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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: I am loving this game, but I thought I may as well suggest a few small things.  (Read 3322 times)

Zarcon

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Great game, and I'm really looking forward to the Campaign that Alex is working on currently.  But there are a few small things that would be nice to have at some point down the road.

I would really enjoy the option to play on MUCH larger maps, as sometimes faster ships can retreat from the battle in a matter of seconds, which seems a little strange to me.  I'd like them to have to take at least a little time to reach the end of the map prior to escaping so that there is a better chance of being able to intercept them in time. 

Additionally, I saw someone else already mention it, but I would enjoy Larger ships having a little more main gun ammo than is currently supplied, but then again maybe you already have that situation well in hand with hull mods to hold more ammo, so this could end up being a non issue.

The one and only real annoyance that I have experienced while playing has to do with the priority system in place in the A.I. when you use commands to have ships capture points on the map at the same time as having a command to do something else like harass an enemy ship.  I have seen a ship that is right on top of a capture point peal off to go harass another ship all the way across the map, and then the A.I. sends a ship that was near the harass target to go capture the point that was near my first ship.  It kinda made me pull my hair out, lol, because I ended up losing the capture point and the battle didn’t go well at all after that.  I wonder if there could be a system of priority with the commands, where we could put emphasis on which command was more vital than the other, just a thought.   :)

But aside from that sort of stuff, which I assume will be resolved over time, this has been one of the best games I have played in a LONG time.  :)  Keep up the great work sir!
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Alex

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Great game, and I'm really looking forward to the Campaign that Alex is working on currently.  But there are a few small things that would be nice to have at some point down the road.
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But aside from that sort of stuff, which I assume will be resolved over time, this has been one of the best games I have played in a LONG time.  :)  Keep up the great work sir!

Hi, thanks for dropping by! Happy you like the game.

I would really enjoy the option to play on MUCH larger maps, as sometimes faster ships can retreat from the battle in a matter of seconds, which seems a little strange to me.  I'd like them to have to take at least a little time to reach the end of the map prior to escaping so that there is a better chance of being able to intercept them in time. 

The map size has to be balanced for two things - enjoyable battles, and not taking too long for the actual fighting to start. The latter is more of a concern in the campaign - suppose you had to wait a minute or so just to engage some enemies you already know you'll steamroll. Besides, I don't think faster ships would get that much easier to catch - they're still faster, after all, so it'd mostly just take longer for the same outcome. Also, there's a post-battle capture chance for any retreated ships on the losing side, to simulate just such drawn-out chases.

On the other hand, larger battlefields is a perfectly valid thing to want to try - and you already can, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty with some modding. The mission definitions (under data/missions) are set up so that tweaking the map size is very easy - just seach for "width =" and "height =" in MissionDefinition.java for the mission in question, and change the values to whatever you want.


Additionally, I saw someone else already mention it, but I would enjoy Larger ships having a little more main gun ammo than is currently supplied, but then again maybe you already have that situation well in hand with hull mods to hold more ammo, so this could end up being a non issue.

Hmm. Right, hull mods should help. We also have somewhat nebulous plans for munitions ships for mid-battle rearming. Still, ammo either needs to be low enough to come into play *sometimes*, or it has no role at all.

The one and only real annoyance that I have experienced while playing has to do with the priority system in place in the A.I. when you use commands to have ships capture points on the map at the same time as having a command to do something else like harass an enemy ship.  I have seen a ship that is right on top of a capture point peal off to go harass another ship all the way across the map, and then the A.I. sends a ship that was near the harass target to go capture the point that was near my first ship.  It kinda made me pull my hair out, lol, because I ended up losing the capture point and the battle didn’t go well at all after that.  I wonder if there could be a system of priority with the commands, where we could put emphasis on which command was more vital than the other, just a thought.   :)

Fixed in the development version  :) Ships that get picked for capturing will weigh how close they are to the objectives much more than they do in the current release.
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Zarcon

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You make an excellent point on the ammo concept, interesting, I like the idea of resupply ships at some point in the future if that makes it in.  :)  The post-battle capture chance for any retreated ships on the losing side sounds like a nice feature for sure, keeps the action intense and avoids the tedious chase while still preserving the realism of a possible capture given enough time to chase, good times.

It is awesome to know that the only thing that really bothered me about the game was already fixed in the Development version before I even asked about it.  Great job Alex!  :)
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Alex

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It is awesome to know that the only thing that really bothered me about the game was already fixed in the Development version before I even asked about it.  Great job Alex!  :)

There was lots of great feedback on the new command system right after the release of the current version (the previous one had a totally different scheme), and this issue was one of the things that came up :)
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Thana

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It is awesome to know that the only thing that really bothered me about the game was already fixed in the Development version before I even asked about it.  Great job Alex!  :)

Have you read the developer blog for the game? It constantly impresses me with its clarity of vision and ability to weigh the relative merits of different design alternatives with each other. Even more than the alpha version I've gotten to play, the blog makes me confident that this game is going to absolutely rock when finished.
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