[grumbler]

Originally posted by jimbob:
Suggestions from SEIV B5 beta test:

Oh, I liked this mod a great deal. However, here are some of my suggestions to make the game better. Sorry this is so long, but it's got most of my ideas/input/observations.

This is exactly the kind of input needed. Thanks for taking the time. Keep making suggestions.

1.The number of weapons and the research grid are too complex. I know that the creators of the mod likely thought that this was great, but from a practical stand point, especially considering that the tech tree has not been drawn out, it simply ends up costing the player a lot of time of scrolling through the tech files. Not exciting or fun. Those who do not wish to do this will lose of course, and so it brings an entirely new aspect to the game – scrolling through data files – which isn’t the point of the game at all!
Also, many of the weapons higher up the research scale are actually worse! Combat Lasers is a fine example (vs lasers).

This is THE critical component of any mod, and unfortunately a hard one to deal with. I was so pround when I figured out a way to make non-useful techs "invisible" to a race, but aghast when i found that it made them unavailable to every race. It is hard to make tech work corectly.

2.The races are not balanced, especially when it comes to the ancients. It is important that the Ancients start out more advanced than the other races, but they are WAY to advanced (IMHO) and there is simply no way for the lesser races to affect them. I have several suggestions to make the minor races more important (some in non-military ways!):
2.a. Significantly reduce the capacity of the Ancients to produce minerals, radioactives and organics. Can you see a Vorlon out picking weeds? Maybe working the mines? Of course not! That’s what the plebes … erm, lesser races are for. My first recommendation for the mod is that resource production be seriously reduced for the Ancients. This will do three things:
2.a.i. Though the Ancients are very strong, they will have to act politically to build up alliances. Now the lesser races will finally be important (besides selling their poplulations and colony ships to the Ancients, which pretty well sums up my involvement with them in the Last game.)
2.a.ii. The minor races will need to make public alliances, that is, they will also need to take sides in the wars. Of course some players may chose to just give gifts of resources also, and so fly under the radar…
2.a.iii. I know that some people will say “oh, but wouldn’t the Ancients use automated (robotic) mining operations?” To which I reply, did we see or hear of any in the series? Me, I’m thinking that both Ancient races were more than happy to let organics do the dirty work – who wants to be Lord over machines after all! As a concession, I’d suggest that the Ancients would be able to research full automation, but that this would be less efficient than just making some friends.

2.b. Significantly increase the ship costs of the Ancients. True, this will bring the build times up for them, but we’re not talking about building crappy little tugs like what the Minbari have (heeheehee). We’re talking great ships of the Ancients! The Shadow of course have to grow parts of their ships, and that can’t be quick. It will also bring up the maintenance costs, which will indebt the Ancients even more to the minor races.

2.c. Do not only disallow the construction of Colony ships by the Ancients, but also don’t give them any ground troops! This way they can’t land and take over other people’s planets either. We’d need to find a way to make the Ancient partisans stronger though. This way the Ancients can defend quite well, but will not be able to take over any planets unless they buy troops from lesser races, or work in concert with their allies (and that’s a bit more of what we want to see, right?).

I think the short-term solution is to remove the ancients entirely, and the mid-term solution to make the Ancients unplyable as "human" races. Ultimately the balance will be struck, but only through lots of playteseting.

3. The build times for buildings is about 40% too slow.

easily fixable.

4. I played the pirates, and they really really really sucked. They could use some sort of advantages. I suggest that they should not be able to colonize either, but that their construction rate shouldn’t be as low as it was. Perhaps a lowered maintenance cost for their ships (see recyclers in P&N mods). I’d also suggest that they could have boarding party capacity for all their living quarters … after all, everybody on board a pirate ships is a pirate! And perhaps a couple of unique weapons that would stun/scramble the defending marines of ships they are going to take over (could just have some advancements that give a component with a better boarding skill and call it “shock grenade” etc.)

I am not convinced that "pirates" are viable in the SE4 world. maybe we can make them work, but they are a long way behind making the actual races work.

5. Finally, the “uber weapon” in this mod was the satellite. They always had better range than ship weapons that could take them out, and so satellites would always win. This needs some sort of balancing too.

Yep. satellites should be the primary defensive system, but not be unbeatable. Playtesting is required. I think sats are more game-destabilizing as warp point defenses than as planetary defenses. maybe part of the solution is to eliminate the "satellite layer" capability.