A small UI suggestion: can the Retrofit button be added to the fleet interface? If you see an obsolete fleet and want to update it, it will save at least 2 clicks (you just select ships and click on button, instead of going into the Military screen and doing the same process there). Maybe, this button can be created as "hidden" and only appear if any of the ships in the fleet can be retrofitted.

Currently we have pirates randomly spawning around the galaxy and being just an annoyance. Some people suggest SotSE system with some pirate capital. Yes it worked, but it always seemed strange to me.

So I suggest to keep the current system, but make few tweaks.

1. Make pirate 'heroes', with their stats and skills.

2. Let them rob trade routes (what the main pirate thing is supposed to be).

3. Make them smart enough to not attack 10 times stronger fleets.

And we are coming to the Letter of Marque.

If pirate agrees on that you get free scout, saboteur and -1 source of annoyance, while he gets place to fix his ships and get more of them [andaplacetoretirewithallthatdust].

In my opinion, just stating an general feature that I want isn't quite enough, because I feel that the way that they are executed is very important. That is why I try to explain not just the what, but also the why. For example, having planetary and solar-system defenses that replenish themselves after being constructed is to help with easing the burden of micromanagement, the stages for the card phases to assist with visualizing where phase cards belong, and so forth.

use continuous fire beam weapons, not "pew pew"

In system control screen, should be an opcion to choose the same productipn type for all systems.

I like to set all system to handle by balanced AI, and would be easier to select all system at once.

Ground combat/ planetary bombardment



I thought i'd pop this in here too...



There could be different severity ratings of planetary assault i.e. a general invasion/ occupation leaving much of the population and infrastructure to assimiliate into your empire. There could also be options to bombard or soften up the target to an extent from precision strikes to carpet bombing entire continents.



Perhaps the options could be like:



1) Hearts and minds - very precise invasion minimising civilian casualties and infrastructure damage - The slow way low diplomatic impact



2) Localised bombardment - Soften up large areas of resistance destroying some infrastructure and causing some civilian deaths - Avergae speed average diplomatic impact



3) Indescriminate attack - Deliberate attacks on infrastructure and population centres causing much damage to both - High speed - large diplomatic impact



4) Annihilate population - Massive orbital strikes levelling cities over the planet with extermination squads sent in to mop up - High speed - large diplomatic penalty, planet type changed to barren/ lava, massive infrastructure damage.



5) Destroy planet - Says it all really. Turn the planet into an asteriod belt - Huge diplomatic penalty, planet destroyed (late game tech for us genocidal types)

One other thing. Sometimes I receive a message, that I loose a ship in battle (usually colony ship), and I can not move/pull the message windows away (I can close) to see on the map where was the battle. Or on the message screen should be an opcio to go to event location.

My UI request, edge scrolling in galaxy and research screen.

Not sure if any one has commented on these as i have only briefly looked through the threads but here are a few things i think could help with immersion which i think would not be too much of a hassle to add in.



Trade traffic. - Add small ships moving between the systems to add a little life to the galaxy like for instance the trade fleets in the Total War games.



Planet attacking graphics. - For instance if you were to zoom up onto the systems that are under attack you would see explosions on the surface of the planets to show that you are actually invading them (and maybe some ships circling and firing on the planet if its not too hard to add)



Multiple ship icons on the galaxy map. - Instead of having one ship on the galaxy map representing all the fleets stacked in a system, have multiple ones surrounding the system to make the galaxy feel more populated so that you can admire the large fleets being assembled.

Those are my ideas i hope someone finds them interesting.

Neutron stars and planetary bombardment. (Just naming my own suggestions here )

Prioritise targets during ship battle's



Can I suggest that some form of target prioritisation is introduced so that we the player can get our fleets to focus fire on ship designs we deem more threatening, I say ship design as we all know that just because its bigger doesn't mean its better.



This could once and for all stop our mammoth ships deciding to go toe to toe with transports whilst getting their hulls finely sliced by the rest of the fleet.



http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?1576

I'd like to recommend a couple of UI additions:

1) I'd like a "Continue" button added to the Main Menu , that simply loaded the most recent save file, yeah - I CAN click load, then just click the top file, but it's just so much nicer to be able to just "Continue", also it should be a breeze to implement, so...



2) UI Scale option - The Control Banner across the top can get purty dang small at high resolutions (especially the Text above it), I'd like to recommend a "UI Scale" slider the could be used to simply "Zoom" the UI elements (Ability to scale tooltips would be nice too - for instance when I roll over the galaxy icon on the Control Bar, my score is about 4mm tal - and understandably pretty hard to squint at...

Edit: just noticed it's on the list here: /#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/14002-suggestions-and-wishes-that-we-are-tracking, but I didn't see it in the list above - also I STRONGLY second this idea!



3) Also, I would like a filterable list of all known planets, like the empire list, except with all the planets so far discovered (not just those you've colonized) - filter (like unowned planets only, enemy planets only, planets for empire , etc) and sort (like smallest to largest, nearest to most distant [fromhomeworld,possiblyotherpointsofreference,suchasaselectedfleet,etc], by type of planet, etc) options, and a few quick buttons like "send colony ship", or "send fleet " -- MoO3 did this really well - and I hate to reference that work here since it made me cry for soo many reasons that I sincerly hope you don't repeat, but the planet list was one of those things it did amazingly well.



