I find the combat too simplistic. My preferred option would be user controllable ships. That said, within keeping the current combat structure how about.



Two tiers of cards. Strategy and tactics.



One for the broad strategy e.g. divide and conqueror, flanking attack, full frontal,etc. Set this before you enter the battle.



Then use tactic cards available in each strategy, for each strategy there would be some similar options, some unique ones for each race and some for the particular strategy e.g. how. Set this at each phase e.g. long, middle, short

Reading all those whishes with features every good 4x game had in the past i really wonder why ES isnt still in BETA.

I made some notes as I played the first few weeks, due diligence suggests I share them to be dismissed or addressed as desired. If some have been addressed I apologize but I dint see them on the dead horse list, although I have to get to work so my viewing was not exhaustive. Also attached are some comments on the list you present at the beginnning of this thread.



Problems & Bugs:



[LIST=1]

Injured heroes don't appear to heal; even with sawbones they ought to be healing (albeit slowly). Likewise, 70k to heal a hero when your economy is running two levels of magnitude below that is silly.

When a hero is added to a fleet the MP total for the fleet is not immediately updated.

Too many announcements when a hero gets a point or two to spend.

Really need some cinematics for victories, we want to see a payoff, crushed enemies in surrender, home worlds being invaded, armies swearing allegiance, etc. There was a lot of catharsis involved in the various endings for another 4x game in the 90's (even though we knew them all by heart).

[/LIST]





Needs:



[LIST=1]

Option to prevent AIs from trading technology. There is little point in being a science power when all your enemies swap so much they still are more advanced than you, or you are forced to trade everything you develop to stay even. You can do this somewhat by playing against all Cravers (and maybe one other race) but it is lonely.

Need a method of issuing standing waypoint orders for systems producing ships.

Way to prioritize build orders for your systems (sort of a player-customized AI governor) .

A method for capture of enemy ships.

Methods for capture of enemy tech (espionage, salvaging captured ships, capturing enemy colonies).

The popup for completed builds gives a false sense of confidence you have all your systems actively building. Need an option that prevents you from changing turns until you at least assign them to make gold or science similar to the tech tree warning.

Something that will tell you how long a ship will take to get to a destination before you release the mouse and it starts moving (I may be missing this somewhere, I would think it would be there somewhere but if it is then it is not intuitive (or I am not intuitive, regardless of what Meyers-Briggs says).

[/LIST]





Suggestions:



[LIST=1]

Need something really creepy attacking sporadicaly from other dimensions or something, a scary thing the Endless themselves unleashed perhaps.

Need other events, random, to produce some story elements that differ from game to game.

A few unused race graphics that can be assigned to custom races. I usually added my own in other games.

Minimap of star location in Empire Mgt Screen (for determination on defensive improvements, influence, etc.).

Customizable AI's (similar to the way a new player species is made).

[/LIST]







My Take on things Most Wanted from the Dev Suggested List (prioritized but, egoist though I may be, I think they all take a back seat to the above):



[LIST=1]

Space stations to defend systems

Planet defenses that damages sieging fleets

Huge Ships

More different weapons types, more hybrids and new types (AND HYBRID DEFENSES THEN).

Razing planets / systems

Espionage and sabotage (also resulting in sabotage during the fleet battles). be able to trick the enemy with fake informations.

[/LIST]

ericbrooke wrote:
I find the combat too simplistic. My preferred option would be user controllable ships. That said, within keeping the current combat structure how about.

I guess this won't happen. The fleet control now is just fine, but could be improved for an expansionpack as suggested earlier from others (for example see my entry page 6 in this thread). Single management would be nothing else then disolving the combat-system to a classic RTS control -which would change the game in a direction it should not go and is as I understand it not in the interesst of the Dev-Team.

Reading all those whishes with features every good 4x game had in the past i really wonder why ES isnt still in BETA. - by ørret

Öhm...the game IS already past Beta...!?

