Patch wishlist

[Marty Ward]

On domed worlds the population seems to large, homeworlds actually do seem somewhat underpopulated. Must be a pretty big dome

[Suicide Junkie]

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On domed worlds the population seems to large, homeworlds actually do seem somewhat underpopulated. Must be a pretty big dome

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The icon is a single dome, but in "reality", each city or even house could be domed individually, and that would add protection against space bombardment.

[AJC]

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Question asked by capnq : 53) Surrender not based on score. What else could it be based on? The AI has to have some criteria to decide with.

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This would have to be worked out and I think it is a difficult problem. Maybe a rating system is established that tallys points based on the current situation and what has happened or not happened to the ai - similar to the politics system where certain actions adjust the anger level of the AI. Maybe all the AIs planets must be blockaded, the number of battles its lost, planets destroyed, ships destroyed.

Several things could be done - just one of the problems with basing surrender on a high score is that when one of your planets rebel - they also inherit all of your tech. When your opponent can see that rebelled planet - they can demand its surrender,and it will surrender to them- then your opponents gains all of Your tech from that new empire - its a bad hole in surrender. Empires shouldnt surrender unless there is military pressure being placed against the empire and it faces certain extinction.

An empire you are not even at war with should not surrender to you just because you have the highest score.


[This message has been edited by AJC (edited 13 April 2001).]

[DirectorTsaarx]

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Originally posted by dogscoff:
Populations move by themselves- A small percentage of a population's growth on a planet represents immigration from nearby planets.

This could work for nearby allied worlds as well - After all, any country in the world today has a small population of resident foreigners from friendly countries.

What do you think?

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And sometimes that small population of resident foreigners are from not-so-friendly countries. Maybe allow members of enemy races to "immigrate" (read: escape from their oppressive empire into your glorious empire). These immigrants cause unhappiness when they move in - you know, the typical "stinkin' illegal immigrants coming over and taking OUR jobs" kind of attitude.

[nerfman]

A new algorithm that determines surrender should do do based upon the empires percieved level of threat to its existence. Essentially it should determine if the race's position is hopeless or not. This should further be modified by the races demeanor. A bloodthirsty race is more likely to be like the Japanese in WWII and be very hard to get to surrender while a more peacable race would be more like the Italians.

[Noble713]

I'd like to see fighter Groups launched on the main game screen NOT use up all of their movement. Right now it is almost impossible to launch an interplanetary fighter strike against an enemy fleet because it will usually have moved or left the system by next turn. Launching should only use 1 or 2 of the fighters' movement points.

I really like the migration idea too. I think Stars! Supernova Genesis is supposed to have that.

I too would like to see the AI capable of mounting a credible offensive, complete with coordinated multi-system attacks and planetary invasions.

[Atrocities]

perhaps its time for another patch in one update for this thread. Get everything listed in one post up to this point.

[lfoater]

Hi Im new to Se4, This is a great game.
I'll toss out a couple here
1. Have some tech research lead to dead ends. have this be a random occurance with several approaches to say Stellar manipulation. 2 would be dead ends 1 would be a good path. This would have to be random with each game. Maybe a game option.

A battle board for land combat on the planet. Each planet would have a certain number of squares based on its size. You could then develope real armies to invade with.

[serpwidgets]

Launch/recover/pickup/drop a specific amount in orders e.g.
Move to 4,6 (my homeworld)
Load 100 colonists (even though the transport can hold 330)
Move to 6,8 (colony A)
Drop 50 colonists
Move to 7,6 (Colony B)
Drop 50 colonists

This can be done in one turn in a non-simultaneous game, but takes 3 turns in a simultaneous game.

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Ability to break up fighters into Groups, in space. As it is, I have to bring all my carriers to one planet and play cargo shift to get the proper fighters on the proper ships.

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Ability to see what defenses a planet has without having to send ships in.

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"Visual" ground combat like MOO2. That was way cool with the little animated dudes and lasers and tanks, etc!

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Allow repeating of "launch fighters" orders for planets. If I have 10 planets all making 6 fighters per turn, it gets very tedious launching them every turn, and then setting their waypoints the next turn. Also, is it possible to have fighters move to a specific waypoint upon construction like with ships?

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How about a "waste one movement turn" order for ships. If I have two fleets I want to use to attack a planet and one is one square away and the other is two away, the closer fleet will get there first and fight without the second fleet AFAIK...