4) Next ship/fleet and next ship/fleet with unspent movement quick-keys (basically the ability to tab through all you ships quickly while on the main galaxy view, so you can give them movement orders easily). The ability to ctrl+1-0 tag systems and fleets for quick selection/snap view to would also be super keen (single tap of 1 would select whatever object you previously assigned 1 to for instance, pressing 1 again, while the object is selected would further snap the galaxy view to said object)



5) Idle ship/fleet and Idle System counters added on the End Turn button would be nice too (like the turns remaining tag on the research element), and clicking on it would snap your view to the first of such ships/fleets or systems and select that ship/fleet.



6) coorilaries of 4 and 5 suggest the need for a "defend" order that can be issued to a ship/fleet to keeep it out of the idle lists even when it has movement (so you're not always having to tab through your defense forces or other fleets you WANT to stay stationary)



7) the ability to re-order queues (ie drag that new item you just discovered last turn up to the front of the queue so you don't have to rebuild the dang thing every time you have a breakthrough)

-EDIT: Just noticed this has been mentioned above by samboy29 -- see, he's not the only one!



8) Colonize button added to each colonizable planet in system view (saving a click into the planet screen and allowing all system projects to be started from the system view)



9) Ability to assign a planetary Exploitation from the System View - same reasons as #8 above.



10) Give moon exploration an interface from the system view as well



8*, 9*, 10*) Actually, just get rid of the planetary screen all together and move those elements into the System view and have them show up when a planet is clicked, then indicate which planet is selected. There's plenty of space for the planetary data on the system screen - save us the extra transition/click in/click out. Since all projects are placed in the system queue anyways, please make everything available for queueing from the system view.

EDIT: Working on a composite screenshot to illustrate what I mean - that'll be attached once I get all the element pieces I need to create it.



11) The ability to move UI elements would be nice (even if through an XML mod/settings file), I get whiplash on my big monitor looking from the end turn button up to the Control Banner, then back down to end turn, then back up... Would be much nicer if all the elements were closer together. If not user configurable, I'd like to suggest moving end turn directly below the Control Banner with the event notifications popping out to the right (parallel to and directly below the control banner) or down (along the left border of the screen) - keeping everything together is very important in my opinion



12) Shortcut keys - probably the F-keys (F1-F6) - to the different Control Banner items



13) Personal Pet Peeve -- Ship movement for queued ships needs to occur BEFORE the turn is ended (otherwise colonies gets created a turn later than they should, battles get missed, etc.) and players need to get a chance to respond to the movement before the turn actually ends. A two-stage End Turn button would be fine to me - first click moved any ships with outstanding flight plans to execute and movement left to do it, then a second click to actually end the turn (first click would end the turn if no ships had outstanding flight plans and remaining movement). A keypress or additional button for Move Queued Fleets (or advance selected fleet along its route, paired with idle tabbing above) would also be Quite acceptable to me.



14) Ok, so today I lost a battle because I was reading the tutorials while it was going - yeah - that's just not ok - really. Please ditch the time out for the Encounter Panel entirely (and possibly provide a "auto-resolve all remaining encounters button) - this is a STRATEGY game, and I don't like RUSHING my strategies. Also, the timer in the cinematic phase of the actual combat is fine, but it needs to start paused so initial orders can be given, and once both sides (or the player in single player mode) have decided their initial card choices, THEN start the timed cinematic - to make changes in response to the battle as it unfolds with a time limit is fine, but the "default" orders of engagement should not be rushed. (A simple "Ready"/"Engage"/"Start Battle" button in place of the first phase's timer would do the trick nicely.)



15) Coorilary to 14 - I'd like the ability to create and quickly select card "presets" (which are prepared outside of combat, and which can be quickly selected once the battle starts) that populate all remaining card choices based on the preset's settings. The ability to assign a "default" preset (that is iused to populate the initial card selections in any battle involving that fleet) to any given fleet would also greatly increase battle resolution speed. Please think on it - the timed battles thing is really killing my enjoyment of the game, which is leasurely in every other regard, then suddenly BAM! better click like a madman! (Even a small selection of say 5 preset buttons that can be assigned a name and card choices would be a HUGE improvement - there's no need for a dynamic list or nything in my opinion - and having the limitted number would likely be easier to implement -- please feel free to make an unlimited interface if you prefer though - I'd gladly welcome a dropdown or scrollable list box like interface as well!)



16) Navigate in the research screen with WASD (Or more acurately the same keys that move the galaxy map - assuming rebinding becomes possible) - clicking and dragging has on several occassions led me to accidentally click on a random tech and made me have to completely redo my research queue from the beginning - :-(



17) Rally Points (The ability to tell a system to automatically send ships it produces to a given system)

Made a list here - /#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/7506-list-of-interface-and-balance-issues

I saw your "Enriched Hero Options / More Heros" post, but I started a thread that deals with how recruiting heroes should work rather than what they should do.



