Patch wishlist

[Nats]

I have some suggestions for the next patches:

Firstly what about an extra technology to cover personnel training. Much like Fleet/ship training this could be used to train individual captains for ships depending on what you want to use them for eg tactics, warfare, exploration, trading. The result would be trained pilots that could be placed in a ship and would add to the ship in some way. This could also personalise your favourite ships or fleets.

Secondly there are a few things wrong with the battle viewer in my opinion:

There is no way to skip a tactical battle mid way and get to a strategic battle, this would be really useful when you get into a battle you dont want to bother playing all the way through.

Also its difficult to arrange new formations for ships whilst in a battle, you have to keep reassigning all the positions every time. Im sure theres a better way this could be implemented. Can you not introduce an auto new formation command where all ships are automatically reassigned positions in the formation based on strength and value. Or cant you set up formations for various types of ships eg one for front line ships, another for escorts and traders etc etc.

Thirdly what about introducing non-static backdrops. Eg if you fight in an asteriod field what about having asteriods moving around you as you fight? Also in map views what about moving planets and moons? Should be simple enough to do in a turn based environment like this and would really add to the game.

I would like to see stars larger than one sector in map view eg red giants. Also gravity should have an effect in the battle view much like the black holes in the maps. Your ships should have to fight against gravity in battle when near planets or stars etc

What about unmanned probes to be able to be sent out to the further systems in the map view.

Other ideas for the battle viewer screen include: decoys to be launched to redirect missiles as missiles are far too deadly at the moment; being able to paralise ships temporarily to board them using energy sapping weapons or the like; mines in the battle view are useless why not change them to effect a radius right around your ship instead of placing them on a square. This could in effect keep ships away from you.

A nice idea for the map view would be being able to run your ships or fleets silent using a special command similar to cloaking. Similarly being around a planet you should be slightly less detectable. Such running silent effects would effectively mean you could leave ship fleets in a system, using less supplies, in wait for passing pirates or enemies. The down side would be that it would take a few turns to get into the silent running mode.

Many more ideas like shis could be gleaned from present day naval/submarine tactics.

Anyone have any other ideas? Im sure much more could be added to this game. Although I know its pretty good already.

[Marty Ward]

In tactical combat, under the options menu, I think, there is a way to choose resolve combat automatically. This doesn't change to strategic view but the computer fights the battle out automatically. Useful at times.

[Suicide Junkie]

Allow me to break up Groups of units! Having all of my sats in one pile sucks bigtime. Launching Fighters with different speeds? Too bad. They go slow.
Fix it to be like it used to be!

[Marty Ward]

Another wish, "Add Computer Controlled Race" in the players menu. I hate forgetting to edit to computer control the races I have chosen for a game.

[Deathstalker]

How about remembering preferences for starting a game, so I don't have to repick '5000 race points', 'low bonus' etc at the start of every game. Gets tedious looking for the exact random system to start a 'perfect' game in. Like Moo2 I usually start about 5-8 games to find a setup I like. Eagerly awaiting the map editor

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Husky65]

I'd like to see active sensors disabled in cloak, passive sensors should be unaffected.

[chewy027]

Lets get a civil war going

see "intergalactic civil war!!??" thread

[Atrocities]

I would love to have a real time feature.

What I mean by that is, the game does not require me to conduct a turn. It does it automatically.

From what I gather, the game's date indicator is set up for this feature, but it has not been implented yet.

The benifits to this added feature are great. The game would continue even if you walked away. Everything would progress as you have ordered, and the game would take on a more real time feel.

Games with such a feature:
Rebellion
AOK
AOE

2. The ability to set the starting Tech level for each individual race.

3. The ability to set the exact number of Computer players. Right now its low, medium, hi.

4. The ability to TURN off Quatum Reacter in the Exlude Tech function. (if there, please omit.)

5. A new facility that prevents new warp points from being opened within the system its has been constructed in.

6. A feature in the construction Que that will added "build this" on all planets. (This feature would allow you to build troops on all planets at once without having to select each individual planet and add it to that planets construction Que.)

7. Added feature that allows the player to select that they want all there planets for the empire they are going to play to start within one system.

8. The ability to set up allied play. (Example: in set up, the player can establish that player 1 and player 6 are allies. Player 2 and Player 4 are enemies.)

9. A bribe feature to the Diplomacy control. Set BRIBE type. Would effect other races willingness to improve relations.

10. A feature that would allow you to TELL the ships of a specific class to UPGRADE class at nearest shipyard.

Thanks for reading.

[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 08 April 2001).]

[Will]

I'm just going to go through and comment on the suggestions in no real order...

Ship captiains was requested in the "idea gathering" phase of SEIVs development, but was dropped because (I think) it was too complicated to keep track of a captain for every ship.

The "Asteroids" environment in combat... it's eye candy, and doesn't add or detract from the game. There are other things that have priority over this.

Larger stars... ok.

Unmanned probes == Drones. They're supposed to be put in, hasn't happened yet (pretty sure I still have the drone pictures in my races' directories, and I haven't heard anything about drones from MM).

About missiles being deadly... they're only deadly when you're caught with your pants down and don't have any PDC. One or two on every ship effectively nullifies the offensive potential of ships that use missiles.

Break up unit Groups... Yes, please.

Computer control... just check the little box

Ummm... the comment about active sensors in cloak... explain? I have no idea what you meant by that.

Pseudo-real time play... I'm assuming that you mean a modification of simultaneous turns, where each turn has 30 "days". The days would pass after a set amount of time, so things go on while you give different orders... Not too high on my wishlist, but it would be interesting to see. It would bring in a whole bunch of new bugs, bringing in a new "turn"-style (MM had a hard enough time getting Simultaneous to work right), so it should wait until other issues are resolved.

Starting techs... Yes, please.

Exact Computer Numbers... Yes, please.

Turn off QReactor... I think you can turn it off already, if not, ok.

I've already voiced the major flaw with the no warp point facility... this effectively cripples the AIs ability to attack human players once this facility is built. Close all warp points in system, AI can't get in, you have ships and SYs outside of core systems that can attack AI, AI can only attack the attacking forces, can't affect the economy of the humans. Unbalancing.

Build on all planets... I usually have most of my planets already building stuff, so if I use this, the build on troops/whatever would be delayed, and by that time the unit would probably be obsolete...

All planets start in one system... you can already do this, just select one starting planet Or, with the map editor, you can set a starting point where all the planets are in a single system.

Allied play... cool.

Bribe... I don't think the AI can comprehend the fine art of bribery... I mean, they can't comprehend lots of things already

[Q]

Atrocities I most support your suggestion 2, 3 and 8!
I miss the feature of SE III to defined the starting tech levels for each race individually very much.
An other feature of SE III I miss is the way counter intelligence works. It was far more easier in SE III just to define the percentage of your intelligence points for counter intellingence. If you spend more points for defence than all your enemy spend against you, you are protected otherwise some of the enemy projects will succeed. I really don't see any advantage of the way SE IV handels counter intelligence now. The offensive intel projects are fine apart from some balance IMO.