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256

Suggestions / Re: Fleet control system suggestions and feedback.

« on: February 22, 2012, 12:02:03 AM »

Yes, I've read that post, and while I understand the reasoning, that does not mean I agree with it.
While the limitation is not infuriatingly egregious, it is still off-putting, and the logic behind it relies on the assumption that every player who will touch this game is of the archetypal min-maxer variety, which is blatantly invalid.

You can do well just giving a few general orders, but knowing that optimal play requires more micro than enjoyable is hardly ideal.

This restriction of the player based on the assumption he is going to throw out hundreds of commands to maximize combat efficiency is far too presumptuous for my taste; and I feel is insulting to the player, whether he may want to give intricate and detailed commands vulnerable to collapsing like a house of cards, or a few broad strokes and rely on the excellent AI as intended.

257

Suggestions / Re: Fleet control system suggestions and feedback.

« on: February 21, 2012, 10:53:57 PM »

I like all of the interface suggestions that Beagle has put forward, his points are quite lucid.

I only occasionally find myself fighting with the interface system, generally when the excellent AI starts doing something stupid, like bombers engaging in a bombing run flying straight through a lethal amount of fighters and frigates - Individual ship types and classes need to have behavioral modifiers before I will feel truly comfortable with the limits of the flotilla command system as currently implemented.

Behaviors like
  Harry: Used on a fleet(speedy) vessel, it stays around maximum projectile/energy weapon range and harries it, used for disruption of enemy formation (The harass command, as a behavior)
  Scout: Unit attempts to avoid maximum weapon range of enemy units, while maintaining line-of-sight
  Brawler: This behavior tells the unit to engage enemies at the minimum effective distance of its weapon systems, and to stick onto any targets until they are destroyed.
  Flanker: Unit has no preference for range of engagement, but will always attempt to circle an enemy between it and another unit with the flanking behavior.

Etc.

The command point limitation, incidentally, feels EXTREMELY arbitrary, and mostly serves as artificial difficulty for the player, and that's not cool game design.

Edit: Additionally, behaviors should have somewhat hidden parameters (you would need to go further down a menu into an option field, as this level of fine control would be unnecessary for the average player's enjoyment, and is there for those who enjoy the fidelity of command systems like GSB) whereby you can describe at what damage levels they should retreat, avoiding (or not) the majority of a vessel's firing arcs, the ranges at which it will attempt to hold itself from enemy combatants, and so on.

Edit2: THE BADS http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty

258

Suggestions / Time Compression

« on: February 21, 2012, 10:14:54 PM »

When you bring up the system map, you would right click a point and the game time would be accelerated several fold (10-20x), such that crossing the entire system should only take 10-15 seconds. Very long travel times slows down the flow of gameplay, and I've found this to be an elegant solution to getting around quickly, rather than instantly warping from point to point on a game map.

For a good implementation of this, see: NAEV

259

Suggestions / Weapon type suggestions

« on: February 21, 2012, 07:29:23 PM »

I'd like to preface my suggestions by saying this is a fantastic game, and I am absolutely loving the sprite ships rendered in a nice engine, it's like a modern version of Ares.

So, I'd like to see more weapon types available for the player to customize his ships and fleet with, and I'll start out with a few standard weapon tropes that I believe are missing.


Energy Missile/Torpedo: Provides a large range of variables that can be tweaked, but in general

• Damage dissipates with range traveled, effective ranges varying from extreme range bombardment to knife range area saturation
• Do not use ammo, or have very large ammo reserves
• Extremely long reload times

Examples of potential weapon roles include swarms of independently seeking anti-fighter/bomber plasma balls, long range anti-ship self-propagating fusion torpedo, area of effect persistent damage cloud of positrons, for anti-missile/fighter use.

Cloud Weapons: This is much more nebulous (pardon the pun), I'm thinking about a weapon which would be aimed at an area and used to inflict detrimental status effects on all ships fighting within the area, some examples would include electromagnetically conductive particles that play havoc with ship operation, possible status afflictions like increased flux production and decreased venting, reduced shield efficiency, or nebula esc effects, like reduced turning rate, max speed, acceleration. A cloud of diamond dust particles which reduces the range of energy/projectile weapons passing through it. A positron cloud which slowly eats away at everything unshielded inside the cloud (late game way to deny an area from pesky fighters, or pour on damage against a resistant foe).

Area of effect weapons that explode at the mouse's location: A staple weapon given to the player to provide them a large advantage over AI controlled ships.

Sub-munition missile weapons: Fire a missile to the side of a ship, it explosively pumps an X-Ray laser at the target. Similar to flak weapons, just in missile form, really.

I'd like to see others thoughts on what kind of weapons they'd like to see in the game as well.