My take



I made some notes as I played the first few weeks, [...] - by Snaz

This is not the section for Bug-Report or Needs. This section is for suggestions for the expansionpack only. Reports, bugs and some suggestions are already discussed in other threads or have even already been taken care of. perhaps I can help with some of them here:



Problems & Bugs: see /#/endless-space/forum/35-tech-support



Needs:

1. Sciencetrade can be a powerfull recource and usually helps both, advanced and less advanced factions. By trading some lesser reasearch you can even obtain higher reasearch without having to wait many turns. Trade of knwoledge is common in reality, too so why not?

2. Yes, that could be in the next expanion packs - even though I think there is already an option for that. Can't confirm it right now.

3. There should be some discussions already.

4. Second that.

5. Suggested and in progress.

6. That could annoy, because you don't build every round or on every planet (at least in end-game).

7. Second that.



Suggestions:

3. Already in progress. Will be able to fit in some own pictures.

4. ?



Hope I could help.



And could a moderator or admin please put my commentary on Snaz post into a foldable way like spoiler or something? I seem not to find any way myself. Thank you.

ørret wrote:
Reading all those whishes with features every good 4x game had in the past i really wonder why ES isnt still in BETA.

I think many peoples view on here is that it is still in Beta



And that is what bothers me the most - that the devs are refusing to continue the really good development before it was released. Since 'release day' development on the game has slowed considerably and then we get the expansion pack announced which was even more annoying for me personally. I had very high hopes for this game and now it looks like I will be shelving it in a few weeks as I make room on my hard drive for XCOM.



I love this game but I cant play it any more without something more to play. It's a real shame the devs cannot understand that. All for them continuing the money making and I would be ecstatic if they said they were going to release DLCs for espionage, events and diplomacy addons in 2 months time (they could easily do that). But this concentration on the battle orientated expansion pack that is a year away - just doesn't interest me.

nats wrote:
I think many peoples view on here is that it is still in Beta



And that is what bothers me the most - that the devs are refusing to continue the really good development before it was released. Since 'release day' development on the game has slowed considerably and then we get the expansion pack announced which was even more annoying for me personally. I had very high hopes for this game and now it looks like I will be shelving it in a few weeks as I make room on my hard drive for XCOM.



I love this game but I cant play it any more without something more to play. It's a real shame the devs cannot understand that. All for them continuing the money making and I would be ecstatic if they said they were going to release DLCs for espionage, events and diplomacy addons in 2 months time (they could easily do that). But this concentration on the battle orientated expansion pack that is a year away - just doesn't interest me.

Well perhaps this could interest you than: http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/content.php?165-Endless-Space-update-plan

So there will be some add-ons till the end of this year with some of the most wanted improvements.



And the "Not-even-Beta" Problem is about that on the offical Progress-Page, which states that the game is not in the Beta yet - but actually it means that the Add-Ons are not in the Beta-phase yet! It is confusing because you don't read anywhere that the new progress-bar is about the Addon.

I just leaved Diablo III to discover this fabulous game And this planned additions.... WoW This is proof that small company can do much better work than greedy, money-sucking huge corporation.. Keep up the good work Amplitude

Well, many ideas so far. Anything more to discus? Anything to focus on?

Assuming that the first page contains all the suggestions already made (I am not going to read a 12 page thread), I want to suggest that we get some way to "Build" ourselves a hero. Similar to the battle for middle earth 2 hero creator, you could go in and make a custom hero that would be available at the start of the game for an extra dust cost.



If this is not possible then at least allow us to pick a currently implemented hero type to always be in your first 3. I say this because I enjoy the Horiatio's Cloning ability but I often find myself restarting a game simply because I didn't get an admin hero at the start.

Hire pirates to apply anonymous pressure on others who are at cold-war/war/peace/alliance. This is a dirty way to achieve your goal even if it means either helping your enemy (i.e. enemy who is also at war with a peaceful nation that presents even larger future threat to you, etc) or attacking nations that are at cold-war or war with you but are far superior in military or economy so that they are constantly distracted from thinking about attacking you due to your organized guerilla attack across their systems (powerful nations are most likely large, and their military spread out thin, mostly near borders or systems of great values).



