Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

Agreed, I don't want to have to design ships, it's an open door to mm hell with 100s of heterogeneous ship types... I like the "strategic" feel of the game, kind of what had MoO1 and BotF, and was never able to play more than 40 turns of SE due to the huge mm load.
But I'd be ok for more ship types -specialized ships, race- or tech-specific, and I hope some coder will soon develop an easy GUI for editing/adding ships in the xml data files.

Re the map creator, why aren't the random game maps saved in map format to be edited ? It'll be faster than having to input everything...

..what is mm?

ORIGINAL: ShotmanMaslo

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

Agreed, I don't want to have to design ships, it's an open door to mm hell with 100s of heterogeneous ship types... I like the "strategic" feel of the game, kind of what had MoO1 and BotF, and was never able to play more than 40 turns of SE due to the huge mm load.
But I'd be ok for more ship types -specialized ships, race- or tech-specific, and I hope some coder will soon develop an easy GUI for editing/adding ships in the xml data files.

Re the map creator, why aren't the random game maps saved in map format to be edited ? It'll be faster than having to input everything...

..what is mm?

I think that his "mm" means "micro management.

I like how Armada 2526 strives to reduce micro management; though some extra features that have been discussed throughtout the forums would be great.

ORIGINAL: ShotmanMaslo

{ OMG..that was my littles brother idea of a joke... sorry for spam }

LOL, I didn't see what he wrote but it must have been a good one.

I would like to see the building on the planet during tactical combat that could be damaged/destroyed. I just did an asteroid attack using a Roid Roller and the impact was spectacular. It should have destroyed a least a few buildings.

This may have already been suggested: Please add a sortable/filterable list option displaying all colonizable systems.

Given all the complaints about the overpopulation and unrest problems, the unrest from overpopulation should probably be ditched entirely.
 
The two buttons for loading and unloading of ships should be made smaller to add a third button for "scrapping" aka eliminating population.  Clicking on it would produce the familiar popup load screen, limited only to population, in which players can select how many of which race's population on the planet will be eliminated when the End Turn button is pressed.

I would prefer doing tec research to hold down and control population. Also, I would think that the aliens on a planet that you take over and change the climate would suffer if they breath a different atmosphere. I would like to see a population react to high loses to its race. So if you did conquer a race and sent them off to die there would be riots from that race and maybe even a revolt.

ORIGINAL: Tom_Holsinger

Given all the complaints about the overpopulation and unrest problems, the unrest from overpopulation should probably be ditched entirely.

The two buttons for loading and unloading of ships should be made smaller to add a third button for "scrapping" aka eliminating population.  Clicking on it would produce the familiar popup load screen, limited only to population, in which players can select how many of which race's population on the planet will be eliminated when the End Turn button is pressed.

Thats too complicated and unrealistic. Population should reach natural equilibrium without eliminating anyone. Advanced space-faring civilisations would have exactly the opposite problem - negative population growth, like western states. The whole overpopulaton thingy is just unnesessary and unreal. GalCiv2 has it better. The max population level would be determined by planet quality and development, and population growth stops when this level is reached - no overpopulation.

I think Tom was offering that in a modest proposal spirit. My sarcasm meter rang off when I read it, anyways.

Shotman,
 
I haven't played any games long enough to hit maximum population anywhere, largely because by then I have Teleporters which let me move population around easily.  To be fair, I play only in relatively small galaxies too so I can micromanage my planets.
 
But, if this game lets population grow ABOVE the maximum allowed the planet they're on, thlat is clear evidence that it was shoved out the door before it was really ready for release.  Growing to the maximum and having unrest is one thing.  Growing past it is quite another.

Flavius was swift off the mark.

ORIGINAL: Tom_Holsinger
BTW, I'd like some techs to change wormhole discovery and use so that not every ship can discover and use them the first time.  I'd expand the existing Survey ship for this purpose, by having degrees of Survey ship (I, II, III).  A Survey I ship would just have the Sensor capability of the planetary sensor you start the game with, and each additional step in Survey ship tech would add a level to the sensor.

And only Survey ships could explore, and chart wormholes, and then only the wormholes they can detect.  I.e., a Survey II ship could only explore large wormholes because it can only detect large wormholes.

Now here's a good idea, but with a change. I would keep everything as is, and ad only that only Survey Ships can detect wormhles. The Detection techs would allow researching the Surveys; Survey I would detect Large WHs, Survey II Mediums, and Survey IIIs smalls.
Scouts and Surveys never really shined in the game, in that their roles are not "unique" enough, and what you would think of as appropriate for those ship types IMO.
Surveys for example could help research in some way (was discussed during beta). Maybe by "exploring" a larger kind of WH they could generate RPs for the Detections techs of smaller WHs or something.
Right now they're just mobile scanners.

