Collabone wrote:
[Suggestion] Realistic solar systems/planets



a) lets say planets are from left to right in the order of distance from the star. it just doesnt seem very realistic to have the closest planet be arctic and the furthest a lava.

b) planet amount and types based on size and heat of star

c) multiple moons based on planet size

d) terraforming based on all the above (eg. you cant make a lava planet out of arctic on the outskirts of a red giant system.. an ocean maybe, but no lava)



note that im no astrophysicist, but this feels logical to me.

Added to summary list under General > Realistic representation

Filters for buildable Starsystem-Upgrades, for example a button to show only upgrades with an influence on industry

thethrillamilla wrote:
Please clarify ??









4b. If a scout is 2 movement points from the last star I have a path to, but has say, 12 total movement points, When I click end turn, it will move those two points to the planet and orbit, allowing no opportunity to send it along the next path to an adjacent star unless I see that I am close, and send it to the planet manually, and then move it to the next one. Otherwise, those 10 excess movement points are wasted.



A heads up that I will be wasting those extra 10 points after the end of turn moves have been executed (the 2 movement points), but prior to the completion of the turn would be appreciated. To prevent unnecessary notifications of fleets that I want to remain stationary, an opt out mode such as sentry or defend or sleep or whatever you would wish to call it, would be helpful as well.

Hmm... You need to debate this further.

thethrillamilla wrote:
I was looking more at an empire wide infrastructure, as opposed to each system needing to be a self sustaining empire in its own right. I would appreciate an industrial powerhouse system being able to churn the ships out quickly, without then also staffing them with my prized industrial minions. Instead, flying them to an agricultural system where the lost population would be recovered quickly in time for the next ship to arrive. It just seems that a system with 4 lava planets was made to build extremely well, and a system with 4 terran planets was made to populate extremely well. I guess I don't understand why both systems have to be able to do both things, i guess.

TBH your methodoligy in my mind is wrong as you are "running before you can walk", as system(s) need to sustain your empire not vice versa. The original system you started from seem to be struggling with your relentless empire build with new system you colonising and not allowing them time to develope. Having said that some systems take longer to develope than others.



When you colonise a system you are not prioritising the planets function whether it be for mass production of food, Industry and etc. Normally you set aside at least 2 planet for food production to attain sustained growth for the system. As the system population grows the turn to build ships reduces. What you need to aim for is that it take less than 2 turn to build a ship (eg Colony ship) in that system. Logic states more population more crew for ships and domination of your empire.

Collabone wrote:
[Suggestion] Realistic solar systems/planets



a) lets say planets are from left to right in the order of distance from the star. it just doesnt seem very realistic to have the closest planet be arctic and the furthest a lava.

b) planet amount and types based on size and heat of star

c) multiple moons based on planet size

d) terraforming based on all the above (eg. you cant make a lava planet out of arctic on the outskirts of a red giant system.. an ocean maybe, but no lava)



note that im no astrophysicist, but this feels logical to me.

So true. While early on in a system (proto-star) a planets temp has a large internal component due to mass coalescing, it is later due, mostly, to star proximity. As for moons due to planet mass size, mostly makes sense, but small planets can have multiple moons too. See: Mars, has two. Pluto has 3. Both smaller then Earth. Of course, gas/ice giants have buckets of em.

MrAgmoore wrote:
Empire Management:



Suggestion:

When I click on production, to quickly add improvements, I'd like a "line highlight", similar to Excel spreadsheets, so that I can keep track of where I am:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/796/productionhighlightbar.jpg

This should be easy to implement, since you have already coded this in the game, for military management:

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2831/militaryhighlightbar.jpg

Both have been added to the summary List under Interfaces > Tracker and Global Improvement Function

Suggestion: If an improvement has an infinite conversion rate ( ie. Industry -> Science ) adding a subsequent improvement to the queue will mean that the improvement never gets built ( oops ). Maybe the game should, either give a warning or automatically remove the infinite conversion from the queue?

This will be added on the summary List under General > Alert Notitications

Suggestion: You need to be able to juggle the queue, by moving improvements up or down ( similar to Master of Orion 2 ).

This has already been suggested as an improvment and is listed on the summary list under Interfaces > Re-arrange built ques

Suggestion: After researching a new improvement, I'd like an easy way to add the improvement to every queue in my empire.

