SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Timstone]

Yup, there are three resources and two more open places. These places can be use to make your own resources. So there is room for 5 types of resources.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Why just five? Why not 255? Or would that be too much memory space? Or maybe a lower number? 127? 63? 31? Even 15 would IMHO add a GREAT deal more to the game.

[boran_blok]

StrategiaInUltima said:
Why just five? Why not 255? Or would that be too much memory space? Or maybe a lower number? 127? 63? 31? Even 15 would IMHO add a GREAT deal more to the game.

I think it's mainly the UI that dictated the amount, and some practicality.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Ok. I agree. But what if you could have an extra screen (economics or resource screen) like the four screens you have now? (Would also solve some of the negative space someone with 1600x1200 was complaining about some time earlier) and there you could see your resources/economics.

Think this: Spreadsheet Display Look. A table with in it all your resources. You should also be able to discover resources thru research or exploration/colonization/trade.

And your Economics Screen could be a sort of mix between the Colony, Queue, Empire Status screens - showing your incomes, colonies producing such-and-such resource, and queues using such-and-such resource.

You should also have immaterial resources like Happiness and things like that. Or certain resources that need to be processed from others and cannot be obtained any other way (i.e. "Biocrystals", mix of min and org, or "Solarsteel", mix of min and rad, "Bioactives", mix of org and rad, etc.) or others that require raw material resource tyes - that aren't useful for anything else. So you can start mining Quadan Ore as soon as you discover it, but you wouldn't have anything to do with it until you research Quadan Ore Processing and can use them to create Quaila Steel.

This would add a whole economics/management dimension to the game; "should I build resource or raw material storages on that planet? What has priority in this border colony: a spaceyard or a mine to exploit the rich Quadan Ore veins there?" Would IMHO mean SO much for the game. Like said b4, Economic Superpowers can then arise. They might not have such an impressive navy, but if they control 80% of the Galaxy's Hypersteel reserves, which is absolutely necessary for warp point travel capable ships, you wouldn't attack them anytime soon; lest they give it all to your most bitter enemy. Would also make diplomatic focused games more fun (and interesting)

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

and also diplomacy needs to be made somewhat deeper (you can backstab treaties so it's broken but the other empire doesn't know that, you could use the tradescreen system for treaty construction (and save those treaty types as well! share them with the world!) (and I know it's been mentioned b4), embassy facilities, racial population tensions, population exchanges (i.e. you're good at mining, your ally's psychic, you trade 1000M pop to get each other's benefits), and so on). Now, diplomacy isn't really that deep (or clear) and the AI's diplomacy is weird. They either declare war on you the moment they see you, or you build up a Partnership treaty by treaty one per two turns and they grow murderous when you have the Partnership. The AIs that are at war with you will grow to love you. This needs IMO to be corrected.

[Timstone]

My goodness 15 resources?! You're mad, you know!
You're supposed to run an entire empire, not a company. This creates too much micromanagement. I sympathise with Aaron, he gave the modding community 2 extra resource possibilities. That should be enough for 90% of the community. The remaining 10%... tough luck.

I can imagine something like:
"I want to build this All-Consuming-Ship-Devouring weapon on my precious Eater-Of-Worlds-Ship, unfortunately I can't build it because I haven't found enough solarsteel and biocrystals. Oh damn, I also lack some trifflefluffy and gummiberenbessensap."

Okay, I made a bit of a joke of this, but it reflects the comming doom of 15 different resources. I stick with three or four different resources, more than enough for me. I'm one of the 90%...

Edit:
Rectified a small error in gummiberenbessensap.

[Greybeard]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before.

It would be very helpful if the planet list would show the status of the planet (colonization status) from the last time we had "seen" it. This would be either from us entering the system or through partnership viewing.

Currently, planets that are not visible during the active turn revert to "uncolonized".

This makes it more difficult to decide where to send colonizers. I have occasionally sent colonizers to planets that are already colonized becuase of the status on the list.

[AMF]

Timstone said:
My goodness 15 resources?! You're mad, you know!
You're supposed to run an entire empire, not a company. This creates too much micromanagement. I sympathise with Aaron, he gave the modding community 2 extra resource possibilities. That should be enough for 90% of the community. The remaining 10%... tough luck.

Yeah, and, I would even say that instead of having two "extra resource options" just have the same three as right now, and two "rare resources" that are much, uh, rarer. So that, hey, wehn you finally get that star destroyer tech you need more than just a load of metal and rads to make it, you also have to make sure you have a gram of superneutronrarium...

Actually, let me revise that: I posted a while back that I think "manpower" should be a fourth fundamental resource. I still think that. But, I do think there should be at least one "rare" resource that plays critical, but uncommon roles in things and would be in much less supply.

Gives players one more reason to fight over certain planets (we need the dilithium mines of ceta alpha six darnnit!)

[Ed Kolis]

While we're on the topic of resources, how about resource converters that only convert specific types of resources - for instance, Refineries that convert Minerals to Radioactives?

edit: and also converters with specific capacities, so for instance one refinery might convert at a rate of 25,000 minerals per turn at an efficiency of 50%, so you'd need multiple refineries for large-scale conversion projects? (Accessible through a global interface, of course - no sense having to dig through all your planets to find the ones with the converters! ) And how about resource converters that can also handle research and intel points? Or are those what the other 2 resource slots are used for in the stock game?

edit 2: and also maybe if your resource converters and spaceports are blockaded you can't use them?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Three standards, OK. But fifteen isn't so bad? You can also mod them to be not actually resources in their own right, but rather a sort of complementary resource. I.e. 1 unit of Hyperplutonium equals 100 Rads, 1 Biocrystal 50 Min and 50 Org etc.