[Mark Walton]

Reduce effects of orbital bombardment, encourage surface landings.
Is it "realistic" that one frigate with a single gun can efficiently destroy an entire planet's population in under a month?
I suggest:
Damage from orbital bombardment be a percentage based on the level of population of the world
For instance, a world at 100% population is full; it is easy to find cities to bomb, 100% population = 100% damage.
A world half empty gives population a chance to spread out, to hide a bit; 50% population = 50% damage.
A world with only a few people left lets those people run and hide, head for the hills; 10% population = 10% damage.
This will encourage landing troops tomop up the Last pockets of enemy population.

(Perhaps a scale like, 100% pop = 150% dam, 10% pop = 1% dam... it's the idea that counts though)

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Population Housing facility; allows an extra x000 population on the world.

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Percieved Danger Level per System

A feature for the AI - the ability to judge how dangerous a sytem is, based on a number of factors (which would live in a script for editing the values)

The percieved danger level (PDL) for a system may increase for each enemy ship or world present, for each world lost or population killed, for each ship damaged, or decrease with each victory or over time.
Another factor would be the extent to which PDL "leaks" through wormholes (if the PDL is very high in a nearby system, this system's PDL will rise too)
the PDL would be used by the AI to decide how many forces are needed to enter a system, whether it is worth colonizing, how many weapon platforms etc to build.
Again, all these factors would be listed in a Race_AI_PDL type file, so each race can perceive threat levels differently.

This would help design smarter AI's which don't just keep colonizing the sme world turn after turn and seeing that world wiped out a turn later!
It would also aid the AI in planning.

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Change to "Planet Conditions" system -
No one set of conditions is Optimal for every race! Change this to "Type A" "Type B" etc (or more desciptive terms)
Every race chooses one type that is optimal for them, for each type away from their chosen type the world is less optimal by one step.
Also, stars could give off different radiation types, which races can react to.

(Courtesy of Unnecessary Complications Dept)

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A player/ AI option : Surface Target Priority Lists for Bombardment.
Allows player to list in order, which items on a planet will be attacked first; any items not on the list will not be deliberately bombarded. Allows player to decide, yeah OK go in and knock out the supply facility, leave the mineral production. Or, hit the weapon platforms leave the population alone. (Of course there will be "collateral damage" effects)

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More AI scripting options
Move everything that is currently hardcoded into a script.
For instance, cirumstances to change AI state, the states themselves, any special actions to take in that state.
Also features like the "overvaluing" of scarce resources leading to a mining colony being set up on a 20 mineral world...

A fully featured scripting system would be great, allowing for more fine control and conditional development and behaviour for a race.
(IF
currently_getting_smegged_by_enemy=TRUE
THEN
Stop_Research (Ice Planet Colonization); Start_Research (Shields)
ELSE
AI_State = Woohoo!
)

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Planetary facility Version of the self destruct mechanism. If troops take the planet, the facility explodes all remaining facilities on the planet. (Make this item a high priority in the above list!)

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More special special events, and "missions".
For instance:
a strange nebula is moving through a system; first player to get a ship with sensors there will get a special tech at the end of the turn, or x000 research per turn, or one of a list of other effects. (The nebula may still have special properties)
Special message to an individual player, granting a mission effect if they succeed at a task; maybe, "SMUGGLING: Move a ship with a cargo bay to enemy world (xxx) by (turn)and return to friendly world to gain (insert reward here)", or "AID REBELLION: Move a ship undetected to enemy world (xxx) by (turn) and eturn to friendly world to (insert espionage effect here)" or "DEFECTING ENEMY SCIENTIST: Move a ship to enemy world (xxx) by (turn) and return to friendly world to gain (tech)"
- more along those lines.

(This whole feature would be switch off- and on-able for each game. It adds space-opera qualities and adds little diVersions from the build-and-kill routine; they resemble the plague events in some ways)

Similarly, a type of Tech to produce a component that can stabilise exploding stars/planets and "cure" the problem in the same way that plagues can be cured.

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Monster aliens, (like in MOO and a few others) controlled by computer as a race (a bit like the barbarians were in Civ)
Each monster can have specials; not just in power and ability but in ways to deal with them and gain from them. (Alien 1 might lay eggs in suns causing them to go nova, but any ship with sensors in the same sector generates 1000 research every turn; another may happily land on a world if there is cargo space and act as a super weapon platform; etc)

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Allow races to start the game with purchased technology - let them buy items from the tech tree with their initial point allocation, maybe at 10 research points per race point.

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Tug ships

A component which lets a small ship tug a ship or base many times it's size at fairly low speeds. Probably requiring certain level of Propulsion, and Tractor Beams.

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I'll be back...

[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 16 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 16 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 16 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 16 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 16 April 2001).]