Added to the summary list under Interfaces > Global Improvment Function

Fleet Management:

Question-Suggestion: Is there a way to see the fleet cap, without building a ship? I'd like to mouse over the military icon, to see the fleet cap ( similar to the way that you can see the hero cap, by mousing over the academy icon ):

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/7708/fleetcap.jpg

This has already been suggested as an improvment and is listed on the summary list under Interfaces > UI - Fleet Mouse Over

Customized races:

If and when you allow the player to customize our race traits, I'd like the option for my race traits to be randomly generated ( this increases the difficulty of the game and prevents min/maxing ).

This is still being debated

Suggestion for Endless Space 2:

1) Beef up the diplomacy AI by implementing spying, tech stealing, assassinations and framing ( similar to "Master of Orion 2" ).

2) In Master of Orion 2, during diplomatic interactions, each race had it's own theme music ( ie. "hyper-mechanical" for a cybernetic race, versus "wind chimes" for a pacifistic race ). You could tell how pissed off the race was ( attitude ) by the change in music, to a more aggressive form.

This has already been suggested as an improvment and is listed on the summary list under General > Diplomacy

Whatever else you do, please don't randomize the Tech Tree. Moat people like being able to plan ahead and randomized Tech trees can become pretty illogical or nonsensical at times.

Its hard to click on star systems from the galaxy map when ship are in orbit.



The ability to shuffle queues (drag drop)



When empires are destroyed remaining ships cause crashes.



when producing ships the ability to have auto rally points.



A better description what ship mods and research actually does.

kay2028 wrote:
Its hard to click on star systems from the galaxy map when ship are in orbit.



The ability to shuffle queues (drag drop)

Already suggested and listed on summary thread and now being tracked by Dev Team

When empires are destroyed remaining ships cause crashes.

This will added to the summary thread on the next update

when producing ships the ability to have auto rally points.

This has already been suggested and is summary list under Interface > Rally/Waypoints

A better description what ship mods and research actually does.

This will be added to summary list on next update

thethrillamilla wrote:


4b. If a scout is 2 movement points from the last star I have a path to, but has say, 12 total movement points, When I click end turn, it will move those two points to the planet and orbit, allowing no opportunity to send it along the next path to an adjacent star unless I see that I am close, and send it to the planet manually, and then move it to the next one. Otherwise, those 10 excess movement points are wasted.



A heads up that I will be wasting those extra 10 points after the end of turn moves have been executed (the 2 movement points), but prior to the completion of the turn would be appreciated. To prevent unnecessary notifications of fleets that I want to remain stationary, an opt out mode such as sentry or defend or sleep or whatever you would wish to call it, would be helpful as well.

jetkar wrote:
Hmm... You need to debate this further.

Sentry or fortification mode is covered under "next fleet button", post #128 in this thread, now in the summary.



I agree with the problem of notification for the wasted movement. It lines up nicely with "next fleet" if done correctly. What is needed is to have a separate button which says "perform all queued moves". Today that is bound into the "end turn" action. With a separate button, you could perform all the queued moves and then look at the fleet list to see which fleets can still move.

I searched the thread and did not find any particular Idea that really hit on what I thought would be good for research in the gui. One person said he didn't want forced research and another stated that he might want the turn to not move forward without research in queue. I definitely believe that we shouldn't force people to research if they don't want to, but on the other hand I get very irritated when I forget to queue research. Even when I queue multiple projects eventually they all complete and I don't realize that no research projects are being done. here are some suggestions that can resolve this:



-Audible Warning perhaps saying 1. "Research Project Completed" 2. "No More Research Projects in Queue"

-Blinking research Icon to denote that no projects are queued.

-Give research its own "widget" separate of the other "sections". Make it about 2x larger than the other buttons with an icon representing what project is being worked on, the name of the project, a progress bar, how many turns are left, and perhaps even small icons representing the unlocks that will be attached to said research. You could even attach it to the main gui in the top left but move it to the end of the bar on the right side so it has room.

Collabone wrote:
[Suggestion] Realistic solar systems/planets



a) lets say planets are from left to right in the order of distance from the star. it just doesnt seem very realistic to have the closest planet be arctic and the furthest a lava.

b) planet amount and types based on size and heat of star

c) multiple moons based on planet size

d) terraforming based on all the above (eg. you cant make a lava planet out of arctic on the outskirts of a red giant system.. an ocean maybe, but no lava)



note that im no astrophysicist, but this feels logical to me.

(There are many other threads like this, please don't take this as me picking on you, this is just the post that got me to reply.



