SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Ed Kolis]

Ancient mine fields... I like! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

How about racial research aptitudes... the Abbidon might be good at researching the social sciences while the Xiati might be good at researching weapons. An idea I had is that each tech area could specify zero or more research categories which would match ones in some sort of Racial Traits file. Thus, if Point Defense Cannon tech is categorized under Weaponry and Military Science, and it normally costs 10,000 points for some particular level, and your race has 120% aptitude in Weaponry research and 110% aptitude in Military Science research, then it would only cost you 10,000 / 1.20 / 1.10 = 7576 research points. (You could alternatively multiply the research points you put into it by the appropriate modifiers, but I think it's clearer to the player if the cost is changed instead - that way any 5000 point tech you see on the list takes the same amount of time to research as any other 5000 point tech, it's just that which techs are 5000 points may change from game to game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )
Another method to this is simply to assign aptitudes to each of the "theoretical" sciences and then let the applied sciences "inherit" any aptitudes that their prerequisites have - so if you have an aptitude in Physics, then that aptitude will apply not only to Physics but also to Energy Stream Weapons, Shields, Cloaking, etc. This is less flexible in that you can't assign aptitudes to specific techs, but more powerful in that you can affect a whole tech tree with just one change in the data files - sorta like the change in the "one component level, one entry" in SE4 to the "one component family, one entry" in Starfury http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Or you can have the best of both worlds and assign aptitudes to any tech that is flagged with an "aptitude" marker, and have techs with a "propagating aptitude" marker propagate their aptitudes through their child techs! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Did that make any sense? Anyone have any other ideas on tech aptitudes? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (Other implementations, reasons why they shouldn't be in the game in the first place, etc.)

[farstryder]

i'm all about having a smarter battle system for simultaneous games/strategic battle. here's why...

in a recent pbw game, an enemy had a fleet where half his ships were suicide warhead ships. it would have been really nice to be able to tell my ships to all focus fire on these first. it would also be nice to have more options generally in combat, like avoiding ships with certain components, targeting ships with certain components, more intelligent formations that operate with specific parameters, not just to maintain shape.

i'm not sure if all of this has already been said, but its really frustrating in a simultaneous game to have a superior force totally destroyed in strategic combat when in tactical, i could have trounced the opponent.

[Suicide Junkie]

Minefields with decay rates...
I'd put in a racial trait for negative decay rates just for fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[AMF]

One thing that I would find VERY cool and which would probably require not much recoding is the ability to *start* a game with ships and resources stored on them, and without planets (if one wanted.)

So, you could have a set up that began like battlestar galactica or some other "exiles" or "gypsies" race.

Ideally you would be able to design your ships and "buy" them with a set number of resources that you start with in the start up settings, and the rest of the resources you could have carried in your cargo holds.

This would require designating how much cargo carries how much resources and designating where in the edge of the map the "gypsy fleet" starts at, but other than that probably not too much coding. Just moving some interfaces to the start up screens, no?

Doing this would allow me to play my Exiles of Kor race as a real race of exiles, appearing on the edge of the map, with a ragtag bunch of ships, some loaded colonizers, a cityship or two, and a bunch of stored resources in the quest for a new home while we flee the Evil Klackons...

it would also allow a Borg type invasion wherein the Borg player starts with just one big a** mothership and has to take over the whole galaxy...

You could also "jump start" games, by giving people not only planets to begin with but a bunch of ships as well, so we don't have to spend the first ten turns building up...

the possibilities are pretty cool, IMHO.

Thanks,

Alarik

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by alarikf:
Doing this would allow me to play my Exiles of Kor race as a real race of exiles, appearing on the edge of the map, with a ragtag bunch of ships, some loaded colonizers, a cityship or two, and a bunch of stored resources in the quest for a new home while we flee the Evil Klackons...<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Klackons? Will they stop popping up everywhere like the bugs they are? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif AFAIK they're originally from Master of Orion, and as well as showing up in every MOO game to date, they've shown up in Master of Magic, as well as several variants of Angband (Hah, my Klackon Assassin has 4 attacks each with his dual wielded Daggers of Poisoning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) So where are THESE Klackons from?

edit: oh yeah, this is supposed to be an SE5 thread... so I'll reiterate my earlier requests for 1. area effect weapons and 2. spinny 3D-rendered techs like in MOO2 or the ships in the "choose initial ship" in Starfury http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ December 10, 2003, 19:45: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

[AMF]

Well, the Exiles of Kor are one of the races I often play (along with "the Zone" and the "the Outer Colonies") who all share one dubious role playing history: they all fled Ancient Earth when it was destroyed in my ACP game. In that, I'm Earth, Nagahabhata is the Klackons, and I think they're just about to destroy me. Really, it's all just me having fun creating races based on my prior games...

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by alarikf:
Doing this would allow me to play my Exiles of Kor race as a real race of exiles, appearing on the edge of the map, with a ragtag bunch of ships, some loaded colonizers, a cityship or two, and a bunch of stored resources in the quest for a new home while we flee the Evil Klackons...<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Klackons? Will they stop popping up everywhere like the bugs they are? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif AFAIK they're originally from Master of Orion, and as well as showing up in every MOO game to date, they've shown up in Master of Magic, as well as several variants of Angband (Hah, my Klackon Assassin has 4 attacks each with his dual wielded Daggers of Poisoning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) So where are THESE Klackons from?

edit: oh yeah, this is supposed to be an SE5 thread... so I'll reiterate my earlier requests for 1. area effect weapons and 2. spinny 3D-rendered techs like in MOO2 or the ships in the "choose initial ship" in Starfury http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i wonder if Taera's a klackon...

[Ed Kolis]

Might have posted these before, or maybe they were just from a time when the forum was down, but in any event I had them lying around in a text file (yes I do do those things http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Randomized tech trees - your results might vary by up to 10% or some moddable value from the standard, so a DUC V might cost 270-330 minerals, do 36-44 damage, cost 28,125-34,375 research points, have max range 4.5-5.5 km, fire every 0.9-1.1 seconds, etc. depending on who built it or even which shipyard it was built at. The tech prerequisites could vary too; one game you might need level 2 physics to get cloaking, another you might need level 3!

For each component, hull, facility, or anything that has a tech requirement, there could be a list of tech areas that you can get from analyzing it, a percent chance to get that tech area, a max level you can attain from it, and a range of research points (so you don't automatically get a whole level!) So a Wave Motion Cannon III might give you a 50% chance to gain up to 50,000 points in High Energy Weapons, to a max of level 10, and also a 75% chance to gain up to 10,000 points in Propulsion, to a max of Tech Level 7. Of course you could get lucky and get both... or get nothing! And this would be a per-component basis, as the more components you have to analyze the better chance you should have to figure something useful out from at least one of them!

[Tnarg]

Primitives and options.

1. Use them as a boon to the labor force right away.

2. Have them enter the space age as wolflings under your guidance. Give them technology and have them do the dirty fighting for you. Kind of a subjugated neutral race with only one planet.

3. Leave them be and let them develope into a spacefarring race a hundred or so turns down the road. This race would have the full capabilities as a normal race in SEIV.

4.

[Ruatha]

When jettisoning cargo;
Let it be jettisoned in a cargo pod with a set lifespan (moddable) so that it can be picked up later.
So a cargo pod can contain anything and all that is in the cargo room of the ship.
So if you see a cargo pod and go after it, it might be 10 pop or 80 fighters, 2 WP and some troops...
Add this with a scenario editor and you can mod away certein items in the game that needs to be found drifting in space.

Edit:
And how about boobytrapping a cargo pod? If mines are jettisoned the cargo pod they are in becomes a trap, when salvaged all mines explode at the same time (jettison 400 mines in one pod!!)

It should require some action to salvage, not just passing by, but pressing a "jettison/salvage" button. So you can't boobytrap a wormhole!

[ December 11, 2003, 19:24: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ed Kolis]

I'd like to see the abilities for strategic and tactical movement separated completely - currently, we have an ability to give tactical movement but no strategic (afterburners), but not the other way around - for every 2 strategic movement, you automatically get another tactical movement. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif What if you want to change the scale of the game so that ships are slower in combat without slowing them down on the system map? Or what if you want to have "jump drives" (only useful for long distances - you pick a target and jump there, but they're not very precise and take some time to charge up so they're useless in combat except maybe for retreating) and "thrust drives" (only useful for short distances - they're not as fast, but they have more maneuverability)? (I hate to say it, but MOO3 had "star drives" and "system drives" which behaved much the same way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

[President_Elect_Shang]

Copied from The Peace Thread:

I would like to see jumping through warp points added as an ability that can be given or taken away. I would also like to see the introduction of external ordinance racks as truly external, based on the size of the ship and not requiring internal space. Finally I would love to see the ability to treat ships as though they have the fighter ability to dock but not the fighter ability to heal after every combat. Then you could create non-jump engines that are smaller and faster than jump engines. The ships that have these could dock with carriers for ships with jump engines. Imagine jumping into a system, losing your jump carrier and not having a way to get back home. That would create a whole new dimension to the strategic element in my opinion. For the old gamers who like one engine that does it all they could just add them back in, or keep them in the first place and let people like me mod in the other engine type.

[Ed Kolis]

I'm just stealing all the good ideas from Dominions 2, but hey, that's how games work, right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

So anyway, this idea from Dom2 is that while it makes sense for troops on a planet to increase productivity by "coercing" the population to work, they should also (for most happiness types) DECREASE reproduction, or even cause a small loss of population if there is no reproduction... think about it in the real world... people who are oppressed are not going to be wanting to bring up kids into their world, and there's always the occasional fatality from police brutality or mishaps or something http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Fyron]

That makes no sense. Just because there are troops on a planet does not mean that they are going around oppressing and/or brutalizing people.

[Patroklos]

Warp and non-warp capable engines.

[ December 16, 2003, 02:58: Message edited by: Patroklos ]

[President_Elect_Shang]

Are you thinking of a Mod along the lines of StarFire?

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
That makes no sense. Just because there are troops on a planet does not mean that they are going around oppressing and/or brutalizing people. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Troops will do what troops will do, and if you get the benefits of occupation, you ought to pay the price http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Besides, it also depends on your culture - some people will actually enjoy the security of having troops, while other races will take it as oppression. Perhaps it could also depend on the race of the occupying troops, though - I imagine Fazrah occupying forces would be much more brutal than, say, Abbidon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

(imagines a long drawn-out argument with Fyron causing this wonderful thread to get locked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif )

[Fyron]

Some troops, yes. But not all. Rash generalizations should be avoided.

[JayBdey]

This may have been said before, but I'm not going to read all 50+ pages to see if it was.

I would like the windows to be able to move around, and be able to open multiple screens without having to close the window I'm in.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Some troops, yes. But not all. Rash generalizations should be avoided.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">all of them? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

i found myself a perfect qoute while browsing through baen's bar(forum).

"Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded: and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time."
--John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">in a Fred Geisler's sig.

[ December 17, 2003, 04:35: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[jimbob]

speaking of rashes... maybe troops should increase the probability that a plague (STD style) will break out on your planet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I think that SEV could have an option where you can employ the troops to increase produciton. A button in the set of buttons for "coherce" or "repress" will both increase production and decrease rioting/control it. However overall happiness should go down, and planets that would have rioted would still be treated as such for global happiness calculations.

theres 2cents. don't spend em all in one place http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[CNCRaymond]

"SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List?"
A gift certificate for a free copy of SE5.

[ December 17, 2003, 05:29: Message edited by: CNCRaymond ]

[Ed Kolis]

Be useful enough with your suggestions and you might get to be a beta tester, then you'll likely get one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Patowic]

What's on my wish list? Ooooooh....
* the ability to carry cargo on units. I'd like fighters to be able to drop commando teams. This would also allow for the equivalent of helicopter insertions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

* more realistic mass for populations

* ships remember what their previous orders were. So when they spot enemy ships and dump their orders, I can see what they WERE going to be up to.

* "launch mines whenever sector drops below maximum" order

* "build units when cargo space becomes available" order. This, combined with the previous, allows me to build a minelaying spacestation at a warp point and forget about it. Whenever someone clears out a few mines, it builds and launches some more. When the minefield is full, it doesn't waste resources.

* ability to reload fighters during combat, like in the Starfire books.

* Sliding scale component development. I don't want a 30 kt DU V. I don't want a 45 kt DU V. I want a 38 kt DU V. or a 92 kt DU V. Basically, the ability to devise my own components for each design. So I can build a battlecruiser with a single spinal-mount weapon that can pierce the hull of a dreadnought. This system would also allow infantry mounts and fighter mounts very easily

* ability to give all ships of a class the order to detach from fleet and head to the nearest spaceyard for retrofit.

* ability to track moving targets in turn-based movement games. That is, I want to be able to tell my refueling ships to go back and refuel, and then have them join up with a fleet on the move.

* for the above, have the refueling ships recalculate where the nearest resupply depot is each turn, so they'll be more efficient.

* self-destruct components that are powerful enough to damage surrounding ships

* separate fuel and ordnance supplies, at least as an option. "This is a shooting war, colonel. Get me something to shoot..."

* fighters seem insanely large. the USS Enterprise (aircraft carrier) is only 70kt in real life, yet a large fighter is 1/3 that size. An Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate is 4.1kt. That's 1/4 the size of a small fighter! These aren't fighters, they're intra-system frigates. B-52s at full weight weigh 219 tons, or there about. 100, 200 and 300 ton weights for fighters seem somewhat more reasonable, even though that means that carriers can pack ungodly numbers of them.

* ability to get racial tech from conquered/surrendered species. The Sallegan empire has surrendered to me, complete with all their scientists, but I am now incapable of using temporal technology?

* immunity to intel projects racial ability: the bugs from StarFire

* ability for ships to drop mines when they see enemy ships closing on them. this would help minelayers survive in strategic movement games

* bigger sphereworlds and ringworlds. a dyson sphere has 0.5 billion times the surface area of Earth. Since you only get 5x the number of facilities and cargo as a Huge planet...that seems skewed. a ringworld has about 3 million times earth's surface area.

* no mineral/radioactive harvesting on ringworld/sphereworld. You daren't breach the hull!

* endless research trees. Make those 300-turn games something fearsome in terms of technology.
applied intelligence 68, anyone?

* multiple forms of warp drive. warp points, plus ship-based ability to warp into a system, plus maybe something like hyperspace, all in the same game

* newtonian motion as an option. If I have almost no fuel left in a ship, I want to point myself in the right direction and use the Last bit of it to get moving.

* refittable fighters. I'd like to be able to choose between DU cannons or missiles before sending them into combat.

* variable ship tactics. A ship that selects from different strategies depending on what faces it, so a destroyer will run from a dreadnought, but will vigorously attack an empty carrier or cargo ship.

* ECMs that make ships appear to be other kinds of ships. I'd love to have a dozen frigates appear on the system map as a dozen baseships. This would only be in non-combat maps as I envision it initially.

Sorry if there are too many repeats in this. I read through about four pages of ideas, and didn't see these =)

Just delete my post if it's too annoying =)

[ December 30, 2003, 14:06: Message edited by: Patowic ]

[President_Elect_Shang]

Patowic, you sould see the Mod I have been working on since SE4 Non-G. It is a StarFire Mod. In your wish list below don't forget about the XO Racks!

Admiral Antonov: "Flush XO Racks Commander".

[ December 19, 2003, 03:27: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]

[Phoenix-D]

Oo, here's one I'm not sure I mentioned: completely queable commands. And all commands a unit can do should be active.

What I mean is right now you can turn cloak on or off, but only for the entire turn. I want to be able to move to a warp point, decloak, move onto it, sweep for mines, warp, do the same, and re-cloak. Its also a pain to have to have units in your transports before you can order them to, say, lay mines.

[Loser]

Hotkeys.

And more space for text. I'd like to be able to mod in legthy explanations of how new technology works. See SE IV PbC (http://www.invirtuo.cc/se4/index.php) Ministry of Science Posts for some examples (login/password: spectator/spectator).

And hotkeys. I want to be able to play this game without using the mouse.

[Fyron]

* fighters seem insanely large. the USS Enterprise is only 70kt in real life, yet a large fighter is 1/3 that size. An Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate is 4.1kt. That's 1/4 the size of a small fighter! These aren't fighters, they're intra-system frigates. B-52s at full weight weigh 219 tons, or there about. 100, 200 and 300 ton weights for fighters seem somewhat more reasonable, even though that means that carriers can pack ungodly numbers of them. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Keep in mind that the SE4 kT is not a unit of mass, volume, or any other real quantity. It is just a relative scale. Fighters and ships are not really on the same scale. Also, ships in Star Trek are usually rather small. B5 and Star Wars ships, for example, are often many degress of scale larger. The SE4 ships are actually small compared to most Sci-Fi, if you take the "kT" literally. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

* refittable fighters. I'd like to be able to choose between DU cannons or missiles before sending them into combat. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not being able to retrofit units is a balance tradeoff from them having 0 maintenance cost.

What I mean is right now you can turn cloak on or off, but only for the entire turn. I want to be able to move to a warp point, decloak, move onto it, sweep for mines, warp, do the same, and re-cloak. Its also a pain to have to have units in your transports before you can order them to, say, lay mines. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't think being able to decloak, do stuff, then recloak all in the same turn would be a good idea from a balance perspective. There has to be some risk, or cloaking becomes way too powerful.

[ December 19, 2003, 16:30: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Phoenix-D]

It was just an example Fyron. Another would be move to this planet, load 3 mines, move there, launch one, more here launch one. Or move there, load all troops of -this- type, move here. (allowing you to use the transfer screen remotely, the ship then moves to that location and does its orders, first come first served if there is a conflict)

Or even a way to order a ship to join a fleet. The ballet you have to do now to join a fleet on the move is kind of silly. As is the lack of an escort command.

[Ed Kolis]

And in addition to the "pursue your own ships" command, maybe even an option for spaceyards to automatically give any ships they build orders to join a specific fleet, wherever that fleet might be, much as they have rallying points now?

[Loser]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
the "pursue your own ships" command<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This can be done, though it is very inconvenient. Transfer the leader ship to your ally, set the follower to attack it, and have your ally transfer it back. The 'Seek after' order will remain.

[thorfrog]

Options I'd like to see:

-Use of 3d scaled models for ships and ground forces.
-Ground forces battle board. Like ship to ship combat except with ground forces. Something like the way MOO3 handled ground combat.
-Expanded ground forces technology and units. You should have the following unit types: troops, artillery, armor, scout, mecha, air force. Make it so that only troops can completely occupy a planet. Armor, artillery, and mecha units to breach defensive stuctures, air units for bonus on attacks.
-A better tech tree. Technology that can change the way you play the game.
-More unique techs.
-Foreign invaders and space monsters. Have like borg invasions and giant space amobias.
-Improved diplomacy

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by atomannj:
-Use of 3d scaled models for ships and ground forces.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Space combat is expected to look something like Starfury, only with more ships. Not sure about ground combat...

-A better tech tree. Technology that can change the way you play the game. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ideas? I think stellar manipulation is such a tech area http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

-Foreign invaders and space monsters. Have like borg invasions and giant space amobias.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Have you tried Devnull mod? It's got monsters, read the instructions on how to put them in your game... and beware! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

edit: misspelled closing quote tag http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[ December 19, 2003, 18:56: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

[Patowic]

Before I respond to the esteemed Fyron's comments, I almost forgot these:

* Facilities that degrade over time after death of a colony. I was playing a proportions game, and got a couple of cultural centers built, then a plague wiped out all of the population. Wouldn't those buildings remain standing for the 2 turns it took new colony ships to get there?