Here's how the mechanic works with balance to make it fair for all players:



Pay certain amount of dust to hire pirates of desired CP. The advantage of this is that they do not require industry cost and spawn instantaneously from any system you own. As well, although other players will be notified that some pirates are under an unknown player's control, they will not be able to tell who is controlling the pirates they are fighting (there will still be random pirates with no homage). To balance their instant spawn and the aforementioned advantages, they should cost quite a bit of dust. These pirates will be able to engage in all types of combats just like regular military ships. However, if the pirate ships are captured, the other player(s) will be able to find out who hired them, and there will be political consequences for your dare/betrayal.



You can play "self-destruct" card during battle if you feel the pirate ships you hired are about to be captured in the next battle phase. No, pirates don't know their ships are rigged with these explosives....

If you self-destruct hired sell-guns too often though, pirate community will notice this pattern, and will gear toward attacking your systems more often than others. So, don't hire more pirates if you foresee this happening.



As well, if the enemy fleet was commanded by a hero with high enough wits, the enemy will still be able to identify you as the pirate's employer. This requires that your pirates either got destroyed by enemy or your self-destruct card. If they retreated successfully, your anonymity will remain safe.



Pirates cannot be hired by nations at top 50% overall score (FIDS) because we will assume that pirates do not want to help super-power nations who will eventually try to wipe pirates out once they conquer the galaxy.

They gain more from helping weaker nations by getting paid, and constant military conflicts will continue to fuel their existence on turbulent political landscape.



Lastly, all systems should be upgradable with gangnam-style to improve overall approval level.

Hey guys, in respect to space stations and planetary defence: would they become part of the space battles? Say the system had a space station and it was equipped with missiles or lasers (assuming this is an extra step or upgrade from the vanilla space station) would it appear as a separate ship and be targeted the same way. If so then would it have to be rebuilt if destroyed: so in essence it would be a stationary ship?



Also on the same line would planetary/system defences, that could be researched in the planetary exploits section/general research respectively, also effect space battles. Say if there was a system wide research that constructed a cannon that used the sun's energy to fire a once per battle shot that would activate when commanded (either as an extra button or command card). Would this sort of thing be a new part of the space battle or would it be purely used during the siege battle (if this becomes a new feature)?

Hi. I've been playing this game for a while, but just joined the forums, so sorry I'm late to the discussion.



I like many of the ideas already posted and I think most of my big overhaul ideas (ground battles, more alien factions) have already been suggested. Still, there are a few minor things regarding storyline and realism I just wanted to reiterate



1. More realistic star systems & planets

a. removal of protostars. (Those things barely even have protplanetary disks in real life.)

b. Planets closer to star are more likely to be hotter types. (eg, 1st planet shouldn't be arctic if last planet is arid)

c. Gas giants shouldn't have "rich soil," Arid worlds shouldn't have "garden of eden," etc.



2. Faction-specific Heros: Personally, I dislike how the United Empire can have Craver Heros, especially before you even enccounter Cravers.



3. More information about the factions: What is daily life like for a Sophon? What is the nature of the Hissho government? It would be nice to know about the social and political structure of the alien factions.



4. Faction-Specific AI personalities: Going beyond the good/neutral/evil separation, there are things that bother me. Shouldn't cravers behave like a giant faction of pirates in AI? If you have a tech the sophons don't, shoudlnt' the sophons really try to get you to give it to them?



5. Improved diplomacy: Declaring war on another faction's friend should make the first faction angry. Likewise, a faction that is facing anihilation at the hands of another should be willing to give up anything to lead to it being spared.



And that's my wishlist. Isn't it nitpicky.

Hi, i do not read all massages in this thread, sorry for this.

My 2 cents:



1. You can use fighters/Bombers fleets as a new weapon class.

In detail: As a Weapon a carrier module with bombers squats and as a defense module a carrier module with fighters against the bomber squats.

