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 ]
Re: Things we\'d like to see in the next patch
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