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco
Re the map creator, why aren't the random game maps saved in map format to be edited ? It'll be faster than having to input everything...

Yeah, I asked Larkin for this very feature during Titans of Steel: Warring Suns beta, and he added it as a hotkey. Very helful. It could motivate people to make custom scenarios (hint) [:D]
In here it wouldn't be so helpful though, but still it could help. The map generator can generate random maps with lots of options, but this could be faster.

ORIGINAL: Kid

I would like to see the building on the planet during tactical combat that could be damaged/destroyed. I just did an asteroid attack using a Roid Roller and the impact was spectacular. It should have destroyed a least a few buildings.

It must have, but Bob just didn't find a way to display that kind of damage in the after battle report screen - you just have to compare the pre-battle structure/pop list to the post-battle one. Any way would be better than no way at all IMO.

ORIGINAL: Kid
I would prefer doing tec research to hold down and control population. Also, I would think that the aliens on a planet that you take over and change the climate would suffer if they breath a different atmosphere. I would like to see a population react to high loses to its race. So if you did conquer a race and sent them off to die there would be riots from that race and maybe even a revolt.

All races breathe the same atmosphere. The Cryokons prefer Icy planets, but an atmosphere is an atmosphere, in game terms.
As for suffering to high losses, yep, it's strange that you can bombard a system with an asteroid, kill off most of the pop, and they even get happier and suffer no "morale" penalties... [;)] and th planet itself doesn't suffer anything. Particularly about asteroids, they could be much more interesting in their effects. I even suggested setting off infections after massive large massacres.

 The whole overpopulaton thingy is just unnesessary and unreal. GalCiv2 has it better. The max population level would be determined by planet quality and development, and population growth stops when this level is reached - no overpopulation

 
I agree that is has a doubling effect of sorts. It decreases growth rate (Population Pressure mod) AND adds to unhappiness. There are a few other doubling effects in the game.
I think the whole Popularity vs Happiness thing needs to be reviewed/balanced and simplified (why is Happiness even separated from Popularity?).
As for GC2, not really. There are farms (which don't really work), and the pop cap is also the same for all planets - barring the farms/slots, which, have I mentioned, don't wok?  [;)]  [they do, but they're crap, they actually "penalize" you for having large pops... due to a very bad ecoomic model]

That would help enormously! All we need are some means of generating a map from a saved game, and putting a map back into a saved game, at which point the exising Map Creator could do most of the things listed in my SavedGame Editor wishlist.

ORIGINAL: Iceman

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco
Re the map creator, why aren't the random game maps saved in map format to be edited ? It'll be faster than having to input everything...

Yeah, I asked Larkin for this very feature during Titans of Steel: Warring Suns beta, and he added it as a hotkey. Very helful. It could motivate people to make custom scenarios (hint) [:D]
In here it wouldn't be so helpful though, but still it could help. The map generator can generate random maps with lots of options, but this could be faster.

Don't know what kind of savegame structure the game uses, but some form of compressed xml code (I think LE:I used this) could be easy to manipulate.

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Oh, forgot to say, I agree on the Teleports comment. I'd prefer something like Stars!, with caps on tonnage/size, and distance. Stars! rocked in more than one aspect!

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About ship design, and the lack of it in the game more precisely.
Hmm, you *can* design ships. You don't have a cute little interface for it, but you can edit the XMLs and give ships different weapons and defense ratings, tactical speeds, acceleration, transport capacities, starmap speed, capabilitites, costs, industry requirements, upkeeps, everything really. I think people are just missing this.

Particularly for weapons, you can even select the hardpoints where you mount them. Select the weapons you want the ship to have. You can select which weapon type and "size" (there's a few to select from), you can change their stats (range, damage, damage type, firing rate, etc).

The game *does* allow you to design ships, if you're willing to do the work - just not in-game. You can edit just about anything.

Hmm, if a map can be exported from a saved game, do we need to put it back into the saved game, or can we simply move the edited map to a folder where the game system will integrate it into the on-going game?

We probably need written instructions on how to use the Map Creator and edited *.xls files on how to create custom scenarios, specifically on which folders with what names each file has to be in to create a playable new scenario. Then, if a means to export a map from a saved game is provided by Ntronium, we'd know how to fully edit saved games without needing a separate Saved Game Editor.

I would like to have an optional "marathon" mode like in Civ IV that would greatly slow down research and production.