* Damage to ships reported in event window. Currently, when a ship gets damaged, it alerts through a popup. I have to keep pen and paper by my PC for those big games.

* Configurable Events, so I can have the Event Log warn me when a ship gets below 500 resources, or whatever.


Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Keep in mind that the SE4 kT is not a unit of mass, volume, or any other real quantity. It is just a relative scale. Fighters and ships are not really on the same scale. Also, ships in Star Trek are usually rather small. B5 and Star Wars ships, for example, are often many degress of scale larger. The SE4 ships are actually small compared to most Sci-Fi, if you take the "kT" literally. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I actually meant the USS Enterprise as in Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. That bugger is 70kt, and can't launch a B-52! Of course, we have atmospheric concerns, but still.... In terms of scale, fighters are drastically smaller than their targets. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif They get this by being incredibly frangible & non warp capable, of course.

I'd also like to see fighters destroyed when resources reach 0. Is that possible to implement now?

Not being able to retrofit units is a balance tradeoff from them having 0 maintenance cost.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I meant more of an option to micromanage. Just like in Starfire. For example:
"Crap, it's the Amonkrie again! Refit all fighters with missile pods and launch immediately!" Basically I want fighters that select their ordinance prior to launch. I realize that should be an expensive option http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I'd be willing to pay maintenance for units, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I don't think being able to decloak, do stuff, then recloak all in the same turn would be a good idea from a balance perspective. There has to be some risk, or cloaking becomes way too powerful. [/QB]<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'd accept that, but I'd also like an ability to queue orders up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Shang: I REALLY want to see your mod. I've been messing around modding, and I'll help you if I can http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Rockin' work on FQM, Fyron! I really think your kind of system generation should be incorporated into the base game.

[ December 30, 2003, 14:19: Message edited by: Patowic ]

[Fyron]

I actually meant the USS Enterprise as in Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. That bugger is 70kt, and can't launch a B-52! Of course, we have atmospheric concerns, but still.... In terms of scale, fighters are drastically smaller than their targets. They get this by being incredibly frangible & non warp capable, of course.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">An aircraft carrier is significanly smaller than a decent sized starship. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Light carriers are able to carry 20 to 30 fighters or so. This seems like a good amount to me. Fighters being 15-25 kT is just for purposes of placing components on them. They do not really "weigh" that amount of tonnage.

I'd also like to see fighters destroyed when resources reach 0. Is that possible to implement now? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I am not certain, but I think units (in space, not in cargo) sometimes get scrapped when you run out of resources, which makes no sense, as they cost none to support... maybe it was a bug that was fixed, I don't remember. But either way, whether this happens or not is not moddable.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana"> I'd also like to see fighters destroyed when resources reach 0. Is that possible to implement now? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I am not certain, but I think units (in space, not in cargo) sometimes get scrapped when you run out of resources, which makes no sense, as they cost none to support... maybe it was a bug that was fixed, I don't remember. But either way, whether this happens or not is not moddable. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I suspect what he meant to say here was when supplies reach 0. The way drones are destroyed automatically when they run out of fuel.

Same answer either way though, it's not moddable.

Geoschmo

[ December 30, 2003, 17:59: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Ed Kolis]

Some suggestions for cutting down on micromanagement in large games:

Alien Ship List - Like the F6 "Ship List" in SE4, only it displays all visible ships belonging to other empires. This would allow you to find the one ship that your fleet is pursuing, or just keep tabs on enemy forces in general. Of course, you'd only be able to get full details on a ship if it's within LRS range and has no jammers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Ship List "Summary By Location" Toggle - For the ship list and alien ship list there would be 3 options: Full Display, Summary by Sector, and Summary by System. Full Display would be like the current ship list. Summary by sector would condense all ships belonging to an empire in a sector into one entry, simply saying "83 Alkapi ships in Zetabed sector (3,5) (orbiting Zetabed III)" or something like that. Summary by system would condense the whole system to something like "158 Bulratho ships in Gordassia system". That way you wouldn't have to click on every triangle system or run intel to find the ones with lots and lots of ships!

[Paul1980au]

The idea of having colonies based in space and so forth independant of planets is a good idea. Perhaps floating asteriod settlements. ?

And then around planets industrial and mining asteriod settlements could also be constructed, invaded and so forth as normal.

A greater role for storms and nebulae - does the programmer that is doing SE5 ever return his thoughts to this forum in terms of what is accepted and what isnt ?

[Suicide Junkie]

* Facilities that degrade over time after death of a colony. I was playing a proportions game, and got a couple of cultural centers built, then a plague wiped out all of the population. Wouldn't those buildings remain standing for the 2 turns it took new colony ships to get there?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Plagues do tend to leave the buildings intact. All you have to do afterwards is decontaminate the area with a medical bay, and drop population back on it.

[Narratio]

Originally posted by Paul1980au:
The idea of having colonies based in space and so forth independant of planets is a good idea. Perhaps floating asteriod settlements. ?

And then around planets industrial and mining asteriod settlements could also be constructed, invaded and so forth as normal.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Agreed, SE2/3 allowed colonies on asteroids. Bring it back.
Give greater flexibility to the robot miners. Allow them to be placed on planets like troops, not just on satelites or ships.

Alos, allow more than one nations troops to sit on a planet.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

A greater role for storms and nebulae - does the programmer that is doing SE5 ever return his thoughts to this forum in terms of what is accepted and what isnt ?
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">that would be Aaron Hall, about the only management, accountant, programmer, gopher and all-around employee of MM. and he does read it...occasionally. and he has posted...occasionally. should, however, you choose to hold your breath, you will be long dead before he Posts again. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Wizarc]

This could be unrealistic, but could it be done by March 1, 2004?

Thanks

[Phoenix-D]

Originally posted by Wizarc:
This could be unrealistic, but could it be done by March 1, 2004?

Thanks <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What's important about then?

And given that it hasn't even started beta testing yet, IIRC, that's..quite unlikely. Hell, I'm not sure its even past the general idea stage and into code, he's been pretty busy with the SE4 and Starfury patches.

[Q]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">* Facilities that degrade over time after death of a colony. I was playing a proportions game, and got a couple of cultural centers built, then a plague wiped out all of the population. Wouldn't those buildings remain standing for the 2 turns it took new colony ships to get there?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Plagues do tend to leave the buildings intact. All you have to do afterwards is decontaminate the area with a medical bay, and drop population back on it. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not anymore SJ: If the population dies completely by a plague then the entire colony with all facilities and units is gone. This is in contrast to the situation when the population dies e.g. from a food contamination intel project.

[ January 01, 2004, 08:14: Message edited by: Q ]

[Me Loonn]

(Propably already in the thread but i'm too lazy to try finding... way too many Posts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Some suggestions about the decays...

1. Intel Projects:
- Change Counterintel to store all points in a single numeric "stack" with 5% decay per turn. CI2 will add to this 2 points per intel point spend on CI2-project, CI3 adds 3 points etc.

2. Minefields:
- Remove limit to the number of mines per sector and add 5% decay per turn.

Also and again, I _really_ want an option in simul game to load/drop/launch/recover specific number of specific units/cargo and _ALOT MORE THAN 10 PER CLICK_ http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

[Wizarc]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Wizarc:
This could be unrealistic, but could it be done by March 1, 2004?

Thanks <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What's important about then?

And given that it hasn't even started beta testing yet, IIRC, that's..quite unlikely. Hell, I'm not sure its even past the general idea stage and into code, he's been pretty busy with the SE4 and Starfury patches. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I beleive you are right. That would be awesome though if he was working on it in deep, deep secrecy and then surprised us all....I like surprises except getting my home planet glassed!

[Ed Kolis]

In most other commercial games, when you pop in the CD, the game will give you the option to play, install, uninstall, or visit the publisher's website. SE4 only runs the installer, which is very annoying if you want to use CD's other than the SE4 CD. Could you please put something in SE5 like in the other games? Maybe with a simple installation/mod selector program, since it's likely likely people would want to have multiple patched Versions and mods of SE5 on their hard drive like with SE4. I'd be willing to modify my SE4 mod selector to select from multiple SE5 installations and mods when the time comes, so you could use that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Atrocities]

Ed has a good point. Add things to the CD run menu.

List could include:

Image Library
Developers Notes
Art work
Se III (Complete)
AVI movies
Stories

[Loser]

and hotkeys. lots and lots of hotkeys. for everything.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
In most other commercial games, when you pop in the CD, the game will give you the option to play, install, uninstall, or visit the publisher's website. SE4 only runs the installer, which is very annoying if you want to use CD's other than the SE4 CD. Could you please put something in SE5 like in the other games? Maybe with a simple installation/mod selector program, since it's likely likely people would want to have multiple patched Versions and mods of SE5 on their hard drive like with SE4. I'd be willing to modify my SE4 mod selector to select from multiple SE5 installations and mods when the time comes, so you could use that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Starfury runs like normal games, so I suspect SE5 will as well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Phoenix-D]

Starfury does not run like "normal games" it runs exactly the same way SE4 does except now you HAVE to have the CD in the drive to play..yet autoplay still pops up the installer every time.

[capnq]

On Windows systems, you can suppress autorun by holding down the shift key while you insert the CD.

[Paul1980au]

Back to the decay things - what about solar cells for mines otherwise they might decay faster - perhaps needed a refuller ship to refuel any mines you have ? smart mines that are able to be set a small patrol route ?

Interesting ideas MM should be able to utilise new computer tech to its fullest when creating SE5

[Roanon]

Originally posted by Me Loonn:

1. Intel Projects:
- Change Counterintel to store all points in a single numeric "stack" with 5% decay per turn. CI2 will add to this 2 points per intel point spend on CI2-project, CI3 adds 3 points etc.
2. Minefields:
- Remove limit to the number of mines per sector and add 5% decay per turn.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Good idea. AND: make the % not 5, but a changeable number in the game setup options. Two numbers, of course.

[Ed Kolis]

One thing I noticed about Starfury is that while you can make the 3D models of ships and such, you still have to render them into a few bitmaps, which can be a pain if you don't have a renderer that's compatible with your modeller handy. What I'd like to see in SE5 is, if it has a 3D model, then that model is used anywhere it appears in the game, and no pesky bitmaps to generate. Or if the bitmaps are used for performance reasons, just include a simple renderer with SE5 (or even an addon for Starfury) that just lets you view a textured .x file and scale/rotate it, then save a snapshot as a bitmap. (With a bit more knowledge of DirectX, I could probably put one together myself... it's just loading a model, displaying it, transforming it, and saving the contents of a window to a bitmap!)

[Paul1980au]

Id like a renderer for both SEV and starfury that is simple to use. Making use of direct X to its fullest potential would also be good - lets see if they can come to the party.

[Puke]

eh? starfury isnt real 3d, just quasi-3d bitmaps like in DOOM? after all that hype? so theres no point in using any one uniform 3d image, if you need to convert it to a bitmap before inserting it into the game? whats the deal with the .x extensions, then?

[Loser]

Originally posted by Puke:
eh? starfury isnt real 3d, just quasi-3d bitmaps like in DOOM?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Check the demo, man, it's 3-D. He's talking about all the flat-pane pics for like a background on the ship-building thing maybe? Or like a little pic so you can choose that ship from a menu, or something.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

starfury is 3d objects on a 2d plane.

[Atrocities]

I think its time to lock this thread, go through it and organize it. There are so many suggestions, ideas, concepts, etc in this thread that it will take weeks to weed them all out. I tried once and gave up after only 10 pages or so and nearly 200 items.

What do you say we lock the thread and someone with Broad band go through it and organize the contents into something that we can then send to Malfador.

[thorfrog]

What I'd like to see:
-a GUI interface to help design game races. Currently you have to edit the text files. How about a race generator.

-Palace/capital planet. When captured or distroyed your empire risks civil war or distruction

-Recreate the availible weapon types. All weapons should have some benefits over others. Recreate weapons that are useless like Torpedoes.

-GUI interface for creating new technology

-Leader that give planets,ships,ect bonus. Kind of how MOO2 and Master of Magic.

-Space monster & borg like invasions that threaten all races.

-Improve trade. When you are looking for tech to trade with you should be able to view a list of tech the other race has to offer. Not what you allready have.

-Recreate how Espionage is done. Maybe like the way it's done in MOO2. You have to build spy to infiltrate a race. Then choose a mission. All spy options are availible. Tech improves spy success. Keeping a spys home protects your empire.

-Three types of ground forces
Infantry- used to capture a planet
Armor/Mechs- to distroy other armor/mechs, distroy buildings & defensive structures, artillary support for infantry.
Air Force-to add bonus for armor and Infantry

-Ground combat battle map. Each planet type has different advantages. Building are spread out accross the battlefield. Each side places their forces. Fight until there is one winner.

-Different Government types that have benefits that can effect the game. Democracy, dictator, empire, ect. Ref. MOO2 and Civ3

-More victory conditions
* Regicide-empire distroyed when your leader is killed. Like CIV3.
* Political Victory-allies vote you as Galactic President

[President_Elect_Shang]

Hidden warp points. Let me explain, You start in system A with one warp point that leads to B, B has one warp point that leads to C, C has two warp points one leads to D and one leads back to A. Now that you have traveled through the warp point that leads back to A you can “see” it to use it. Now A has two warp points for you to use. Think of the possibilities.

[Kevin Arisa]

Whoa! Long list! Well, I hope these ideas are not being repeated but this list is far too long to sift through. Aaron sure has his work cut out for him. Anyway, here are 10 suggestions that I have to offer.

1: Combat should be real time but it would be just fine to leave the managment part turn based. The previous idea of attack Groups in fleets is good. Lets stick with 2D space just for simplicity's sake.

2: Keep with bitmap\gif\jpg style graphics. For ships they should rotate the flat image when moving similar to the way the ship in Asteroids does. That way all the great shipsets made now will be compatible with SE5. This also allows people who use uncommon 3D renerers to be able to create shipsets. Real time rendering would limit the total amount of shipset creators which is very bad.

3: Weapons should be animated by using bitmap sheets. One bitmap for each weapon or something like that. Similar to the way they were done in Star Trek Armada for example.

4: Lots and lots of weapon\component\facility abilities. You can never have too many.

5: Weapons should be able to have more than one attribute and many things like cloaking devices should have effectiveness percentages instead of levels. There needs to be an attribute for forward arc only guns and open radius turrets. Guns should be stronger but turrets more practical. Missiles Launchers should be the components you mount but the missiles themselves should be replenished the same way you replenish supplies. That is, of course, until you develop matter replicators!

6: Keep warp points but introduce a method of traveling without them. In a way that it will take 3 turns to go to a system 300 units away so if you can find a warp point you should use it. Something like that. Be sure to leave that option open so that the rate of travel can be easily modded. (I am formulating ideas for that already!)

7: Ground combat should be handled just like space combat. Facilities should be randomly arranged on the surface of the planet and troops when deployed should be controlled just like ships. Militia would just be little people that run about trying to kill your troops with little handguns. Fighters would be useful for both space and ground combat. Troops would need a form of propulsion like wheels, treads, and repulsors. Each having it's own advantage. This setup for ground combat would give meaning to troop weapon ranges, move rate, shields and armor.

8: Whenever you need to give something to another empire you have to load it up on a freighter and send it to them. Wouldn't that Xiati battleship just love to nab all that ore you are sending to the Terrans! More strategy is very good.

9: Pirates. We need some pirates that randomly pop up. They would start when someone steals something, whether it is a freighter or a fighter and escapes to a location where you can no longer locate them. The next thing you know you see that freighter attacking another freighter. So on and so forth, if you do not get the situation under control you could be in trouble. But of course, you would still have to worry about another species' pirates on top of your own.

10: Keep the sound in either wav or mp3 format. Those are the easiest to manipulate and we want to keep the game as modder friendly as possible.

Thats it! I have added my 2, er, uh, 10 cents to this already massive line of ideas. I now close my eyes and pray.

[Ed Kolis]

I mentioned morale in combat for ships like in Dom2, but I'd also like to bring up the topic of morale outside of combat... you ever notice how all your planets might be rebelling and forming new empires, but you can easily crush them with your massive fleets? So why don't ships and units ever rebel? Of course, one ship rebelling would stand even less chance than one planet, so perhaps they could rebel in some sort of group... all ships and planets from one empire that got really angry in one turn rebel together into one new empire, perhaps, with an increased chance of rebellion for ships and planets that are in insurrection? This would also help stem the "A breaks off from B, surrenders to C -> C gets all B's tech" problem, since A would be larger and thus less likely to surrender.

[jimbob]

Ed,
I agree. But you could have it that all ships built at that planet would rebel (the assumption here is that all the crew came from that planet too) with the planet. Thus a player would need to keep their important space yard planets happy, or risk having all their military units "return home" when the revolution happens.

Jim

[PvK]

Mhmm. Ship crew origin could even be tracked. Some empires might try to mix crews from different planets, which could have pro's and cons. You could have situations like the Klingon ships in Star Fleet Battles, which have slave crews from subjugated planets, and then Klingon command crews and security stations to control the crew, and the ability to split their ship apart and self-destruct the slave portion if it comes down to that. Sounds a bit more complex that typical Malfadore fare, though. Having all the ships at a planet rebel might be enough. If a single ship mutinied, it might at least get a head start and be able to get away (especially if SE5 has improved ability to escape detection).

PvK

[Atrocities]

PLAYER COMMUNICATION
1) An in game chat system for TCI/IP (Not message by message, but one that is active like IIRC)
2) A way to send voice communications over a TCI/IP game.


CONSTRUCTION QUE ideas/suggestions
1) A way to UPDATE all ques with a new design.

IE you have 30 ques building Battleship type 1 and you upgrade the desgin to Battleship type 2 and you want all actively constructiong ques that are building Battleship type 1 to update all at once to build Battleship type 2.

2) A Place ALL on all button. A button that will place all of your ques on/off hold at the same time.

GAME PLAY
1) When an empire surrenders to you, you gain the ability to build ships based off of that empires Race ship set.

MODDING
1) A built in editor that will allow you to change AI settings in any AI file in an easy, intuative, mannor like the AI editor or Component Editor, but one that can also edit Construction Design, Research, etc.

[PvK]

Do people actually use the TCP/IP mode? It doesn't work through my NAT firewall, PBW works just as well and is far easier to set up and more reliable, and after the first few turns, it's much less convenient to try to get people to play together at the same time and the same pace.

PvK

[Fyron]

The entire point of TCP/IP is to have the people together at once, all playing at the same time. Thinking of it in terms of PBEM/PBW is a mistake.

[Ed Kolis]

Why not add a TCP/IP mode like Dom2 has - instead of requiring everyone to be together, one player sets up a server and the others connect to him to submit their turns - in other words, a private, built-in PBW? Then again, someone's already made one of those for SE4 (when PBW was down for months on end), so I guess the only reason for adding one to SE5 would be for advertising - you can't claim to support TCP/IP servers out of the box if they're only available as a user-created addon! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[PvK]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
The entire point of TCP/IP is to have the people together at once, all playing at the same time. Thinking of it in terms of PBEM/PBW is a mistake. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Gee, thanks Fryon. Rel helpful. With that insight, I think I'll try to run an SE4 game via TCP/IP. It will be really neat around turn 80, when some people take 1-2 hours to do their turns. We can send Messages to each other about how we wish Aaron would engineer a build-in chat engine, since it will be so much more fun than using, say, chat software, to chat. I'm sure there will be no problem keeping all the players connected.

