Second game questions and observations (Full Version)

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Puzzlemaker -> Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 9:08:04 AM)

So I had a thread around here containing some questions and observations my first time through a game. I just played a second one, and thought I would start a new thread for it.

First of all, ship construction.

Whoa.

So evidently you can put anything into anything else. I can dig that. Only question I have is what do the modules that are designed to go onto a spaceport DO when put onto a ship? What happens when you put a dock on a ship? I know a resupply has a dock, but can you stick a dock on a capital ship, and will ships dock to it? Can I have explorers equipped with a gas extractor in order to refuel on the go automatically? Arg, there are so many components and even though I know what they do, I don't know how they would react to being placed in strange places (Putting sensors on explorer ships? Awesome.)

Modifying an existing ship is a bit of a pain, too. You can hit the upgrade button to upgrade it, which is a nice time saver, but if you want to make a minor change (Like add more missle launchers or something) you have to copy an old design, make the tiny modification, save the new design, then go to the old design and set it to be obsolete.

It would be really nice if you could open an existing design, and it lets you change it. It just makes you save it under a different name. I thought I managed to do this once so maybe I am crazy, but really. Making a tiny change to an existing design should not be a painful experience.

Also, what's the best design? I ended up making a bunch of missle ships that are always set at standoff, so they run away while bombarding the enemy with missles. What kind of designs are good? I suppose this question sort of belongs in the other forum, but oh well.

Second of all, fleets and ship handling.

Arg, there are a few things that have been bothering me about this. First of all, in the ship list, if you select multiple ships and click select these ships, it doesn't select them. You have to make them a fleet and then select the fleet.

You also can't disband a fleet, which is annoying, or merge them. You also can't re-use old fleets; I personally like the idea of First Fleet protecting my capital, but unfortunately it tends to disappear, especially if you let the AI mess with fleets.

Also I have a question about what goes into a fleet when it's set on automatic. Is a fleet composed of the same percentages your ship amounts are? For example, if you have 40% frigates and 60% destroyers, will your fleet consist of the same percentages? If not, it would be cool to create fleet templates or something. Fleet type A contains X of blah, X of blah, etc. So you can make your custom fleets and the AI handles creating them.

Third of all, deep cover. It is overpowered. That is all.

Anyway, still enjoying this game very much! My compliments to the Devs.



Tacit_Exit -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 11:09:18 AM)

On the design functionality, you can edit a ship design as long as none have been built; as soon as you build one the design must remain unaltered.



caerr -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 2:49:26 PM)

Hey, nice to see you're enjoying the game. [:)]

quote:


I know a resupply has a dock, but can you stick a dock on a capital ship, and will ships dock to it?


Nope, because the only functionality of the docking bay is to move resources.
Edit: To clarify: you can put the docking component on any ship, but it won't be much use if the ship doesn't have any useful cargo.

quote:


Can I have explorers equipped with a gas extractor in order to refuel on the go automatically?


I'm not 100% sure on this one, but gas mining ships seem to be unable to refuel themselves. Also, the explorer AI won't automatically use the gas mining components at all.

quote:


Modifying an existing ship is a bit of a pain, too. You can hit the upgrade button to upgrade it, which is a nice time saver, but if you want to make a minor change (Like add more missle launchers or something) you have to copy an old design, make the tiny modification, save the new design, then go to the old design and set it to be obsolete.


You can save a bit of a headache by setting the ship obsolete first and then clicking the 'copy as new' button.

quote:


It would be really nice if you could open an existing design, and it lets you change it. It just makes you save it under a different name. I thought I managed to do this once so maybe I am crazy, but really. Making a tiny change to an existing design should not be a painful experience.


100% agree, the ship design UI could use some work.

quote:


Also, what's the best design? I ended up making a bunch of missle ships that are always set at standoff, so they run away while bombarding the enemy with missles. What kind of designs are good? I suppose this question sort of belongs in the other forum, but oh well.


Generally standoff weapons work well, as long as you have the longest range and the fastest ship. [;)]

quote:


You also can't disband a fleet, which is annoying, or merge them. You also can't re-use old fleets; I personally like the idea of First Fleet protecting my capital, but unfortunately it tends to disappear, especially if you let the AI mess with fleets.


Giving a fleet a patrol system order usually works for me, just remember to set the engagement setting to your liking. The fleet needs to be taken off automation but the ships do not.


I agree about the disband thing, in fact I suggested it in the wishlist thread some time ago. In the fleets screen there should be disband fleet button, which removes all the ships in the fleet and puts them on automation.

quote:


Third of all, deep cover. It is overpowered. That is all.


I also agree, this should be rebalanced. Currently you need around 4 rookie agents for one succesful deep cover mission. Perhaps the difficulty should be raised so that rookie agents have no chance of success, and you should actually risk one of your better agents for the mission.




unclean -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 6:44:14 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker
You also can't disband a fleet, which is annoying, or merge them.


You can merge and disband fleets in the Ships & Bases screen, and do some handy things like assign ships to fleets before they're even built.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker
You also can't re-use old fleets; I personally like the idea of First Fleet protecting my capital, but unfortunately it tends to disappear, especially if you let the AI mess with fleets.


Fleets screen! It lets you name them whatever horrible thing you want.



Puzzlemaker -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 11:44:25 PM)

So what happens when I put a trade center on a mining station?

Edit: Hell, what happens when I put research centers on mining stations? What happens when I put, well, anything into anything else that isn't meant to be there? Is there a list somewhere?



Setekh -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/2/2011 11:59:32 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker

So what happens when I put a trade center on a mining station?

Edit: Hell, what happens when I put research centers on mining stations? What happens when I put, well, anything into anything else that isn't meant to be there? Is there a list somewhere?


Mining stations should have trade components on anyway to allow for the purchase of raw materials by either your freighters or other empires commercial ships.


Slapping research stuff onto other bases doesn't matter, you'll get points for it but there are better ways to use them.



kenata -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/3/2011 5:05:54 AM)

It is possible to disband fleets. It's just kind of a pain in the ass to do. If you go into the ship screen and select all the ship from a particular fleet, you can set them to none, which effectively makes them disband the fleet.



caerr -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/3/2011 12:36:37 PM)

One click solution would be nice though. Also, since I tend to manually control individual ships in my fleets they lose their automation, so it would be useful if it would put them back on automation. That way I don't have to go to the ships screen and click on each of them individually.



hewwo -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/3/2011 7:46:13 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker


First of all, ship construction.

(...)

Second of all, fleets and ship handling.
(...)



I completely agree with all of these comments. Merging fleets is especially important as the fleet automation doesn't seem to reinforce existing fleets if they lose ships. In general the behaviour of fleets is a bit inconsistent. For instance, if I select a fleet via the fleet GUI element I can right-click to attack enemies, but when selecting all the ships in a fleet manually a right-click opens a menu letting me chose between moving towards the enemy or attacking it.



the1sean -> RE: Second game questions and observations (1/4/2011 1:01:24 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: caerr

quote:


Can I have explorers equipped with a gas extractor in order to refuel on the go automatically?


I'm not 100% sure on this one, but gas mining ships seem to be unable to refuel themselves. Also, the explorer AI won't automatically use the gas mining components at all.



This has been tested by myself and others before the expansion, and it didnt work at all, even if you try to do everything manually. Basically you can mine the gas but you cant refine it for fuel use, you can only sell it at space stations. Except you cant, because you arent private sector [:D]



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