Matrix Games Forums

Hello everyone here
I have some suggestions here
1:Please,make the ships upgrade to new designs automatically......My cargoship's design was 50 years ago and i can't manually upgrade it either......check if there are new designs every time docks maybe easy
2:Add a option to control the Escort don't move to other empires.....they always warn me to leave....
3:i think if i can make my counstruction ship to work in an area maybe better..

还是打中文吧...哪个看的懂的帮我翻译下...谢谢了..
1:请让飞船能自动升级,我的货船用的设计比我最新的老了50年而我又不能手动去让他升级....如果能改成每次靠港自动检查有没有更新型号或许会好一点
2:增加一个设置让我的护卫舰别跑到别人那去,他们老警告我把军事船只撤走
3:我想如果我能让我的工程船只在一定的范围内工作或许会更好

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but...

Group automate/deautomate from list screens, it's a pain in the ass to not be able to select a group and batch it

Choosing audible alerts for battle warnings. In a major war in a big galaxy, the alert goes off constantly as hundreds of ships are involved. It would be awesome if we could toggle off alerts for freighters, or bases, or escorts, or whatever.

Just to follow this up...especially let us turn off alerts for exploration ships getting attacked.

ORIGINAL: Alinroch

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but...

Group automate/deautomate from list screens, it's a pain in the ass to not be able to select a group and batch it

Choosing audible alerts for battle warnings. In a major war in a big galaxy, the alert goes off constantly as hundreds of ships are involved. It would be awesome if we could toggle off alerts for freighters, or bases, or escorts, or whatever.

I agree, currently if the alert is on, it makes a noise... and i get SEVERAL of those a second in a huge galaxy. thus i have to turn it off (from both the scroll list at the top and popups on the right)
if it was possible to turn off the noise i could still have it show up.

I'm sure this might have been requested, but it's such a long thread and I'm being lazy and not searching......

How about being able to create more than 10 fleets.

More UI stuff:

Please, make the star names bigger when zoomed out.  Just this little change, I feel, could have a big impact on how the game feels.  The bigger text will add 'weight' to the empires, and make the player feel like he's filling up the map instead of connecting little dots.

Along the same lines, the little 'plaque' next to a colony when zoomed it that is supposed to be your 'colony at a glance', this as well could benefit the game by still being present (perhaps without the bottom overview part) at a couple extra zoom out levels.  When zooming in to the far out system view, these little bits of color will dominate the overview and make the player feel like he's got something solid and valuable with his colonies, far more than the little hexagonal symbol.

I'm also renewing my wish for color coded (pastel) components in the design screen.  It will help the player find what he's looking for, and make that screen more inviting to 'touch' and start messing around with design.

(edit) Make the mouse wheel behave the same when zooming out and zooming in. If I start at the farthest out galaxy zoom and start zooming in one click at a time, after 3 clicks the star names get big. However, it takes 5 clicks to zoom back out to where I started. I'm almost positive this is why sometimes my zoom in ends up in empty space, I'm expecting my zoom in to behave like my (recently experienced) zoom out, and it doesn't. (/edit)

ORIGINAL: taltamir



I agree, currently if the alert is on, it makes a noise... and i get SEVERAL of those a second in a huge galaxy. thus i have to turn it off (from both the scroll list at the top and popups on the right)
if it was possible to turn off the noise i could still have it show up.

Taltamir,

Check my mod in the mods section:

tm.asp?m=2422822

ORIGINAL: deanco2

ORIGINAL: taltamir

I agree, currently if the alert is on, it makes a noise... and i get SEVERAL of those a second in a huge galaxy. thus i have to turn it off (from both the scroll list at the top and popups on the right)
if it was possible to turn off the noise i could still have it show up.

Taltamir,

Check my mod in the mods section:

tm.asp?m=2422822

Thanks, this sounds cool.
I am waiting for 1.04b3 before installing the game again, I will check it out then.

if a construction stalls out due to lack of resources to finish building something, it waits forever until a private ship brings it more resources.
this means it is a vulnerable sitting duck, it is also not as efficient. It should instead warp to the nearest planet, pick up more raw materials, then come back and finish the job.

