gren99
Posts: 6
Joined: 12/26/2002
From: Portland, OR
Status: offline
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i got SUDG for x-mas and have been playing it for the better part of 2 days now, so obviously i'm qualified in my own mind to make lots of senseless suggestions on "how to improve the product" :D
first off, i really like how some of the new features add to the game (versus what i was used to from the shareware game). the '4 replicators/research centers per planet' thing was a pretty ingenious way of subverting my favorite strategy (get up to the fusion age, research reps and RCs and then have 8 each per planet - letting your starships be your defense as needed - and then pretty much boom up the tech curve until you got anti-matter/singularity age stuff while the opposition is barely into fusion). the re-working of how freighters work is similarly great -- my first game out, i was positively shocked to realize that all my trade routes were yielding squat in income. :)
and the spacedocks a re a most welcome edition -- allowing you to research and outfit a ship at the same time. sweet!
however, in playing, i've found a few things that (imo) could be addressed in future editions. i'm not saying 'you MUST do this!' but simply offering some some ideas on how to keep the game relevant and interesting for years to come. even if some of this may not come along until SUDG v4.0 or never at all -- i figure there is no harm in suggesting any of this.
[B]1. the icon bar.[/B]
i dunno how feasible this is, but would it be possible to add an option to select where the iconbar is located? all things considered, i'd prefer if the icon bar was at the bottom of the screen instead of the top. being able to toggle this would be of some help.
[B]2. right-click functionality.[/B]
it would be kinda nice to have some form of a right-click pop-up menu. f.e. in map mode, if i right-click on a explored system it'll give me a 'Build trade route here' item and i can select it and it automatically builds a trade route at my nearest planet with an open production queue slot.
other implementations could be some rudimentary combat choices ('attack this target', f.e.). i'm not saying all functionality should be so transferred and it does not necessarily have to be with a pop-up in the way one is used from windows (the implementation of this is really up to the designers), but i think having functionality shortcuts like that could really benefit the game int he long term.
[B]3. custom/auto-acknowledge notifications[/B]
by "notifications" i mean stuff like 'scout fred takes instant recharge' and the like. some of them them i honestly do not care about, don't want to see them and find it a bit tedious that they pause the game for me until such time as i dismiss them. would it be possible to have a menu where you can specify which notifications are automatically dismissed and which ones still pause the game? that way each player can choose their own, as it were and i suspect it would speed up game play a smidgen.
[B]4. tabbed menu for artifacts[/B]
would it be possible for the artifact menu to have a tabbed interface with groups of artifacts sorted throughout them accordingly? it's kinda tedious to sift through lengthy lists of artifacts to look for something in specific. groups could be 'specialists', 'instants', 'weapons', and whatever else anyone could think of (again, this has to be a design level decision).
[B]5. a 5th age?[/B]
now on to a few of gameplay ideas. i honestly think the game would benefit from a 5th age of technology. i have no idea what it would be called or what exactly it should center around (well, maybe utilizing such stuff as collapsium -- collapsed light for the purpose of armor), but i think the tech tree should be deep enough to still be sifting through things right until the very end. in most of my games i kinda shut researching down after i get my preferred weapons and upgrades out of the singularity age. i think there should be some incentive to keep right on researching.
[B]6. space stations.[/B]
having space stations would be an interesting strategic addition to the game (imo). the way i see it, a space station is a hugely expensive endeavor that has to be built much like a colony does (using a ship to ferry a construction pod to the site) and results in a station that has 4-8 item slots (start with 4 in fusion age and then up grade to 6 and 8 in anti-matter and singularity, respectively) in which it can equip weapons and defense items. as i've been mulling this over in my head, i wondered whether it would be sensible to allow a replicator or research center module on a space station. either would make a certain amount of sense, but in my thinking it's an almost unfair advantage due to what other benefits a space station can offer. anyway...here are what i ould outline the benefits of a space station are:
a. it increases the profitability of any system it is in by $10-20 per year (based on the model corresponding to the three ages -- it's possible to do an atomic age space station, i suppose, but i suspect it's counterproductive in terms of cost. more on that in a sec). this gives a tangible benefit from having a space station right off the bat -- build it in a $2 a year world and you get $12-22 instead.
b. let space stations act as a commerce hub. i.e. freighters can dock and unload at the space station instead of the nearest colony. this shortens trade routes and can increase trade efficiency a bit.
c. you can build a jumpgate next to a space station (think babylon 5). this is (imo) the critical reason why i don't want replicators or research centers on a space station -- having a jump gate next to a station gives you a massive tactical advantage, in as much as you will be able to have many more jumpgates and move your ships around much faster. with such an edge, giving one the ability to research and produce seems really unfair.
now, here are some ideas for the downside:
a. they cost a ton. and i do mean a ton. i'm thinking $10,000 for 4-module fusion age station (and it would take a ship to ferry the 4 space station pods much like it would 4 colony pods. i'd peg production time of a space station pod as roughly 1.5x-2x the time it takes to create a colony pod) and a whopping $20,000 for a type 3 singularity age space station (with 8 slots and 8 pods). this could be adjusted as seen fit (i started thinking $5000-$10,000 at first, but seeing as jumpgates are $2,250 or so i figured this should be FAR more expensive), mainly in order to allow stations to exist as viable entities in the game rather than big white elephants (if you make them too pricey, no one will build them).
b. they have upkeep. much like planets and such. i wouldn't have something like a 50 year cost penalty like colonies do, but i would suggest upkeep levels in excess of that of cruisers.