PvK

[PvK]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Why not add a TCP/IP mode like Dom2 has - instead of requiring everyone to be together, one player sets up a server and the others connect to him to submit their turns - in other words, a private, built-in PBW? ...<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The reason that comes to mind is that, if there is a PBW, there isn't much need for this (unless PBW crashes). PBW is more convenient in most cases, because the a player-server requires that player to almost constantly run a computer with the server process.

The more ways to play, the merrier, except for the time needed to develop and test all those ways.

PvK

[Fyron]

Originally posted by PvK:
Gee, thanks Fryon. Rel helpful. With that insight, I think I'll try to run an SE4 game via TCP/IP. It will be really neat around turn 80, when some people take 1-2 hours to do their turns. We can send Messages to each other about how we wish Aaron would engineer a build-in chat engine, since it will be so much more fun than using, say, chat software, to chat. I'm sure there will be no problem keeping all the players connected.

PvK <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, and? The people that TCP/IP is designed for are more than willing to wait that hour or two (this is of course assuming that when it takes one player 2 hours to play it takes others like 10 minutes to play...). Other things can be done while waiting. Just because it does not suit your play style does not mean it is not good for others, or that you need to make sarcastic remarks about it.

[PvK]

The sarcasm was about your response, not so much about TCP/IP mode itself.

PvK

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by PvK:
Do people actually use the TCP/IP mode? It doesn't work through my NAT firewall, PBW works just as well and is far easier to set up and more reliable, and after the first few turns, it's much less convenient to try to get people to play together at the same time and the same pace.

PvK <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Man my ISP is booking today, Increadable speeds. I think TCI/IP play is very important and must be fixed.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by PvK:
The sarcasm was about your response, not so much about TCP/IP mode itself.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Either way it was still uncalled for. I was just trying to help you out.

[Captain Kwok]

I've only had a few successful games on PBW and that was usually with Fyron in a 2 player game with some AIs.

There's too many hiccups that can cause the whole tcp/ip not function correctly and that makes it not very useful.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by PvK:
The sarcasm was about your response, not so much about TCP/IP mode itself.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Either way it was still uncalled for. I was just trying to help you out. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Everyone has a bad day, I wouldn't worry about it Fyron. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[PvK]

Sorry Fryon, if you were really just trying to help. Seemed to me like you were dismissively telling me my question was irrelevant, but I don't see that it is.

I don't see much that TCP/IP offers that PBW + IRC/email doesn't offer, without any development cost.

TCP/IP forces people to only play when connected, but that's a limitation which could be matched by players' will or gamemaster enforcement, if the goal is to force people to all play at the same time.

The performance gain is minimal - I've played PBW two-player games and the first few turns go by with hardly any delay.

Is it just that people don't want to have to alt+tab to IRC, email, and/or PBW? Or the illusion that TCP/IP offers something that PBW doesn't? It seems cooler? The slightly improved convenience makes all the difference?

Am I missing something?

PvK

[AMF]

One thing that I think would be cool to implement in SEIV or SEV would be the ability to create unique facilities for which the player provides the description and which have no game effect. This would be entirely for role-playing and personal edification purposes.

For example, in one of my games I play a race known as the Exiles of Kor. They worship Kor. It would be cool if I could start a giant monolithic construction on one of my worlds, call it "The Great Temple of Kor" give it a cost (say 50Kt Min) and just build it.

It would have ZERO game effect, other than to take up a facility slot, but it would have potentially LOTS of role-playing effect. My bitter enemies could try to sabotage it, I could be forced to keep fleets there to defend it, etc...

Another player recently wanted to role play and international casino empire, well, they could do this in part by building a "casino complex" which, again, has no game effect, but has lots of role playing effect. It could be the destination of regular trading vessels, etc...

if I ever survive the Klackons in my other game, I can tell ou I'd devote a lot of resources to building a giant memorial to the billions they killed on Earth...

There are plenty of options. This sort of "role playing project" works to great effect in other games I am familiar with (see http://www.throneworld.com/lords/index.jsp).

Now, those of you out there who are scoffing that "but why would anyone spend resources without any benefit? It's stupid!" may scoff away. But I can tell you that this free-form ability to role play can lend itself to a more satisfying role playing environment on many occasions.

Thanks,

Alarik

[Loser]

We do exactly this in the Play by Committee (http://www.invirtuo.cc/se4/index.php) game. We have a Temple of Aaron and one player, a System Lord, is building a gigantic facility in his own arrogant honor.

[AMF]

But how do you represent it in game-terms? Do you just chose a facility type and everyone calls it "X"?

Originally posted by Loser:
We do exactly this in the Play by Committee (http://www.invirtuo.cc/se4/index.php) game. We have a Temple of Aaron and one player, a System Lord, is building a gigantic facility in his own arrogant honor. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[Loser]

Head on over to the site and download the mod. We have added a few Facilities, and a few Components, and I regularly rename the components so that the differences between tech levels are recognizable. (i.e. Anti-Proton Beam, Carbureted Anti-Proton Beam, Large Bottled Anti-Proton Beam).

It's a very simple mod, and one that we change as we go forward in the game.

Log in using spectator | spectator and check it out.

[Patroklos]

Allow all stellar objects to be colonized, and then include the ability to colonize each class of stellar objects as separate racial traits.

This would let you have different "classes" of life forms. It would be interesting to have Terrestrial (planets), Stellar (stars), Energy (storms), and Dimensional (warp points) life forms existing in a universe. I would advocate completely different tech trees for each class, sharing only the most rudemantry of componets and weapons.

Even better, in the begining stages what reason would you have to fight other classes of lifeforms since your not competeing for resouces? You could have three different races occupying the same territory in a cooperative federation sort of agreement without stepping on each others coat tails. You would watch massive wars take place right next to your homeworld and not be bothered by it at all. Or we could make each lifeform class be xenophobic twords each other (A slide bar value in setup). In the later stages with tech advances perhaps allowing competition on various levels to exacerbate differances you would have epic wars between civilizations.

Of course alot of game issues would have to be worked out to fully implement this. Would Dimensinal colonies occupy both sides of a warp point? What should the stats for Stellar colonies be as there would normally be one colony per system but we can't have them starting with shereworld type planets?

A radical idea, but what depth of play it would add.

[Grand Lord Vito]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Just because it does not suit your play style does not mean it is not good for others, or that you need to make sarcastic remarks about it. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">NOT TO BE DECENDING FYRON.

But you should read your own above words.

But it could be that I am misunderstanding you, you are so young http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[President_Elect_Shang]

you are so young http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Fyron you where born in 84? Of course, now it all makes since, I understand why you act the way you do. Hay guess what, take it from a 32 year old, you are not always right. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Patroklos]

Hey,

Some more ideas.

1.) I would really like to see multi-tile ships. I hate that a starbase and base ship look no more massive than a dreadnaught or battleship (admittedly this varies from shipset to shipset). Multi tile ships would display just how massive these vessels would be and make formations much more important. It would go something like;

Escort to Light Cruiser - 1 tile
Cruiser-Dreadnaught - 2 tiles
Baseship and above - 4 tiles

I would use a similar scale for bases. Just imagine by the later stages of the game the mighty starships that would be roaming the starlanes. Movement and weapons would be difficult in a square based tactical map (HEXES PLEASE!!!). As for weapons, when desining these bigger ships you would decide what tile the specific componets are in. Those weaopns would fire with range from that tile, and the enemy could target a specific tile of a larger ship to get at certain compoents.

2.) I second the arch of fire idea. That you should decide what direction your weapons face. Maybe have different mounts like a turret that are more expensive but can fire in to adjacent directions. Would agian make formation and manuever important, as you could flank a ship to get into its defenseless side. I would do the same with shields, allowing a player to distribute its points around the ship as it sees fit. Reinforce the forward shields at the expense of the rear? Its up to you. Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain did this beautifly.

Picture of design screen (http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews/pc/jan98/pax07.html)

3.) that game also had 3D graphics, but limited them to a managable scale. I would much rather see beautiful 2d graphics than pigish 3D. Hope SEV doesn't follow the 3D hype if it can't be pulled off well.

[Paul1980au]

Ah yes the idea of forward, rear and side facing mounts and ships as well as multi tile ship types is a good idea. Which would mean planets and the game map would need to be bigger also to make this work - or a zoom feature where ships are 1 tile but closer inspection reveals different sizes and a micro combat map. Just some ideas to discuss

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Grand Lord Vito:
NOT TO BE DECENDING FYRON.

But you should read your own above words.

But it could be that I am misunderstanding you, you are so young http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I believe it would be misunderstanding. I never suggested that JLS change AIC. I suggested that he make a Version closer to stock SE4 for those players that don't like the game slowed down (especially for PBW use). A new mod, really, that implements most of the AI-helping changes in a stock-like environment. I never suggested that he make the normal AIC like stock. And it is condescending, not descending.

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:
Fyron you where born in 84? Of course, now it all makes since, I understand why you act the way you do. Hay guess what, take it from a 32 year old, you are not always right. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No not always, but I do have a pretty good ratio going. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ January 27, 2004, 02:21: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

And it is condescending, not descending.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">i beleive this is what people find irratating. he undoubtably knows that, however, in that specific format, the sentence can sound like you don't think he does.

[Fyron]

GLV has mentioned "descending" when making remarks to me in at least 4 Posts so far... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif And the fact that he used "condescending" in the first such post indicates to me that he is saying "descending" for some purpose...

[ January 27, 2004, 02:35: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[President_Elect_Shang]

Weapons with “facing” might be nice but that could get pretty complex after awhile from a modding stand point. The multi tile ships are ok, but then the entire system map will need to be expanded (hex maybe) or you run the risk of getting perspectives, which is what you are trying to set, way out of scale with planets. I like Paul’s zoom feature.

[ January 27, 2004, 03:57: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]

[Fyron]

I think the ships would just be multi-tiled in combat, so the system map is fine, just the combat map needs to be bigger. Of course, it would still be a great idea to go with a hex map instead of square map... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Patroklos]

Yeah, I meant that they would be multi tiled in the tactical combat map, not system.

[dogscoff]

Here's something I'd love to see, although I have a feeling it might be contraversial:

I don't think the straight Jubilant->Happy->Indiferent->etc scale is enough. Therefore, how about if every planet tracked not only the population's happiness, but their loyalty to each and every empire in the game. A population's loyalty toward a given empire could be modified by battles and intel and facilities and troops and plagues and cures and various other game elements, and could be used to make planet captures, rebellions, coups and even ground combat militia behave more convincingly.

For example, a planet that has just been captured may be loyal to its original owner and attempt to stage a coup. Or it might even try to convert to the original owner's ally if that ally's ships entered the system. Similarly, if you recapture one of your planets from a hated enemy, the population should assist in your invasion attempts and then welcome you back rather than try to fight you off and then riot automatically. The values governing this behaviour should be hidden from the player, although a rough indication of a population's loyalty might be visible.

Even if these values did little or nothing in the game's first release, functionality that uses them could be patched in later, and of course the values would have to be moddable for those that don't like them.

I realise that it would mean increasing the size of the savegame files significantly, but as the average PC's storage, processing power and bandwidth capacities continue to increase, I think Malfador should make the most of it.

Similarly, I think each ship should record not only the crew's experience but its loyalty and morale. Ships could then spontaneously join another empire if you don't look after them, or mutiny and turn into rogue/ pirate craft.

Also, all these loyalty settings would have to be modifiable by race: For instance I don't think a Borg or Cylon planet would ever be likely to mutiny...

[Fyron]

Just don't turn it into some silly "culture" rating like in Civ 3... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Paul1980au]

You know the loyalty factor to each and every empire is a good idea - with the increasing abilities of modern PCs yes aaron should take advantage of it. Planets with multiple types of races (ie captured planets with my and the previous races on the same planet would also present some event based sceniros ie revolt, racial genocide by the citizens, peaceful co existance, benefits in terms of production rates, ability to utilise the same technology,) ie enemy race puts up objections to treatment of its citizens, citizens exchanged back to original race for say resources or technology - using the citizens as a bargining tool ! ALso civil war on planets with multiple races (or create a new empire / hybrid empires)

Zoom feature is also a good idea - hex versus a square based tactical combat map.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Just don't turn it into some silly "culture" rating like in Civ 3...
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">'oh look, they got better *GREBB's! let's go join them!'

*Grand, Ridiculous, Ego-Boosting Building

on the other hand, i never had a city defect, to or from me, becuase of culture. on the other hand, i didn't play much.

[Paul1980au]

Well the revolt for planets idea is interesting, what about random ship defections and troop defections as a event basis and not a intel project. Ie troop x amount on planet x hijack transport ship and move to planet y or troop planets join up with pirates and move to x location - what about trap planets ie instead of alien device - anicent alien races cloaked ships activate as youre ships approached the planet and combat ensured - you might have to destroy the alien ships before you can colonize the planet but might get a alien ship join youre race (perhaps with advanced tech you havent got yet) you cannot mothball or anayaise but the alien race will serve as mercenaries to youre race - you can then use that ship as any other ship but you would have an advantage in combat - the offset was that once it was destroyed you wouldnt have access to it again. ?

[Patroklos]

I would really like to see warp engines as a seperate component.

I would also want them quite large in their first incarnations so you have to pick whether to build that badass big gun battleship or a not so powerful ship that can be used one the offense. Would lengthen the game considerable, as defenders would have a natural advantage until tech reduced the warp engine's size.

[Ed Kolis]

Sort of like MOO3, huh? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

(just kidding, I don't mean it's a bad idea! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Note to everyone who may not have heard: You can also email your (serious!) suggestions to se5@malfador.com; they're more likely to be noted that way! (appoints self Prophet of Aaron, gains +3 hacking skill from Aaron's computer mage ability http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

[minipol]

Is Aaron going to wade through this list? If he does, he'll need a week to go over all the stuff in here. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Asmala]

Originally posted by minipol:
Is Aaron going to wade through this list? If he does, he'll need a week to go over all the stuff in here. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No he won't, he doesn't read this forum at all. Somebody should gather all suggestions, sort them (perhaps according to popularity) and send to Aaron.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i think he might have posted here a long time back.

[Lisif Deoral]

Originally posted by Asmala:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by minipol:
Is Aaron going to wade through this list? If he does, he'll need a week to go over all the stuff in here. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No he won't, he doesn't read this forum at all. Somebody should gather all suggestions, sort them (perhaps according to popularity) and send to Aaron.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, in the original post David Gervais wrote this, so...
Originally posted by David Gervais:
OK, Aaron agrees that it would be fun to hear what kind of ideas you people have. So consider this an 'official' post, and please do tell what would make your 'Wish-List' in SE:5!

..Remember, Aaron will be lurking and so will I! Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">PS: ...my Last post here was in April 2002??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[ February 01, 2004, 09:59: Message edited by: Lisif Deoral ]

[Asmala]

Well, looks like he reads these forums after all. I though he didn't because I've never seen him post. And (as you can guess http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) I haven't read this thread entirely.

[Paul1980au]

You know that i have seen him in the recent visitors section - i guess he just reads and doesnt get involved in the discussion !

[Loser]

Hotkeys.

[Fyron]

Hotkeys? What sort of hotkeys? There are a lot of them already.

[Loser]

You still have to use the mouse. The arrow keys do not allow you to choose things from lists, nor does tab move you through various fields and options. Page-up and Page-down will scroll in one of two lists, and the other list must be scrolled with the mouse.

I'd like it to be possible to play the game with no mouse usage at all. Or maybe just in Tactical Combat, though I'd prefer that to be keyboard-driven as well.

[Fyron]

Those would indeed be useful hotkeys.

[Timstone]

Isn't it a good idea if you guys make a list of the stuff that's proposed/wished here?
Would make Aaron's life a lot easier.

[Atrocities]

I have a new idea for SE V,

Raiding missions.

A ship is armed with a raiding party component and when attacking a planet will raid it rather than capture or attacking it.

Raids can yeild technology, resources, population, etc.

Whatever the cargo holds of the raiding ship can hold.

[Asmala]

Originally posted by Timstone:
Isn't it a good idea if you guys make a list of the stuff that's proposed/wished here?
Would make Aaron's life a lot easier. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes it is a good idea but it would be such an enormous job that I doubt there are volunteers.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Asmala:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Timstone:
Isn't it a good idea if you guys make a list of the stuff that's proposed/wished here?
Would make Aaron's life a lot easier. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes it is a good idea but it would be such an enormous job that I doubt there are volunteers. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you read back about a billion pages you will see that I started to do this, but the task is so fricking huge and so complicated by the nature of the Posts that it would become a full time job for any one who wished to pick up where I left off.

Note this thread is not the only place ideas have been posted. There are many other threads with many more great ideas.

At this point, the only way I would attempt such a thing would be if I were paid. Otherwise it would simply take to long to accomplish.

Remember you have to organize, sort, proof read, etc over a 1,000 Posts plus all the linked to threads and such.

[Atrocities]

(Currently on Page 25)


<font color=red>LONG POST!<font color=black>

All of the suggestions, ideas, and such below are from this "offical" thread created by David "The Avatar King' Gervais. I tried to list them as they were posted, and some suggestion my be copies of others. You guys did not make this task easy with 33 pages of Posts to mill through, so please keep in mind that duplications are likely. I managed to get through about 6 pages and have over 200 items. I stopped at the Top post on Page 27 (currently raynfala post posted February 14, 2003 19:22)

I did this because I think a comprehensive list was needed. There are many many more suggestions out there that did not make it into this list. Some of them are contained at the links below.

