Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

... the ability to determine how many facilities are to be upgraded at one swell-foop when a new tech level is reached. It may seem trivial but actually isn't - not to me at any rate.

For example: I always research Applied Research (to get Research Facility II) as my first tech right from the get-go. When I go to upgrade the Homeworld(s) - all 10 facilities are placed in the queue. Upgrading 10 facilities takes time. I'd like to be able to choose how many to upgrade so that I can stick something else in the queue (or in the middle) that is also important.

Yeah - I build a base space yard rather quickly - but they're slow too.

Re: Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

This is one side of the problem caused by the inconsistency between building and upgrading. You can only build one facility at a time, but you can only upgrade all or none. Argh... Why can't we build multiple facilities like we can with units, or as you suggested, why can't we upgrade one or a few at a time? Being able to build more than one facility at a time would make ringworlds and sphereworlds actually useful. Being able to upgrade a certain number at a time would make it possible to upgrade when your 'budget' is tight and you don't have a lot of reserves.

Re: Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

Yes it would be good to be able to upgrade single facilities. It would also really help (in some mods, anyway, which have different costs for different levels of facilities) to be able to upgrade not only to the highest available level of a facility.

I don't think I agree with the comment that "Being able to build more than one facility at a time would make ringworlds and sphereworlds actually useful." Certainly those things are already extremely useful, once they are actually completed.

PvK

Re: Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

The key phrase is 'once they are completed'... how many years does it take to fill a Ringworld or Sphereworld? Many. If you could build 5 or 10 facilities of the same type at once it would be much easier to finish one once you got a signifigant level of population.

[ July 22, 2002, 01:08: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

I just meant it was a big exaggeration to say they weren't useful, because clearly they are, since you can combine planet-wide facilities, population effects, and defenses all in one massive colony. The fewer spaceports, mineral scanners, robot factories, planetary grav shields, value improvement plants, and so on that need to be built and guarded, the better. They also prevent the sun from going nova.

PvK

P.S. What I meant by "once they are completed" was the time and effort required to create the artificial world in the first place. The nova prevention is useful immediately, as is the ability to store massive amounts of units and to start building massive amounts of facilities and build up a massive population, where before all there was was a star.

[ July 21, 2002, 22:04: Message edited by: PvK ]

Re: Something I\'d like to see in the game is ...
 

A sphereworld has either 200 or 240 facility slots in the unmodded game. It will take somewhere near 600 turns to fill that up.

What would be much nicer is to give the ability to turn off the one ship, or one facility per turn restriction in build queues for modders. When players get to the level where they can build sphereworlds, I _want_ them to be able to churn out multiple dreadnoughts per turn.