Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

It's getting to be time to start thinking about what you want to see in the next patch of Approaching Infinity.

This can be new features, revisions of existing features, rolling back old features, etc.

What do you REALLY want to see happen in AI ?

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

I would like to see the ability to craft "Away Team Enablers" onto our crafted suits, at suitably high enough craft levels. The occasional augmented suit ability like "Sonic Shovel" is unique enough that we have to keep the crappy suit just for the ability. But when it comes to a suit that has an Enabler capability like "HazMat" built-in, it's not worth keeping a much inferior suit version around instead of using the enabler. Knowing it's "possible" then becomes annoying.

I can't tell if using "Non-Lethal Weapons" increases the chance of leaving a lootable shipwreck, but it should.

Likewise, "Fake ID" should work in other situations than docking with a station. (Currently, ship combat seems to always affect Race Relations even with "FakeID" installed.)

And I am assuming you are already looking over the "Feature Request" and "Bugs" threads, so I won't repeat any of them.

-Dubious-

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

Please make the Installation (F7) screen scrollable.

-Dubious-

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

i second the motion to look to the "bugs" and "feature request" section
and another small ideas:

1. in effects screen sort the effects name, "tooltip everything" should show sources of effects
2. at planets: add rest until healed order or something like rest for 15 turns
3. experienced officers for hire at higher sector levels
4. replacing that weird sidearm-adjacency system with a "fire-pattern" (ie. affected tiles) system - a minigun is imo. more worse than a shotgun.

and a not so small idea:
CSV format for modable text data (at least the big files like devices and skills) - right now its a really pain to work with
and maybe merging device file with the devicedescription file
but i guess that is out of scope for AI1

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

I would like to see a little more intelligence to the "Shuttle Ace/Vertical Landing Module" abilities than the current semi-random locations that seem to always end up back in areas of previous landings. Subsequent landings should be near unexplored areas and, once 100% of the surface has been explored, near caves. (I explore caves after the surface, which seems logical to me.)

-Dubious-

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

A modest request for Starship Outfitters to have more than 4-5 items available for purchase, and some better stuff? The risk of moving up to a higher sector should be better rewarded with being able to find some good stuff to enhance survival. Some games it's slim pickings...

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

I appreciate you all taking the time to make suggestions here.

I am aware of the "feature requests" and "bug reports", but I am still looking for specific suggestions. Certainly I can't add every feature requested there, and some bugs are so "one off" that it's near impossible to track down.

So if you have pet projects or pet peeves, let them be known here

thanks,
Bob

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

My ships tend to have much better shields than armor. Twice now, I was cruising and destroying most ships without issues, only to carelessly run into an opponent that took several turns to work his way through my shields before in one volley punching through the last of my shields and all of my armor...

So, maybe an audible alert when 50% of the total of Shields + Armor is penetrated as opposed to the current system.

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

I like this idea. But if feasible, rather than "defense percentage remaining" express it in terms of "turns of max damage remaining" where "max damage" is based upon the maximum total damage in a turn/round received so far. Because there is a random factor to each strike, but "Fire All" produces the strongest blow initially, while the "cooldown" varies on the various weapon slots and it can be a while before "all" will be firing in a full volley again. Then the random factor might make the second combined volley even more powerful than the first.

Logically it would be trivial for the computer on a warship to track the damage, interval, and energy signature (weapon id) of each strike on the shields, and update the "turn" max damage figure to a more precise value the longer the fight lasts. After the second full volley it would know how many weapons in the broadside total, and the cooldown intervals of each.

"50% of total defense" against two weapons might be survivable, but not against the third (longer cooldown) weapon by itself, and vice versa. "10% of total defense" might be enough against a more rapidly cycling weapon for enough rounds before the next weapon cycles online, but not expected to be survivable against that more damaging one if it comes online first.

This opens the possibility of adding "computing power" as an upgradable ship statistic or device affecting the accuracy of such damage reports. On second thought, this could be linked to/reflected in the "targeting" value in "Sensors".

If not feasible, but you do go with the idea of a "defense remaining" audible alert, please make the threshold configurable in the INI file. People have varying levels of tolerance to risk, and as you get progressively better defense, the threshold percentages may drop.

-Dubious-

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

... I am compiling a list ...

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

Are you checking it twice which is the fashion this time of year?

PS. I'm still up for testing 1.3

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

me too!..

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

Hi Ibol,

I could be interesting to promote officers within the crew, based on the survival rate of the away missions and the activies developed in the ship. For example, if the captain has a navigation profile, the chances to promote a navigation officer could be higher. Nevertheless if another officer with a different profile has higher XP, promoting an officer with this profile could be more likely. The officers promoted could start with no skils. The problem could arise if you have all officers slots filled and a newby gets promoted. This could be solved "if possible" with a promotion button in the officers screen being active if conditions are accomplished. On the other hand, if an away party gets killed somewhere, the chance to lose this promotion chance could be high. I hope I have made myself clear.