Old Thread - Pole Thread (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=006202;p=6)
Old Thread - Old Ideas Thread (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007348;p=5)

=============================
THE LIST
=============================

01. My biggest wish is that whatever new and cool ideas Aaron adds to SE5, the game still have a simultaneous turn, PBEM play option that is compatible with PBW.
02. When viewing a system show what ships and colonies are in the system the Last time the player could see it
03. Fix bugs and add more control to ship/fleet orders (ie allow player to specify what max range is)
04. Satellites spread all around planet
05. Fix bugs in comm. System (ie gifts accepted but not received)
06. In simultaneous game show some detail on ground combat results (such as shown in single player game)
07. Components with intel and research abilities
08. Ability to edit Messages after they are sent
09. Easier to use map editor (ie ability to drag and drop planets and systems around)
10. Additional warp points types. (ie Temporary would be good for simulating warp/hyper drives. Create warp point, go through and next turn it collapses)
11. Allow human to set anger level towards other human (and possibly prevent treaties from being broken when anger level is low ie 'bortherly)
12. Mines that do not hit 100% of the time.
13. Make Intel/Counter intel more sophisticated instead of just X no. of counter intel defeats X number of intel.
14. Save kT destroyed for individual ships instead of just class
15. When AI agrees to do something (ie declare war) make them do it
16. Show the damage to ships in combat replay for simultaneous game
17. Facility that adds facility space to a planet
18. Starting technology levels for each race individually in the game setup
19. Race specific anger modification in the AI anger.txt file
20. Ability to save default game settings for subsequent single-player games
21. Get restricted racial traits working
22. More mount options (ie to change rate of fire or Armour mount)
23. User interface enhancements (ie mouse wheel support)
24. Add more resource types. (ie certain components could require exotic materials to build)
25. Facility to increase max population
26. One of the things that I (and several other people) wanted was open-ended research. instead of progressing according to statically defined components, each component would include a formula for improvement. maybe linear, maybe parabolic with deminishing returns. this would make component families easer to create and mod, and would provide truely 'limitless' gameplay without starting a new game. arm's races could Last thousands of years. in theory.
27. Another biggie, is vector based movement. thrust and velocity would be nice to have. but even without thrust and velocity, get us off the grid!
28. For the candy factor, truely modled starsystems were frequently requested. planets that orbit. maybe outer planets orbiting slower than inner planets. more on the eyecandy factor, is planets that are animated pictures that rotate. even a rectangular bitmap that scrolls by, rather than a 3d rendered sphere, if thats too process intensive.
29. Another biggie that was on the old lists, was the ability to save your turn files before the end of the turn. you spend 30 minutes working on a turn, run out of time, and your not done. currently, you cant save the state of your orders and then come back to them later. It would be very nice to be able to do this.
30. Customizable turn simulation for non-human setups, like setup 10 ai races, let them grow for xxx turns or until a specific event has happened. This would make up a kind of scenario editor or ai test.
31. Fuel/Energy feature for components and facilities with abilities which depend on the level of energy, e.g. Talisman is filled with 100% divine energy (refuel at Fate Shrine or such), energy and to hit bonus decreases by ... I do not know yet
32. Ability to turn off/on facilities, would be a nice feature for finite resources games or for embargos against allies?
33. Different kinds of shields beyond phased and nonphased.
34. Systems with orbiting planets would be cool.
35. Replace atmosphere types with a slider. There would be the atmosphere types (oxygen none argon methane hydrogen etc,) each representing a number. Your race would then have a number on the slider. The closer a planets slider is to yours, the more facilities/population you could have, the easier it would be to mine, the faster your population would reproduce. Eventually, the planets slider gets so far away fromy your number the colony becomes domed, or you can't colonize at all.
36. Space monsters, space pirates.
37. Shipping lanes that appear as some dull line and go between the spaceport in a system, all planets in that system, and the spaceport in the next system over. Then the ability to blockade that shipping line and steal those resources.
38. Make tachyon sensors have range like scanners.
39. Switch the construction quee to be for one entire sector, and then make it similar to the research que.
40. Change the research method back to SEIII's
41. Keep warp points!
42. Keep Opening and closing warppoints.
43. Everyone has always been salivating over the idea of having colonies in deep space. building massive space stations (called 'sides' that will eventually break away from the Federation and form the Principality of Zeon...) that can hold population and generate research, intel, and resources. This could be addressed by having components of those types being added to ships, even without the ship actually holding any population. likewise it could be addressed by enabling some sort of 'lesser' stellar construction that did not have to be built around a star. or, perhaps in the far future of Space Empires, ships / bases will be able to hold population and have facility type abilities.
44. "Off-road" travel (move in interstellar space without using warp points)
45. Support for *.avi (or other animation format) in place of any *.bmp used in the game - probably unnecessary though if there is realtime 3D rendering!
45. Even more moddability, made possible by plugins - you don't like the resource system? Implement your own in any programming language you like, just make sure it links to the rest of SE5 using some standardized API - or maybe something like Stars! Supernova Genesis' "RDL" (Rules Description Language)
46. Realtime rendered ships & planets - yeah I know it's already in, but they're cool! (You say that cuts down on moddability? Just make it some standard format - most of us use some sort of 3D program or another, there's got to be a converter for Moray to DXF or whatever you use!)
47. Better sound effects! [Big Grin] Even SE4 Gold's "enhanced" sound effects, to be honest, aren't all that great
48. Some sort of prioritization system on the SitRep (stole that right off MOO3 [Big Grin] it means the turn log) - color coding or different font sizes for different levels of urgency, perhaps? or filters - show only urgent Messages, etc.
49. Ability to order cloaked ships/units not to fight when they enter a sector containing enemies they can see, or those enemies enter their sector... annoying when those fancy unarmed spy satellites initiate combat with an enemy battlecruiser
50. Ability to queue orders in turn-based games - "I want you to load satellites here, drop them there, and repeat - oh crud the ship already executed its orders! now it won't repeat anything!
51. Planet Classification Schemes, like in MOO3 - give a planet up to 3 (or whatever #) designators such as "Mineral Rich", "Frontier", "Research Colony", etc. and have AI templates for facility construction on those types of colonies such as "Mineral rich colonies get 1 spaceyard, 1 robotoid factory, and the rest miners" or "Frontier colonies get" - the trouble would be to get the AI to reconcile planets with multiple classifications - what proportion of miners vs. research facilities vs. farmers
52. Facilities that take up multiple numbers of facility slots
53. Combination of facility slots, cargo space, and maybe even population space on a planet into "surface area" - you CAN have more defenses on a planet, but you have to sacrifice facilities or population, conversely you CAN make it a mega industrial complex but there won't be room for weapons platforms
54. Multiple spaceyards per planet!
55. Realtime 3D combat! :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys: No really, I'm serious, they're doing it with MOO3 (well not the 3D part) - the way it works is, each of your fleets is divided into 1-8 taskforces, and the taskforces are what you actually control in combat, instead of piddling with the individual ships, which can be a pain when you have 100 ships on the battlefield! So early in the game, your TF's might be 1 escort, but later on your TF's could consist of, say, a troop transport with some heavy beam battlecruisers flanking it and PD cruisers on the edges of the formation. Then you just order the TF around - "attack enemy taskforce X" and they attack it, but each ship chooses its own target without having it manually specified. Sort of like a more advanced Version of SE4's "Formations"
56. Populations and facilities that actually consume resources! (Organics for most populations except mechanoids, none for autotrophs (populations that gather solar energy for food), and all resources for facility operation)
57. ** Custom moddable resources - you want Ironium/Boranium/Germanium instead of min/rad/org? You want "special resources" that are found only on rare planets and required to build exotic technology? You want to model every element known to man in the game so you need Titanium to build armor and Hydrogen for fuel cells? You got it!
58. Variable tech tree - like in MOO3 (a lot of my ideas are from there :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys: ), just because it says you need level 12 Particle Physics to get Phasors doesn't mean you'll actually get it then - there's a random factor and you might actually get Phasors at level 11, or level 14!
59. Ability to put multiple damage types on a weapon so it can be 1/2x to shields but once it pierces the shields it's armor piercing, or damages only engines - some sort of checklist in the data files like "Damages shields? Yes, how much? 50% of normal? OK, how about armor? Oh, it skips armor...
60. Component/facility/unit(?) mods (generalization of weapon mounts) that modify any ability of a component, specified by name - "This mod increases the 'Firing rate' of your weapons, cutting it in half. (Works best with real time combat :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys:) And this one doubles the 'Cloak level' of your stealth devices..."
61. Firing Arcs and Shield/Armor/Component Arcs!!! My phasor can only fire 90 deg. forward and I'm shooting from an angle of 325 deg. relative to your cruiser, so I'm going to hit a hole in your shield and probably hit your engine, since it's on the left!
62. Real leaky shields/armor - my shield has an 80% deflection ratio, meaning that on average, 20% of shots will pass right through! (or maybe 20% of each attack will penetrate)
63. Something I've always wished for in a space game - the "Lego" ship design model! (I believe I suggested this when SE4 was in development :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys:) Basically what it is is, your ships are designed modularly - you simply drag components onto a grid, where each component must be connected to another component at specified connection points. Each component has a size and shape in grid squares, so a laser gun might be a 3x3 square with a 5-square line projecting from one side, while an internal component like life support could be represented by a simple block. Each component would also have a weight, which may or may not be proportional to its size (a 20 kT cargo bay will be mostly empty space so it's larger than a 20kT meson bLaster). Then various calculations are done on the ship to determine its vital statistics - a to-defense bonus/penalty could be calculated from the overall size of the ship in grid squares, for instance, while the ship's acceleration would be the thrust provided by the engines divided by the mass. (Could even have retro thrusters for backwards movement and rotational thrusters for turning...) Then, when the ship is damaged from some particular direction, the components on that side are hit first. Of course, this is probably more trouble than it's worth to begin with, both from a programming and a gameplay perspective
64. More realistic/sophisticated planetary habitability and sensor models - take a look at LINK (http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=4154&group_id=17579) I cooked up for the "Universe" project - hey, even something like the temp/grav/rad model from Stars! would work, if atmosphere were thrown in as well!
65. Remote terraforming!
66.
Planets, ships, and units of fairly continuously varying size - instead of planets being "Large", they would be "24,500 km" and population and storage capacity would vary as the square of the radius. Ships could be built in any size you want, with QNP (or even NP, for combat!) ratios calculated automatically, and shipsets would no longer be "this is an escort, this is a frigate" but instead there could be "lines" of ships (customizable in some text file of course) - standard ships, transports, carriers, colony ships, bases, etc. and your basic shipset would have pictures for various ranges in each of those categories - who needs a neostandard when you can say "this picture is for standard ships from 100-149 kT, this is for standard ships from 151-200 kT, etc." ... of course, this might play havoc with mods that change the basic component sizes for realism or sci-fi universe purposes - Aaah, I decreased the size of components, now all my ships look like escorts! :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys:
67. Realistic unit sizes - 20 kT fighters are ridiculous! :insert smiley here, I ran out of smileys: How about modelling down to the ton on units?
68. Keep the modability, add to it.
69. Simultanious multiplayer, like SE4 is now only improved (save before end of turn ability, especially)
70. Real time combat is not worth sacraficing PBW style multiplayer. However, AI-run real time might work, and RT as a replacement for the current tactical mode would. As long as strategic is still there. Getting rid of the one fleet fires then the other situation is a Good Thing.
71. Ability settings for most/all abilities. Say you could make a Self Destruct that works 50% of the time when the ship is boarded, a better one that works 75%, etc.
72. Real-time rendered models are OK, but it's not important. Especially since programs like DOGA or Bryce will -not- be able to export to these (even with a filter- waaay too many polygons)
73. Better intelligence system
74. More free-form treaties. Say I want to offer just resupply and radioactives trade, for example.
75. Have the AI ignore things it isn't set to respond to. For example currently you can ask it to leave a system and it will say yes or no. However it never does anything either way, so it should just ignore.
76. The current system and planet view works fine. Maybe a few more (hidden?) details.
77. Another thing from the SE4-planning days: Techs with "ors" and maybe even "nots" as well as "ands" in their prerequisites - so maybe you need either Particle Physics or Wave Mechanics to get EM Radar (I seem to recall posting a similar example a few years ago when SE4 was in development [Eek!] ), or you can either research The Light Side Of The Force or The Dark Side Of The Force, but once you research one, you can't get the other!
78. ** Money. A more advanced economic model.
79. Diplomacy that actually works (steal the model from EUII):
a. Your ally has been attact, join the war or suffer the consequenses (drop in happines and reputation)
b. Peace treaties where the winner of the war (need a point system) gets some concessions from the looser.
{Note by Phonenix-D: Maybe one but I don't want to see the second at all, except as part of a treaty system I mentioned earlier. No point systems for treaties! If one player wants concessions they should -demand- them. You can do this now in SE4 for example.}
80. Also I remember somebody wanting a tug ship ability, pull thing to other location like stations. Oh maybe fighter that can attack ships and troop targets.
81. And also maybe use a number base for shield bypass level, like cloak has.
82. Save mid-turn games.
83. AI's that don't forget about you after you've closed a warp point for 1 turn!
84. A 'programmatical' combat system and rules: IF...THEN...ELSE, CASE, etc. similar to VisualBasic or something like it)
85. Don't sacrifice any current gameplay for 'eye candy'. Graphics are nice, but most of us don't play this game primarily for graphics...
86. Cloaking that is percentage based instead of level based. That way, you never really know if your ship slipped past his sensor grid until his fleet pounces on it... To elaborate:
Cloaking becomes a new ability tag "% chance to remain undetected", one for each type of cloaking (i.e. Active, Passive, Psychic, etc). It is, of coarse, a value. Cloaking components/sectors/systems have a positive value, cloak defeating sensors have a negative value. These values should NOT be cumulative (or better yet, make that moddable in settings.txt with a simple true/false line). The basic sensor ability (before any research) is just the cloaking tag attatched to the hull size. It should probably be about -50% (or 50% chance to detect normal ships). Colonies get an inate sensor rating of about -25% chance to remain undetected. That should be moddable in settings.txt as well. The values, of coarse, aren't set in stone....
If you wanted to get really elaborate, you could have seperate tags for "% chance to remain undetected" and "% chance to detect". Then you could make it so that (for example) the cloaking values don't stack, but the sensor values DO stack. (which IMO would be unbalancing, unless the sensors didn't have a high value...) I think it would also be kinda neat if there were two kinds of sensor tags, System wide, and sector wide. Then you could make all sorts of interesting cominations! (System wide sensors having a lower max ability than Sector specific sensors comes to mind...) Now comes my favorite part. [Smile] A check is made each turn to see if your ship is detected using the following formula: A - B = C where: A = Highest available cloaking % B = Highest available sensor % C = % chance of detection. As an example, we'll use my numbers above. An uncloaked ship enters a system in which you have a single colony. 0%(cloak)-25%(colony sensor)=25% chance that you will detect the ship THIS TURN. The game does a quick random number generation, and determines whether or not the ship is detected. Next turn, assuming that the ship is still in system, the game goes thru the whole process again. That way, just because you slipped past the sensors Last turn, they might detect you this turn. The opposite is true, as well; just because you detected that star destroyer as it entered your system this turn, that doesn't mean that you will be able to detect it next turn!!! [Eek!] Even better would be to make the turns between sensor checks moddable, too. Yet another line added to settings.txt.... [Roll Eyes] You could also mod a highly negative valued sector % chance to remain undetected tag onto Warppoints, if you wanted. That way, you see the cloaked ship enter the system (since it activated the WP, which would probably be notice). But as soon as it moves away from the warppoint ... I hope you had sensors researched... I provided a few examples of how versitile such a cloaking model would be. Hopefully, Aaron is convinced now. [Wink] (yes, I know he probably will never see this thread...)
87. Improved strategies and combat. SEIV strategies are not entirely intuitive (to put it diplomatically) and some of the selections don't do much of anything. Make more real options available like having a capture ship skirt around the battle to capture the enemy's repair ship or troop transports that will drop troops in the heat of battle. Make it more likely that several ships (not just one or two) will be targeted. Improve the combat movement algorithm.
88. Add an order, something like the sentry order, that will attack enemies entering the system during the turn. This would be especially useful when warp openers are around. Does you no good to defend a warp point when the enemy is more likely to open his own warp point and ravage your planets while your far superior fleet stands by and watches.
89. Cloaking that has a range, so you can only detect things close to the sensor array.
90. The ability to keep a race's attributes when they become part of your empire! It was always fun (if a bit of micromanagement) sending all my Psilons to the mineral poor worlds so they could do research and spreading out the Silicoids so they'd take all the space nobody else wanted on the planets...
91. Parasite Spore Bombs that initiate ground combat as if troops were dropped - against organic races, at least... mechanoids would need special computer viruses... allow computer viruses to be used against units as well...
92. How about Terra-Forming? Change a planet from one type to another? (not just the atmosphere!)
93. Also, I would like the population (and max # facilities) of a planet to be based on more than just the size of the planet and atmosphere. (I mean, even a moon sized planet (tiny) should be able to hold a lot more facilities!) Maybe some planets could be restricted to 'automated' facilities. (too hostile to hold population!)
94. Research & intell componets - that generate, on orbital structures [Eek!] .I wish it was in se4gold [Frown] .
95. Better AI - with diplomatic sense/ compassion/forgivness replys to human player?.
96. Better intelligence system - .See Phenoix.
97. Rouge alien trader - alien request 100000 minerals,and player selects alien componet/ship/or teck available.
98. Stars in background - of planet systems that flicker/go out.
99. Save/printout- of begining game settings setup.Example With this game setting then playing this game, i may Lose or maybe Win.Know i can go back to a saved settings file, to see what i set, and what changes i need to adjust, so i can play another new game with better performance.
100. Make ftrs still worthwhile in later in game
101. AI's as strong or stronger then the TDM and the other mods...
102. Some new additional races
103. Neutral AI's having the ability to expand outside their home systems
104. A very super Xenophobic Race, Hates everyone and everything, very seldom trades, makes deals, bent on total annialhation (sp) of all other races
105. Keep Moddable
106. New additional planet types and atmospheres
107. New additional atmospheres
108. New additional types of maps, including those like FQM, and others
109. I would also like to reiterate the request for 'space lanes' or cargo / logistic routes for civilian / non-combattant traffic. these lanes should be able to be intercepted / blocaded.
110. customizeable treaties. take all the components of each of the other treaties, and let the player mix and match. they can trade, but ships can still fight when in the same sector. they can share intel and resupply, but not trade. they can see each others telemetry, but do nothing else. and sliders for anything percentile, so trade can have teriffs where you are not willing to give more than x percent, even if you could be giving more. or subjugation/protectorate would have a user defineable percent of resources to cough up.
111. It's pretty frustrating that the game has passive and active EM sensing, but they behave identically. I had a great idea for a mod wherein all ships naturally have some passive EM cloaking if they're not broadcasting, or targeting, or anything. If the Passive cloaking could be set to deactivate whenever any of those things happened, that would be awesome. Also, if the "drop troops" ability were implemented, that would be good, since of all the unit launches, putting troops on a planet is the only one that demands specialized equipment. Not so much for, say, mines.
112. When moving cargo, there are options for move five and move ten. What I want is an option to move one hundred. Yes, I play this game too much.
113. Additional Resource types (money, SPice, etc.) added via mods. I think SE4 is close to being able to Mod the DUNE universe - SPice would be part and VERY rare, but you also need the ability to have an AI race that would act as Navigators. SHips would have no ability to warp - they would have to load aboard guild heighliners (Obviously this would need REALLY big ships)
114. Obviously, Intel needs to be greatly improved.
115. Saving Game in turn (as others state) needs to be in an upcoming patch. I spent 2 hours doing a turn the other day and got a phone call that made me run out - I left the PC on but it locked up while I was gone [Frown]
116. I would like planets to actually ORBIT the stars in a system. Maybe not in Real time, but they would move around a bit in between turns.
117. MOre Strategys that work. Abilityt o have sub-fleets (aka Task Forces, within fleets with different orders).
118. Sats should spread evenly around planets!
119. A note taking system built into the game - I want to be able to add notes to Races, planets/systems, fleets, I forget sometimes what my long term goals were for any given "thing" and this would help facilitate that. Especially in PBW, where some turns don't run for 2-3 days. I don't think that would need to be incorporated in the .GAM file obviously.
120. Edit Messages already sent and be able to send multiple Messages to other players.
121. Ability to export current tech levels. (the list that is, so I can print) Maybe even the ability to compare to a Partners for trading purpose.
122. Bring back the "Armor/Outer/Inner" Hull section for ship designs from Space Empires III! This was one of my favorite ideas from SE3 that I'm really mad that didn't get added to SE4. And to add to this feature, on damage points hitting Outer hull components, have an option in the game allowing the Last point of damage (if more then one point) "leak" through the Outer Hull to inflict damage in the inner hull.
123. Speaking of "Leak" Damage, it would be nice if their was some option to add "Leaky Shields" to the game so that a small portion of damage in a volley of fire could "leak through" the sheilds and hit the hull. The ammount to cause a leak would of course be optional in .txt files.
124. Bring back the old system of Fleet Management tactics from SE3!!! I like the new fleet formations and new tactics section from SE4, but I think the old SE3 tactical management of fleets was a little better then SE4 is someways. It would be nice if SE5 did base some of its Tactic options on both SE3 and SE4 and combine them together in SE5
125. Pirates, revolutions/independence wars, better ground combat....still would be great!
126. Wouldn´t it be great, to get an option to build up the formation of my fleet individually? Say...,my battleship should be flanked by this two destroyers ... , and this battleship should always be on slot number 3, the destroyers on slot number 4+5.everytime, when it comes to battle, this specific battleship would be always guarded by this to destroyers, even if the whole fleet counts 100ships.... or in short words, it should be possible to give ships in a fleet a specific place/slot!
127. stronger AI. i like singe player very much so this needs work. maybe even a special mode where the choices are limited (limited tech, full resources and so on) so that the ai doesn't have to much areas where it can f*ck up. this can probably be done by making a mod?
128. Improve the intelligence system of the game.
Escpecially the defense system seems to be weird. You should be able to complete a defensive project that then would be stored. In other words, it doesn't disappear after completing but get stored.
129. In combat, turn the sats to face the enemy. I hate it when they appear on the other side of the planet. they are useless there
130. Randomized damage--listed damage +/- X%. Adds at least a little variety in combat.
131. Different types of warp points. I remeber there was a thread about it sometime ago, but I'm to lazy to look. Also I still the mod script lang idea.