You will have as factors for the carrier module: squat size, squat count, damage (to ships or fighters/bombers) and squat speed (like rockets). It could be also interesting in compound with new developments in techtree or help modules. For example an update for bomber squats with a guardian fighters who protect them from defending fighters. Or the ability that “great” shipweapons (energy and kinetic) can hit randomly this micro fleets.

The benefit could be more cinematic battles and an interesting new weapon with new options for fights.



2. I also like the idea from space station that could be equipped like spaceships.



3. Maybe a new influence system for diplomatic and espionage/ counter espionage?

In detail: A summary of empire factors (military, economy, empire dimension, population, researches…) and Heroes ability’s (the Adventure direction?). You generate that points like normal resources and can use it for special action in fights (or before), at the map (hiding fleets or something) and with your heroes (stealing development points, tray an rebellion, reduce the happiness in a system, sabotage improvement… or counter this actions) and to give you an bonus in diplomacy (better standing for yourself). I think it is more interesting by using a new Meta-resource as all-time dust.



Thank you and maybe its helpful.

I'd like to have more control over battles on a fleet basis, not ship controls. So things like fleet actions, manoeuvres etc.

SpaceVoyager wrote:
I'd like to have more control over battles on a fleet basis, not ship controls. So things like fleet actions, manoeuvres etc.

I would love to add this via the use of battle cards or possibly battle card modifiers, thus promoting the impact they have on battle.

Hello,



I don't know if these suggestions have already been done, but here are my 2 cents for ergonomy and strategic depth :



* A list of planets explored / owned with their caracteristics/types/anomalies etc. I mean when you explore huge galaxy maps it's really painful to look at each systems to find where you had explored a terran planet. Such a list who preserve us from thousands of "clics".

* The possibility to choose your kind of government.

* The possibility to choose "national ideas", like in Paradox's Europa Universalis III game. If you don't know what it is : each turn you produce culture, and when you reach x amount of culture you can unlock a national idea. These idea gives you bonus with different aspects of the game. They are working like a little "technology tree" but are really interessant to help you focus your empire on an kind of behavior.

Troodon wrote:




1. More realistic star systems & planets

a. removal of protostars. (Those things barely even have protplanetary disks in real life.)

b. Planets closer to star are more likely to be hotter types. (eg, 1st planet shouldn't be arctic if last planet is arid)

c. Gas giants shouldn't have "rich soil," Arid worlds shouldn't have "garden of eden," etc.

Although I agree with you that the stars and planet resources are not realistic, I think it's an integral part of the game. I think any changes that should be made will enrich the game but changes like this would more than likely diminish it. Don't worry I'm not attacking they are good points, just think of it in terms of a developer. If they are going to make changes to the way star systems are designed they'd want it to be bringing in new players and not sending existing players away.



Personally I'd like to see more stars and more planet types that are strange are fun. Like super giant blue stars, planets made of purely diamond (great for industry, science and dust), and why not black holes as the centre of a system (they produce hawking radiation for energy to grow food and could trigger fun space battle mechanics). That sort of thing could grab new players although very unrealistic.

Troodon wrote:


2. Faction-specific Heros: Personally, I dislike how the United Empire can have Craver Heros, especially before you even enccounter Cravers.

I think it's easier to think of them as free lancers wandering the universe, so in that respect they don't need to be apart of the united empire for them to be hired.

Igncom1 wrote:
I would love to add this via the use of battle cards or possibly battle card modifiers, thus promoting the impact they have on battle.

I second this. Something like, battle card editor where you could get the ships to go into formation and do what was originally on the battle card. It'd be like in star trek when they say something like gamma maneuver strike pattern Delta.

Those all sound like some brilliant suggestions, I have a few of my own. Let me list the simple ones first and then I will outline the more complicated ones that I have thought about. Note that some of the simple ones may have already been mentioned.



