SideshowBob
Posts: 24
Joined: 3/27/2002 Status: offline
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OK, as I am about to move on to Uncommon Valor as soon as it arrives, I'll post some small practical improvements I'd like to see when I return to this game: Get rid of the very light tan color - can't distinguish "out of turmoil" systems or pirates from it! Or at least make it possible to choose the color of your opponents! Maybe come up with a dark blue instead. I've actually quit good games when my chief adversary ends up this color - way too frustrating to watch for out of turmoil systems. When ships signal they are ready for an assignment, have it default to whatever planet they are at now, not some ridiculous assignment I'd never want them to do (like attack a pirate in a $2/year system, or raid a neutral alien's $4/year system) like they always do. 75% of the time I want a ship to patrol the planet it is at, as it has just been refitted, and is waiting for its fleet-mates to refit. Once the whole fleet has re-fit, I seldom send them off immediately somewhere, as I may be doing other stuff (with other fleets) at the time. Oh, and when a ship is newly built, have it always and automatically go to the planet it is built at! In my experience, the new ship, without any request for an assignment, always goes to the planet I last ordered a ship to go to. Often this is a new colony, as I just ordered a ship to patrol it. Then I have a brand-new cruiser just jump-gate across the galaxy, and on the way back, it uses a wormhole with an end in a system with a pirate, who promptly blows away my brand-new unarmed cruiser! What's up with that? Don't activate "Invincible Shields" on a planet automatically if war is declared! Cheez, this is pandering - I want to decide if and where and when I use it! I may want to save it for the end of an attack or for a future new distant colony. I usually buy my way out of early wars, and the shields won't save me if I can't anyway. Well, maybe restrict this to the "Beginner" level! I'd love a way to acquire some of the specialty artifacts later in the game, or better yet, instead be able to de-activate them and move them to another ship. I absolutely love to use "overload weapons w/o damage" or "2 shots per turn" or "xxxx weapons ace" on a singularity-age cruiser. Inevitably it seems that the ships I load with these artifacts are the first one destroyed, and foolishly (see below)! Arrgh! Jumping - Why does my best ship (with the artifact of course) always get jumped right into the arms of the enemy cruiser, who blows it away before it has a chance to power up? I guess this is part of the game - The jump technology is offset by the need to be vulnerable for a short time. It sure happens against me way more often than it happens to the AI. This is kind of like random special events just punishing good play/ ship design strategy. I often jump to an adjacent system (if one is available) and trans-warp to the attacked system, risking loss of the system but not my best ships. Crew Experience, not Ship Experience - Of course this makes more sense, but seems difficult to model in the game, so I realize why it is the way it is. Totally Medieval has a system wherein an experienced unit, decimated by battle, is reinforced with fresh recruits, it's experience drops as well, proportionately. Not sure how you'd deal with moving crews around. Ship Captain tactics - Do I have the most bone-headed captains in the galaxy or what? I'd like to be able to manually control just the ram, but not other weapons. I get into a lot of fleet battles in which I'm outnumbered but technologically superior (isn't this the theme of every sci-fi galactic adventure?) - I don't want my cruiser ramming a scout, only to be taken out by the next Adv Nuclear Standoff as it drifts along dead after the ram. Yeah, I know, if you use Armor, it is active even when the ship is dead. But armor sucks for other reasons - Guess that's part of the game. A request nonetheless. Being able to activate the cloak separately is great for these reasons - my captains will sit there getting repeatedly hammered while remaining uncloaked - what are they, Cardassians? Have the fleet number of the ship show up everywhere the name of the ship does (especially on the star map). Then I don't have to open a window or leave the star-map to see which ship is which. Sometimes I re-name all the ships with the fleet number in the name, but this is too tedious. Maybe right after the name, in parentheses, ie: Bismarck (3). Make "Protected/Domed/Underground" cities not take up a slot on a world. There already is dis-incentive to build them due to the cost. Also since I always know my most recent world will be attacked, there's no reason to build anything beyond Protected on my 1st 3 or 4 worlds (see next subject) If you insist on them taking up a slot, then have the slot taken in the build queue like anything else. Once I have 2 cities and 2 Rep Facilities on a colony, I am often loading lots of stuff to build with Protected Cities, so I have to manually count and leave 1 open slot. I've overcounted, and invariably it knocks out a Replicator Facility, then it takes forever to restore it and complete the world build. Make the Alien AI's more unpredictable. As I noted above, I always know that my most recent world/colony will be attacked, so I anticipate by keeping defenses high there, and as each new world comes online, I can de-activate defenses and replace with Deep Mining/Research facilities. Maybe have crazy, Saddam/Kim-type civ's who will attack anywhere. Keep the ability to move Wisdoms around! I agree the cheat method of stashing them on ships should be eliminated, but I still want to move them around as a strategy to fool enemy spies. Otherwise I seem to be robbed blind, even with 30-33% security on a world. And it seems AI worlds I "visit" (ha!) or federate with have far fewer security %'s, yet the chance of failure is still 12-15%, and I lose stuff easier than it is for me to rob stuff. Well, these are the PRACTICAL suggestions. I agree that larger ships would be nice, but then you'd have to design and create a new class or 2 of ships for each body type - maybe have a design contest!?!?!? I also earlier floated the idea of a "death star", which would be a very small (or smaller) planet that can only jump to attack other worlds, and would be able to create "killer beams" and "invincible shields". Wouldn't it be cool to load one of these with Fighters or Standoffs for an attack on a world? Or defend against one with lots of scouts? Am I insinuating I've seen a very basic galactic space adventure movie? OK, that's my $55-worth. As I noted in another post, this is by and large my favorite game!
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