132. In simultaneous single-player games, computer players that take their turns while the human player does!
133. The one thing I'd most like to see changed/added/improved, other than eye-candy issues, is: Race Habitability. Take a look at Pax Imperia 2. Though most of that game IMO sucked (the demo was better, argh), race design is a true gem. First off, you could spend more points to breath more than one atmosphere type. Second off, a planet's habitability was based on comparing the planet's atmosphere and temperature against what your race could breathe (a simple yes/no) and against your race's temperature-tolerance band (a weighted value; the closer to centerline you got, the better). Thus, a world might be absolute hell for player A's colonists, and a pure paradise for player B's colonists. Player B will therefor value that planet more than Player A will, when negotiating colonisation rights in a border system -- though Player A would be best served by determining what player B likes, and pricing that world accordingly. And so on.
134. So; comparing to SE4/Gold ... allowing the selection of (for race points) additional atmosphere types would be great. Inserting a habitation value for temperature would be great. You could even go a step further, and add one for gravity, and end up with three variables to consider. Next up, and also from Pax Imperia 2, is an issue I terribly miss in SE4: the issue of flag-versus-shipset. PaxImp2 has TWO seperate places to select those; your flag is one issue, your ship style is another. IOW, picking the (for example) Sallega shipset would not REQUIRE you (barring a customised copy) to use the Sallega flag. PaxImp2 has some 20-30 flags in it, most quite nice. Then maybe a dozen ship styles, also fairly nice (if only game play didn't suck).
135. Now, on to somehting I desperately wish could be added even to SE4, but would wait for SE5 to get if I had to: NEGATIVE PREREQUISITES. Sorry for shouting, but this is something that most 4X games don't currently model: the concept that at certain key junctures (not every tech level, but every now and then), you get the option to "turn" your entire racial technology "paradigm" in one direction ... or another. You can't do both. You can't have it all; research is no longer like Pokemon ("gotta tech 'em all"). If you get component X, you will NEVER have the option to get facility Y ... or vice versa.
136. Change the way minefields work. Make one "mine" built actually representative of a certain strength of minefield ... when it's laid into a sector (or whatever), that sector gets that strength of minefield. Based on the strength of the minefield, EVERY ship entering, or spending an entire turn inside, the field has a CHANCE, not an absolute, to take damage, based on the initial mine built. If they do, there's a (muchly reduced) chance to take MORE. And so on, until they stop taking damage. Each impact reduces the overall strength ofthe field by a little. Minesweepers reduce the strength within a random range. Um, here's an example, with out-of-thin-air numbers: Say each mine built at a world and deployed by a ship or base represents ... 20 points of "depth" for the field. Two minesweeper2 enter the field, able to sweep ... say, 4-6 apiece. Okay, let's say they get exactly average, and sweep 10 from that field. That leaves a "depth" of 10, still. If we suppose the chance for a ship to be hit is equal to the field's depth, then each of the sweepes now has a 10% chance to impact a mine while sweeping. Let's say both do, but aren't damaged (they're heavily armored). Now, they each have a 5% chance to strike a SECOND mine; let's say only the second one does, and it survives, but is crippled. Now it has a 2.5% chance (rounded however the program likes) to strike a THIRD mine (which might kill it); let's say it doesn't, however. Three strikes happened; field depth is down by 3 more, and stands at 7. Next turn, the defending player lays one MORE mine unit, increasing the strength by 20 more ... to 27. Obviously, those two minesweepers, ESPECIALLY the crippled one, are in trouble. You can then introduce "decay", and even dispersal. Presume some fraction of a field is lost every turn, at a minimum; let's say 1/20th, or 5%. A 20-depth minefield, not swept and not run into, becomes a 19-depth field for the start of the next turn. If a single ship hits a mine, that satisfies the minimum of one mine gone, so ... no extra loss occurs. Dispersal can be modelled by increasing the decay rate, for any non-ship entity in the field (planets, moons, asteroid belts, wormholes, etc, etc). And/or decreased by the presence of minelaying ships or bases (who can tend to the field, retrieve strays, and so on). Decay-and-dispersal represents mines simply drifting away, having their electronics packages go dead, hitting random spacejunk and going "boom", and so on.
137. Other than that ... well, 3D graphics isn't really a big requirement for me; "pseudo3D" would be fine (3d-looking, but still using 2D graphics). I must admit I like the idea of an animated solar system (again, see PaxImp2 for an example, complete with Warp Points). Obviously, in a turn-based game, the animation would be sort of stop-motion, but ... *shrug* ... You could have the planets move at their own speed during the simultaneous-move replay. You could put a ring depicting the orbit of the planet, and brighten/darken/thicken/etc a segment to represent the planet's expected movement during the next turn.
138. Lastly, KEEP THE MODDABILITY OF SE4. That's what prompted me to buy SE4/Gold, it's what keeps SE an actively-played game.
139. By far the most annoying thing about SE4 is having a superior fleet beaten in simultaneous combat by the crap AI that takes over this. I would like more control over this. Such as when defending a warp point let me set my initial ships position. And somehow give me more control over what my ships do in the combat.
140. More options for stellar manipulations:
a. Create Stars from Nebulas (Hey, that's how they form in real life!)
b. Create/destroy organic infestations/warp rifts/other new system types added in SE4 Gold
141. Do not allow mining on ringworlds/sphereworlds. Farming is OK, but mining?!? you BUILT the thing and now you expect to MINE stuff out of it???
142. Population Management:
a. Population restrictions based on "population centre" facilities, not atmos type. Of course, non-breathing populations would need special domed "pop centres", which don't hold as many ppl...
b. Autonomous population migration: Civilians should be able to move around the galaxy without the help of Imperial Population Transports. For example, whole planetfulls of ppl might move away from conflict if they are peace-loving, or toward it if they are warriors/ beserkers=-). They could also be also motivated by things like plague, economic conditions, planetary conditions, overpopulation & the desire to explore. They should even be able to move across imperial borders if necessary, settling in neighbouring empires.
c. The above could lead to refugee crises- overpopulation of a planet should be possible, and it should lead to serious problems (Plagues, riots)
d. Underpopulation should also be a concern. Please enable the minimum population per facility! (although proportions mod does a good job of this already).
e. Plagues need to be more complex (ie less predictable) than just "level 1 medbay cures level 1 plague."
f. Captured populations should keep all of their racial modifiers! A planet full of one species shouldn't suddenly lose their +10% minerals extraction just because they have a new govenment! This would introduce interesting choices when it comes to relocating population.
g. More structured empires: Yes, I'm talking about imperial capitals, regional capitals, trade routes, cities, localised resource pools... Rather than micromanage these things, let the game decide where they are and how they grow. All the player has to do is defend them=-)
h. Less predictable intel: More factors need to be introduced to make it less cut and dried.
i. More complex and competitive ground combat. How about giving a positive modifier to races fighting on their "home" terrain? (ie gas races at an advantage when fighting on a gas giant).
j. Less rigid distinctions between different game objects, allowing modders to blur the boundaries between (for example) planets and asteroids, or between ships and planets, or between fighters and troops, or between ships and bases... the possibilities for modders would be limitless.
k. The ability to warp (ie denying warp travel to neutrals and fighters) controlled by a moddable ability rather than hardcode. This would be great for modders.
l. Ability to build treaties in the same way you build trade packages (I'll give you access to my resupply bases in exchange for research alliance.)
m. Advanced order queues for ships: adding boolean operators into order queues would enable us to automate loads of ship operations and reduce micromanagement.
143. Ships and planets that take up different number of squares/hexes/whatever on the combat map? Currently all ships are 1x1 and all planets are 4x4... MOO2 had 1x1, 2x2, and 3x3 ships, and 3x3 through 7x7 planets, IIRC... SE5 could go one better and have moddable ship sizes that don't even have to be squares!
144.Improved micromanagement features:
a. Be able to give the launch order to planets from the colonies list.
b. Be able to send ships or fleets to waypoints, give launch orders to waypoints or pick up and drop troops from the Ship/Units list instead of having to go to each individual ship
c. Allow sorting in the retrofitting menu and the ship fleeting menu.
145. 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)
146. 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.
147. 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.
148. Reports that are sortable...
149. The ablility to name ships and planets and systems what ever you want and only you know...
150. 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 [Big Grin] .
151. 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.
152. 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 [Razz] Well they're GOOD - and Aaron did mention that MOO was one of his inspirations for the SE series! [Big Grin] )
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.)
153. A colony icon for planets that have space left for new facilities.
154. A search tools for colonies, that can mix several filters :
155. I want all my colonies with a spaceyard, not building something.
156. I want all my colonies not building something, and having more than 300 kt free in their cargo space.
157. A pop-up message when you re going to erase a fleet, by removing the Last ship.
158. Possibility to attach notes on a ship (usefull for transport missions...)
159. I´d like the construction yard to be changed
into a more realistic ability. Now you are CONSTRUCTING predefined DESIGNS.
It is more realistic to construct its components and then give the order to ASSEMBLE.
Space Yard Facilities will then be used for constructing bridges, CQ, LF, Engines etc etc.
The ´surplus´ of one turns build would be stored on the planet. (Ability 1 storage 2500kT).
Cargo facilities can enlarge the storagecapacity. When you have made all components you construct (=assemble) the design. Assembling cost could be an ability (10 % of the total constructioncost of all items). You will be able to produce more efficient but it
will also mean a better planning and transport of builded items. Yard Facility on ships can work with a storage ability (500 kT and rising when achieving a higher techlevel). If not sufficient you will have to use more ships !!
160. I would like to have a button in the system screen:
a. If you do an intelligence you can put the info right where it belongs. A button next to the buttons Construction/next turn would give you a summery of al notes in all systems.
b. want the ability to build as many ringworlds and sphere worlds as there are
stars in a system. I also want to the ability to ´upgrade´ a ringworld to a sphereworld.
Maybe a new feature to put in a component.
c. When starting a new game you can choose how many units and ships you allow
to be in a game for a player (both 20000). Make this an inputfield where you can put
a number instead of clicking and clicking and clicking etc etc ..... or is this
being solved in 1.84 ? Haven´t looked yet.
d. Give Starbases the ability to move so i can position them on warppoints without the need of a ship yard. I´ll even settle for a movement of 1 sector in 3 turns or so.
161. A simple abstracted tactical ground combat "arena" somewhat like we now have for space battles. "2D" would be fine, but something more then now, {pretty please}. {So we can maneuver around a bit and seize stuff and occupy dirt and blow things up more personally. So much more satisfying, lol!}
162. A more interesting "boarding" battle combat arena also.
163. The ability to set the maintenance cost of each individual component. Either as a percentage of builds cost or, better yet, specific values for each of the resources consumed each turn.
164. I'd like to see colonized planets generate usable population points to a pool like resource that are used as a "resource" globally, to build units, man starships, man factories. The "men" required would be specified in the component text. We could have other technologies, traits, components or facilities that reduce these requirements and/or increase their availability.
165. A larger space combats arena and a better "retreating ship" design. Having to go and hide in the corner or run around trying to run the clock down to survive, while cute, leaves much to be desired. How about... If you are slower then the pursuing ships you get caught, and if you are faster you automatically get away. I know it's a bit more complex then that and yes maybe there could be techs that modify that basic concept but generally if you are slower you don't get away, unless the enemy chooses not to pursue. If you are faster you get away even if they are pursuing, barring the uber-secret long-range tractor beam or temporal glue your mad scientists just invented. [Wink]
166. For Aaron to magically change his mind about the real-time combat for SEV. If I wanted real-time combat, there are already fifty or so games on the mainstream market form much larger companies with flashier graphics that I could get. I know that the end of turn-based gaming is inevitable, but maybe you could put it off for another year or two?
167. More realistic planetary damage! Drop 100 nuclear bombs on a planet and all that happens is the weapon platforms blow up? [Roll Eyes] Every weapon in the game should have one or more "collateral damage Ratings" which specifies how much damage it does to population, planet conditions, troops, etc.
168. Maybe stupid idea, maybe not, but wouldn't a "evolution" research line be something? ... like research and intel. Ok evolution takes a lot more time usually, but space colonization also takes more time to do [Smile] . But for example, you are terran.. and go to space more and more, you lose physical strength a lot, but you develope (with added research: genetic manipulation, cloning, random factors) telekinetic skills and telepathic abilities. With the goal to ascent to a higher being? or like a very powerfull "ancient" space race that pocesses abilities beyond normal comprehension... (like shadows and vorlons?)
169. some more things to consider for SE 5.
1 System and Galaxy
1.1 Sector limitation
1.1.1 If i can put 100 mines TL 3 and 100 Satellites TL 3 in the same sector
then it should be possible to put more then 100 mines TL 3 in one sector.
Change the sector limitation into a maximum of kT instead a certain number
of units.
1.1.2 Moving ships/drones through a "full" sector will not be possible.
You will have to engage combat or go around it.
1.2 Asteroids and Meteorites
1.2.1 Asteroids and meteorites which move through the galaxy (on a collision course).
1.2.2 Asteroids and meteorites can be destroyed by all weapons by reducing
the damage resistance to zero.
1.2.3 Asteroids and meteorites will move 1 sector each turn.
1.2.4 Asteroids and meteorites will move through warppoints and will be
handled as a ship while passing through.
1.3 Components and Facilities
1.3.1 Massive Energy Shield
1.3.1.1 Promote the Massive Energy Shield to a facility in the tech area of shielding.
1.3.2 Standard Movement Power
1.3.2.1 Propulsion is based on standard kT Movement Power (MP). An Ion Engine will have
100 kT of MP. 6 Ion Engines on a frigate will give you (100x6)/150 is 4 movement.
1.3.2.2 MP will be rounded down to an integer. (eg 4.8 will be 4 !!).
1.4 Units
1.4.1 Troops
1.4.1.1 Combat with troops will be desplayed just like combat screens for ships/planets etc in a arena.
1.4.1.2 Troops will have to have the ability to move (see 1.4.1.1)
@capnq 1.3.3 Construction Yards
You´re right that it will increase the time to manage your construction queues. But the idea was to make it more realistic. Centralizing your construction queues to a few planets would compensate for the increase of management.
Normally i´d use 5 planets as maximum as construction planets. One facility and about 10 space yards do the job quite well. Combine this with the suggestion to use more slots for a even bigger construction yard and more cargo space and the possibility to have more yards on a planet. I think it will eventually make it easier to play the game and managing your construction queues.
170. Meets the same hardware requirements of SEIV Gold. I don't know when I'll be able to upgrade my computer, so if the hardware requirements change, I won't be able to play the game. And I so want to continue playing this game in whatever form the new game will take.
171. Tactical ship combat screen: bigger, and when a ship reaches an edge, it will appear in the opposite side of it, as representing a spherical sector of space. Its not very realistic to destroy a ship by cornering it.
172. Tactical ground combat: a ground tactical combat map! Yes you can also create your ground / air units bearing in mind mobility / protection / firepower. Maybe some combat like in Panzer General I, with several categories of units: artillery, infantry, armor, aircraft (and may be ships in worlds with oceans?).Of course, turn based, as it should ALWAYS be a good strategy game! Allow use of all kind of weapons (seekers!) and other componets (engines) for ground units.
173. Maybe some ideas may be taken from Star General(not a good game, but I liked the combination of ground and space combat, someone remembers it??). Of course if the player don´t feel like to emulate Erwin Rommel, he can resolve it the¨"strategic way"
174. Fighters should be capable of operations on planet surfaces to support ground units from ground bases (the equivalent of fighter bays but on the ground), but perhaps they must not be allowed to go to outer space by their own propulsion, only when they are transfered to a spaceship in a "space strategic" turn.
175. Bigger stellar system screens, with more or less the same number of stellar bodies in it but more distanced, as a stellar solar system is in most part "empty" space. I dont think very realistic to send reinforcements from Earth to a base in Pluto in one or two months. Players wil be more careful when deploying their defense units.
176. A bigger universe map: allow more, much more than
255 stellar systems, maybe a higher proportion of un-colonizable systems, but it will make the logistics of space travel a little more fun.
177. Ship movement: move up the limit of 255 standard movement units for ships in order to allow more freedom in selecting a scale for Quasi Newtonian Propulsion use.
178. This is what come to my mind now, I am sure I will have more ideas in the next few minutes... Some of those ideas were already posted by other people in more or less the same words, but I think this reflects the fact that SEIV is a great game and it only needs some additions to make it THE PERFECT STRATEGY GAME!
179. Design the game with a client/server architecture, where clients would be:
* the user interface screen
* computer AI's
* ministersand the server would be the game engine & state.
This would allow (among other things):
* aspiring AI designers to implement their own AI's (virtually no limits on what the AI examines from its vantage point when making a move)
* avid players to code their own user interfaces
* avid players to implement ministers that do exactly what they want them to do
180. I would also like to see some expansion on the idea of trade. Right now, trade is completely transparent to the player. I would like to see trade ships which are not really under your control (since they are free traders) but do require protection. This would not really add to the micromanagement, and would add realism since a government has far less control of free traders compared to military ships. These autonomous ships would establish their own trade routes (viewable only to the home empire and the empire to be traded with). Both empires would share the responsibility of protecting their trade ships. You could fleet your ships with them as protection, but then fleet control would be turned over to the computer.
181. Trade ship construction would also not be under your control. It would be controlled by some sort of suppy & demand routine. Possibly the player could have a method to increase/decrease trade ship construction over the whole empire at the cost of lowering the empire's overall construction rates accordingly. An attack on an enemy trade ship would disrupt trade, and the movement of resourses & supplies around your empire. Maybe even be able to capture enemy trade ships. This would make the spaceport idea a little different in that you would need a spaceport and trade ships operating from that system. There could also be trade ship related research areas. These would not be able to give the trade ships any offensive military capabilities, but would be in the areas of speed, defense, capacity, increased exchange rate, etc. Trade should be linked to happiness and resource procurement at the system level. It should also fill the role of supply lines. If a part of an empire is cut off, it should suffer in supply, and its ability to send/receive resources.
182. It occured to me while adding SectTypes to my modding program that it might be nice if the descriptions for the planets actually had an in game effect.
You could perhaps add a bunch more fields to the SectTypes file so that for example on a "Tiny planet dominated by carniverous flora." people would be less happy and reproduce slower. or a "Huge planet which is rumored to be the home of ancient powers." would give a bonus to research facilities.
183. Warp point toys. For example delayed-exit warp points, moving warp points, randomly opening & closing warp points.
184. If you have static defences by a warp point, your enemy should have to fight them in order to go through it. As it is now, you can fly up to the warp point on the same side as the defences, start combat, spend 30 turns keeping out of range of all those bases/ sats, and then after combat has ended just warp through. AGH!
185. Change neutral empires to allow ships to warp after a human player takes over.
186. What about getting rid of the Warp points and allowing any capital ship to have an Hyperdrive to jump to any system in line of sight (not blocked by other system) within a 100 light years ? That would be far more realistic, would get over all those "warp point shock point defenses", and would dramatically change the strategy.
187. Re-balance the weapons using the fine work of the modding community.
One recurring example: (Progressively increase the structural points needed to destroy seekers at higher levels, or apply a progressive defensive bonus to the seeker).
188. Here's something: self-destruct devices. I really, really hate these things. One of my favorite elements of any space combat game is boarding actions. And they're in SE! Which is great, except they don't really work. Because of the Damned self-destruct devices. All anybody needs is level three propulsion and suddenly the whole ship capture system is useless. A much more useful model would be to include some sort of device that would set off explosives when boarded, and you could decide how many explosives you needed. An even better addition would be to give the self-destruct device some sort of percentage failure chance. Another good thing would be more incentive not to carry them, so a way for someone else to set them off? How many sci-fi movies have there been with some super-duper ship or space station that gets trashed by some guys sneaking on board and setting off the ever-present self-destruct device? Another good thing would be if the devices were connected to specific components. Suppose you have some shield technology that you don't want to fall into enemy hands, so you put a bomb in the shields so that they'll be blown up if the ship is boarded. Actually, I hate to say this, as I mostly don't believe that SE should emulate any other game, but MOO2 had a pretty good boarding model, even to the point of having breaching pods (assault shuttles) and specific missions for boarding parties.
189. Something little... but you know how trade grows by 1% per turn up to 20%, where the 20% is moddable (like in P&N it's 10%)? Well, how about if the rate was moddable too, and could be set for each of the individual resources and points - so you could have Minerals, Organics, and Radioactives trade growing by 1%/turn up to 10%, say, and Research and Intel trade growing by half a percent a turn up to 5%. Also, MOO1/2 had this and I think it adds a bit of realism - establishing trade or research treaties doesn't initially produce a profit - in fact it initially costs money to set up trade routes, but after a few turns you start making money.
190. The ability to analyze units and facilities for tech, not just ships!
191. Better implementation of TCP/IP
192. Making a new component call it a warp generator, with the abilites of the gravitational condenser and the grav. quantum resonator. Open and close your own warp points, maps would not need stars interconnected (If you wanted it like that) This would better simulate, babaylon 5 type movement.
193. Ability to choose square to square movement. Forget warp lines/points altogether. Better to simulate Warp speed (Star Trek) type movement. This might be mutually excludable with other Light speed styles upon choosing which to use on game start.
194. When ground combat was initiated, switch to a small hex map and play a simple board wargame with ground "counters" with odds rations, zones of control etc.. Make this a different scale of play--- Ten round of ground combat for every 1 "space" turn. Also adding a ground unit logistics model of some sort, so that every "space turn" could effect the ground supply situation. Create ground counter type units instead of the component type units with size Bn, Rgt, Div etc.
195. Allow for a component called "system ship racks" allowing for the piggy-back ride of ships not equiped with warp generators on ships with them.. Makes for interesting strategies.
196. Allow for map editing with name tags with possibly a dashed line, that would appear on the map-- neutral zone--Romulan border--etc.
197. Allow map editing for more than one starting point for each race--like homeworld:fully developed--Colony:minor development--outpost-- minimum development. allow for starbases to start the game already built in the map editor.
198. Create an AI that will use the "proportions " mod effectivly.
And do this all underbudget and ahead of schedule
199. A tech-list that go on indefinatly, like it does more damage every level and gets smaller, same for buildings.
200. Gouverment types, that make some things easier... dictatorship or maybe an advanced form of technocracy? and each give you a benefit and disadvantage..
201. More abilities, like create pocket dimension?
202. Warp points of varying sizes such that you can't send a ship through a warp point smaller than the ship. So do you attack the obvious route that restricts you to smaller ships, or use dreadnoughts but take the long way around? Perhaps longer warp-points would be smaller - sort of like Stars! stargates, you have to trade off distance for capacity - or the warp point creation components would have a maximum size as well as maximum distance..