There's all sorts of "Realistic" systems ideas - I'd like to point out that the back story includes countless milenia of manipulation by beings capable of creating, molecularly rearranging, and atomically disassembling STARS -- the reality that is Endless Space is SIGNIFICANTLY different from our own. For one thing, an ever-present all-enveloping cloud of nanites that could be running Endless only know what programs quite literally alter the laws of physics, as they permit and cause feats not normally observed in our own nanite starved experience.



So why not an Ice Giant a few Km from it's sun? If ananites and long forgotten Endless tec keep it freeaing (maybe some endless wanted to go snow skieing AND get a tan - why not?)



Also, the system view implies a certain simplification - it only represents at most 6 planets - our own system has more than the max -- it is fair to assume then that there are any n8umber of completely un-colonizable worlds intermixed with those displayed, which are simply being ignored for convenience's sake - that Ice giant may be a half dozen or more AU from the actual star, even if it's the first planet in the system - and that volcanis moon at the end may be active as a result of any number of tidal forces created by the other planets in the system, moons, orbitting micro-singularities - or just Endless war scarring...



I could create the system you feel is unrealistic with terraforming tec myself once the game is suffeciently advanced - and anything we can do as players, the Endless did for centuries before we even came along...



So, I'd like to suggest that the random systems be allowed to continue being less than totally astronomically accureate. (Again, not as an attack on any one else's ideas - just as a counter suggestion because I like the variable nature of the Endless Space universe)

Clarification of earlier suggestion - All projects available form the system view:

One of the things I dislike about the current UI is the need to go down to the planetary view, then back up to system view, then back down to planetary, then back up, etc to queue up all the projects for the system. I'd like to point out that the basic unit of an Endless Space empire is the System (NOT the planet), all resources are gathered and applied on a system level, the System as a whole works on one planetarey project, then on the projects of a different planet - the planets don't each work on their own projects simultaneously. The UI needs to better reflect this reality, so I pasted together a little concept (read not production quality) screen to demonstrate my vission. Also, the planetary queue in the lower left - with purple circle and arrows - should also appear in the empire screen when you click on a system's production queue (which also bugs me, I can queue system projects from the empire screen, but not planetary - please provide an interface for this - thanks).







wow - really shrunk that sucker - let me know if anyone wants the original.

Basically all planetary options (like colonizing a planet in a system with at least one planet already colonized, or (re)assigning an Exploitation, Moon Surveys, Anomoly clean-up, etc) are visible on each planet. Also, in this case, the text below the planets become completely unnecessary because the graphical components convey all pertinent information and can be removed making the planetary images larger on the screen and giving more room for the graphical components (Tooltip rollovers on the graphics would give text explinations of the item being considered). I placed the graphics directly on the planets, but they could easily replace the text below reach planet instead.



Alternatively, turning the individual name bands (right below the FIDS for each planet - ie the Muggen IV name band right above the forth planet in the Muggen System) could EASILY become a "drop down panel" with a planetary projects list - like the system production queue panel and the others, that allow quick construction of planetary projects may be a better option.

(Idealy each planet's drop down would remember their last state so players can close them once they aren't needed any more. Hopefully with the ability to change to the opened state when some new item becomes available in it's list - alerting the player to the presense of new options.)



My main point is made in the first paragraph - the economy relolves around the system, not the planet. So the system needs to become the fundamental production screen.



(This sounds similar to the suggestion in the "Planetary Effects" section of the Dev Tracking forum, but I think that suggestion meant the asthetic appearance of the planet, whereas I'm referring to actual UI elements)

Moving battleship and drednoughts (and there equivalents) up the tech tree takeing more turns to get them, and adding 2 more ship types to fill in the gap.



1. Battle cruiser- a cruiser sized ship (or slightly larger but not the size of a battleship) have the weight allowence to scale with the ship. but have a module reduction on invasion modules. but other than that all other modules and needs for resources to build them remains the same. in a nut shell make a invasion ship class.



2. Carrier- A ship class thats between Battle Cruiser and battle ship ( has the weight restrictions of a battleship) how ever it will have 2 new modules.



A. Fighter Module- launches 2 manned fighters they have 3 level 3 projectile guns. would attack ships unless other fighters or fighter bombers present, would prioritize which one based on how many there are of each, going after the larger number.



B. Fighter bomber Module- launches 2 manned fighter bombers they have 1 level 3 projectile gun, and 2 level 3 missile launchers. will always go after ships, will not go after fighters or fighter bombers.