With regards to Shipwrecks, something interesting could be that when our ship gets in contact with another ship (in combat), a chance to board it exists. Of course, the captain should be involved and the better the state of the other ship, the bigger the loot and the bigger the danger. Other thing I have been thinking about is the use of Non lethal weapons a requisite to make a shipwreck possible when in normal combat. In tihs case the captain could be involved or not.

Finally, and "If possible" I woould like to see merc bases where "different missions" could be found, depending on our reputation. I mean, we ussually have the possibility of killing the bad guys. But What happens when we receive the quest of attacking a ship or destroying a facility of the "good guys"?. We could be the ones to be hunted by everybody. Of course the reputation with a particular race or races could be damaged and depending on the damage, even the FAKE ID device could not work. Afterwards a mission to restore some of your reputation could arise. This idea came to my mind remebering another great game "FRONTIER: FIRST ENCOUNTERS" in which you had to kill somebody and even if you actually did it or not, being in the wrong place made you an outlaw. At certain point, someone offered you a mission to "clean" your records. That was great.



In terms of bugs, I have accepted quests to collect some chemical compunds on sectors, but when I arrived at the sector there were no elements to collect. It was on normal_permadeath.

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

my most favored upgrade 1.3 items are

1. press same key again to exit sub-screens
2. random artifact switching on / off disabled - maybe add effect&device (artifact storage) that turns artifacts always on (or cursed version - always off - although wait that would turn the cursed effects of this one too ..:doh:)
3. chance to have a working city on terran & ice planets with a marketplace (like lobby at space stations - but able to enter without any problems even without fake id (smuggler-style))
3.b) make some higher quality items available to buy for the brave and sure skipper.
4. remove "captain could die" warning in non-perma-death-games
5. check if all active effects are on the "effects"screen - i think not every known active effect is listed.
6.able to mod in more professions / officer types with their own skill sets - also being able to use same skill for other officer type (right now you have to use other name / id for it)

Big THANKS for the support !

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

gonna address a few here:

baldrick, re: internal promotions:
I see the "reality" of it, but I don't see the point. especially if you were going to favor promotion to a class that you already *have* (copy captain's class, etc) I think there are plenty of opportunities to hire or find officers as it is.

I suppose that if you promote someone to a class of your choice, that could be good.

Dari, re: "officer professions"
hey, if you would like to introduce another class, I would love to hear about it, either on a new thread here, or in private at saunders72@hotmail.com

as for the skills, (I actually had to look this one up! I guess my memory for AI is not what it used to be) you are correct that you would need to create new skills for a new class. That is bad design / lack of vision on my part.
I don't think I will spend time correcting such a minor thing, but I will certainly admit that it is wrong.

"Random artifact switching" : this happens when you carry a certain number of artifacts (too many). and the more you have, the more chaotic they become. they are too powerful. this is by design.

I can imagine a "stasis chamber" device or "stabilizer" , that maybe reduces the chance or inc's the threshold of this... there must be a cost :p

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

hi ibol - check your pm

random artifact switching is really bad in sense of irritating for the visible effects like "no LOS" and sight range - and i have only 4 pages of artifacts in the manifest - could you at least disable it for the "no LOS" effect.
whats the cost - millions of credits, that renegade firax/pirate battlecruiser hunting for artifacts, or a firax contract to blow up every tentaculon one encounters ?

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

Dari, checked pm, and replied. WOW!

As for artifact switching: 4 PAGES?!?!?!?!
you must have every conceivable ability.
I need to come up with something WORSE for you, not better!

...artifacts spontaneously explode...

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

another small idea:
1. maybe give the A.T. 2 or 3 devices - or maybe each officer has one item assigned that is used if she is on mission.
2. able to change a.t. equipment while on the shuttle tile

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

BIG THANKS for the 1.30 Update IBOL !
(hope there are no explosions for the artifacts - you know the one i keep under my pillow)

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

found following bug:

on first load (that means right away without taking even one turn) in my old v1.20 game i was surrounded by 4 of the new Sil-race ships - so far so good.
They said something in red but the ship scan still showed content up to friendly status. Moved to one of their ship, then they asked me to hand over a named (according to their info) unidentified artifact - i checked my artifact manifest - and it was already identified - dont know if they just wanted any artifact or if it has to be an unidentified artifact.
With the supplied text it seems they wanted that unidentified one.

Solved the bug with the "F"-key muahahaa
Dont know if its intended but i could not find the Sil in the race Relations screen.

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

I guess I'd like for 1.3 not to completely bork my game. I posted a bug report in the bug report thread and haven't gotten any response to it.

Re: Upgrade 1.3 Requests
 

copy-and-paste of my response in the bug thread:

Hakko,

I am sorry you are having a problem.


So you are saying that it worked in the past, and is now crashing on install of 1.3 , correct?

Are any other Mac users having issues? I did not have any on mine.


Those apple-generated crash reports are not very helpful.

The game generates a debug file of its own which might help me find the problem. it is called:
AI_BETA_129_Debug.txt

It is possible that some images or other files are not present when upgrading from 1.0 to 1.3 , but finding that file might indicate the problem.

Thanks,
Bob