[nihilix]

Hey MarkY - I'm one of the Fearless Testers and I want to thank you for the well thought out, comprehensive list of things you'd like changed. That's an awful lot of thinking and typing and consideration there. Thanks.


"1) Large ships need to automatically stop at optimal firing range when they are targetting an enemy ship."

First off - your complaint about the 'avoidance AI' is very common, and I get the feeling that in maybe 1.2 it will be addressed. But what is optimal range? If I have a frigate with the multi-missile, the positron ray, and the plasma torch, which would stop me? And if I were just flying around and a fighter got in my range, I'd hate to be stopped while I had a capital ship I was chasing.

Good catch, I don't like the solution.

"The current system is incredibly annoying in part because often my ships move so slowly that I'm inclined to use the fast-forward option, which about 25% of the time winds up causing me to lose because of turning away."

Try spreading out your fleet a bit.

"2) The races seem a little too similar right now."

The Zorg and the Mukts are possible ally races, and you can get their ships. Kinda similar.

The Tan Ru will never be your friend.

The Garthans and the Urlu are 'cloak-able' and otherwise pissy.

The Tchorak are wierd.

The combat differences do make for some additional variation, but I guess this has never bothered me because I'm not expecting radical differences.

"3) There is a (modest) glitch involving the mirror that I found"

I *****ed about that one too! I suspect that will be patched.


"4) As others have mentioned, the wish interface probably should be retooled."

The Timeless Bauble... yeah, it sux to have a unique item not show up if it's already on the map. As a SAIS player, I was amused with two different hyperdrives - can't I replace one with the other and that one will be ready to move?

I'd rather that he give you a 'do over' with unique items. "Sorry, friend, that item is already in the collection of someone else. Is there anything else you wish?"

"5) The player's fleet should start closer to the derelict ships."

GREAT idea. It's not like you can't take your time to arrange your fleet otherwise.


"6) The rules on retreating aren't totally clear, and I feel like I've been "cheated" a couple of times (i.e., I said to retreat, my ships didn't retreat, and I got killed)."

I agree - and the biggest problem is cloaked enemies. This is a tough programming task - how do you determine if you can flee. If you're encircled by Urlu, you can fly into range as you run. Actually, the Urluqai are probably 90% of the problems I have with fleeing.

"7) Ripcord O'Reilly is an inside joke, I gather, but right now the only thing he seems able to do is fly quickly to derelict ships."

He does do that well, you'll have to admit.

Ripcord is a little underpowered - you CAN, however, upgrade his shield and gun with some of them (you can go up to electron shield and I really like the fusion rocket launcher.) I think he's got a great turn radius, and is fast. I would dearly love him to have just one other system slot, however.

"8) Folding seems very unbalanced as is."

It does take a little time, and on a large map with a lot of nebula, it can be really limited. (stars are farther apart)

"9) The rules for guns seem fairly opaque right now."

I snipped your 'coffeebreak games' comment earlier, but here I disagree with you. Knowing combat effects is one of the best long-term rewards of the game.

Compare with solitare. You may know better what patterns you can move, but the cards are still the cards. In this game, as you enjoy the relatively repeating elements (ok, the 8 tan ru ships again) you can find little things that get you that much closer to satori (ie, your positron ray can hit them without being close enough to get them to stop following Ripcord, as you pound them into flaming space dust.)

And the designers intended to not have 'combat value' 'range' etc. on the weapons. The drives are a counterexample of this.

"10) Building off #9, combat in general feels a little wonky right now. It seems like I never am faced with an opponent I can beat until I can beat almost every opponent I would face."

Most everyone - including Penny Arcade - has commented on this. As you get better at combat and understanding what enemies are like, you find more space in the mushy middle. For instance, a fighter with an ion thruster and a frigate with the standard loadout can take 1) All Garthans, 2) Any Muktians without frigates and any Zorg without fighters, 3) Almost no Tchorak (except maybe the single little one), 4) Any Tan Ru except for Decimators, and 5) A few Urluqai, depending on setup (never with Deep Hunters, unless you're super sneaky and lucky as all get out.)

"11) I don't understand why there is a store on Glory. The guns are always redundant with what you've got, you don't have money to splurge on them anyway, and by the time you do, you've got much better weapons. What gives?"

There are very few odd-coined items in the game (well, lots of ones). The store at Glory is good for stashing stuff if you have the hyperdrive and no hold, for getting a fighter a fusion rocket launcher, and making change if you're trying to maximize your score at the end.

"12) Esmerelda is a real headache as is."

Yep. I love to hate her. Grrrr.

"13) The scoring system seems too opaque right now."

It is. Coins tell you what it's worth to you in your final score, so the 5 coin artifact is better than the 1 coin animal. The coin values change (you'd probably noted that) according to who you have.

Here's a tester hint - go open the .ini files, if you want numeric values for the scores. Someone should prolly be posting a list of these soon here or at the ISF board soon.

But yeah, scoring should maybe be tweaked.

Thanks again for the comments - hope I've shed some light.