ORIGINAL: Evil Tactician
I did notice there was no way to start with the classic start of 1 colony, 1 colony ship and 1-2 exploration vessels though - which was disappointing. Then again, the nature of the game with the private sector etc. makes such a start more difficult. Still, worth implementing!
This would actually be an "advanced/hard" start in that it would be very easy for new players to get in real trouble not knowing where to best expand. We try to start you with one colony and a bare minimum resource network so that you can build things from the start.
Yes, the most frustrating part is having to use the ships/bases/colony screens merely to find out where ships are and what they are doing. The interface should show this slightly more clearly. For example, fleets could be assigned an icon, or number which represents them on the zoomed out overviews, allowing you to much more clearly see where your individual fleets are located. I appreciate this is harder for individual ships.
I'm not entirely clear on this - each ship has an icon and when you form a fleet, it gets its own unique icon with the number of ships in the fleet that shows up on the map to show you where it is. You can also assign ships to numbered groups using Control-1 etc. to then call them up again by just hitting a number key. On the zoomed out view, each ship category has a different kind of icon (i.e. all military ships are triangles) so that you can see pretty easily where trade is flowing, where your military is, etc. If you click on a ship icon in the zoomed out view, their data shows up in the bottom left, telling you their mission and cargo (if appropriate) as well.
I probably haven't spent sufficient time ingame to really reap the benefits of custom ship design. Unfortunately I just quit my first game as I am half a day playing in and I just don't know my empire, at all. I don't know my colonies, their names, their locations, etc. despite manually planting them. I find it VERY hard to keep a good overview of my empire without zooming right out - at which point you lose a lot of information and control.
Hm, I hope this is just a learning curve and adjustment issue as I haven't had any trouble getting immersed in that way and coming to know my colonies, ships and trade routes. While it is possible that it's just not your cup of tea, I would encourage you to give it another chance. I can't help but hope that you will "get it" soon if you try a bit harder.
Basically, I find it too easy. Since everything is shipped automatically by civilians, all you have to do is ensure mining bases are present at locations which have required resources. I think a few options/features that make certain locations more strategically important would be of great help.
Aha! Ok, now this I can help you with. If you feel things are too easy, use some of the many sliders on galaxy start to make resources more scarce, your initial system less "easy" and make the galaxy as a whole more unstable/restless. That should keep you much more on your toes. The default level is designed to be a bit more welcoming to new players. Personally I do not play on the default level any longer, I adjust the sliders to give myself more of a challenge, but as you can see from a lot of other reports I think the default level is a good starting point for most first time players.
Ultimately though, you don't have a great deal of control over the ships you designed. I guess it comes back to the other points - this area of the game isn't actually bad, I just don't feel compelled to dive into them due to the interface/overview problems I am experiencing.
Ok, so the first step is to get past your interface issues then. I'm an old hand with the interface now and have an easy time reviewing what's going on. Do you normally prefer to play more zoomed out or more zoomed in? If you could add in one interface feature that you feel would help you keep track of your ships, what would it be?
Strange, I tried that and it didn't work. Ended up having to go through the colony/ship overview screens to rename individual ones - I will definitely try that again as that would eliminate a huge aggravation!
Aha, glad I could help - that's how I do it. If you double click in the name area for anything you have selected, it will bring up the detailed info for that ship/base/planet and you can rename it right on that screen.
I will give it another go - I have the feeling I am missing something based on the remarks of people on the forums. Thank you for trying to convince me - and please don't get me wrong. I think you guys have done a great job as a small company, and I am pleased to see someone trying something 'different' for once.
I just have to get used to the interface and I am sure that upcoming patches can implement some small adjustments and improvements to make things easier. I'm not quite willing to give up yet
Ok, I appreciate that you are giving it a go, please let me know if you have any more specific frustrations, perhaps we can figure out a way to get you around them.
[*]Option for a 'basic start' - 1 Colony, 1 Exploration Vessel.
This would be really hard not to get into a major problem resource-wise. Maybe later as a "hard" option, but basically what we start you off with now is 1 Colony and just enough to have a basic resource network.
[*]Option to run off all designs, let the player design everything!
If you turn off ship design automation, you should be able to redesign things as you wish and the AI will never update or change them after the initial starting designs. Do you mean to start with no designs at all? This seems like it would also cause a lot of trouble for new players, just to figure out what designs they need to account for.
[*]Option during set-up to have all races start equal to the player, so you only have to set the start options once. (Equal in terms of homeplanet/tech level, etc.)
You mean just in terms of reducing the number of clicks?
[*]Option to disable spying and everything related to it.
I'm curious why you requested this? Espionage is usually a popular feature.
[*]A way to distinguish fleets from each other in the zoomed out overviews.
Personally once I see the fleet icons, it's easy enough for me to click on each one if I need a reminder, though usually I know where I have each fleet. What would you envision as far as differentiation goes?
[*]A way to easily see 'missing' resources when building something.
Great suggestion and we should implement this as an improvement. Right now if you have a good sense of your economy you will know what you're missing, but I absolutely agree we should make this easier to see at the point of ordering something to be built.
[*]An indication of 'build progress' on objects that are under construction. Unless I am missing something I am being told how many components are left to create, is it possible to have a progress bar or percentage?
Yes, the percentage progress is already there for construction yards as well as the number of unbuilt components. Just look in the detailed screen, so for example for a space port double click on its name, then look in the construction yards tab to see what percentage progress it's at on each ship under construction. Same goes for ships being built at planets. For something being built in space, like a mining station, you can look at the construction ship details I believe.
[*]Carriers / Fighters in the future would be great
Even if it's quite simple like Moo2 did it, where you add a bay as component which adds a few fighters to a ship.
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I do like carriers myself, we'll have to see what the future holds. We are certainly hoping to not just support this release but also add expansions to it as there is tremendous room for growth now that we have the basic game complete.