I had originally posted a thread in Tech Support, but it probably isn't a technical issue at all. So here goes:

Once the resource status of all planets, gas clouds and asteroids in the game is known, explorers on automation cease doing anything useful (apart from keeping tags on enemies in a war). There are still missions they could accomplish:

• Ruin locations may be known without having details about them, so you still have to direct explorers (or other ships) manually to explore them and trigger their special effects. Explorers should do this automatically.
• Without flying to a system, nothing will be known about potential space monsters or pirates there. This I also regard as a typical mission for exploration ships. It could probably be implemented in the form of a special command, a sort of 'recon' mission that lets them patrol through systems which have not been visited by your empire for a while and are subject to fog of war.
• Special locations and abandoned ships could also be dealt with by automated explorers instead of needing a ship sent manually.

Multi-player.  AI play is boring.  Computers are anti-social to begin with.  A game this big and complex deserves turn based multi-player, with replay.  AKA Battlefront's CM series WEGO.


Nigel Steel

This is an exact copy and paste I just made in another post. I thought it would be good to put in here as well.

Maybe I am playing humans too much, but when I tried to play a different race, the Dayhut (sorry spelling is wrong I know) but I have to disagree with Erik and agree with jscott. When I was playing Dayhut as a hive mind, there was no difference than humans under democracy. It just felt the same, even though they were a different race and goverment. I didn't see no difference money wise, I saw no difference, culture wise, I saw no difference happiness wise.

Hopefully this can be fixed in a patch, but if not, there should be a difference in an expansion pack. I know DW is not other games, but at least when I change goverments in other games, like Call 2 Power, or Civ Revolutions, I know and see a difference in goverment types when I change in those games.

I can see the difference in income I make, or my tech is researched faster, or I have more or less happier citizens, or can control more cities, (wich dosn't apply to DW, but you get the idea) I see and feel a difference.

The only difference, so far when I play another race, is if I can colonize a different type of world, like volcanic worlds or oceans. Other than that, I don't feel that there is much difference in playing. When I tried to play the Dayhut, I wanted to be an evil race, but I couldn't really do it since I had to play the same way as humans would to make my population happy. Instead of being one mind bugs who like to have warfare as described in their fluff, they acted as if they were humans.

So I am hoping something can be done about this. Hey I will put this in the wish list thread.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Munchies


quote:

ORIGINAL: jscott991

The AI really needs to colonize within other races systems much less.

It makes for a ridiculous game.

This is really the bane of all 4X games. I'm just surprised DW claimed to have toned this down in 1.04.



It seems toned down to me.. a lot in fact.

Before 1.04 I would always have other empires colonizing in my systems (volcanic planet for example)
Now, the last few games I have played I have had 0 attempts to colonize within my claimed systems and there have been opportunities.
One empire is now trapped on the outer edge, with one system, because he did not want to damage relations and colonize within my borders to expand.

An idea came to me from reading this. If in fact this has been fixed whe should have a new option in diplomacy now having a pact where you can coloinze in someone else's system or asking them if it's ok to do so, without taking a hit. Maybe even paying for the option of doing so.

ORIGINAL: deanco2

(edit) Make the mouse wheel behave the same when zooming out and zooming in. If I start at the farthest out galaxy zoom and start zooming in one click at a time, after 3 clicks the star names get big. However, it takes 5 clicks to zoom back out to where I started.

I imagine zooming out consumes more "power" because more information must be displayed, while zooming in reveals nothing new, so there is less computation involved in zooming in. This hiccup causes a slight loss of response when zooming out, so some of your input isn't registering as the computer's "time" has been distorted, but it isn't severe enough to be noticeable to you directly.

ORIGINAL: nrs

Multi-player. AI play is boring. Computers are anti-social to begin with. A game this big and complex deserves turn based multi-player, with replay. AKA Battlefront's CM series WEGO.

I imagine implementing, testing, and securing multiplayer is rather infeasible in DW due to the massiveness of the game. Even a tiny map is bigger than most games' huge maps, and so multiplayer would be completely infeasible with Generation ADHD, where most people have mostly lost the ability to concentrate on anything for more than about 20 hours at a time, tops, with the average being closer to less-than-one. You ask a member of Gen ADHD to concentrate on anything for 20 hours, and before the FIRST hour is up, it'll be all "I'm hungry!". "I'm bored!", "I have to pee!", blah, blah, blah. Wimps.