This is as far I as I got tonight. Top post on Page 27 (currently raynfala post posted February 14, 2003 19:22) <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[Timstone]

*Jaw drops to the ground. Stands in awe of the HUGE post*

I can only say: well done. Two thumbs up!

[Q]

My admiration and congratulation for your huge work Atrocities. May I suggest that you send it to MM.

[Tanus]

A couple things I'd like to see are - the ability to restrict warp point travel by component. Eg. You need to have 'gravity sails' or etc installed on your ships to use warp points. This lets you make pure system defence ships that don't use so much space the sails so have more room for weapons, or do you install sails and let them use warp travel, etc.

Also, perhaps not in the game, but the ability to create multiple supply types. I'd like to be able to distinguish between 'ammo' supplies and 'fuel' supplies when modding etc. You could then make components with variable combinations. Eg. Capital ship missiles that fire every 3 rounds and use 20 supplies, and capital ship missiles that fire every 2 rounds and use 40 supplies. (rough ex. but you get the picture) This way you're not using up your movement capability by using your weapons, just your ability to fire.

[Atrocities]

Thanks guys, but that was done six or seven or eight months ago and was never completed. Way to much work. Besides, Aaron reads the forum and the Beta Testers read this thread so I am sure Aaron already has an impressive list all organized and sorted by now.

SUGGESTION for SE V

Area: Analyzing Technology

A better option to the current Anaylyze system would be to have analyze option cost Resources and take time to accomplish in and of itself.

Call it reverse engineering.

You can not analyze anything until you have research Reverse Engineering and then when you do analyze something, it cost resources, % for which decrease as Reverse Engineering Tech increases, and each project takes time, again reducing as tech level improves.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

You can not analyze anything until you have research Reverse Engineering and then when you do analyze something, it cost resources, % for which decrease as Reverse Engineering Tech increases, and each project takes time, again reducing as tech level improves.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yeah, and the amount of time and cost it takes depends on the points you've put into Reverse Engineering compared to the points in whatever tech your trying to reverse engineer.

in ascendancy, you had to research xenoarcheology to explore ruins.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

in ascendancy, you had to research xenoarcheology to explore ruins. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I love that game. In Adamant, you have to research Xenoarchaeology to make use of ruins techs. The ruins give you a tech that does nothing but acts as a prereq for another tech (which has other prereqs, such as Xenoarchaeology) and gives the component/facility/whatever. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Kiedryn]

What aboult ground combat. Small planetary map... Perhaps something like Empire Deluxe??

[ March 30, 2004, 10:24: Message edited by: Kiedryn ]

[solops]

Suggestions foe SEIV:

Only one: Better AI, even if the game has to be designed around it.

[Imperial]

for single player-- less turn time length for the AI. i have waited in excess of 5 minutes--upwards to 10 or 15 for the AI to process its turns in single player. It should be much faster.

[Timstone]

I would like to see a beautifull graphical game. With shipmodels made with an AutoCAD-like program. That way I can make some cool shipmodels. AutoCAD-like programs are the thoughest programs to get a fileconverter for.
Anyway, I would like to contribute to the modding community by making ships and I need an AutoCAD-like format to do that.

[Kiedryn]

I'm using AutoCAD 2000 at work. And I think that MicroStation is much better in 3d visualization...

[Timstone]

I use SolidWorks 2k4. It's the best there is, IMHO. Cool to know there are others working with similar programs I work with.

[tesco samoa]

At right now it takes a turn and the cost of the ship http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[President Lomax]

Dont know if this was mentioned before, but I would like to see some better troop combat. Not that there is anything wrong with what he have now, but if you could see the combat itself, or maybe control some of the troops, I think that would be awsome.

[ZeroAdunn]

Originally posted by Tanus:
A couple things I'd like to see are - the ability to restrict warp point travel by component. Eg. You need to have 'gravity sails' or etc installed on your ships to use warp points. This lets you make pure system defence ships that don't use so much space the sails so have more room for weapons, or do you install sails and let them use warp travel, etc.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I like that idea.

[Phoenix-D]

Originally posted by Timstone:
I would like to see a beautifull graphical game. With shipmodels made with an AutoCAD-like program. That way I can make some cool shipmodels. AutoCAD-like programs are the thoughest programs to get a fileconverter for.
Anyway, I would like to contribute to the modding community by making ships and I need an AutoCAD-like format to do that. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No, no you don't. You just need a program capable of doing rendering from your AUTOCAD files.

And if they are the toughest format to get a converter for AND don't seem to have a freely available Version..sounds like a bad choice to me.

[ZeroAdunn]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but I would like a change to the way the current fleet system works. The basic idea is as follows:

You build ships. Then you build a ship with a command component, this ship is basicly a flag ship. Each command component would have a command rating which would determine the number of vehicles which could be tied into said command component. (note: only ships/bases could be tied into a command componenet, it is assumed fighters would be tied to whatever launched them)

Example: The Wrath of Jimbob is flagship with a command rating of 6, thus six ships can be tied to that ships command component thus forming a fleet.

Ships that are tied to a command ship (said ships would appear as fleets do now in SEIV) would gain bonuses to hit (linked targetting) the ability to fly in formation, the ability to cover other ships in fleet with PD, and various other bonuses tied to the command bridge type. (there could even be an option in race set up to choose what bonuses your command bridges give to fleets)

[narf poit chez BOOM]

That would make small ships even more useless.

[Paul1980au]

Tug ship - yeah interesting

Keep or enhance the ship build and ship repair aspects of the game

Other suggestions have been good - would like to see some feedback from aaron though as to what will be included or not included or any updates etc.

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
That would make small ships even more useless. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It could be tonnage based, though - e.g. ship A has a command rating of 1200, so it could command three light cruisers, or one baseship...
edit: or to make it even MORE complicated, there could be a hull/component attribute called "command complexity", and a ship's command complexity is the sum of its hull complexity and its component complexity, and Ratings are assigned based off of command complexity, and then each ship could have a command rating of how many complexity points it could command - cargo bays are not very complex compared to particle beams so a ship could command more transports than battlecruisers, for instance...


Hmm, this whole "command" thing would probably work better for LEADERS (i.e. Captains, Admirals, etc.) which are (IIRC) something Aaron wants to do if he has time... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ March 31, 2004, 02:20: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

[Timstone]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Timstone:
I would like to see a beautifull graphical game. With shipmodels made with an AutoCAD-like program. That way I can make some cool shipmodels. AutoCAD-like programs are the thoughest programs to get a fileconverter for.
Anyway, I would like to contribute to the modding community by making ships and I need an AutoCAD-like format to do that. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No, no you don't. You just need a program capable of doing rendering from your AUTOCAD files.

And if they are the toughest format to get a converter for AND don't seem to have a freely available Version..sounds like a bad choice to me. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As I understood it SE V will be COMPLETELY 3D. This means the ships will be in 3D. The models are made with some kind of program. I hope there won't be mere artwork displayed from a ship. I would like to shoot down enemies in 3D.

The choice of AutoCAD like programs might be bad, but there are some formats which can be converted relatively easily. But the DoGa stuff they now use is bad for me. I can't find a converter anywhere. I already asked the maker of SolidWorks if they have a converter, but as to now they haven't responded. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

So I wish to see a format which is easier to convert for me.
I'll put up a list here from the formats I can make directly with SolidWorks.

Edit: This is the list of formats I can handle with SW 2k4:
STEP (.STEP)
Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (.IGS)
STL (.STL)
ACIS (*.SAT)
Parasolid (.X_T, .X_B)
VDAFS (*.VDA)
Pro/ENGINEER files (.PRT, .ASM, .XPR, .XAS)
VRML (.WRL)
RealityWave (.ZGL)
Catia Graphics (.CGR)

I don't know every single file format, but these I assume are from 3D programs. I hope MM can use one of these.

[ March 31, 2004, 10:14: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Atrocities]

I want a Multi-phasic-transdamentional-thermadine-isoconetic-vacuum coupler with plasmatic micro fussion tession abilities so that I can obliterate my opponents system before I ever even know he exsists.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[AMF]

Very likely this has already been requested, but I think it would help the game immeasurably to have a greater range of conditional orders you could give yoru ships in simultaenous games.

I would love to be able to tell my ships things like

"attack any ship of empire X that enters systems A or B"
"Evade enemy fleet X while attacking fleet Y"
"Sneak past all enemy fleets enroute to region A"
"Wait here, attack any ships that enter this system"

etc....

thanks,

Alarik

[Ragnarok-X]

to be honest, im dissapointed about the change to 3d graphics. I think SE4 is a AWESOME game, and thats mainly because its 2D. I think its okay as it is, better a very good 2D engine than a rather weak 3D engine. Since Malfadaor isnt very "rich" i suppose the graphics (given it will be all 3d) will look crappy. Please, 2D, return !!..

[Yef]

I would like to have Alliance wars. If an Empire declares war on another, all the allies on both sides should enter the war or leave the alliance, with a diplomatic/stability penalty.
Of course, an Empire should only belong to one alliance at a time.

[PsychoTechFreak]

A learning (by error) neural network AI would be a dream (which is already realized in some smart chess programs). And/or some more simple smart things for the first attempts, like a scriptable research/build/construction queue that could be programmed to react with best countermeasures against different enemy prefered weapons/ship types/strategies (like WP lurking).

[Ed Kolis]

I actually think the alliance thing would be rather restrictive, preventing the kinds of complex relationships that develop between empires in SE4 games, where empire A is at war with empire B and partnered with empire C, but empires B and C are partnered... when I played MOO2 I almost always rejected alliance offers because I just knew my "ally" would come to me demanding that I declare war on one of my other trade partners, and if I said no the treaty was automatically broken! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

MOO2 actually had an adaptive AI, by the way - it gradually borrowed ship designs from the player!

[ZeroAdunn]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
That would make small ships even more useless. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You thinking in terms of SEIV, where the big difference in ship hulls is KT. If smaller hulls had a higher defense rating and the game used newtonian propulsion it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable.

I don't know if this has been mentioned: Warp points that only allow certain KT of transit per turn. Basicly this would only effect combat, during a warp assault in combat, you would only be allowed to have so many ships pass through the warp point per combat turn. I don't know exactly how this would be handled in game, but it is just an idea.

How about static defenses. Instead of combat maps being generated each time combat is entered, it would be nice if you could open up a sector map and place stations/satellites/ships wherever and when combat begins they would be in your predefined locations.

[Iansidious]

Something I would like to see is a program you can buy from malfador that is designed for modding SE5. I'm willing to pay for a program like that. I know Aaron and friends may not have the time to do this but it is a nice thought to think about. If this happens and enough people buy it that means more money for SE6!

[Phoenix-D]

Timstone, SE5 will most likely use the same format as Starfury: .x. A lot of programs can export to this.

The reason I said render is you mentioned DOGA. DOGA is a fine program, but it is USELESS for real-time 3d modeling. The models produced are simply too inefficent; any engine capable of displaying them in real time could also display a properly made object of much better visual appeal. So exporting or importing to DOGA only matters for creating ships for 2d games.

Even if you can't export to .x directly, you can get to other formats and use a converter to change that to .x.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Iansidious:
Something I would like to see is a program you can buy from malfador that is designed for modding SE5. I'm willing to pay for a program like that. I know Aaron and friends may not have the time to do this but it is a nice thought to think about. If this happens and enough people buy it that means more money for SE6! <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">SE3 had a modding program, and it sucked. SE4 has text files you can edit, so there is no real need for a modding program. Modding programs tend to suck for most games that have them, other than for creating maps and scenarios. Of course, some fan will likely make a SE5 Modder, just as DavidG has made a SE4 Modder. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Phoenix-D]

If you want an alliance system it isn't difficult to do it yourself. SE4 even provides pre-formatted Messages for you. If they don't listen, just break the treaty.

[Atrocities]

Time to organize your wish list and start the mass emailings.

[Sefter Aruna]

Me, I would liketo keep the turn based stuff like SEIV. I think it would be neet if when you pick a racial trate that lets say for the Organic you could realy grow your ships, or for the Temporal you could make a time bubble around the ship that would put all who worked there in hyper active state and thus your ship would be done in half the time.

[Atrocities]

Man I haven't see you post in like forever. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Iansidious]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Man I haven't see you post in like forever. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Most likly his nose is in a book or he losing to me in pool http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . That dosn't leave much time to post.

[Timstone]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Timstone, SE5 will most likely use the same format as Starfury: .x. A lot of programs can export to this.

The reason I said render is you mentioned DOGA. DOGA is a fine program, but it is USELESS for real-time 3d modeling. The models produced are simply too inefficent; any engine capable of displaying them in real time could also display a properly made object of much better visual appeal. So exporting or importing to DOGA only matters for creating ships for 2d games.

Even if you can't export to .x directly, you can get to other formats and use a converter to change that to .x. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, when the time comes. I'll ask you for a good converter. Coz, I can preform miracles with SW, but I've never doen anything in DOGA or any other 3D program.
Alright?

Maybe this .X format is something like ParaSolid? Look at the list a few Messages down to see what I mean.
I'll see what I can do with a model from the demo of StarFury, I don't own the game. Or does somebody which program MM used?

[ April 01, 2004, 12:21: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Atrocities]

The ability added to each component that reads:

Component can only be used on ship size X

Ship Size Min :=
Ship Size Max :=

Zero being all

A setting in the component weapons that reads:

Damge Percent to Pass through Shields & Armor

Damage Pass Shields :=
Damage Pass Armor :=

Zero being none

This would allow for leaky armor and shields.

[Sefter Aruna]

Somthing else that is on my wish list is to be a beta tester for SEV, so far the only things that
I have been able to beta test are these REALY junky programs. I would love to test a realy GOOD program.(Hint hint http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

[Timstone]

Well, take your place at the end of the que. I don't know where it ends, but I'm number four. I came flying here with my gearbox. Yehaa, giddi up boxie!!

[ April 06, 2004, 19:05: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Atrocities]

Just and idea at this point.

OPTION for MULTIPLAYER

Allied Task Force Commander

The ability to grant temporary command of one or more of your fleets to an ally who is massing a task force against a common enemy.

It would work like a gift however with a specified time limit. Also it would only allow for orders to move, attack, grouping, and stellor abilities. (They should also be able to set tactics and fleet formations.)

Think of the possiblities this kind of feature could add to the game.