Hero Recruitment System:

/#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13301-hero-recruitment-system

Suggested the ability to move fleets at multiply positions at once here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11610-ability-to-move-fleets-at-multiply-positions-at-once

I just remembered that I also started a thread that dealt with galaxy settings (specifically I want the option of mirrored galaxies and the option of choosing the number of constellations directly) and with the problem of random home systems.



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12054-mirrored-galaxies-and-good-home-systems-for-multiplayer



And thanks for including my thread and I will continue to develop ideas for the game in the future!

A few things for the audio department



Its been mentioned a few times before in a few other threads, but combat chatter amongst your ships would make a great addition and go well with the cinematics of the combat. It would also help represent the status of individual ships and how they're faring in the fight or if they're close to being destroyed.



I'd also like it if they implemented some voice overs for galactic events, like coming across an alien race for the first time or settling your first planet outside your home system, those different in-game events.



And something that isn't really needed but would be interesting to consider is having remixed tracks of some of the music/songs in the game at release, and being given the choice in the options menu to turn remixed music tracks on and off, or to customize which tracks you'd rather have play on loop in game or to mute certain tracks. Since as of right now there aren't actually any voice overs in the game, the audio is dominated almost solely by the background music, along with having clicking sound effects and the somewhat subtle sound effects heard in combat. Remixed versions of the menu music, combat music, and General UI music would add some variety and make subsequent playthroughs of the game seem less repetitive (since there aren't race specific music themes that play from what I've seen).

Some suggestions for the interfaces section:



Next unmoved fleet button



Select region for fleets and systems is tiny



Also, it may be worthwhile to integrate your list with nefloyd's, which is very well done but not sticky:



My Big Fat Greek Feedback Thread

Some things to add to the list:



Combat:



Targeting: I have noticed repeatedly that the AI will first target and destroy my capital ships while my ships focus on the smaller ships first. This would be better served if it were more random or better yet, give us the option to focus/direct fire prior to combat. Three combat options would probably be sufficient: Capital, Wide Field of Fire (shoot at everything), or Small ship focus. Also, splitting of the focus of fire on ships would be helpful as well... currently its a 1 to 1 ship to ship combat. And since you don't need 15 missiles shooting at a single target in most cases (see below), allowing ships with missile and beam/kinetic weapons mixes becomes more feasible. But there is no point to doing the hybrid weapon mixes if missiles and projectiles/beams all go for the same target.



Missiles: Fix for the phantom missile deaths of ships. Ships getting blasted before they launch their payload (or appear to launch, not sure of the actual game mechanic here) means I shouldn't watch part of my fleet get blown up suddenly while doing my victory lap.



Missiles: There doesn't seem to be a real way to diffuse missile frigates... You either have to go full out flak or it doesn't do any good. I've outfitted my ships with partial flak capabilities, watch them destroy half or more of the incoming missiles only to watch them die anyway. Missiles to me just seem to be overly powerful in a kamakazi kind of way. Doesn't matter if they die, they will always destroy any ship that doesn't have enough flak to diffuse 100% of the incoming missiles. I've only had a few dreadnought's survive a missile onslaught and they were heavily geared towards defence (lots of flak and armour) but even so, they still lost half their life from just a couple of missiles making it through. Basically this combined with the Phantom Missile syndrome means I can pump out scores of cheap missile frigates (destroyers), and not care if they get shot down or not. I can just fill the skies with them and rain missile death from beyond the grave at all those capital ships of my enemies (as most will not have 10x+ flak).



Missile Defence: That said... I thought I would be clever and outfit a bunch of Corvette class ships with FLAK to defend my larger capital ships... you know, like in the real world when carriers are escorted by cruiser's and destroyer's... Alas, FLAK only covers the ship that has them from missile attacks... they do nothing to support your other ships in fleet. Giving us another module to project cover from support ships would go a long way in the role of fleet mechanics and combat overall.



Wormholes: Instructing my fleets to go to a particular system sends them running through the starlanes burning up their movement points before deciding to actually enter the wormhole and go where I want them to. I need my fleets to move according to my instructions, not take a joyride through the galaxy.



Interdiction: It's been said, but I will repeat here... interdiction, interdiction, interdiction! Please give us the option or fix this if its a bug as I am tired of fleet after fleet flying past my fleets and deep into my controlled territory. Warp around me by not using starlanes, I am okay with that... but stop sailing past me without so much as me putting up a challenge to the incursion of my systems.



Movement: Last edit! Many times when its the AI's turn to move, it moves, then when you make your moves during your turn... the AI moves again! Many times I have gone after a fleet, only to arrive from a wormhole or at the end of my movement points to have them warp off as soon as I get there. If they AI has ended their turn, they have ended their turn... otherwise I should be able to action freely during the "gray phase" after I click the turn button.



Currently, after 48+ hours of gameplay I think I have hit a wall with what I am willing to put up with to continue testing/playing as the majority of things encountered in game appear to have been identified. At least until the post combat report phantom missile issue is fixed... that is one of the one bugs I find most frustrating, that and the lack of interdiction.



Cheers,



Draz

thanks for going to the trouble of making this thread