Would put a cap on how many fighter/ fighter bomber modules can be put on them i would say 3 in any combination. also allow flak cannons to fire on them as well as missiles.

this is only a small aesthetic suggestion but would making the weapons of the different race unique in some way for example colour

another thing is that the naming for the ships class could be made longer as the letter count for naming is small at the moment

thanks

moved to /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11406-discussion-simultaneous-movement-design-flaw - didn't realize there was a whole thread dedicated to this already. I second the enemourity of the problems being addressed there.

antemalagon wrote:
I searched the thread and did not find any particular Idea that really hit on what I thought would be good for research in the gui. One person said he didn't want forced research and another stated that he might want the turn to not move forward without research in queue. I definitely believe that we shouldn't force people to research if they don't want to, but on the other hand I get very irritated when I forget to queue research. Even when I queue multiple projects eventually they all complete and I don't realize that no research projects are being done. here are some suggestions that can resolve this:



-Audible Warning perhaps saying 1. "Research Project Completed" 2. "No More Research Projects in Queue"

-Blinking research Icon to denote that no projects are queued.

-Give research its own "widget" separate of the other "sections". Make it about 2x larger than the other buttons with an icon representing what project is being worked on, the name of the project, a progress bar, how many turns are left, and perhaps even small icons representing the unlocks that will be attached to said research. You could even attach it to the main gui in the top left but move it to the end of the bar on the right side so it has room.

This has already been suggested and is on the summary thread under General > Idle Job Notification

Jimify wrote:
this is only a small aesthetic suggestion but would making the weapons of the different race unique in some way for example colour

another thing is that the naming for the ships class could be made longer as the letter count for naming is small at the moment

thanks

I'm pretty sure I saw the longer names things mentioned before, but I second the idea of tinting the attacks - though I'd recommend by Faction Color, rather than race.

Tonaga wrote:
Moving battleship and drednoughts (and there equivalents) up the tech tree takeing more turns to get them, and adding 2 more ship types to fill in the gap.



1. Battle cruiser- a cruiser sized ship (or slightly larger but not the size of a battleship) have the weight allowence to scale with the ship. but have a module reduction on invasion modules. but other than that all other modules and needs for resources to build them remains the same. in a nut shell make a invasion ship class.



2. Carrier- A ship class thats between Battle Cruiser and battle ship ( has the weight restrictions of a battleship) how ever it will have 2 new modules.



A. Fighter Module- launches 2 manned fighters they have 3 level 3 projectile guns. would attack ships unless other fighters or fighter bombers present, would prioritize which one based on how many there are of each, going after the larger number.



B. Fighter bomber Module- launches 2 manned fighter bombers they have 1 level 3 projectile gun, and 2 level 3 missile launchers. will always go after ships, will not go after fighters or fighter bombers.



Would put a cap on how many fighter/ fighter bomber modules can be put on them i would say 3 in any combination. also allow flak cannons to fire on them as well as missiles.

This has been suggested and is on the summary thread under Mods/Tech > More Ship models, Customiseable Ship models, Larger Ship Classes & Fighter/Bomber Squadrons

Gameplay:



More dynamic Academy Capacity - make the academy capacity for heros scale with the number of systems (or overall population) an empire owns - this would be in addition to the base value provided be tecs.

With the exception of the horatios (with their hero cloning which may need some other balancing mechanic, like only becoming a choice to either clone an existing hero, or allow a new one each time a new hero becomes available), balance would still be preserved by the time it takes new heros to arrive, but enemorous empires should have more heros than small empires imo - and 3-7? heroes for an empire of 20-60+ systems and likely several fleets is a little sparse...



(Though this would mandate a revamp of the current hero designs) Seperating the Academy into Colony Leaders and Fleet Leaders with numbers taken from colony count and tec tree respectively may be something to consider - but I don't think this would provide significant benefit in terms of either balance or asthetics. If an empire wants all of it's considerable hero pool guiding fleets, then that should be fine.



Perhaps an alternate method of growth for the academy would be that as heros level they make room for more lower level heroes (Creating a pyramid scheme-like hierechy of heroes), but this solution would be less enjoyable as managing hero levelling became more of a chore, so it's the less encouraged path.



Edit: Light bulb moment: A Hero ability ("Take on Apprentice") that became available at a moderate to high hero level that increased the Academy capacity by one may be another good way to do this (with the apprentice eventually becoming high enough level to become the "master" and take on another apprentice - ad infinitum) -- The heratio ability puts some kinks in this plan as well though.