Hey guys! Here is my take on the game after my 8h streak yesterday (and hope for another today ).



It looks great and with some nice music! I usually get tired of it but so far its still on, so kudos to the musician!



I'm usually addicted to complex/more in-depth games but I must say I am enjoying the simplicity of the game so far, mainly the space battles. It's nice the epic sense we get watching the ships go at each other. But it's lacking some freedom - like it was already said before in other posts, it sucks when we are stuck looking at engines when there is a war going on.



Below is some of my insight, suggestions and doubts (marked in red). If anyone can answer please do!



The Battle System

I like the card system, it's simple and somewhat elegant, it leaves us more time to enjoy the fight and it brings me back memories of playing Magic x).



Invasions

To put it nicelly, invasions like they are, are boring... I don't like leaving details to statistics. So I make a suggestion that I believe it wouldn't be too hard and it sticks with the simplicity of the game.



Make invasions with some battle cards, let the player choose some objectives - like take a military base out with bombardment or with soldiers, let the AI counter it. The invasion could be a simple 2D representation of the battle field. Enemy territories on one side, the invasion force on the other and we could have a simple land grab mini game that could take several turns.

Define an invasion plan with some objectives/targets:

- Military bases (bombard or capture - reduces resistance and capture boosts the invasion force)

- food supply (bombard or capture - and if you decide to capture you get food to give to the pop when the planet is yours so that they will be happier, either way the enemies wouldn't have food to hold for much longer)

- Energy…



I think the options Bombard and Capture should be enough, the first one is the easy and fast option that should have several penalties and the last should give the best benefits (but at a greater cost and risk) after the invasion is complete.

Simple targets and simple decisions are key.



Fleets and Ships

Bigger fleets would be nice, but maybe there is some tech that allows that and I haven't seen it yet.



I would like to suggest a ship design and module to the game - "The Carrier" and the "Carrier/Hangar" module - this ship would have a large capacity for the special module "Carrier/Hangar" and it would bring fighters and bombers to the battle with the ability to also carry an invasion force.



This should be the best suited ship to invade and it would allow the player to use straffing runs during invasions for instance.



And besides, fighters are cool so watch being blown up! (I'm thinking Galactica now!)



Blockades



I like the idea of blockading the economy but unless I'm missing something shouldn't we be able to stop "traffic" from passing throught a system? Maybe I missed something, but last night I was invading a system and the enemy ships kept on passing throught!



Pirates



Do the pirates have a base? Or do they spawn all over the place? I would like some pirate lair to exist, nice place to win xp!



Rest



Nice tech tree, a bit confusing at the beginning but I think I'm getting the hang of it now.



No problem with the economy, easy to understand apart from one thing: is the food produced in one planet shared in the system or it only affects the planet where it is produced? I ask because I had one Terran planet producing a HUGE amount of food and the pop increased really fast but all the other planets in the system are still very short on pop.



I have one last suggestion for the moment: Please be more explicit that the System Upgrades have a Dust cost per turn! I thought it was a pay once thing and all the sudden my Dust reserves start droping like crazy!



Thats it for now, keep on the good work!

Fleets passing through your fleets at a system is a known bug and will be fixed for the next build.

Food is shared between the planets in the same system, but not between systems.



I like the nice layout of your post by the way Very easy to read.

MT4K wrote:
Fleets passing through your fleets at a system is a known bug and will be fixed for the next build.

Nice! Thank you, it's annoying when we try to block the moves of the AI but the little colonizers keep getting by and spreading the evil of the other races!

MT4K wrote:
Food is shared between the planets in the same system, but not between systems.

Good, thats what I thought, but isn't food linked to pop growth? So if a system has a huge supply of food it should grow fast in all the planets? Maybe I'm mistaken about the pop growth and food link, but I got that impression from the Terran planet that had a huge supply and the pop increased to the max in like 10 turns. But the rest of the system is still a bit low.

MT4K wrote:
I like the nice layout of your post by the way Very easy to read.

Thank you, I like it organized.

Hi Kokonite,



nice thread, easy to read ^^



i join you on one thing, invasion... i think we need at least the possibility to build a space station..... customizable of course



and yeah, when i think about Sins of a solar empire, i think about carrier full of Fighters / Bombers... could be a fun ship to add and would add activity on the battle ( bomber would hit ships, fighter would hit bombers and missiles )





Neuneu





http://www.neuneu.fr

The more food you have does speed up growth indeed . Regarding other planets in the system: i've never paid much attention myself as it usually seems pretty quick still when focusing on food production. Plus it is only natural that sharing the food to grow other planets in the system would take a little longer than the planet where the food is mass produced so it does in a way make sense if they are a little slower :P.