors are detecting a lot of movement
Effect: A whole bunch of new monsters suddenly spawn on the map (say the standard spawn repeated twice). They may have been camouflaged or have been hidden. Who knows? But now they are here and they look hungry.


I'd second the inclusion of hot keys for the items listed by Dubious.

Cheers,

Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

Once in a while perhaps an adversaries ship might not blow up and disappear, when defeated, but become a wreck instead that can be boarded and explored.

Re: Feature requests
 

I think this is a great idea, yuppers I sure do!

Cheers!

Re: Feature requests
 

I really like this idea as well.

Also, I would love to see a "Hall of Fame" for victorious captains, and perhaps "Shame" for those killed in action. If you really want to make it awesome you could include a link to all of the end game pages that pop up. If you've ever played Dungeons of Dredmore, it has a HoF list that boils everything down to score. Since there's so much information in AI I think it would be difficult to give a "score" to summarize how well a particular game went, hence why a link to the end game screens would be helpful.

Re: Feature requests
 

Here's the development reason why ships don't blow up and leave a shipwreck:
because I don't "individuals" from each race, like pirates, gruff, tentaculons, etc.

Shipwrecks should be populated, and you would expect them to be crewed by the appropriate race.

So, David,
wanna talk about making some new enemy sprites? Sounds like fun!

[EDIT:]
Here's what David did within an hour of hearing this, so I guess you better look out!

Re: Feature requests
 

I like the ideas for zoology and planetary events. Glad to know I'm not the only one who tries to leave those poor creatures alone!

Regarding planetary events, however, I'd love to see some positive ones too, that might benefit the player. Or maybe some that are risk-reward, so there's a chance of great danger but also of nicer loot, or something. Otherwise I worry that players will simply want to skip planets that have events, if all they are is a chance for disaster.

Actually, anything that differentiates the planet types more would be cool. Right now most of them feel the same, just with a better spacesuit needed to access them. I think it would be cool to include things that are akin to "vaults" in traditional roguelikes that can appear, but only on certain planet types. Chances for extra treasure or other benefits, but with some risk involved. I know there are some things in the game like this already (a bunch of equipment on a planet surface that indicates a wreck / dead landing party that had been here before me, or certain special levels in caves, for example), but more would be cool. Also planet types could perhaps have different kinds of wildlife to go along with different types of resources or treasure.

One way to do this might be to make different types of caves for different types of planets. Frozen caves might have different dangers and treasures than molten caves, for example.

I don't know how much work this stuff would be to implement, however, so some of the ideas are probably out of scope.

EDIT: Just remembered... I initially found it odd that all planets have life on them. Maybe some planet types wouldn't have any wildlife but would be filled with more environmental hazards? Or at least would have a chance for this to be the case?

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi,

That's a good point.

Perhaps, once an event has triggered, and once the honeymoon period is over, any officer in the Away Team has a strong chance (75%) of gaining an extra experience point per turn (or something similar as I'm not sure how the XP algo works - perhaps the % chance of XP gain could be proportional to the severity of the coming event).

It kind of makes sense that you learn the most in times of crisis and a looming event would require strong leadership skills.

Now you'd have an incentive to stick around for a while - rapid experience gain. Off course you are still planetside and things might go pear shaped but it'd make for a some tense exploration.

If the event occurred you'd could also benefit from increased scientific knowledge and XP, depending on the event and subject to the Away Team making it back alive.

Cheers,
Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

You know what I like about ibol? his sense of humor,.. it amuses me LOL

Cheers!

P.S. now if ships blow up and don't (occasionally) turn into shipwrecks,.. [Han Solo voice] "It's not my fault!" :P

Re: Feature requests
 

More XP and more data during events could work. But I think it would be interesting if different events had different benefits. So let's say the earthquake event means more resources spawn, since the ground is breaking up. Or the events that spawn a powerful creature (or swarm of creatures) also mean that those creatures are carrying some cool treasure, so it might be worth the risk to try and fight them.

Alternatively, there could be some events that are only bad but other events that are only good, to balance things out. These could even be corollaries to the ideas already mentioned in this thread: suits use less oxygen (1 point per 2 moves), fewer monsters spawn, etc.

Also I came up with one idea for an event: Acid Rain. This increases the planet's ambient damage level (which means if you have a really awesome spacesuit you can still resist it) but also makes the wildlife go hide, so there are fewer creatures to fight. And maybe the away team could take shelter in a cave, but there are more creatures in the cave because they are hiding from the rain?

Re: Feature requests
 

New 'terrain' type: crashed ship. Mix regular terrain with broken-up ship wreck layouts with an extra helping of electrical and radiation trouble. Maybe even a sporadically operating laser fence. Also an extra chance of rescuing a crew member.