Can we have an option to start with research bascially with nothing? By that I mean, I want no sensors, or lasers or torpedoes, or shields. All I want for the begining of the game, is just the tech I need to make a ship, so bascially, an engine, thrusters, FTL (wich I wouldn't mind not having so we can have slower than light travel ships, wich basically can be fighters, but then we need a carrier [:)]), habitation moduel, life support moduel and basic command center.The rest I would love to be able to research myself, or even start with nothing. This way, I would feel like I am playing the tech game.

As I said before, I tried using the editor, and delete everything so I can start a pre war game and it was boring, but already having all the tech discovered, there was nothing to do. By having nothing researched, and starting from the begining would make a pre warp game more fun, by researching what we need and making what we can when we have discovered the tech. This way we can make our ships, and have short distances to discover other stars. I know this is not for everyone, but alot of us would like to have it, but we can't remove tech with the editor so we can't do it ourselves.

So can you please either let us remove our tech via the editor, or put it in the game as an option for pre-warp, where we start with nothing or the very basics in what you think we really need.

Long post warning!

Hello all. Let me just start by thanking the devs and Matrix for such an awesome game. It's definitely helping me out with my empire-building fix.

Moving on from that - since this is the wish list thread and I want to stay on topic - here are some thoughts that I had while playing. I started 2 days ago with 1.03, killed myself with lag in mid-late game with all the ship-spam, found 1.04b2 and restarted a new game or two there. Here are some of the things that struck me while playing that. I have, unfortunately, not yet had time to read through this entire thread (too busy playing since I only heard of it 2 days ago and needed an empire-building fix). But I did review the consolidated list to see what was already being considered/worked on. Some of this is overlap with my take on it.

-Global queues.
Simply put (but not-so-simply implemented?), I really really really like this idea for colonization, ship construction, and base construction.

A colonization queue would have the player tagging planets to be colonized and allow you to change the order with move-up / move-down buttons. The nearest available colony ship would be routed to that planet. This should be on a counter (check end-of-day?) rather than as each ship is completed so that it reduces the chance of multiple ships crossing paths to colonize a planet on the other side. Ships near completion could be assigned a target as well.

A ship-build queue would allow the player to request X number of ship Y and have them built at your bases *in order of fastest build speed*. If I ask for 10 colony ships, I don't want them snapped up by my ten slowest planets first. Some consideration should be taken into account for planets that produce at 400 vs 50. If I have 5 planets producing at 400, 2 at 100, and 4 at 50, the 4 at 50 should not be assigned any of the 10 as the 5 at 400 would finish them all faster building 2 each. The same would apply to spaceport shipyards, but I think to a lesser degree.

A base-build queue would have the player tagging where to build a particular type of base. When a construction ship completes the current job, it then grabs the job from the queue which is closest to the current location. There could be a priority flag as well and construction ships would choose the closest of those jobs first.

When there is nothing in the base build queue, how do the construction ships prioritize? They should focus first on your inhabited systems, then slowly work out from those. Repairing damaged ships might have a slightly higher priority though.

Drag-and-drop for changing the order of queues would be ideal, but I don't see that implemented anywhere else and expect it would be even more of a major engineering change.

-Auto-design problems
I noticed this in the early game. I obtained a torpedo tech and suddenly couldn't select destroyers to be built by my bases. The reason was that the destroyer size was now at 205 and my max capacity was 200.

Auto-design formula should take into account the current shipyard tech. If I have SY-100, limit destroyers to a max size of 200. For SY-200, limit cruiser designs to 330. And for SY-300, limit capital ships to 500. At SY-100, should cruisers and capital ships even be designed?

Weapons/components that aren't used in an auto-design should be reevaluated, or the auto-design formula should be changed.

The example that caught my eye is the Shatterforce Laser which comes after the Impact Assault Blaster D5. The D5 is chosen instead because it does more damage at a slightly faster rate, but does so at half the range with damage loss to the point that it does just as much damage at all but stepping-on-toes-range. There are advantages to both weapons and ideally there would be a mix of them, but the shatterforce laser is completely left out of any auto-designed ships. A destroyer uses 4 beam weapons and a 50/50 split would be good, while larger ships should emphasize the higher-damage weapon more. A median damage rate-at-range calculation might make sense.

