Non A.I. issues for upcoming patch

[Emperor Zodd]

Here are some non A.I. issues I would like to see addressed in the upcoming patch.

1) Crew Insurrection should be raised to a level 4 program and cost 250,000 pts. Also it should not be effective on ships with master computers and ships with higher experience.

2) An addition for extra large quadrants with 200 systems.

3) % chance of events should be 1%,2%,3% for low,mid,and high respectively. Stars don't blow up that often.

4) Small Troops should be standard to all races. Larger troops and weapons would still have to be researched. How many of us don't use troops because there is always something more important to research? Besides troops are low tech anyways.

5) Damage to kill population should be changed from 10 points to 20 points. This will make wiping out planets take a little longer.

6) Different damage points for different target types. An example would be a beam weapon would do say 50 pts damage to a ship,25 points to a planet,and 10 points to a fighter group.

7) New torpedo and missile weapon systems. These weapons will explode in a middle of a fighter group and send small projectiles in every direction. It would also be effective against planets and only do marginal damage against ships. The torpedo would be direct fire and medium range,the missile would be a longer range seeker and be about as fast as fighters are for the given tech level period.

8) All Anti-matter and Quantum torpedoes need to have a 30 weapon modifier to make it more accurate to make up for it not firing every round and it's size,and not being able to fire on fighters and sats. I exhaustively tested them against other weapon systems to reach the 30 weapon modifier value. There needs to be a small Quantum torpedo in it's tree.

9) Phased Polaron Beams are a little too strong but take longer to research. Lowering the damage they do SLIGHTLY, MAY be warranted. If they are reduced,Anti-matter and Quantum Torpedoes should then get only a 20% weapon modifier.

10) Shard cannons should fire every round.

11) Raising the output levels for Monoliths may be warranted.

12) If an engine can store 500 supplies and be an engine and be only 10 kt large why is a supply storage 20 kt in size? Maybe it should hold 1000 supplies or reduced in size to 10 kt. If you change the size to 10 kt the AI ship designs must be changed to utilize the added space that will be available.

13) Systems name list should have 255 names.

14) More variety of system types. 3-12 planet systems would be good. And for extra large maps,systems with 1-10 planets would be best.

15) Better sound files,especially for point defense cannons.

16) Solar Sails should only be able to be used when a ship runs out of fuel. They should be standard tech for all races at all tech levels. Each one in the tree should be larger in size than the one before.


I sent this list to Aaron,I hope he uses it in the next patch.


[This message has been edited by Emperor Zodd (edited 14 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Emperor Zodd (edited 14 January 2001).]

[Jubala]

You do know you can tweak almost all of this yourself?

[Emperor Zodd]

Yes, I did most of them already,but I want it to be in the patch officially.

[Barnacle Bill]

1) I can see making Master Computers immune to crew insurection, but what does experience have to do with loyalty? Historically, it is often the elite forces that have led the coups.

4) Don't forget troop weapons as well.

16) I think the intent of Solar Sails is "afterburner for ships", not "emergency propulsion". Better to leave it as it is but change the name & picture.

[Q]

1.) I think master computer can very well be corrupted by intelligence operations e.g. with a computer virus program. So I would not change that. I agree that the crew insurrection is at the moment to powerful, but if you increase it to level 4 intelligence operation there will be absolutely no defence against it at the moment because you only have counter intelligence level 3! I would prefer specific counter measures like a special loyalty component for ships and facility for planets. These components or facilities would greatly diminish the chance of a successful enemy take over of the ship or the planet by intelligence operations. The component or facility would however be expensive, so you would reasonably install it only on the most important ships and planets. Unfortunately I have not figured out, how to create this. I am not even sure that it can be done at the moment.

[SirDarwin]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Atrocities:
More Single Planet Neutral players. I would love to enter a system, and fine that at least one planet has life on it. Now expand that to say 20% of the game galaxy having one or more planets with neutrals on them. You can establish trade, peace packs, conqure them, or just leave them alone. Right now, the neutral players are few and far between, and in a galaxy with 250 systems, it would be nice to have a ton of neutral AI races. (ONE planet up to ONE system)

These are just some of the features I would love to see added to up coming patches. Thanks for your time.

---

Yes seeing more neutral little empires spread through out the galaxy would defenitly be cool, providing a variable in the settings file for the percentage of systems with life would be a nice touch.

[Barnacle Bill]

>I would prefer specific counter measures
>like a special loyalty component for ships
>and facility for planets.

The Political Officer component and Secret Police Station facility?

Seriously, there should also be a "Psychic Shield" component a la Traveller to counter the loyalty subverter weapon.

>a feature to the game that alows the TURNS
>to process automatically after a set amount
>of time in SINGLE PLAYER mode

Does this mean your turn would automatically end after some real-world time interval? I would HATE that! If you mean a time limit on turns generally, sometimes there is just a lot of micromanagement to do. For example, the turn you discover atmosphere converters you have to hit every domed planet in your empire to add it to the que, often having to scrap an existing facility to make room. If you mean the turn ends automatically after a certain period of no activity on my part, well with a wife & kid I often have to walk away without warning and can't get back for hours. I don't want to find the game has gone on without me when I get back!

>A feature that would display the type and
>amount of ships an enemy fleet has so that
>the player can determine if they WISH to
>engage the enemy.

You have this today, except for going through a warp point when you have no ships or colonies in the system on the other side (in which case you SHOULD be subject to a surprise). Stop one square short of the enemy fleet in question, then left on it. You will see the ships listed by name (for AI ships or human ships that have not been manually renamed, that will be class name & "hull number"). Right clicking on any one of them reveals its class (useful if it has been renamed), hull type (destoyer, etc...) and hull size in ktons. Actually, that works regardless of range as long as you have something in the same system that can "see" the contents of the system. If you have a ship with long range scanners that is within long-range scanner range of the enemy fleet, you get all sorts of additional details when you right click, like how much damage it has, the ability to look at its components to see what they are & which are damaged, etc... So, you can look before you leap.

