SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Loser]

Originally posted by Parasite:
Does anyone else start a factory at lv1, then put the queue on hold for that Last turn or two while you get the lv3 tech?

Sometimes, when the AI has me outclassed everywhere else. I think that might be on the 'gamey' list, though.

[edit: Since the Robotoid Factory is the Last thing I build on may resource worlds this is not a bad plan. You just leave the 'held' queue sitting for however many turns it takes you to get Comptuers 3. Of course, it's a good idea to put Ship Yards on every world, so you might need to free that up prematurely if you get a surprise from your neighbor.]

[ October 17, 2003, 20:10: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Merry Jolkar]

The single greatest improvement I can think of would be to enable us to save partially completed turns! Especially late in game, with dozens of systems to manage, I'd love to be able to save, transfer the file to my laptop, work a bit, and so on...

One other more nice twist would be to have the ability to review old turns. Go back and re-read those Messages you sent and received. See who broke promises, etc. Something like a cumulative turn file that builds up as you execute turns (not something you would want to have to download each turn from PBW of course!)

Ships that are fleeing from pursuers and have the same speed should not get caught.

Why have one fleet shoot all their shots first? Order of combat should depend on each ship's "initiative", which should depend on weapon tech, experence, special technology!

[ October 18, 2003, 04:47: Message edited by: Merry Jolkar ]

[Loser]

Just tried that man.

Cannot Save
During a simultaneous movement game, the game is saved automatically when you end your turn.

[Atrocities]

The single greatest improvement I can think of would be to enable us to save partially completed turns! Especially late in game, with dozens of systems to manage, I'd love to be able to save, transfer the file to my laptop, work a bit, and so on...

Please forgive my ignorance, but I think you can do this now. I often save my turn files when I am only halfway through them because the phone will ring or something else comes up. I think return later and finish the turn then process it.

OPTION - Save Game

[Quasar]

In the construction que list a column with radio buttons for "hold" wolud be great. It is painful when you have hundreds of planets / bases and need to put 50 or 60 on hold.
Another column for "emergency" build rate would be great too!

[ October 19, 2003, 02:18: Message edited by: Quasar ]

[Atrocities]

One of the things that I would love to see for Space Empires V is the race contact system improved.

I feel that if "discovering" a race and having full contact with it before they open com channels is not something that I like.

How can I explain this. Lets say two ships from differant races meet in a neutral system and combat occurs, NO information regarding the victor should be gain except for the knowledge that there is another race out their. On the Political screen a shaded out figure with say a Question mark would then be vissable.

The way to establish contact would be to send Messages, and attempt to find their homeworld.

Now if a race has full scanners and they survive the combat, then the sensor information can be used to build a racial profile. BUT communications must be established before any treaty offers can become available.

The reason for this is for anaminity. Remember in DS9 where ships were being lost in the Gama Quadrant, and it took many months before the other races knew about the Dominion and that it was them that who destroyed thier ships. Even after they knew of them it took several more months to open a dialog. They had no intel on them except to that they exsisted and basically what they looked like, but nothing else.

Having a system like this increases the need for scanners, intel, and diplomacy.

[Ed Kolis]

How about a "randomized" tech tree? I remember suggesting for SE4 something like MOO3 has, where you might need level 5 of Physics to get Hyper-Death BLasters one game and level 7 the next, but why not also randomize the effects of the technologies? There could be up to a 10% or some amount settable in the data files variation in all numeric attributes associated with any technology, so a DUC-5 might do 36-44 damage, have a range of 4.5-5.5 km, fire every 0.9-1.1 seconds, weigh 27-33 kT, etc. depending on who built it (or maybe even on which spaceyard it was built at!)

Also, even if this is not implemented, it might be helpful to measure the mass and hitpoints of smaller vehicles in tons rather than kilotons, both for realism and precision - it's kind of hard to have a 10% variation in size or a +25% increase in damage from a mount when your component is only 2 kT!

Regarding tech again, a more interesting model for analyzing vehicles (and facilities? ) might involve a list of possible tech areas you can get from analyzing something, along with a % chance, a range of points (not necessarily a whole level!), and a max. level you can attain (so you can't get level 12 propulsion by analyzing a bunch of C-T engines ) Also, you'd get a chance at tech for every component, not every ship... so a WMG-3 might give you a 50% chance at up to 50,000 points in High Energy Weapons up to level 10, but also a 25% chance at up to 20,000 points in Propulsion up to level 7 (what you need to get High Energy Weapons in the first place) Then you might get both... or you might get nothing!

[Renegade 13]

Something that would be great to have in SE V would be the ability to convert facilities from one type to another.

So maybe you could convert all your Research centers to Intel centers after you have completed all possible research, for say, 50-70% of the cost of a brand new Intel center. Right now, as far as I know, you have to go individually to every planet with a research center and manually scrap it then build whatever you want instead. It takes a long time and is kind of annoying. It'd be great to be able to press a button and choose a new type of facility to convert all your now useless research centers to.

Thought this idea might be a good idea to implement when SE V rolls out. (Hopefully soon )

[Loser]

Actually, you can scrap all Research centers everywhere at once in the F5 Colonies window. Of course, you still have to go through all the now lightened colonies in the F7 Construction window, but if you sort them by Facilities and then by Construction you will have them all in a row and be able to work through them fairly swiftly.

[Monolith]

I am new to SEIV, and don't have the time to read through this entire thread at the moment, so I'll post a couple ideas that may be repeats.

It would be nice to see a winning condition whereby you form something the equivalent of the UFP out of Star Trek. The idea being that your race sets out to build diplomatic relations and unity to an extent that is reflected in some kind of scoring, the member races of the "Federation" you put together scores based on their individual scores. Not surprisingly, the computer players (some any way) should be trying to establish their own form of this.

Another idea would be to have a pausible real time system for ship combat ala the old Microprose game, Task Force: 1942. The elegance of fleet control and firing would be a natural fit to the SE style of play. Now, I am not a fan of RTS play, but this is one model that "feels" right.

I know it has been suggested before, but I would also like to see the system view resemble the orbiting, isometric style of MOOII.

[ October 21, 2003, 14:10: Message edited by: Monolith ]