-Refits
Change the behavior of the refit button on the ships list so that it adds a refit order to the queue rather than forcing the current task to cancel. This would allow ships to complete their current escort/patrol/attack before seeking a base to refit at.

Add a button in the design screen to queue a refit for all ships of a design. I want to upgrade all my really old frigates to this awesome new design, but leave the last generation's frigates alone since there's really not much difference. (none sometimes)

I'll add my voice to wanting refit ships to be renamed to their new class name, but only when they're originally class names. It's nice seeing some of the bigger ships with unique names. And I'll admit it was cool to notice that my first destroyer is still in service and recently upgraded, unless that's just a new one that was randomly assigned the same name. /ponder

Auto-refit of really old ships/ports/bases.
At the end of the new auto-design task, evaluate previous auto-designs for queuing a refit.
A refit on all *automated* ships, bases, and ports of an old design should be queued when any of the following is true.
maintenance is at least x% lower.
firepower increases by at least x% (calculated by median damage@range?)
shield effectiveness increases by at least x%
engine/power plant efficiency increases by at least x%
new relevant mining tech is used
at least 50% of the lab or plant modules are upgraded.
Base auto-refits aren't workable without a global queue. If that is added, the refits should be flagged as priority in the queue.
There should be an option under advanced to toggle auto-refits on and off, perhaps with a percentage box as well.

-Randomness
More construction ships should be "suggested"
I find myself manually queuing colony ships to be built at the fastest planets, and usually build 1 construction for every 3-5 colony ships to keep my economy flowing and get damaged ships repaired. I only just started this, but it seems to be helping. I'll test the idea further when I start a new game.

Early game, it's very easy to go red just adding a couple of colonies, then takes years to be back in the black. This happened to me with a few colonies and pirates whittled away my fleet til I had 2 frigates and a destroyer left. After letting it run and stabilize (in a few game years), it's hard to make myself go red, but right at the start, it took no effort at all. After it stabilized, I started colonizing like crazy. I'm eagerly awaiting the economy changes in the new patches so we'll see on this. I'll also prioritize building some extra construction ships from the start.

Why are savegames stored in a normally hidden folder? (Application Data)

5-10min savegames are the pits, but it gives me time to check the forums or chat with my girlfriend. While troubleshooting to see if it was my anti-virus causing problems, I ran procmon and noticed that it was getting "FASTIO IS DISALLOWED" errors writing every chunk of the save file. At the end, I noted the writefile had "I/O Flags: Non-cached." After some quick checks on these, I came up with .NET has problems streaming a transaction file or database backup to disk. Is there a work-around that could speed up the saves? I auto-save in case the game crashes, but 5min+ is not fun. It's a nice break every 45-60min though.

The messages log needs more filter types. One for each message type? Checkboxes to filter out what you don't want to see would be very nice. All/non-battle/history just doesn't quite cut it when I want to find that planet I saw mentioned where I found some particular ruins.

An option in settings to disable or quiet the $%#& alert sound would be reallllllllllly nice. (I saw the mods and will be checking out the alternatives.)

Take care!
Rusty

an option to automatically pause the game after it has been saved. Saving can take long enough that I go make a sandwich or do something else... so i'd be nice to have the option to auto pause after the save (it should be disable-able though, sometimes I don't want it to auto pause... i want the game to run for a while without intervention)

ORIGINAL: taltamir

an option to automatically pause the game after it has been saved. Saving can take long enough that I go make a sandwich or do something else... so i'd be nice to have the option to auto pause after the save (it should be disable-able though, sometimes I don't want it to auto pause... i want the game to run for a while without intervention)

I would also like an option to pause the game after loading. Loading takes a while, and I tend to wander off. I don't want the game running unattended.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, this is a long thread to wade through.

