Things we'd like to see in the next patch

[Makinus]

My two cents:

1) an AI that recognizes more types of colonies (it only recongnizes the default ones)so we can edit the AI files so the AI use better the planets that it colonizes... (could be optional).

2) re-activate the Restricions field in the facilities .txt files, so we can set facilities dependent of population, that some "bigger" facilities (like Space Yards) can only be constructed in higly populated planets... (could be optional also).

Makinus

[dogscoff]

whhel mouse support (just to shut everyone else up=-)

Alter route finding to auto-divert ships and fleets to resupply depot if they can do so at no extra movement cost.

[Baron Munchausen]

I think there's a difference between most wanted and most needed additions to the game.

Most wanted is probably new features and abilities. The 'exploding' component that does additional damage when destroyed is a good example. Discussed but never implemented. Also, planetary cloaks, planetary engines, warp gates, research/intel generation from components (for nomads), restore the ability to colonize asteroids (like SE III), restore the chlorine atmosphere type, more political functions like a 'capital' facility and some real need for it to control your empire... the list is endless. MM will have no trouble at all coming up with ambitious ideas for SE V!

Most needed is a bit different, although many of the most needed features are also wanted. We really, really need those 'arbitary' ability tags for components so people can stop using facility or stellar abilities just to foolthe AI into doing what they want in ship design. We also really need an ability for the AI to make 'either-or' choices in ship design (either a Quantum Reactor OR a Solar Panel, but NOT BOTH!) in misc. abilities. Currently the only 'hierarchical' choices the AI can make are for weapons. We need more options for the AI to use in choosing how to colonize planets and how to construct it's colonies once it has founded them. And it needs to 'rethink' it's colony types once in a while and be able to CHANGE the type of a colony if it would be really helpful to do so. Some sort of controls to influence the policy of the Intelligence Minister would go a long way towards making AI intel usage actually make sense. And some way to specify how many ships of what type go into a fleet, especially if it understood more than just 'attack' and 'defense' fleets, would help make the AI more effective strategically. In short, the AI needs LOTS more options to make it more sophisticated. The AI is the weakest part of the game at present.

[ August 21, 2002, 23:40: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Ragnarok]

"1.)UI change of build queues to mirror/mimick the UI of Research Projects and Intel Projects; this would include
... two, allowing a "distribute evenly" WRT that queue's Rate limits, permitting simultaneous build of multiple items"

This idea I like. Also to go along with this idea is to make the Space Yard facility sort of like Repair Bays. What I mean by this is Repair Bays have a set amount of how many components it can repair per turn. Maximum of 8 if I'm not mistaken. It'd be nice if the Space Yard facilities were like this. So for instance: Space Yard I would have a maximum of one ship being worked on per turn. Space Yard II would be three, Space Yard III would be five. Temperal Space Yards would have something along the lines of: I = 2 ships, II = 5 ships, and III would be able to work on 8 ships per turn.
Then as was in the other idea be able to devide points evenly or all in one ship. This is just what I'd like to see.

"Restore the ability to colonize asteroids (like SE III)"

I like this idea as well. I didn't play SEIII, but this was the case in SEII. But if it was added again make it so you can't build facilities to the asteroid fields. But only be able to put like a few robot miners there. It could be made so it could be a facility but only asteroids could be able to build them and that's the ONLY facilities it could build. Don't know how hard this would be to add but would be interesting to see.

[jimbob]

If we go back to the poll I did a fairly long time ago (and then after doing all that work never forwarded it to MM ), a good 13% of votes (of 205 total) were for less predictability as to where the satelites are when combat happens (opinions ranged from randomly place at one of the corners around the planet to actual orbital movement).

And 9% voted for mouse wheel support.

I think these should be included in the next patch.

It was nice to see that many of the community's wants were included in 1.78. The number of possibilities with the mounts is quite impressive (yah MM!)

[ August 22, 2002, 00:46: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Puke]

i dunno. i dont think that i would go about italicizing want and need like they are some kind of absolute truth. i think your needs are about as important as many of other peoples wants, in the grand scheme of things.

to me, they are infinetly less important: i dont play against the AI.

the only thing the game "needs" are bug fixes. and i have not noticed any since the Last few patches. actually scratch that, i never checked if the UI bug i noticed with gold regarding drone cargo moving was fixed. and i may or may not have found a bug with ships tracking targets that cloak after they are ordered to intercept them. DocShane wont tell me.

[tbontob]

My suggestions would also ask MM to focus on the human/computer interface to make things easier for us.

1) Make the windows resizable and moveable.
2) In the Ship/Units menu (F6), list the ships under the fleet name.
3) For something really innovative (and possibly difficult to program), allow us to create our own style of window by permitting us to add or remove components of the windows. I frequently find myself switching between windows to a) find the information I need and then b) to implement the changes I want based on the information found in the other window.
4) If 3) above is difficult/impossible, then we should be able to highlight a planet in one window and when we move to another window, we are directly taken to the highlighted planet in the new window.
5) Mouse wheel support.
6) Changing the discription of the buttons to show the default state as a positive statement. (See the thread "Understanding Battle Strategies...Newbie question"

My $.02 worth from a newbie