SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Fian]

My concerns for SE4 that I would like to see addressed in SE5 is micromanagement. To address I would suggest the following:

Almost no facilities:
You set sliders (priorities) to determine what is built. You could still have a research center 3 facility, however you wouldn't be personally building it on the planets. This basically means you could have it the old way, but a planet governor controls based on the slider. You would click Y/N on some checkboxes for SpaceYard and Supply Depot. Terraforming would not be a facility, but one of the priorities that you set for a planet. Also, population moves automatically between planets (sort of - see below)

No direct control of Population Transports/Troop Transports/Fuel Ships
Instead, like MOO2, you have freighter fleets for those areas (or one, I would suppose if you prefer). You might capture a new Oxygen breathing race in combat, and since they are living on a Hydrogen planet, you would tell the planet administrator to move them to an Oxygen planet and replace them with Hydrogen breathers. Based on the size of your population fleet (and how many other demands you have placed on the fleet), will determine how quickly the population on the planet is replaced. Troop and Supply fleets would be a bit different. Your fleet/ships will have a support cost. The support cost goes up or down depending on how close you are to a supply depot. You might also totally cut off support, if there is a blockage between the fleet and the nearest supply depot (which would make the raiding of supply lines - a key tactic in warfare - a valid strategy). Keep in mind this support is not for just fuel. My vision is that when you invade planets, troops from your ships crew do the invasion, not a separate troop unit. So if your supply line is cut, you do not have any more troops being replenished on your ships. Also, through combat and normal attrition, troops die, so in theory you could have pilotless ships if your supply lines are cut off long enough.

Another thing for SE4. On the main screen, show icons to indicate if a planet has a supply depot or spaceyard. Would make life easier than clicking on all of the planets in a system.

[tesco samoa]

reports that are sortable...

and the ablility to name ships and planets and systems what ever you want and only you know...

[Phoenix-D]

"Almost no facilities:
You set sliders (priorities) to determine what is built. You could still have a research center 3 facility, however you wouldn't be personally building it on the planets. This basically means you could have it the old way, but a planet governor controls based on the slider. You would click Y/N on some checkboxes for SpaceYard and Supply Depot. Terraforming would not be a facility, but one of the priorities that you set for a planet. Also, population moves automatically between planets (sort of - see below)"

I can't see how this is any less micromanagement. You still have to set the sliders, you have less precise control. And auto-moving population would drive me NUTS. The AI ministers are stupid enough as it is without removing the ability to turn them off.

"No direct control of Population Transports/Troop Transports/Fuel Ships
Instead, like MOO2, you have freighter fleets for those areas (or one, I would suppose if you prefer). You might capture a new Oxygen breathing race in combat, and since they are living on a Hydrogen planet, you would tell the planet administrator to move them to an Oxygen planet and replace them with Hydrogen breathers. Based on the size of your population fleet (and how many other demands you have placed on the fleet), will determine how quickly the population on the planet is replaced. Troop and Supply fleets would be a bit different. Your fleet/ships will have a support cost. The support cost goes up or down depending on how close you are to a supply depot. You might also totally cut off support, if there is a blockage between the fleet and the nearest supply depot (which would make the raiding of supply lines - a key tactic in warfare - a valid strategy). Keep in mind this support is not for just fuel. My vision is that when you invade planets, troops from your ships crew do the invasion, not a separate troop unit. So if your supply line is cut, you do not have any more troops being replenished on your ships. Also, through combat and normal attrition, troops die, so in theory you could have pilotless ships if your supply lines are cut off long enough."

Another UG, please no from this poster. Why would ship's crews be doing invasions? Dedicated troop transports make more sense, and I don't want my supply ships going off on their own.

"Another thing for SE4. On the main screen, show icons to indicate if a planet has a supply depot or spaceyard. Would make life easier than clicking on all of the planets in a system."

Already can be done. Empire Options screen. It'll show little S, Y, and R for space port, space yard, and resupply depot.

Phoenix-D

[Fian]

"Another UG, please no from this poster. "
Maybe I don't know that much about internet board etiquette, but is it standard fare from this board to tell people to stop posting? Disagreeing with me is fine, but to tell me to stop posting? I think that is bad manners. It is true that I am not part of the SE4 Elite, as I am still in the middle of my first game. I would think the views of newcomers would be a valuable insight to development, assuming they are truly interested in expanding their playerbase. Anyways, in regards to what you posted:

"I can't see how this is any less micromanagement. "
Well, for example. Currently if you want to improve the atmosphere/minerals of a world, you have to scrap some of your existing facilities (the number depends on how quickly you want to terraform) build terraforming facilities. Occasionally check back to see if the terraforming is complete, and when it is, scrap the terraforming facilities and rebuild your original facilities. Multiply this by 100+ planets in your solar system, and you have a micromanagement nightmare. It would be better if such things were not assigned to facilities at all, but were just something in your build queue or a priority in one of your sliders.