[Sefter Aruna]

That would be vary helpful in PBW games, it is vary hard to keep your ships and your allies together.

[Iansidious]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Just and idea at this point.

OPTION for MULTIPLAYER

Allied Task Force Commander

The ability to grant temporary command of one or more of your fleets to an ally who is massing a task force against a common enemy.

It would work like a gift however with a specified time limit. Also it would only allow for orders to move, attack, grouping, and stellor abilities. (They should also be able to set tactics and fleet formations.)

Think of the possiblities this kind of feature could add to the game. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I could do that only if my ally would make sure they turned the radio back to my favorite station http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ! That really would be a nice feature to the game.

[Loser]

More hotkeys.

[Electrum]

I would like to see the ability to link multiple fleets together. You could have fllets w/ different objectives / stratagies, yet they move together.

[Paul1980au]

Another option to allow allies to control some of your fleets would be a renting or short term loaning option ie for x resources etc you can rent my fleet or ships to guage war (mercenary sceniro)

ALso linking fleets together to have an armada would help greatly - moving simutanously etc

More hotkeys would help to.

[Rasorow]

A few things would be nice. Having played SE II-IV gold I would like to see

1 Squadrons, or the ability to assign or form a group of ships both during fleet creation and during battle for a specific purpose. For example I almost always create class of AAA ships to help wittle down the swarms of fighters and seekers. I should be able to assign these to protect or group with certain ships or Groups of ships in their own formation (star, circle, box, etc)Maybe go 2 or 3 linked squadrons deep to create a fleet. (the AAA ships protect the flanking ships with little AAA protect of their own, who in turn form squads protecting ships of the line, who form their own squad making the fleet)

2 I agree with the post on the dynamic research. Perhaps though allow a base set of stable tech giving certain abilitys then above that (which would definately not include all tech routes) have a percentage chance to aquire knoweldge of a new ability, then a percentage chance to use it in a new device. Then after it is invented allow a given chance for it to be improved.. say in size and effectiveness for 100% (some items size and effectiveness are not relevant but it would improve in to value areas maybe maintenance cost and effectivness). It would work like this you are researching a lvl 4 tech therefore your base chance is racial+(investment/lvl)+time to make a breakthrough. Then racial+(investment/time*number of devices at this tech level)+time ti invent a useable device. Then racial+(investment/lvl of device)+time would allow improvements to the device. Please note that the 2nd and third racial modifers are practical or applied modifers and the frist is a theoretical modifer so they would be different modifers.

3 Satellites that orbit during combat or have limited movement to position during combat (like we manuever statellites today)

4 Resources... need to have the movement and shipping of resources. The right amount of resources delivered to the right place or construction stops... and you wont be able to build that battlestation needed to stop the enemies advance. Maybe 4 resources metal, organic, mineral, energy. Have the intial config of the resources as setting up trade routes between planets, with a slider to set the size of the merchant fleet with a cost associated with it. A larger empire if not well planned and organized maybe endanger of not being able to have a large enough military fleet to fend off a smaller empire that needs a small merchant fleet and can afford a larger military. The penalties for setting up the wrong trade routes would be that your merchant fleet would need to be larger costing more and some build centers may not get the materials they need. The benfits of good trade routes are smaller fleet, and build centers always having what they need. Trade routes would determine what sorts of resources get shipped to which locations. They would have entry for amount shipped and type (of resource shipped). (BTW Resources are also consumed by populations so your organic planets would need to be able to feed the empire)

5 Item 4 means that all things would have a cost in money and resources, this means assigning more variables but provids at deeper level if play (which could always have an option to turn off)

6 Any trade route through a system with an enemy fleet has % chance (say 20) off being disrupted - meaning failure to convey resources. Any trade route running through an warp point occupied by an enemy has a high percent chance of being disruped (say 70) any trade route through a system with an enemy planet has a good chance of being disrupted (say 50).

Just some thoughts

Rasorow

[Timstone]

A moving solarsystem. Not as static as it is now. Look to Ascendancy for a nice example.

[Dragonswrd]

I wouldn't mind seeing ships using different types of resourses. Like some sort of energy for the engines and energy weapons, food for the crew, if it has a crew. Maybe you have to build the missiles for your ships, so when your out of missiles you have to go and reload. I am sure someone else may have written something like this, but I didn't want to read over 50 pages of stuff. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[General Woundwort]

You all should be interested to know that this list just got culled and forwarded to Aaron. Cross your fingers...

[Timstone]

This list? Hah, it's more of a continues story. Well, like you said General, keep your fingers crossed.

[PsychoTechFreak]

I'd like to see more fine-tuning game setup options:

1) Allow/disable trading systems, planets, resources, technology, ships, units, star charts, treaty, comm channels (that is all I find in the existing trade windows).

2) Allow Restrictions to alliance levels, e.g. max. treaty = trade+research

3) A new "treaty" called "unknown" which is the starting treaty of all races. There should be the following switch linked to this treaty:
Unknown first contact = hostile/friendly
I guess you know what I mean, do ships always attack and explode in minefields at first contact or do we allow a friendly first contact.

4) Allow to setup an AI-only game with some goals like:
-AI simulation for x turns, then stop (to jump into the game)
-until research goal (like warp point opening)
-until number of planets/systems/ships

[ April 11, 2004, 16:24: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]

[Fire]

It would be nice to have an automatic scroller on the ship building screen. Put the scroller at either end of the equipment list so you can go through the equipment by holding down the scroll button instead of clicking the mouse forever. This would be especially nice if you ever put older technologies on your ship. If you open up the technology section from only the latest to all techs the list get very long.

[Rusty_Nail]

I would like to see an expanded tactical combat stand alone game for MP. Each game would have a resource limit and participants could design whatever ship or ships they wished with the tech level available. This could be organized as best three out of seven one-on-one knockout, for example. It would only take a few minutes for each round. The possible variations are endless.

[Cipher7071]

I'm sure someone has already mentioned the map editor, but I would like to see map files in text format. It might require two such files: one for the warp points, and another for the stars/planets, but there's probably a way to do it with one. If the binary file is necessary, it could be generated from the text. The map editor's current user interface is just insane. All the warp point information has to be entered twice.

The line format for warp points could be something like:

Aldan, 4, 5, Arkite, 10, 5, image1, ability1, ability2, message

For stars/planets/asteroids:

Alden, star/planet/asteroid, image1, ability one, ability two, etc

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Cipher7071:
I'm sure someone has already mentioned the map editor, but I would like to see map files in text format. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Starfury does it this way, so it will probably carry on to SEV as well. (Don't quote me on that though...)

[Iansidious]

I had a good idea for SEV but I can't remember! I hate this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif ! Oh well I'll post later.


P.S. Does Aaron plan on using intel for SEV?

[Fyron]

The map files in SF are still in an encrypted format, to prevent easy cheating by editing the map mid-game. The game creates them from those text files when you start a new game. I have little doubt that this will be carried over to SE5, though it had better still have files to create random maps from!

[Iansidious]

I still can't remember! It's right on the edge of my mind! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

[Puke]

how about the ability to change your racial attributes and bonuses mid-game? Things like Eugenics projects and Genetic manipulation could help you build better people.

maybe the game could keep track of the different types of population (also handy for having alien races maintain their own bonuses while in your empire) so that planets with genetic manipulation facilities would be exporting population to worlds without them (sort of like organic replicant centers, but converting existing population instead of cloneing new)

there might be a chance of rioting if multiple population types share the same world, and there might be a chance of revolt if a planet is mostly populated by a population type that is not your primary. Thus, you breed a better type of your race, and they want to break away! so it would be important to make sure that all your population is changed quickly and at the same time, so that you dont have riots or rebellions.

maybe the game would also keep track of how many of your citizens you jetison into space, so there could be riots if you are organizing "purges" of the older inferior species.

[DeadZone]

How about having crew as a resource?

ie. A planet can only build X vessel if it has the crew to man it
Or perhaps it can still build it, but the ship remains unoperational until a transport carrying the crew arrive

And have two screens for intel
Counter Intel and Normal Intel

That way you can defend and attack intelwise at the same time

[ April 13, 2004, 10:17: Message edited by: DeadZone ]

[Foreman]

- I would like to see some new weapon to stop an over-crowded fleet, perhaps strategical splash mines, or passive ion storm creater.

- More 'terrain', especially during tactical combat. Maybe minor black holes and its radio jet radiation, maybe asteroid that may give some defense bonus but also damage ships that entering it. Just more non-blank blocks/hexes during tactical combat please.

[bearclaw]

I'd like to see more options for treaties. Instead of having set treaties
-non agression through Partnership.

How about having each aspect of treaties as options. For instance
Non-Intercourse- Pick one option
Non-Aggression- Pick 2 options
Level 1 Treaty- Pick 3 options
Level 2 Treaty- Pick 4 options
Level 3 Treaty- Pick 5 options
Level 4 Treaty- All Options included.

Options to choose from include:
-no combat
-resource trade
-Research Trade
-Share Resupply
-Share system maps
-Intel Trade
-Share Tech one-way
-Share Tech both-ways
-Share Combat logs
-Share Enemey Designs
etc.

In this system, you could have a treaty that would allow for only shared Resupply centers but without the rest of a Military Alliance. Opens more options, I think. Further, for trade, research, and Intel options, you could set the maximum amounts for each depending on your treaty relationship.

And also, to replace things like Subjugations and Protectorates, negative options could be availiable as well.
-Tarif Research
-Tarif Resources
-Tarif Tech
-Tarif Intel
etc.

For each Tarif option, either empire could be given one extra regular option to choose from.

[ April 13, 2004, 19:23: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

[Ed Kolis]

Yes, yes! Definitely a-la-carte treaties! More moo goo gai pan! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Power Man]

I don't know if this has been mentioned:
I would like a way to give a Build and Launch command to my planets when building mines, and satellites, or fighters.
I found the Fill Queue command so I can now give planets several build mine and satellites commands but I have to remember to go to each planet and give them the Launch commands.

If I could tell them to build and launch OR Build and store I could protect my planets a Lot better.

[Iansidious]

Originally posted by DeadZone:
How about having crew as a resource?

ie. A planet can only build X vessel if it has the crew to man it
Or perhaps it can still build it, but the ship remains unoperational until a transport carrying the crew arrive

And have two screens for intel
Counter Intel and Normal Intel

That way you can defend and attack intelwise at the same time <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I love that intel idea! Nice thinking DeadZone.

[bearclaw]

Originally posted by Power Man:
I don't know if this has been mentioned:
I would like a way to give a Build and Launch command to my planets when building mines, and satellites, or fighters.
I found the Fill Queue command so I can now give planets several build mine and satellites commands but I have to remember to go to each planet and give them the Launch commands.

If I could tell them to build and launch OR Build and store I could protect my planets a Lot better. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I've achived this same result with SEIV by giving a planet the order to Launch specific units then put the planet on Repeat orders. Works well since 1.91 since the repeat order will hold even if there aren't any units built yet.

[Iansidious]

I finally remembered my idea! Chances are high that this has been mentioned before but... While in combat the ability to target engines, weapons, shields, senors, etc, would make combat more interesting! More fun and more strategic gameplay would be involed. Make it like the game Star Trek Brige Commander. Do you bring down the shields or the senors to stop the enemy from firing on your ship? See a lot of strategy could be involed. I just drool at the idea.

[Intimidator]

I really like to see an scenario editor, would be perfect for Role-playing.

And offcourse Tactical-ground combat, better ground combat in general !!

Yes wait, also orbitting planets around the system star or centre. Would be perfect every time you enter a system the planets are somewhere else..

the possibility to let your population life in space would also be good (space station colonies or something like that)

I better stop now !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Intimidator

[Kiedryn]

Treaty duration (for example Trade alliance for 10 turns, and what treaty it wil turn after expire)

[Power Man]

To Bearclaw:
Thanks for the tip about telling the planet to repeate orders. I will try it out tonight.

[dogscoff]

Mines and other explosive cargo should count towards ramming damage.

"Oh, that little transport is going to ram my dreadnought. No worries, I've got plenty of armour."
KABLLAAAAAMMMM!!!!!
"Hmm, it seems the transport was packed with explosives..."

[Timstone]

A nice possibility in planetary combat is orbital strikes. It takes a few turns to trim the weapons towards the surface and is a little inacurate, but it does tremendous damage.
Kinda like MechCommander.

[Kana]

I would like to see the ability to retreat units out of combat like SE3. Getting herded in to the corner and dying like a cockroach is one of the few aspects of SE4 combat I don't like.

Kana

[Kana]

Someone mentioned crew as a resource. How about Admirals with certain abilities or bonuses for Fleets. I know that is covered in Fleet training in SE4. If you wanted to get really techinical, you could even have special captains or give them Ratings/bonuses as well. No good captains...no good crew...bad ship...

Kana

[DarkHorse]

[mini-rant]

No hard coding! Let us mod EVERYTHING!!

[/mini-rant]

Sorry, just frustrated trying to create a mod where it seems like every idea I try won't work because something is HC. Gah!

[Loser]

Hotkeys.

All I want is hotkeys, for everything.

I want to be able to play the game without ever touching the mouse. The way it worked in Alpha Centauri was good.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Loser:
Hotkeys.

All I want is hotkeys, for everything.

I want to be able to play the game without ever touching the mouse. The way it worked in Alpha Centauri was good. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why do some people only use the mouse and other's only use the keyboard????

[Me Loonn]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Why do some people only use the mouse and other's only use the keyboard???? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Im the one that uses BOTH http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Yeah, it just confuses me why some people would cut out half the controls.

[Aiken]

I always dreamt of inhabitable stars. It could be a special trait, something like Plasma Beings. Of couse it (star colonies/HW) would have great capacity, same as ringworld, and it would be impossible for physical races to capture the star.

[ April 16, 2004, 20:24: Message edited by: aiken ]

[Fyron]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Yeah, it just confuses me why some people would cut out half the controls. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Because when you have a good hotkey system, the mouse is a burden rather than a tool. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Yeah, it just confuses me why some people would cut out half the controls. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Because when you have a good hotkey system, the mouse is a burden rather than a tool. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The joystick is pretty much useless. For flight sims the mouse is better.

Let's see how well you do without a mouse in a flight sim. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Yeah, it just confuses me why some people would cut out half the controls. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Because when you have a good hotkey system, the mouse is a burden rather than a tool. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What are your favorate hot keys? Mine is back space and F12

[Aiken]

My alltime favourite is Ctrl+Alt+Del. Unfortunately http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Foreman]

Not sure anyone proposed something similar or not...

- A non-linear relationship between (thrust/weight) and speed. For example, give engines an ability:

SPEED_CAP 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 9999

So that you need (thrust/weight)>=2 to get one movement speed, and (thrust/weight)>=55 to get eight movement speed.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
What are your favorate hot keys? Mine is back space and F12 <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What does that do?

[Fyron]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Atrocities:
What are your favorate hot keys? Mine is back space and F12 <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What does that do? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Check the in-game help files. They list all of the hotkeys.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Atrocities:
What are your favorate hot keys? Mine is back space and F12 <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What does that do? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Check the in-game help files. They list all of the hotkeys. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I didn't know he meant space empires hot keys.

[Randallw]

Since we can now save turns before finishing them, why not save Messages to other races before finishing the turn. I find it a problem that I have to write my reply at once and get only one go instead of putting the reply together as I work through my empire.

[parabolize]

Originally posted by Randallw:
Since we can now save turns before finishing them, why not save Messages to other races before finishing the turn. I find it a problem that I have to write my reply at once and get only one go instead of putting the reply together as I work through my empire. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can write the message in a office program and copy-paste it in.

[Lighthorse]

What I would like to see in SEV,

1. Please refer to my earlier posting some months ago on this same forum.

2. I would like to see an open ended research for weapons (seekers, direct and undirect weapons), scanners/combat aid, armor, shielding, ecm, etc. in which as a race pumps credits into researching an item, it may increase a few percentage each step, but the funding require for the next step increase by a factor of five to ten. Also should be a random breakthough chance that jumps the research 20 to 30% forward too.
Allow specifity research into rare weapons or other items that only allow one per race maximun. Have something like 100 rare items & weapons and there only a low percentage that a race would even get a rare research item per game.

3. Have trade routes between section capitals. Player must build and add freighters to each trade route for tranport of cargo. If there not enough freighter for trade route, than a player will only receive that percentage of that trade. A player could also assign military escorts to protect his frieghters. He could also organize convoy with escorts as less effective for trade but very effected for protection. Raiding player will be allow to choice which empire's ship in a trade route to attack or stop & search or turn back or to allow though his blockage. Now there would be a reason for Q-ships.

4. Allow faster moving ship to escape combat by moving off the tactical map edge.

5. An improve planetary tactical system that provide more detail and control for the players.

6. An easy modding system for SEV that any player can desigh they own mod. The same for modding SE5 maps.

7. Larger tactical battle-area for space battle, cover the whole section, showing all the planets, gas cloubs, wormholes, etc. Have fog of war in-which scanner and ecm are key to detecting that other side, ship can hide behind planets or astorids or gas clouds. One needs to send out picket ships as the eyes of the fleet. Limited fighter movement range base on they limited fuel. Allow re-fueling/re-arming of fighters on carriers and bases. Have the abilities of the tactical map where you can focus in on an engagement, and focus out to see the "Big Picture" of the engagement. Be able to guard wornholes with forts, minefields and patrol boats.

8. Allow ship formations within a fleet formation. Example, A fleet or task force could have a few capital ship divisions of 3 to 5 battleships, supported by five to seven cruisers sections of 7 cruisers each and escorted by four flotillas of 9 destroyers per, with a few picket ships jammed full of scanners out in front and on the flanks.

That what I would like to see in SEV.

Lighthorse
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[Fyron]

2. I would like to see an open ended research for weapons... <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">According to the recent news on malfador.com, this is going to be in there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

6. An easy modding system for SEV that any player can desigh they own mod. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't get what could be easier than text files?

[ April 20, 2004, 05:09: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana"> 2. I would like to see an open ended research for weapons... <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">According to the recent news on malfador.com, this is going to be in there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

6. An easy modding system for SEV that any player can desigh they own mod. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't get what could be easier than text files? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">not easier, but a scripted system would be more flexible.

[Fyron]

Scripts would still be in text files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Randallw]

Originally posted by parabolize:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Randallw:
Since we can now save turns before finishing them, why not save Messages to other races before finishing the turn. I find it a problem that I have to write my reply at once and get only one go instead of putting the reply together as I work through my empire. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can write the message in a office program and copy-paste it in. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yeah sure, but would it really be that hard to save text before finishing the turn.

[Timstone]

I think that Lighthorse's wishes make the game far too difficult. It looks like you want to swamp the average player in far too many options. For us, long time Users it's an easy transition. But for the newcommer it's a hell on Earth.
The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method is still very usefull. No wonder noobs are scared to death when they try this game and leave for another, easier to understand game.
I don't say Lighthorse has bad idea's. Au contraire, they're all very cool ideas, but I think it's a little bit too much.