ORIGINAL: Raengrey

ORIGINAL: taltamir

an option to automatically pause the game after it has been saved. Saving can take long enough that I go make a sandwich or do something else... so i'd be nice to have the option to auto pause after the save (it should be disable-able though, sometimes I don't want it to auto pause... i want the game to run for a while without intervention)

I would also like an option to pause the game after loading. Loading takes a while, and I tend to wander off. I don't want the game running unattended.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, this is a long thread to wade through.

oh, good point... yes after loading OR saving, auto pause (if we had set that option)... it is also crucial that when paused in such a manner the the auto-save clock isn't ticking. It would suck to leave, come back, and have it go right back into saving mode.

I did give up on larger galaxies though because of the save duration. I find it to be quite more manageable in smaller galaxies.

ORIGINAL: Davor

Can we have an option to start with research bascially with nothing? By that I mean, I want no sensors, or lasers or torpedoes, or shields.

Planets are not self-sufficient, so if you start with nothing, you'll never be able to do anything. Plus, the pirates are already out and about and generally attack you right away, so without any of these things, you will be shot down before you can ever start.

I have several ideas;

RACIAL TECH:

Reference Topic: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2452188


Right now unique tech trading is immersion breaking because the AI opponents will simply offer it for a huge amount of money (do they think we are that rich? How dumb are they? --> Immersion break)

In order to make this more realistic / immersive several simple changes would alter this dynamic completely while making the game far more "natural" and providing a "diplomatic incentive". (argh, let's be friends matey! I'll get that raciall tech eventually!)


Proposing a sale of racially unique super secret technology to a race you've just met is just plain stupid.

Imagine the United states trying to sell nuclear weapons to the newly founded states of Kaberaki-Stan in central asia for 50 trillion dollars.

This makes no sense and in fact just tells you as a player that the Computer doesn't know what its doing, instead of regarding them as a logcial and natural part of the Distant worlds universe. (as in: I'm a part of the natural word that is the "Distant Worlds" Universe, and hey, there are other creatures that are part of this world too! They even know how to act intelligently! Awesome!! ---> Player gets immersed into the DW Universe)


**update**

Change 0:
Racial tech should be Unique and confer a characteristic advantage on the race of origin. (Better than regular tech)

**end update**


Change 1:
The AI should only trade racially unique tech with you if it implicitly trusts you (like the European & US relationship). Perhaps even only if it implicitly trusts you and you are allied.


Change 2:
The AI should only trade tech if it really believes you have the wealth to afford it. (why bother if you know its highly unlikely?)


Change 3:
If there is a state of implicit trust / alliance or friendship etc.. then it would make sense if the AI not only offers its own unique technology but also asks the player to share his.

This could take the form of a unique tech swapping agreement. (instead of monetary value)




SHADES OF GREY:

Reference Topic: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2453777

It does go against the idea of a Hive mind though. A typhical Hive is anti-individualistic so howcome the bugs suddenly start thinking about their own well being rather than the Hive's? Perhaps the Hive mind trait should be limited to insectoid races and have a creativity / research penality with the added bonus of complete and utter devotion above and beyond the call of duty, the wet dream of any totalitarian dictator?


I'm making a few too many associations here but I really like this idea. It certainly adds some dark and anti-human identity to the insectoid races. It would be like Individualism and Freedom VS Extreme Collective Darwinism


Come to think of it, this would really tie in well with the story line, giving it a much deeper philosophical background.


A clash of two existensial ideologies: Individial Life & Liberty VS Collective Survivalism

-Life and Liberty promotes Individualism and thus Individual development. SCIENCE BONUS! The state is an extension of the individual and serves as such. The Individual is a voluntary and as living being, invaluable member of the group.
------> TYPHICAL MODERN WESTERN (DEMOCRATIC) PERSPECTIVE


-Collective Survivalism promotes Total societal mobilization towards a single goal. COMPLETE AND UTTER STATE controlled society (perhaps the private sector is merely another part of the government, independent yet alike) The survival & strenght of the species is supercedes all other individual considerations. The Individual does not exist or is heavily subservient to the group.
----> CLASSICAL DICTATORIAL COMMUNISM!


This would really hit a snare with the general public. Everybody's been bombarded with anti communist and pro Liberty media since childhood!

I think this would be better then the unrealistic concept of good vs evil .
There is no inherently good or evil action or intention but these are two radically opposed ideologies!

In order to prove my thesis I would ask anyone to come up with an existing / existed example of evil within our Universe / Nature.