c. they all but require some ships to be left in orbit for defense. with just four slots open at first, you have pretty much only got room for a computer, a shield, a single-slot weapon and a generator. in other words, a scout packs more punch than that. to trade off on this, a station would have to have just gargantuan 'hitpoints' -- even in excess of a space dock. if you really want to take on even a type 1 station, you best bring a fleet of 4 or so ships packing anti-matter standoffs or better. with successive levels and more slots open, a station could add armor or more shields and better weapons. however, if one adds something like standoffs (i.e. weaponry that is easily depleted), it will have to be freightered from a world (my thinking is that each station has a freighter running between it and it's nearest world in order to simulate the supplies going to and fro. if you deplete your station standoffs, the freighter goes to world X, which dutifully builds a set of standoffs and the freighter returns with said standoffs to re-supple the station).
either way, station patrol might be a good way to occupy scouts and gunboats late in the game.
[B]7. more ships[/B]
i think it would be cool if the ships section of the tech tree was expanded to include at least 1 more full class (the dreadnought -- a singularity age ship that's 1-2 slots larger than a cruiser) or perhaps even 2 classes (super-dreadnought? definitely 2 slots larger than a cruiser...), but beyond that, i think it would be really cool to have 'specialty ships' -- i.e. 1-2 sub classes for each known class of ships.
f.e. scouts could be broken up into:
a. explorers.
these ships get a bonus that amounts to having 2 computers installed for the price of one. early in the game, a explorer scout would not need 2 electronic computers, but f.e. could instead mount just 1 and have an additional reactor or weapon. late in the game this benefit is less obvious, but they still are no worse than any other regular scout.
b. raiders.
a raider scout gets a maneuverability benefit (i.e. inertial dampening before it's available to all ships -- ideally, once you research ID, the benefits would be stackable, creating a mighty zippy little ship -- but that might be a bit too tricky) and/or perhaps a combat bonus (10% more accurate? 10% more damage?). this is the ideal anti-piracy ship (or space station defender) and should stay useful all throughout the game.
it might be kinda cool to be able to convert a regular ship into either one of it's subclasses at a space dock (make it a one-way, one-time only conversion). each sub-class would have to be properly researched first and researching the next full class up DOES NOT give you the sub-classes below. f.e. if i research gunboats, i don't get the raider or explorer, but would have to go back and research them separately.
ideally, researching a sub-class should require an advanced research artifact, but that might require seeding a few more of them into the game (otoh, i rarely use mine until the singularity age. i'm always sitting on a bunch of them, so perhaps not increasing the number would be ok). building a sub-class ship from scratch should cost a premium over the regular class that's based on a sliding scale (say $50 extra for a scout, but $2-300 for cruisers).
i don't have a fully formed idea on what all kinds of sub-classes could be implemented, but my thought would be to create ships that have certain tactical implications based on the technology available in the game already.
f.e. whereas the scouts cited above pretty much are there to keep scouts relevant in all phases of the game, gunboats could be made into something a bit different. my thinking is have one gunboat class that is for all intents and purposes a spy ship and has a cloaking device built in (as you research he various levels of cloaking, the benefits of the newer technologies would stack), but because of the added power needed, it has less slots available (like 1-2 less) and cannot be equipped with anything but defensive weaponry. it's a spy ship, after all -- not a fighter.
the second gunboat design would be it's opposite number -- a anti-cloaking ship that can spot cloaked ships within a system and actually can mount weaponry, but because of it's reduced slots, only can use single slot weaponry (or perhaps just defensive weaponry as well).
corvettes could come in a 'wild weasel' flavor (a ship that has boosts the ability of it's defensive missiles out the wazoo -- standoffs, missiles and torpedoes will get zapped almost every time around this boat, but unfortunately, each defensive weapons palette will now take 2 slots and have half the amount of regular ones) and perhaps minesweepers (kinda like the wild weasel, only with beam weps and/or a bonus against mines) or electronic counter measure ships (reducing the effectiveness of you enemies defensive missiles).
other ships that i can think of:
- interdictors (either a frigate or a destroyer): place one of these in a system with wormholes and/or jumpgates and said hole or jump gates cease to functions until such time as the interdictor leaves. of course it's got huge power demands and virtually no room for weapons, so it will need companion vessels. otoh, it can keep your opponents 'fleet out of action. a nice 'quick strike' addition to a small fleet.
- space control ships (cruisers or better yet, one of the dreadnoughts): built-in jump drive using no extra slots. it should be a high premium to build one of these, but they are the ultimate fast-strike conquest ships.
- drop ship (destroyers or cruisers): twice the amount of assault pods per slot.
- space craft carrier (frigate or dreadnought): pretty much the same ship as always except for the tiny difference that all fighters take up 1 slot instead of 2. or in other words 'with advanced antimatter/singularity fighters, you should be able to royally ream someone'. makes for great defensive ships also (have one orbit your space station and it should be pretty darn safe). conversely, mounting this sub-class onto a frigate could also work (and reduce the sheer offensive power of having 4-6 fighter squads out and about) and make the frigate a more viable offensive platform later in the game. i suspect a singularity age frigate-carrier could go toe-to-toe with a similar age cruiser and have a very good chance of winning.
- arsenal ships (destroyers): torps/missiles/standoffs are 1 slot instead of 2.
the super dreadnought could also be a subclass of the dreadnought. having an extra 1-2 slots is enough of an advantage. :)
ok, that's it from me. as i said, i'm not really looking to be critical or anything -- i love this game! but i think even in the best products, there is room for a little evolution and i thought i'd simply throw these ideas out there for y'all to see.
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