>SCRAP ALL FACILITIES OF THIS TYPE feature

This already exists as well. Bring up the Colonies screen (left click on the icon of the white dome on a green base near the upper left corner of the screen). On the menu forming the right side of the Colony screen is a button labelled "Scrap Facil Types". You can scrap every example of a given facility empire-wide with this. It won't stop the AI Minister from building them again, though (I'd like a way to do that!).

>More Single Planet Neutral players

I second that motion. Similarly, I'd like there to be a bunch of "generic" _main.bmp files (the ones with the empire flags) so that planets could rebel and become independent. Rebel planets would keep all the same race & ship graphics as the race comprising the majority on the planet, but use one of these "spare" _main.bmp files.

>A way, if at all possible, to set the TECH
>level of EACH empire at the set up screen.
> So if you want a few AI players to be
>advanced tech, and you beginning tech, you
>can set the game up that way.

You could do this in SE3. You could independently set tech, number of starting planets and homeworld characteristics independently for each player, including a generic setting to apply to random AI players. I think this should be added back into SE4.

>Add a few things to the RANDOM events. Such
> as PIRATES

I was thinking about that same thing in some detail Last week. The random event would create a pirate fleet made up of troop transports loaded with troops and warships BC or smaller heavy on boarding parties (but not so heavy they can't shoot). Pirate ships would all have an small inherent repair capability (maybe one system per turn, affecting only the ship itself). Pirates would be built with the best "general" tech available to any player at the time the pirate fleet is generated (nothing that depends on racial traits, though). The pirates would have a natural stealth which would cloak them against the best sensors. It would hide them if going through minefields, satellites (except at planets), etc..., but not from ships or bases IN THE SAME SECTOR. The pirates would select a fleet or planet they can beat within the system they appear in and attack it, without regard for who owns it. Captured ships would be scrapped on the spot (pirates wouldn't need a shipyard). Planets would be invaded an pillaged (scrap all facilities & cargo), but would revert to the previous owner's control as soon as the pirates leave. The proceeds from all this would go into a special "account". When the pirate's account reaches two times the original cost of the pirate fleet, the pirates disband. Pirates will move to an adjacent system after each raid, and look for a new target (taking ships/fleets that appear as targets of opportunity while in transit). They would lay low in the same system (or select another target there) if exiting means engaging a superior fleet that is blocking the warp point, though. To catch them, you'd have to either lay an ambush with cloaked warships at a likely target(assuming the pirates lack the sensor tech to defeat your best cloak) or beat around the system where they Last struck (and adjacent ones) with fleets hoping to bumble into the sector they currently occupy. Or, wait until they get enough loot to disband. If a pirate ship is damaged such that its strategic movement capability falls below 3 and the pirates can't get all ships back to at least 3 in one turn of repair, the sluggards will be split off into another fleet that will try to catch up later after it is repaired.

[Jubala]

Bill, like your pirate idea.

I want a way in the construction window to apply the orders I just gave to one planet/space yard to all or some I select. Very tedious to fo into 20 base space yards and give them orders to build the same ship at emergency rate and repeat. Lots of clicks. I want to copy queues to other places. Somehow.

[Atrocities]

If at all possibable, could MM please add a feature to the game that alows the TURNS to process automatically after a set amount of time in SINGLE PLAYER mode. Let the player determine the time that they would like the turn to process at. I.E. 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc.

ORBITAL RESEARCH FACILITIES. Please consider designing a component that can be placed onto StarBase (2000kt weight) that would add a bonus to research within a system.

A feature that would display the type and amount of ships an enemy fleet has so that the player can determine if they WISH to engage the enemy. (In other words, when it says "Enemy ships in that sector. Do you wish to enter" Have a feature that allows the player to see how many and of what type of ship the enemy has in that sector so they can determine if its prudent to enter.)

I have not found this feature in the game, but if it exsisits, please forgive me.

I would like a SCRAP ALL FACILITIES OF THIS TYPE feature. So that when your research reaches a certain point, and you no longer need "X" building on your planets, you can scrap them all at the same time. (For example. When I max out on research, that is I have researched everything, I would like the ability to scrap ALL research facilities throught my empire on all of my planets at the sametime.)

The reverse would be, BUILD THIS FACILITY on every planet feature. In other words, you have a ton of non breathable atmospheres, and you want to start converting them one that your people can breath, you simply use this feature to mass build Atmospheric converts on all planets that you inhabit that are not your type. (Provided you have an open building space available)

Add a few things to the RANDOM events. Such as PIRATES, and ROUGE FACTIONS. Say you have a system that does not have any ships in it. To me, if I was a pirate or a rouge, that system would become ripe for the plucking.

A way, if at all possible, to set the TECH level of EACH empire at the set up screen. So if you want a few AI players to be advanced tech, and you beginning tech, you can set the game up that way.

More Single Planet Neutral players. I would love to enter a system, and fine that at least one planet has life on it. Now expand that to say 20% of the game galaxy having one or more planets with neutrals on them. You can establish trade, peace packs, conqure them, or just leave them alone. Right now, the neutral players are few and far between, and in a galaxy with 250 systems, it would be nice to have a ton of neutral AI races. (ONE planet up to ONE system)

These are just some of the features I would love to see added to up coming patches. Thanks for your time.

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"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 14 January 2001).]

[Kimball]

I would like to see "Starting Tech Levels" at game setup so that each human player can select their staring technology levels, like in SE III.