[DeadZone]

How about getting rid of the 20 empire limit
And also make it that if you have less than 20 races in the race folder some species repeat

I would love to be able to face off against 100+ different AI empires

Of course each turn would take 5 hours but it would be real fun anyway

Plus the ability to actually add bonuses onto weapons, components, etc. based upon tech advancements, race traits, races you may have under your control
ie. You are Race 1, you have a planet that is has some members of Race 2 living their (perhaps from a planet trade or previous way, rebellion, etc), cos Race 2 is good making engines but bad with weapons, all ships built on said planet get a small engine bonus but weapon arent as good
Now if your race is good as weapons and bad with shields, and planet X has 50% Race 1 and 50% race 2 and you build a ship, said ship would get extra bonus on engines, no effect on weapons (unless race 1 bad stat differs from race 2 good stat) and shields are weaker

I think this would be real cool as it would make the choice of wot race you choose and wot races you try to put under your control based on something new

[AMF]

I recall when I first got SEIV the tutorial didn;t help much. A REALLY good tutorial, that addresses the whole gamut of things in an easy to learn way, would go a long way to helping newbies get into SEV and for the game to get exposure.

just my .02$

Alarik

[Fyron]

And also make it that if you have less than 20 races in the race folder some species repeat
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">They repeat now.

[ckotchey]

I agree. When I first really started getting into the game, I played probably 10-20 different short one-player games so that in each game I could test one aspect of the game (what are WP's? How do I use them? How do I use boarding parties? How do Fighters/Carriers work? Drones? Troops and ground combat?). A good series of tutorial scenarios would be great.

Originally posted by alarikf:
I recall when I first got SEIV the tutorial didn;t help much. A REALLY good tutorial, that addresses the whole gamut of things in an easy to learn way, would go a long way to helping newbies get into SEV and for the game to get exposure.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[ckotchey]

Typically, I'm against using mods because I'm against the idea of modifying my installation in some way that would make it harder for me to play in non-modded games, or games using other mods. My big suggestion/wish for SE5 would be to allow for the installation and ISOLATION of different mods, so that each mod is used when desired, and automatically when you start a game that is using one of them.
Originally posted by Lighthorse:
6. An easy modding system for SEV that any player can desigh they own mod. The same for modding SE5 maps.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[tesco samoa]

Randalw To add to your suggestion.

I think that the history window or something like that ( maybe when you click on an alien race... ) you see all Messages that occured http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif and their time frame... ( But this would need to be an option to turn on or off due to the increase in size as a game goes along )

[Alneyan]

Ckotchey, you may want to check the Matryx Mod Selector, which is available on the SE4 Gold disk. It allows you to do what you asked, and is a very handy program when playing with a lot of different mods. (There should be a thread about this program on the forum, somewhere lurking in the depths)

[ckotchey]

I like this idea! Satellites "orbit" the planet slowly during combat - maybe one 'square' every combat turn or two. Add to this the request that not all satellites be stacked on a single point - they should be randomly scattered around. Also, how about making some of them also orbit the moons (those that you own) in the same system? (number based on population difference or something?)
Originally posted by Rasorow:

3 Satellites that orbit during combat or have limited movement to position during combat (like we manuever statellites today)
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[Phoenix-D]

Originally posted by ckotchey:
Typically, I'm against using mods because I'm against the idea of modifying my installation in some way that would make it harder for me to play in non-modded games, or games using other mods. My big suggestion/wish for SE5 would be to allow for the installation and ISOLATION of different mods, so that each mod is used when desired, and automatically when you start a game that is using one of them.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are you aware of the way SE4 modding works? Every mod gets it own folder and does not change the default files at all. It is possible to have many mods installed at the same time, just not being -played- at the same time.

The exceptions are things like the image mod, which are 100% harmless and do not effect the stock game at all. Install the image mod then start up stock SE4 and you will see NO difference.

[Lighthorse]

Orginally Posted by Timstone
I think that Lighthorse's wishes make the game far too difficult. It looks like you want to swamp the average player in far too many options. For us, long time Users it's an easy transition. But for the newcommer it's a hell on Earth.
The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method is still very usefull. No wonder noobs are scared to death when they try this game and leave for another, easier to understand game.

Excellent point Timstone. What neat about SE4 and should be included in SE5 is when you first start up the game, you allow to create the galaxy base on some options. Maybe what SE5 needs is more choices one could make before the game. As for my other wishes, yes there were a lot of them, but I have learned to ask for the moon and if you're lucky you may get a stone.

Thanks for your reply Timstone

Lighthorse
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ April 24, 2004, 04:41: Message edited by: Lighthorse ]

[Lighthorse]

Hot Damn, I'm moving up in the ranks, I'm a sergeant now, cool.

[oogs]

I don't know if this has been posted, but it would be nice to have a couple more options when it comes to displaying all planets.
-display the planets only in the selected systems (using a check list, with a select all/none option).
Edit: then again, a checklist could be rather long. maybe a map feature, like with the "sys to avoid" function?
-sort by type and/or size.

This is mainly to facilitate planet counts. It's sortta time consuming to run around counting planets so that I don't end up producing 20 Ice colonies when i just need 5.

[ April 24, 2004, 05:27: Message edited by: oogs ]

[oogs]

looks like i killed the thread http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by oogs:
looks like i killed the thread http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yama, yama, yama...

[Loser]

Hotkeys.

[PvK]

Ability to specify "no trading whatsoever" and/or just "no ship or base trading".

PvK

[Aiken]

Better orders management system. Not just remove all orders option, but move up/down in the list, cancel one order, repeat N times.

[Gozra]

Great Idea. MOre Features to help players cope with large Empire's. I have a game where I am approaching 1000 planets and 3000 ships and over 64000 units and it is getting diffcult to deal with the admin. I guess ministers with attributes would be a step in the right direction.
Thank you Aaron for a noteworthy game.
Gozguy

[ April 27, 2004, 22:13: Message edited by: Gozra ]

[jimbob]

I like this idea! Satellites "orbit" the planet slowly during combat - maybe one 'square' every combat turn or two. Add to this the request that not all satellites be stacked on a single point - they should be randomly scattered around. Also, how about making some of them also orbit the moons (those that you own) in the same system? (number based on population difference or something?)<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I think it would be great if you could have satelite formations. You can choose if they will be in one bunch, two, three... and choose if they are in low, medium or high orbit, etc.

As to the moons, I think they would have their own formation, as the moon itself will have launched those satelites.

[Paul1980au]

Satelite formation and orbiting are great ideas.
What about the idea to capture enemy sats in the same way as ships - ie computer virus - you could pick them up and drop them elsewhere ?

[Dragonswrd]

I am sure this has been said before, but better AI. Its pretty sad when if I can move into a system and I don't have to try real hard to keep it, or even to move into it.

[Paul1980au]

A better AI - but make it highly adaptable and reactive to the player tactics - perhaps give it the ability to be modded by the fans - perhaps people could put forward allways improving AIs and the best incorparated as extras in each game upgrade.

AI tornaments on a remote computer - ie see who can come up with the best AIs - i seem to remember C-EVO project which is an open source civ clone has a ongoing competition for fans and would be programmers to put in new AIs and even the ability to put them up against each other.

Theres an idea for aaron to use.

[Paul1980au]

Perhaps ie if a human player throws lots of fighters at the AI they could respond with anit fighter tech and designs. Make the AI use all the game technology and features - as i said call upon fan help to design new AIs.

[douglas]

*lurker emerges from hiding*

From my email not too long ago:
Thanks for the great suggestion list. I'll add it to the SE5 Wanted List
and try to get in the items I can. It is a high priority for SE5 to make
the AI as tough as possible. And with the addition of actual AI scripting,
players should be able to improve them!


Aaron


On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Douglas Miller wrote:


> Ever since I discovered it, the Space Empires series has been one of my
> personal Favorites. SEIII is the only shareware game I have ever paid for
> the full registered Version. I preordered SEIV Gold a month or two before
> it came out, and I still consider it one of the best games I have. It
> does, however, have a few areas that could stand a lot of
> improvement. Foremost among them is the AI.
>
> My #1 most desired feature in any 4x game is an AI so good it can give good
> players a challenge without any in-game bonuses for being an AI. Ideally,
> all the difficulty levels should be differentiated solely by the quality of
> the AI. I have yet to find any game that even comes close to this. Every
> AI I have ever played against in a 4x game, including that of SEIV, I could
> just about beat blindfolded unless it was given massive bonuses and/or
> cheated. I would very much like to see this trend end with Space Empires
> V. To this end, if you aren't already planning this, I would like to see
> the entirety of the AI decision-making algorithm in user-modifiable script
> files. That way, if the AI isn't good enough for me I can try to write a
> better one. I attempted this with SEIV, but too many of the problems were
> in hardcoded behaviors. Assuming the continued existence of ministers, one
> script for each minister would make sense. However, the ministers should
> be able to interact with each other by calling routines in the other
> scripts. I would set up the ministers to do nothing on their own, but
> rather respond to orders and requests for information. The kinds of orders
> and their parameters for each minister should be definable in the scripts,
> and ministers should be able to give each other orders. Separate from the
> minister scripts should be the primary AI script, which runs every turn and
> gives each of the ministers their orders. For long-term planning purposes,
> ministers should be able to make and keep static variables that have no
> direct effect on the game but persist from turn to turn for use in
> decision-making, and should be able to issue orders with turn delays (i.e.
> military minister orders himself to continue gathering a specific attack
> force next turn). These orders should, of course, be cancellable in case
> of changed plans or circumstances. Also, in addition to the main
> turn-processing ministers, the combat AI should be fully scriptable.
>
> The #2 problem I have with SEIV is the amount of micromanagement
> required. Early in the game it's no trouble, but later in the game having
> to manually queue everything I want to build, going through my entire fleet
> (which can be pretty big) giving orders, etc. gets boring fast. Yes, I
> know I could turn on the ministers to deal with some of these things. I
> tried that once, but discovered that the ministers were, to a large degree,
> idiots. Quality ministers and good ways to give them general directions to
> carry out would go a long way towards fixing this. Making the ministers
> user-scriptable would help a lot. In fact, unless the player specifies
> otherwise, the ministers should use the exact same scripts that the AI does
> as outlined above, excepting that the primary AI script would not
> run. Players could "turn on" the ministers by making a list of orders to
> be given automatically every turn, and could also give one-time orders
> during their turn.
>
> That's it for major problem areas, now on to the things that would be nice
> but aren't critical. I'll start with comments on your summarized list of
> plans.
>
> "real-time 3D rendered graphics"
> What exactly do you mean? 3D is obvious, and will definitely help satisfy
> demand for good graphics, but what's real-time? Do you mean combat will be
> real-time? That could be an interesting change, but you'd have to make
> sure commanding huge fleets in battle isn't too time-consuming. On the
> other end of the spectrum, don't make it completely devoid of strategy like
> Master of Orion 3's combat. The other possible meaning of this statement
> I've come up with is having various things on screen constantly doing
> something visual, like Civ 3's workers. This could make the graphics more
> interesting, but it's just a cosmetic issue. Don't spend too much time on
> it at the expense of gameplay quality.
>
> "a redesigned user interface"
> Sounds good. Hope you do a good job on it.
>
> "infinite technologies"
> Wonderful! I'll never have to scrap my several hundred (or is it
> thousand?) now worthless research facilities again! You might have to be
> careful about possible integer overflows, though, in case someone keeps
> playing and researching up to Energy Stream Weapons XXXVII, or some other
> incredibly advanced (and expensive) tech.
>
> "Galactic News"
> Good idea. I missed GNN in MoO3.
>
> "Warp Point assault weapons"
> Huh? Not sure what you mean here. Even SEIII (I don't know about SEII)
> had a way to close warp points. Or do you mean weapons that can "damage" a
> warp point in combat, making it unstable and therefore risky, or even
> impossible, to retreat through?
>
> "Space Monsters"
> Sounds like you've read some of the complaints about lack of "cheese" on
> the MoO3 forums. Put them in, but give an option in game setup to turn
> them off. Also, make sure the player will get some kind of reward for
> defeating one.
>
> "built in support for mod selection"
> How about built-in support for mod creation, too? Good GUIs for editing
> all moddable files would be quite welcome.
>
> "a true scripting language"
> I hope this includes the AI and ministers, preferably following the
> guidelines I stated earlier. Scripts for scenarios would be welcome too.
>
> "and more"
> There's more? Keep up the good work.
>
> Now for stuff that might not already be in your plans.
>
> A mod creation program providing a graphical interface for creating and
> editing components, facilities, technologies, races, and anything else you
> can think of that is moddable and could benefit from such a program would
> be a definite plus for the modding community. Don't forget syntax checking
> and coloring for the scripts.
>
> A scenario editor, providing full map and player editing capabilities, plus
> incorporating mods into the scenario, would be quite welcome.
>
> The ability to make scripts similar to Warcraft III's triggers for a mod or
> scenario would vastly increase the moddability of the game.
>
> That's all for now. I'll be eagerly awaiting beta-test signups. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
>
> Douglas Miller
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">So, AI scripting is definitely planned in some form or other. What do you think of my suggestion for how to do it, and the "turn ministers on by giving them orders"? Also, if I get in the beta I will definitely try to host an AI tournament at some point (actually two: one-on-one and free-for-all).

[Timstone]

Thanks for posting this exciting e-mail. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[bearclaw]

Customizable Column headings for different lists.

IE: Planets. We've got some options for our planets by selecting from the right side, but what if you could select Colonize/Empty and add a column for atmosphere to that list. Or add Specials.

Or, on the ships list be on the Orders, add a column for planet target and add a column for race/cargo so that colonies with specific populations can be sent to specific planets.

and on and on and on.

[Paul1980au]

Great idea bearclaw

Customisable colum headings yep it could be worked.

[vanbeke]

Add something that allows me to find a specific type of facility - maybe give a list of all facilities that have been built (total count of facility type as a sortable column?). Then selecting a facility type pops up the list of planets that contain those.

I guess I don't play enough as I keep having trouble finding the resource converters when I return to a game that I ave not played for a while.

[bearclaw]

It was mentioned once before that if all of these suggestions were implemented, then the game would be way too daunting for newbies. What about different options for the interface controls?

Basic- For new players. All the functions are there and are clearly labeled, tooltips, etc. Some of the more advanced features would be found under various menus (Empire window, research window, etc.)

Advanced- smaller icons for the controls so that more could be added, no tool tips, and possibly customizable, more controls on the main toolbar. Things like System Notes right on the toolbar as well as perhaps a Find feature for finding specific ships/planets/facilties, etc.

I think this sort of system would allow for new players to get the hang of the game, without drowning in the controls and still give all us veterans oodles and oodles of buttons to click.

I remember when I first saw screen shots for SEIV, I kept trying to figure out what all those icons were for. And then getting the game! WooHoo! I'm one of those guys who buys a car based on how many controls are at my disposal. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ May 01, 2004, 20:59: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

[Grandpa Kim]

I sent a suggestion directly to Aaron. He thought it was an "excellent" idea.

Here's the meat of the idea (minus my fawning and sucking up).

It can often be useful to know all the statistics of a given system. I suggest some sort of menu-- say a pull down menu from the system name in the top left corner of the system map. This would include such things as total production for the system of each resource, research and intelligence, presence or absence of system wide facilities, sensor level, empty facility slots and many others, which of course I can't think of right now. Production levels would quickly determine the relative importance of the system and help you decide which system wide facilities to build. In general this would be a major micro-management tool. How often have we missed filling in all facility slots or doubled up expensive system wide facilities? Instead of searching each planet individually, you could then see it all in one comprehensive table and speed up your play... and speed it up with confidence. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[Suicide Junkie]

Lots of ship stats calculations via custom scripts.

So a star trek mod can set the speed of a ship to be:
Max[ 1- [1/(power produced)] * impulse_HP % , MIN ( sqrt (power) , nacelle_rating * nacelle_hp%) ]
in units of "lightspeed", for example.

[Paul1980au]

Ok how about a basic, intermediate and advanced control possibilties - it would as has been said advanced players access to lots of data and the basic data for the newbies to get them playing.

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Lots of ship stats calculations via custom scripts.

So a star trek mod can set the speed of a ship to be:
Max[ 1- [1/(power produced)] * impulse_HP % , MIN ( sqrt (power) , nacelle_rating * nacelle_hp%) ]
in units of "lightspeed", for example. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

SJ, that equation is evil.

[ May 02, 2004, 12:59: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[Sinapus]

Douglas:

"Warp point assault weapons" means basically weapons you send through the warp point to the other side to attack/kill any defenders. Probably based on the SBM carrier pod from the Starfire game. It's a drone that carries a few missiles and fires them at a specific type of target, usually a base.

You can actually do something like this with drones, with the latest patch.

Hm. Making minefields something that requires strategic or tactical combat to sweep them would be interesting. (Yes, I'm thinking of the Starfire game.)

[clark]

Regarding the AI... not sure if this has been suggested, but here is the concept:

An AI that "remembers". Basically, as a game develops, statistics are generated. These statistics are stored in a temporary empire specific file. Based on the end score of the Ai during game play, the temporary file is saved as a permanent file(a higher score than the previous recorded one determines if it is saved, or if the player manualy makes the determination to save it).

Now, what the AI is recording is the statistics for exploration, development, research, etc. But most importantly, it remembers what the "best" design and strategy is given the current situation. It then carries over these learnings to any new games. Each time you play against the AI, it is simply trying to beat it's previous "best" score.

Slowly but surely, the AI will improve itself with repeated playings. These files could then be traded. In this way, some of the best human players could train their AI's, and give us all a go for our money.

This is basically what the AI modders have been doing with AI ship design, right? You give the AI a set of optimum configurations, and hope for the best. Yet this might take it a step further (and perhaps put that "experience" to good use as a barometer of skill for the AI). Thoughts, comments, flames?

I apoligize if this is a repeat of others. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Stone Mill]

Originally posted by clark:
Regarding the AI... not sure if this has been suggested, but here is the concept:

An AI that "remembers". Basically, as a game develops, statistics are generated. These statistics are stored in a temporary empire specific file. Based on the end score of the Ai during game play, the temporary file is saved as a permanent file(a higher score than the previous recorded one determines if it is saved, or if the player manualy makes the determination to save it).

Now, what the AI is recording is the statistics for exploration, development, research, etc. But most importantly, it remembers what the "best" design and strategy is given the current situation. It then carries over these learnings to any new games. Each time you play against the AI, it is simply trying to beat it's previous "best" score.

Slowly but surely, the AI will improve itself with repeated playings. These files could then be traded. In this way, some of the best human players could train their AI's, and give us all a go for our money.

This is basically what the AI modders have been doing with AI ship design, right? You give the AI a set of optimum configurations, and hope for the best. Yet this might take it a step further (and perhaps put that "experience" to good use as a barometer of skill for the AI). Thoughts, comments, flames?

I apoligize if this is a repeat of others. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">clark... I think you better be careful... that's how H.A.L. was created in 2001... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Nice idea, although it seems a bit advanced.

[clark]

Thanks. I guess i imagined that the computer could calculate success by the number of wins in a battle (determined by the kill ratio). so as an example, say it fields 10 combat ships, and is successful in a battle, it would increase the liklihood of using the same strategy in the future. A failure means it would be less likely to use that same strategy in the future.

Since combat in essence drives everything else, I was thinking perhaps some forula might be devised that would guide the AI's development. So say that the 10 ship strategy is successful, it dosen't neccessarily need more minerals and what not, so then the AI would switch to intel and research development. As the need for more resources occurs because it needs to support more ships, then it would be reflected in the combat losses, which cause the AI to switch strategies.

Think of it as some basic form of AI behavior modification training. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif