SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Patroklos]

I would like to see CivIII style resources. We would still have setup we have now for general use, but the Civ type resouces would be for the more exotic stuff. Would add another layer of stategy.

And please make warp engines a component.

[Ed Kolis]

I've probably mentioned this before, but I'd like to be able to export and import a list of vehicle designs (both your own and other races') to a file in a similar format as the other SE5 data files. This way you could share designs between various .emp's and also run programs on the exported data. The format I might expect to look like this, assuming SE5 uses SF's slot model for designs and mounts are built into vehicle sizes rather than specified by the player during vehicle design:

Code:

---

Name := Paladin III

Owner Empire Number := 3

Owner Empire Name := Chozo

Owner Empire Type := Dominion

Vehicle Type := Ship

Vehicle Size := Battleship

Num Slots Used := 32

Slot Used 1 Name := Inner Hull 1

Slot Used 1 Comp Name := Bridge

Slot Used 1 Comp Level := 5

Slot Used 2 Name := Inner Hull 2

Slot Used 2 Comp Name := Life Support

Slot Used 2 Comp Level := 6

Slot Used 3 Name := Inner Hull 3

Slot Used 3 Comp Name := Crew Quarters

Slot Used 3 Comp Level := 5

Slot Used 4 Name := Engine 1

Slot Used 4 Comp Name := Quantum Impulse Engine

Slot Used 4 Comp Level := 10

...

---

Though I would like to see the ability to also use mounts at design time; perhaps there should be Mounts (specified in the vehicle size definition) and Mods (which function like SE4's Mounts, or maybe like MOO2's Mods, in which more than one could be applied but some were mutually exclusive! ) Or if you don't like the name Mods meaning two different things, you could call the built-in ones (like Battleship Scale Mount) Hard Mounts and the customizable ones (like Accuracy Enhancement) Soft Mounts or something... or maybe Hardpoint Mounts and Design Mounts???

Also, I'd like to see the copy and upgrade buttons work on alien designs so you can duplicate your opponents' designs if you have the same or higher tech.

Oh, speaking of mounts again - assuming SE5 even HAS them, I'd like to see the option to either specify for a mount a specific list of vehicle sizes that it can be used on, or vice versa, just so we don't have to worry about ships falling into the wrong size ranges - oh no, my new 350kT Courier Transport accidentally got the Picket Ship Scale Mount applied because that mount applies to ships between 200kT Frigates and 400kT Light Cruisers! But I wanted it to get a special transport mount! (Boy ain't I picky... feel free to ignore my suggestions )

[Fyron]

Patroklos said:
I would like to see CivIII style resources. We would still have setup we have now for general use, but the Civ type resouces would be for the more exotic stuff. Would add another layer of stategy.

And please make warp engines a component.

Ugh please no. All that the resources in Civ 3 do is screw you over if you don't find a few critical ones. Lacking resources such as Iron or Oil will prevent you from building most of the units for a long chunk of the game... Not fun to fight people with knights and pikemen when all you can make are spearmen and archers...

[Aiken]

Ed Kolis said:
Code:

---

Name := Paladin III

Owner Empire Number := 3

Owner Empire Name := Chozo

Owner Empire Type := Dominion

Vehicle Type := Ship

Vehicle Size := Battleship

Num Slots Used := 32

Slot Used 1 Name := Inner Hull 1

Slot Used 1 Comp Name := Bridge

Slot Used 1 Comp Level := 5

...

---

I'd add this line:
Slot Used 1 Mount Code := LSM

Oh, speaking of mounts again - assuming SE5 even HAS them, I'd like to see the option to either specify for a mount a specific list of vehicle sizes that it can be used on, or vice versa, just so we don't have to worry about ships falling into the wrong size ranges - oh no, my new 350kT Courier Transport accidentally got the Picket Ship Scale Mount applied because that mount applies to ships between 200kT Frigates and 400kT Light Cruisers!

Ummm, why don't you like this:
Long Name := Somemount
...
Vehicle Size Minimum := 200
Vehicle Size Maximum := 200
for each ship size? Quite tedious, but it works.

Although it will be best to use something like this:

Name := Dreadnought
...
Vehicle Type := Ship
...
Restricted/Allowed Mounts := 0/HSM,UbW,HEF,Blahblah
Restricted/Allowed Comp Families : = 12,63,256/0

in the future VehicleSize.txt.

[Fyron]

Ummm, why don't you like this:
Long Name := Somemount
...
Vehicle Size Minimum := 200
Vehicle Size Maximum := 200
for each ship size? Quite tedious, but it works.

Exactly because it _is_ tedious, and error prone. Better to have the possibility of comma separated lists (in addition to min and max size type fields, all optional).

[Colonel]

Ok, I have a big AI thing. I was playing around with the design name txt and i went and turned off the AI on a race after a few turns to see the order the ai used the names. Anyways when i was playing the AI race i noticed something, a planet set up to be a mining colony, nothing to amazing until you look at the value of the planet. 3% mineral value, and yet it would have been the perfect planet for a farming colony granted this was set on easy for this test but still.

[AgentZero]

Restricted/Allowed Mounts := 0/HSM,UbW,HEF,Blahblah
Restricted/Allowed Comp Families : = 12,63,256/0

See, this I like. I think it would be best if we specified which mounts/comps were Restricted, otherwise one would have to list every comp family a ship was able to use. But if we were able to restrict comps to a certain class of ship, it could make things rather interesting. For example, you could create a cargo component that can provides twice as much cargo space than the normal one, but can only be mounted on Transport hulls, and I'm sure everyone can think of plenty of other examples.

One thing I'm thinking about these moddable resources... There would need to be an option along the lines of 'Accumulates on Planet Only' in order for us to create rare, special resources that are only available from certain planets. Also, if the concept of Crew doesn't make it into the stock game, the ability to create resources that only accumulate on the planet, and don't go into the galactic pool, would be vital.

[Tanus]

Ok, I thought of two things, though I can only remember one of them

I'd like the ability to edit orders.

It's always frustrating when you set up a bunch of orders for a ship, and then find you made a mistake, and loaded cargo from the wrong planet. Currently, you have to clear and remake the entire order string - I'd like the ability to go in and just edit that one specific order.

[Colonel]

This is a slightly harder to implament idea. Ship limitations should be based on the desin of the outer hull. A star trek type ship would have a lower amount of possible engines as they hang out to the side. While a ship in a tube shape, and engines in the back could go faster as well as haveing more engines. This would require TxT file for each ship model, and this would make ship set modding.
Any thoughts or refinements to this idea

[AgentZero]

Colonel said:
Ship limitations should be based on the desin of the outer hull. A star trek type ship would have a lower amount of possible engines as they hang out to the side. While a ship in a tube shape, and engines in the back could go faster as well as haveing more engines.

I think this is an interesting idea, though technically in space there's no reason a Star Trek type ship couldn't mount just as many engines as a 'tubular' ship, as long as the struts connecting the engines to the ship were strong enough to cope with the stresses. Though this leads me into another thought...

In SE5, there should be a lot more variety in the racial setup screens. The current 'points' system should stay, but I'd like to see a system where players would have a vast array of options that didn't cost them any points, but had a good side/downside balance. An example inspired by the above would be 'External' 'Normal' or 'Internal' Engines. Normal would provide no bonuses or drawbacks, Internal would provide engines with a higher damage resistance at the cost of less available space for other components (easily simulated by increasing the size of the engines) and External engines would have a considerably lower damage resistance, but leave more space available for other components. Basically, if we took SE4s Cultural Modifiers but gave them all a pro/con (and added a whole bunch more exotic ones) then players could pick and choose through all kinds of categories to create genuinely unique races.