1. Carrier Class Ships for Fighters and Bombers.

2. 2 more classes beyond the current ship classes. Titans and Mobile Battle Stations.

3. A Multiplayer Lobby, with full features such as chat, ban players, etc.

4. Better defenses that actually make defending and turtling viable and formidable gaming strategies.

5. Better Heroes, in particular, more useful fleet heroes.

6. Cultural take over of star enemy or neutral star systems that fall into your races area of influence.

7. AI controlled Civilian ships and fleets. IE trade ships and trade fleets etc.

8. Space Stations.

9. Graphical representations of upgrades to planets.

10. Planetary construction, such as Ring Worlds and Dyson Spheres.

11. 1 step up from Terran Class Planets, Paradise Planets(Large pops, good % chance of beneficial Specials).

12. 1 step up from Paradise Class Planets, Gaia Class(Eden Class if you prefer.(HUGE populations and always with 1 or more beneficial specials.))

13. Larger Fleets.



That last one brings me to an idea I had. At the moment, the game runs so that the fleets are the single element. I thought it might be interesting to add a second element to fleets. A picket element. These ships can only be a maximum size and are there to help defend the main fleet. This can be with things such as flak batteries to shoot down missiles fired at the main fleet. They are there purely to shield and aid the main fleet as it attacks the enemys fleet.



These are just a few thoughts that I had about some things I would love to see in the game.

Entry 3: There was actually no space left in my first post, you can find here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11347-expansion-pack



Implementation of Space-Stations could be handled like this:



- Giving just Boni to a fleet and constantly damaging the enmy fleet during the battle, giving additional battlecards.

- Being part of the backround (like Asteroids and Planets), shooting every round at the enemy.

- Being an own unit on the battlefield so the enemy can attack the station as well. Depending on the station it could be easy to hard to destroy such a Orbital Station.

- The option to attack a station as a descision itself. You first have to attack the enmy fleet (station in the backround) and can after you destroyed it decide to attack the station itself, opening a new battle with 5 rounds and battletactics. Boarding the station should be an option then!



Additional Weapons:



- Laser/Kinetics: Lightspeed projectiles: This Amo can be shot over many kilometers/clicks, thus can attack stations and fleets without having to engage in long-range combat. Ships equipped with this weapon can stay in long range, instead of engaging in mid-range and melee, and dealing damage like kinetics in melee.

- Laser/Missile: Warp-Projectiles: This weapon is the horror of any fleet and station, since it can be shot over long distances with almost instant effect. Stations and Ships can shoot at stations and fleet in bordering systems. Since the weapon needs grate amount of energy, it can be shoot only once per turn, not usable in battles.

- Missile/Robotics: Nanite-missile: Nanites are small robots, not much bigger than atoms. They can disolve everything on a nano-scale. If a missile penetrates the Flak, they are able to destroy one defense-perk (random) per hit, not making damage but destroying the enemys defences.

- Laser/Missiles: Entrophy-Ray: Best shot at midrange, this weapon disolves every matter in a X-hundred kilometer radius. Shielding is the only way of defending it. It can be shot once per range-phase and is acting like a laser, exploding when touching matter. When touching a shield however, it explodes anyways, dealing damage to any ship without shielding inside the mentioned radius.



Additional Planets



Second Deamon-Storms idea.

Also:

-City-planets: Yes, like Coruscant from Star Wars. - 20 on approval and dropping food-production to almost 0. Boosting Industry, Dust and Science instead.

-Artificial Planet: This Planet is an artifact itself, build by an unknown species. Perhaps a peace of Art of the Endless, it contains synthetic earth, trees of stone, metallic waterfalls and engines and cables with electricity deep under the smooth earth.

- Upgrade/Terraform Asteroids to: Beehive-Colonies. The Asteroids are build together with tubes, stations and holed for more living room. Matter control and rotation gives a stable gravitation and influences the other small rocks to orbit it, without crashing.



For the other two entrys concerning primary battle and tactics, see the link above!