SEV Suggestions
SEIV is one of my favorite games of all time, and its the only game (other than Age of Empires II) That I repeatedly find myself coming back to. I am not sure if a lot of these suggestions have been made, but here are some ideas I have for the game.
1) Cities. I think that inividual cities on particular planets are important, because they are the center for research and technology. It could be possible, for example, to control the research centers of a planet, and ignore any organics on the rest of the planet and just reap the benfits of the research points. Same goes for intel or anything else. I like the idea of a main city on a planet as the center of that planet's wealth.
Plus, it would be cool to decide how ground troops are to attack if there are individual cities. Do they attack to just control the research and intel centers, or do they attack to suppress and control the farming or mining population for those points? There are a lot of possibilities here. Different types of ground troops for different terrain, for example. But I think cities, in some small sense, should be a part of the next release.
2) I really like the personalization of the empire. I like the fact that I can give my empire a name and decide its characteristics. But I can't personalize much more of it. I can name planets, but not systems. One of the things about any good space epic is an eventual focus on at least a few individuals. It would be nice to create for myself a few individuals who are an integral part of my empire. By this I mean simply, I'd like to name my ministers, name my generals or the head of my fleets, or a planetary head. I don't think anyone would name ALL of their leaders, but by giving me the ability to name even a few, it's much more fun to focus on that particular ship or fleet. It's not just Task Force Alpha Beta, for example, but it's Task Force Alpha Beta with General xxx in charge, and I might care more about General xxx doing well so I can have him head Task Force Alpha Delta. In any REAL empire, powerful strong individuals are an important part. I think the ability to personalize things to an even greater extent would be very fun, even if not a lot of people use it.
3) I'd like more detailed information about a planet available. The more information the better. Not just atmosphere type and resource availability, but climate information, geologic stability, overall magnetic pole strength...hell, theres a lot of crap you could put in a readout of a planet's information. The more info the better, even if none of it is useful. It increases the realism of the game, and it wouldn't be hard to add a lot of random possibilities for this. Even a random map of the planets surface would be great.
4) One of my favorite games of all time was Starflight. I have fond memories of spending afternoons landing on different planets and actually exploring the land on each planet, looking for mining opportinities and picking up flora and fauna. It was great for my imaginiation. Each time you landed on a planet it was different, everything was random. I really like the idea of making each planet distinct in every way. Would it be possible to look into expanding the game in this way? There are a lot of possibilities here.
I guess I am thinking out loud. But I am curious to see what people think too.
--Xevioso
[ May 08, 2004, 09:12: Message edited by: xevioso ]
|