"And auto-moving population would drive me NUTS. The AI ministers are stupid enough as it is without removing the ability to turn them off."
I don't think you are understanding me here. Like other units, you would build let's say 50 population transports. You never see these 50 population transports, all you see is a number on your Empire Status screen that says you have 50 population transports with none engaged. Then when you tag 100 million of a population to be moved, it will take your 50 population transports 5 turns to move 50 million people, so 10 turns to move all 100. If you were to assign another 100 million to be moved somewhere else, those would have to wait until the first 100 million were moved (or you could start moving both simultaneously at a slower rate) before the next 100 million were moved. There really isn't much of an AI involved here, it is more of an algorithm that determines how quickly the population is moved. Fuel and Troops are similar, although in their case I imagine a supply line drawn on the screen, showing the hypothetical path that the troop transports take. If you manage to move your fleet over one of the wormholes that the supply line takes, you will have blocked the supply line and cut off support to the enemy fleet.

"Why would ship's crews be doing invasions? Dedicated troop transports make more sense"
Someone has never seen the original Star Trek and Captain Kirk in action. (: OK, seriously, I agree that it would make more sense if the ship's crew was not involved in ground invasions. Maybe you just have an optional troop cargo container added to a ship (like you do now) and that container is restocked by the units you build at your colonies. The rate of restocking depends on how many ships you have in your troop fleet and how far your fleet is from a supply depot. Of course, you would have to still build troops at your colonies in order for there to be troops to send to your fleet to restock.

"Already can be done. Empire Options screen. It'll show little S, Y, and R for space port, space yard, and resupply depot."
Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to use it in my game.

[Pax]

Originally posted by Fian:
"Another UG, please no from this poster. "
Maybe I don't know that much about internet board etiquette, but is it standard fare from this board to tell people to stop posting? Disagreeing with me is fine, but to tell me to stop posting? I think that is bad manners. It is true that I am not part of the SE4 Elite, as I am still in the middle of my first game. I would think the views of newcomers would be a valuable insight to development, assuming they are truly interested in expanding their playerbase.

No offense, but, don't get your panties in such a bunch. The bit you are responding to with the above does NOT read as a "please make the guy who said that go away" -- it's a vote by him against what you suggested. "another 'Ugh,please no' from me" would be a good translation.

Anyways, in regards to what you posted:

"I can't see how this is any less micromanagement. "
Well, for example. Currently if you want to improve the atmosphere/minerals of a world, you have to scrap some of your existing facilities (the number depends on how quickly you want to terraform) build terraforming facilities. Occasionally check back to see if the terraforming is complete,

You never need to check back. Completion of an atmosphere-conVersion, or reaching maximum ("Optimal") Conditions, is reported at the beginning of each turn. IOW, the game tells you when it's done, the moment it's done.

and when it is, scrap the terraforming facilities and rebuild your original facilities. Multiply this by 100+ planets in your solar system, and you have a micromanagement nightmare. It would be better if such things were not assigned to facilities at all, but were just something in your build queue or a priority in one of your sliders.

Reports notwithstanding, I do agree: I wish terraforming was a PROJECT, not a facility. IOW, spend forever on the project, and when the project completes ... *poof* goal accomplished.

"Already can be done. Empire Options screen. It'll show little S, Y, and R for space port, space yard, and resupply depot."

Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to use it in my game.

And there're even more indicators than only that available, though I rarely if ever turnthem on (usually only if I want tocheck a heavily-colonised system for some key system-wide-effect facility or other).

[Phoenix-D]

Pax is correct about that part.

One thing about the indicators: they don't work on moons, only on the main planet. So if you have a moon-based SY, it won't show.

Phoenix-D

[Fian]

OK, thanks for the clarification. I am glad that you weren't asking me to stop posting. (:

[Crimson]

- Oh another thing the ability to add facility slots. Ex: Build a level facility I on panet X and you just added 2 more slots. Think of what a level facility M would do .
- Also be nice if you could make people a resource. Ex: Small fighter requires 3 people, pilot and ground crew, while a large ship needs 1,000 people, and a Planet ship yard I 15,000 people.

[Ed Kolis]

Someone mentioned money... Well I personally like the way money is being represented in MOO3. (Yeah, I always have to bring up the MOO games don't I Well they're GOOD - and Aaron did mention that MOO was one of his inspirations for the SE series! )

Anyway, the way money is implemented in MOO3 is that you collect taxes from your population, as well as collecting money via trade treaties, tributes, and a few other sources I can't think of off the top of my head. Also, production and research don't occur automatically - you have to fund them, with a diminishing returns effect. So say you have 10,000 industry and 20,000 research. It will cost 1 AU (Antaran Unit, the MOO3 unit of money) for each industry or research point or research point you want to fund - up to your maximum; if you don't fully fund your industry or research then the extra points are wasted. Likewise, you can overfund your industry and research, but remember that diminishing returns effect? For every multiple of your industry or research, the cost per unit doubles. So with your 10,000 industry, if you want to get 30,000 production done this turn you will have to spend 10,000 AU for the first 10,000, and 20,000 for the second 10,000, and 40,000 for the third 10,000, for a total of 70,000 AU! So it's possible to overdrive your production or research, but very very expensive! (This system would also work for intelligence operations, assuming they will be done on a points basis like in SE4; MOO3 isn't using the system for intel because it uses a different system - you hire and train individual spies to carry out your dirty work.)

[trooper]

Don't know if it has been told, but here is what i would find helpfull in SE V :

- a colony icon for planets that have space left for new facilities.

- a search tools for colonies, that can mix several filters :

- I want all my colonies with a spaceyard, not building something.
- I want all my colonies not building something, and having more than 300 kt free in their cargo space.

- a popup message when you re going to erase a fleet, by removing the Last ship.

- possibility to attach notes on a ship (usefull for transport missions...)