some suggestions - please discuss

[Arralen]

Here are some suggestions I would like to send to MM, but before doing so you may want to give one or two comments, won't you ??

1) Sats in combat view
Make them deploy equally devided in 4 Groups at the "corner" of the planet/warppoint like that.

2) Armor
Take standard armor away from "Chemistry I" and add it to "Construction I", so the AI can armor ships as soon as it can build some (50000points Chemistry and 5000 Points Armor are not worth it, especially as Shields cost the very same)

2b) use of "Chemistry I"
.. make it requirement for "explosive warheads" (makes much more sense than for "titanium armor" IMHO)


3) weapon sub-types
There are some weapon types which have certain sub-types (e.g. shield depleting weapons), where the Last weapon of the first subtype has _much superiour_ range than the first weapon of the -supposedly- advanced technology.
But having the range advantage is essential - a ship with a range of 6 (Shield Depleter V) is almost invulnarable to a ship with range 1 (Shield Disruptor I).
As the AI uses latest tech on it's designs, it's most vulnerable at certain moments this way.
Why not "mix" the subtypes, e.g. make Shield Disruptor available after Shield Depleter I or II ?


4) Missiles
Add +2 to all missile ranges at least - this stresses the "stand-off" effect of missile ships much more and makes combat more interesting (at least that's what my testing showed to me).


5) PD Missiles
The PD missiles would need enough range and superiour speed to intercept incoming missiles targeted at _other_ ships . maybe movement +2 will do; damage should enshure kills (on equal tech level), possible target would be "missiles only" .. fighters have a hard enough time to get through the PD cannon cover, and are limited in amount, while missles have little ammo restraints.


6) QuadrantType
Setting "Min Angle Between WP := 40" makes maps far more interesting (and complicated) than the chessboard type maps which are generated with "60" (test showed that 45..60 don't make real any difference)


7) Top (Info) Bar on Main Screen
Show not only ressources but research/intel points there too


8) "next ship" button
"next ship" button should skip ships which have minister control turned on, no matter if they have movement remaining or not.


9) Minister orders
Ministers should issue "complete" order .. e.g. "go to SolIV, load pop, go to SolI, drop pop", so the ship moves along that path instead of halting at SolIV, loading, and moving on next turn.


10) Supply Minister
Supply Minister should either be "individual minister" or shouldn't touch fleets which have movement orders.


11) Mines/Sat Minister
When dropping mines/satellites at a warp point, it should be checked if there's already such a field on _either_ side of the warppoint, and the mines/sats added to it instead of a second field created (maybe up to a certain size..).

Thanks for any constructive criticism.

A.