Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Kayoz
1. graphics
I hope not too much time has gone to improving graphics. DW could use some improvements to the efficiency of the graphics engine - but trying to make the game prettier is, in my opinion, a waste of time in a strategy game.

4. multiple stages of a planetary assault
Please make sure that this also applies to pacification. Currently, it's "invade, load troops, invade next" - there's no need or benefit to pacify a planet - so you can easily steamroll an empire down to nothing in the matter of a few minutes. This does not seem to add to the game play.

5. new planetary facilities
Running costs. Please. Every planet with full shield, ion cannon and everything else is a bit boring. Adding a dozen more facilities I can build with my nigh limitless funds is a big yawn.

6. Pirates
More control or at least hiring of them to perform specific missions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want the pirates to simply suicide on mining stations - I want them to blow up a SPECIFIC mining station. And if they need ships, I want to be able to give them ships - not cash which they'll spend building a dozen useless escorts.

7. area weapons
Please make them hit fighters and possibly missiles/torpedoes. Area weapons are either useless or a detriment to any player that's daft enough to use them.

8. diplomacy
Blockade mechanics need a serious look over. Attacking ships that are blockading your planet should have little or no reputation hit. Also, the current implementation of diplomatic demands to remove military forces from my (player) system seems to go to NULL. There's no indication what's being done with diplomacy, but please FIX the existing problems before adding new ones!

10. memory management
Please please tell me that Elliot has implemented his own memory manager. The .net limit of 800-1200mb is ridiculous given modern PCs. It's purely a .net limit, which he can (hopefully) easily work around. Please please please tell me he's done this...

ORIGINAL: jabbahutt
1. Mechanical races (Borg anyone?)
2. Random tech trees - where not all techs always appear and the research time is semi-random.

ORIGINAL: Bebop Cola
I'd also like to see much more done with running costs. Not just raw cash, but resources as well. Large worlds need to be gluttons for resources and those resources need to disappear. Most times I feel like large stockpiles are just shuffled around currently.

ORIGINAL: Ralzakark
1. Shadows is set before the original DW and its expansions. If you play long enough will the timeframes run together, so that you can continue from the age of Pirates into the age of Empires?

2. Given the background will there be new technology which is more basic than the current lowest level in Legends, for example weaker blasters and slower engines?

3. Will you still be able to play in the DW timeframe, so play against the current background but with the new technologies and enhancements to ground combat?

ORIGINAL: Kayoz

13. ship design cleanup

requested changes:
a) inclusion of required components should be done automatically. All ships, regardless of type require a few components - command center, one generator, one fuel storage, etc. Why force the player to peck through the list for these REQUIRED bits? If you have researched others, then you should be free to swap them out - but I'm guessing that most players will only research one line of engines and use them on all their designs. Another example, say I'm designing a colony ship - why is it that I have to peck through the list for the colony module??? It's required by it's role - so pecking through the list for it (and there's only ONE to choose from, realistically) is a complete waste of time. Other bits, like the first reactor, the command center and the first fuel cell are mandatory. Forcing the player to peck through the list of components that are REQUIRED is a waste of time. How does forcing a player to do this add to the depth or enjoyment of the game?
b) group component types visually by type - they're arranged by type in a list, but this should be made more explicit. Using the first few pixels of each component to form a colour ribbon is one potential method. That way, for example, all weapons would have the first few pixels of the component showing red - so the weapons section of the list shows up as a vertical red ribbon, followed by another colour based on what's next.
c) remove irrelevant component types from the list - mining stations and space port design should not even present the hyper drives to you. Selecting this as a component should not be possible.
d) redundant components - once you have a medical or recreation center in the design, further components of that type are utterly pointless (redundancy in the case of one being destroyed aside, but I suspect that's incredibly rare). Same applies for hyper drive, command center, etc. Once a component of this type has been added, further additions of the same type should be removed from the left hand side selection list. What is to be gained by confusing new players who might try to add a dozen recreation centers, and are confused when their design costs more, but does the same job as the one with only one recreation center. Remove this confusion by removing it from the list.
e) Please remove the automatic "obsolete" flag every time I cancel a manual upgrade. This bug has been in the design screen since the first release and has never been fixed.

ORIGINAL: tjhkkr
Can you throw me a tidbit about Special Forces in the new game?
I am kind of excited about that feature. [:)][8D][:)]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
I am thinking this expansion will not make an x-mas release this time.

ORIGINAL: Blueberry
Will the the aforementioned new elements of boarding/ground combat/new units be strictly limited to the age of shadows gameplay or will the installation of the latest expansion change (where appropriate, without affecting the game's plot) the Legends as well? Will the player be able to play the usual 'empires' game with some of the new stuff?

ORIGINAL: Simulation01
I love how all of our questions have been completely ignored. Carry on Matrix...carry on.

ORIGINAL: Haree78
I'm scratching my head trying to work out how you could play a game without moving between systems....surely it doesn't mean that.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Kayoz

13. ship design cleanup

requested changes:
a) inclusion of required components should be done automatically. All ships, regardless of type require a few components - command center, one generator, one fuel storage, etc. Why force the player to peck through the list for these REQUIRED bits? If you have researched others, then you should be free to swap them out - but I'm guessing that most players will only research one line of engines and use them on all their designs. Another example, say I'm designing a colony ship - why is it that I have to peck through the list for the colony module??? It's required by it's role - so pecking through the list for it (and there's only ONE to choose from, realistically) is a complete waste of time. Other bits, like the first reactor, the command center and the first fuel cell are mandatory. Forcing the player to peck through the list of components that are REQUIRED is a waste of time. How does forcing a player to do this add to the depth or enjoyment of the game?
b) group component types visually by type - they're arranged by type in a list, but this should be made more explicit. Using the first few pixels of each component to form a colour ribbon is one potential method. That way, for example, all weapons would have the first few pixels of the component showing red - so the weapons section of the list shows up as a vertical red ribbon, followed by another colour based on what's next.
c) remove irrelevant component types from the list - mining stations and space port design should not even present the hyper drives to you. Selecting this as a component should not be possible.
d) redundant components - once you have a medical or recreation center in the design, further components of that type are utterly pointless (redundancy in the case of one being destroyed aside, but I suspect that's incredibly rare). Same applies for hyper drive, command center, etc. Once a component of this type has been added, further additions of the same type should be removed from the left hand side selection list. What is to be gained by confusing new players who might try to add a dozen recreation centers, and are confused when their design costs more, but does the same job as the one with only one recreation center. Remove this confusion by removing it from the list.
e) Please remove the automatic "obsolete" flag every time I cancel a manual upgrade. This bug has been in the design screen since the first release and has never been fixed.

Some good ideas here, noted.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Simulation01
I love how all of our questions have been completely ignored. Carry on Matrix...carry on.

Sorry man, I've been a bit busy! Seriously.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: tjhkkr
Can you throw me a tidbit about Special Forces in the new game?
I am kind of excited about that feature. [:)][8D][:)]

Well, as you might expect they are quite capable. They can get in and survive where other units cannot and they are excellent at disabling planetary defenses and fortifications either before or during an invasion. They are also not available right away. You need to put some research effort into the ground combat tech tree to get access to the armor/mech forces, special forces and the various planetary defense options.

Regards,
- Erik

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn
I hope they will also incorporate economy tweaks so its less hard to make insane amounts of money.

Yes, that's part of the balance we've been working on as well. Lots of economic and resource balancing so far during Shadows development.

Regards,

- Erik