These features would be nice.

Grayshot · #1 November 24th, 2000, 02:01 AM

Initial feeling is that this may be a great game - incredible scope - have only played on Medium level which seems fairly easy. Have to play on Hard to see how the AI stands up.

However there are a few things that would improve the playability ( or they may be there but I haven't found them yet ) Some of these will be familiar if you have played stars!

1. Game doesn't tell me when orders are complete for ships or planet productions queue. Does for research and intelligence. Keeping track of every planet and ship/fleet get more painful as the game progresses especially if you have distraction like wars to contend with.

2. The game doesn't seem to allow a ship destination to be another ship - This makes it very difficult to intercept a fleet. They just go around my fleet and attack my planets. If I can see them, I must be able to track their course. The other useful thing would be to be able to see roughly which direction they are travelling - Towards my planet to attack or towards that warphole to escape in which case I'll ignore them.

3. The order queue for ships is limited to movement - would be good if you could add others i.e. load satelites,move to co-ordinates, deploy, move back to planet, collect more, repeat 5 times. The manual inicates that this is possible ( under repeat orders ) but when I try to place an order to retrieve a satelite, for example, there is nothing at the current location so the order cannot be set.

I haven't tried Patch 1 yet ( excellent work by MM to get a patch so quickly ) Perhaps these items could go in patch 2?

Kodos · #2 November 24th, 2000, 02:21 AM

Very good suggestions --- agree wholeheartedly! In addition:

4. The ability to abandon / scrap a ship in deep space. As it is, you can only do so at a Shipyard.

5. Autosave Frequency should be available in the Option setting in-game. As it is, you can only set it before you start (in Mechanics).

RabidFan · #3 November 24th, 2000, 02:45 AM

Kudos, I think #4 is a 'feature', because they were only thinking about scrapping ships, and that one would never want to scuttle a ship....abandon should be an option. There is the "Fire On" option if you have other ships in the same square, you can destroy it.

Comar · #4 November 23rd, 2000, 03:23 PM

If you are trying to intercept a fleet or a single ship, look at the order bar for ships. If you see the icon that looks like a ship firing, bring up the ship/fleet you want to intercept with. Press the icon button and then click on the ship/fleet you wish to intercept.

Grayshot · #5 November 23rd, 2000, 04:41 PM

I have tried the attack icon. The Problem is that it is still based on moving to the co-ordinates of the ship you are attacking. If you cannot get there in 1 turn and the next turn they move ( extremely likely ) your ship doesn't follow, you have to set the order again. You can end up chasing around and around in circles because you are always moving to the position the ship was, there is no feedback. Part of the problem is that moves do not happen simultaneously, you move and then they move. If you have an enemy ship heading for one of your planets and you are between him and the planet, it is very difficult/impossible to intercept it, unless he is unfortunately enough to land on the same co-ordinates as you. The only option seems to be to try and beat him back to the planet, which maybe not want your want to do.

If there are 2 nearby planets and you guess wrong he goes to one and your fleet go to the other. Surely your fleet should be able to see which direction his fleets go in and adjust their course accordingly.

[This message has been edited by Grayshot (edited 23 November 2000).]

AndonSage · #6 November 24th, 2000, 04:37 AM

>> If you cannot get there in 1 turn and the next turn they move ( extremely likely ) your ship doesn't follow, you have to set the order again. <<

This won't help the entire problem, but one thing you can do is cancel your fleet's orders after moving towards the other fleet (if you don't make it in one turn). This way you won't use up movement points the next turn when they go somewhere else, and you can give your fleet orders to attack again, at the enemy's new location. Note that if they are faster than you, you probably won't catch them anyway if they are moving away from you.

AndonSage