This task is quite impossible because evil is unnatural. Being evil for sake of being evil has no place within the natural world.

What does exist in our Universe are "good" and "bad".

I wonder though how any space faring race could possibly survive while constantly doing things that are "bad" for it.


An Example here:

-Insects wantonly murdering men, women and children without any regard for human life does not make them evil. In fact, war does not even imply "good" or "evil", it implies "good" or "bad".
The reason to start a war is obviously because the insects think it will be good for the Hive.
If starting a war would be the end of their existence then no concious entity would pursue this course of action, unless it is driven into despair, desperation and wishes to end its existence through collective suicide.


The point i'm trying to make is:

Instead of the classical and quite frankly wrong perspective of "good" versus "evil" it makes much more sense, especially in a single player game to provide a realistic setting and thorough immersion.
Immersion quite simply is achieved by presenting the player with a "realistic / believable" environment in which creatures act according to their nature .

In this context it makes far more sense for the insectoid races to be "evil" or "bad" for other humanoid life because quite simply they see it as a matter of survival .

The insectoids would thus justify their ceaseless expansion and war mongering nature, perhaps rightly so, by pointing out that in their perspective the whole point of existence is the struggle to survive.

If your survival is threatened by some humanoid primates your only realistic option is to remove them.

Unless ofcourse you can be persuaded that the humanoids are not a threat but a potential ally and survivalist boon.



How would this work in the game:

The government labels "path of evil" and path of the ancients could quite simply be renamed to:

-Path of Universal Survival (or something like it)
This ideoligy provides a perspective on existence that heavily emphasizes the struggle to survive (Life = Survival)

Hence the path of universal survival inherently justifies using slaves and mass genocide. As long as it is for the survival of the species.


-Path of Universal Existence (or something like it)
This ideoligy provides a perspective on existence that is more encompassing of Life and not just the struggle to survive. (Life = Love, Growth, Survival, Pain, Suffering, Discipline, Nature, Religion etc...)

The path of universal existence would imply a much more caring attitude towards all life, even bugs. Slavery is wrong, murder is wrong etc.. but survial is a part of nature, yes, just not the only one.




EXTRA IMERSION & PLAY VALUE:

Peace and Development shoudn't be boring, perhaps some kind of random event system and internal politics could be introduced?


Internal Politics:

Elections! A senate! (This is seen nicely in GalCiv and EU: Rome by the way!)

This can be as abstract as possible, a screen that displays a senate room and a percentage of the party dominance is all that's needed.

How would this work? Well depending on your government you get elections.

Elections determine some of your racial strengths and weaknesses.

Peacefull development is aided by a progressive liberal party

War & Military armament is aided by a conservative or nationalist party

There could even be radical parties that desire radical policies.

The consequence for not catering to the "will of the people" is simple to abstract as well, It simply adds to Empire unrest.

How is this fun? Well it adds to the amount of things the player can manage in peace. Its an extra mechanic for immersion as well as gameplay.


Random Events:

Nothing spices up life more than some nice unpredictable events! Ofcourse there should be an option to turn it off though.

Ofcourse certain races / governments should have smaller chances of certain events occuring. (Does a hive have politics? Crime? Scams? That seems highly unlikely)


- Bank robbery (catch the escaping pirate!)

- Trading Scam! (aprehend the civilian selling bad spaceship parts!)

- Giant Kaltor Mating Season! (they're mating like rabbits!)

- Asteroid on a colission course! (kill it quickly!)

- Space Slug Infestation! (they're mating like rabbits!)

- Hyperspace Disturbance! (temporary slower travel / faster travel in a region)

- Political Landslide! (Unexpected election outcome!)

- Significant Cosmic Event Observed (Science bonus!)

- New Solar system formed (who will claim this system?!)

- Unexplained Cosmic radiation increase! (sensors become less effective)

- A sun goes Supernova! (get out of there!)

This could just be the top of the iceberg! There is so much potential here!

How is this fun? Well unpredictabilty is a part of our existence, mimicing this in the DW universe provides immersion. It also provides something to do in peace times!


Besides, as Erik says in his signature: In times of Peace, Prepare for war!!
(Note: Rome was a Republic once Erik!! What do you think about internal empire politics?)




Just my thoughts.... [:D]