Just bought this game, and it's amazing. Thought I'd drop by and share my feedback with the devs, as I'd like to see this game grow and continue because I love it!



This is an ongoing list.

As I am adding more things as a reply to this thread, I will also add them to this first post in the thread (to keep them all in one place if the developers want them).



Hero Ability Tree Chart

- Resolution looks out of place (very low res). Also, there is no tooltip or help on this screen. Would be better if, when you clicked on a hero class, the hero portrait and stats window shuffled over to the side and the chart appeared next to that window. Almost like the tech tree.



Influence

- Firstly there appears to be a bug where enemy fleets like to go through your influence without you being able to go into theirs.

- Have influence do more than just "establish borders".

- Influence should allow you to do things like exclude fleets from your influence (as I said, currently had half a dozen fleets just cruising through my space when they shouldn't) by specifically kicking them out - having them retrace their steps with no stops, and then if they stop while still in your borders because you have expanded, they take the fastest route out from there.

- Perhaps have influence multiply your invasion threshold if yours extends over an enemy system you want to invade. Case in point: I have three systems of my enemy inside my influence, they had no influence whatsoever (because I overwhelmed their influence with my own). No bonus? Perhaps there should be a way of paying to acquire that system with a dust cost or diplomatic trade? Or maybe just have an auto-blockade if a planet is in your influence?

Personally, I don't want it to be the almighty roadblock, or free-system-giver-awayerer, just a mechanic to use instead of, or in tandem with, an invasion when you've cornered a couple of systems.



Here is a possible way to use Influence in taking over systems:

• If you have a superior invasion force, AND
• The enemy system is within your Influence, THEN
• ... you may take it without a fight, IF
• assuming current diplomatic status is followed (i.e. you're not in an alliance, etc)
  
  

-and-

• If you DO NOT have a superior invasion force, BUT
• The enemy system is within your Influence, THEN
• ... you may take it without a fight, IF
• assuming current diplomatic status is followed AND
• you pay a Dust cost equal* to the defence of the system (*multiplied by any modifiers the devs wish to impose for distance, fleets in orbit, specific system improvements, population, tech advances, etc)
  
  

System Screen

- If I have to page through a bunch of systems using the arrows, the 'tilt' was quite disconcerting. It's good to have the planet you mouse over pop out like it does, but although the tilt shows off the 3D aspect, I'd at least like a toggle to turn it off.

Better yet, you also need a larger target closer to the menu system to page through systems. The current buttons are quite small and because they are 'all the way over there' the system automatically 'tilts' that way when you go to the next system.

The tilt is lovely, except when you're using the buttons to navigate sequentially. --- edited 31st December 2013



Battle cards

- They are completely unclear to me still, and I won a game using them by almost just only clicking the same three every time, mostly because I had no idea what the others could do. The cards show positives and negatives, and then a block value, but none of it self-explains in any detail. Perhaps each card should have Fleet Defensive Bonus and Fleet Attacking Bonus for yourself, and also state Enemy Positive Effect and Enemy Negative Effect to clearly explain what things actually do. Colour coding is also a good idea here. The shorthand used on the card is not adequate for anyone not familiar with the game, so perhaps the cards could have:

• the name (bigger than it is, too please),
• the dust cost (also needs to be a little more clear, I blew through more dust than the Beverly Hills jet set in a few hasty turns because I didn't see where I was spending it)
• the descriptive text, and;
• the card it counters
  
  

and then there would be a separate part of the screen which clearly shows the aforementioned FDB, FAB, EPE and ENE granted by the card, with clear explanations of how they apply.



System Build Queue and Available Improvements

- The build queue is too small to see and manipulate. It should be able to be expanded to, for example, show ten items. Having a long queue and then dragging item #14 all the way to item #1 because that brand-new system improvement you just discovered is a pain - multiplying it by forty systems is a nightmare

- Expand the improvements window as well, and perhaps have the option to categorise them according to when they do (System defence, ship building, FIDS improvement, other).

- Should be able to grab an improvement and drag it over and insert it into the queue wherever you want.



Invasion

- Also something I have seen before somewhere, have an invasion battle. Cards, use of formations, use of terrain, effects of anomalies on some planets, etc. Doesn't have to be extremely in-depth, but there could be some control over:

• whether you risk collateral damage to improvements but preserve your own troops,
• whether you attempt to preserve a larger civilian population at the expense of your own troops (by fighting with less-than-lethal tactics),
• whether you sacrifice troops to establish a greater Control (by fighting longer to weed out resistance fighters and end up with higher casualties),
• whether you attempt to cull some of the population for a greater percentage of Control at the battle end (by cowing the population and preserving your troops), basically by being indiscriminate in your application of firepower.
  
  

etc...



I hope this helps. I have played this game for just on ten hours and it's wonderful - it's about time we saw something like this again since Master Of Orion destroyed my school years.

-McTaff





---Adding further points---



Enemy Ships Move During Your Turn

The enemy ships move after a few seconds into your turn. This is rather pointless, unless the whole 'simultaneous turns' thing is trying to be approached. If so, then everyone should have their turn THEN the moves be executed. I also noticed that when you are having your turn, and you shift one fleet in to replace one that's a bit damaged, the AI uses the opportunity to 'slip out' of the system immediately if you forget to set the new fleet to Blockade before you moved it - even if you're about to set it to Blockade right away. (I also swear once that the enemy still romped away even though I remembered.). It's a Turn Based Strategy game, please keep it that way. When the AI cheats a bit by moving in your turn, it kinda annoys me.



Enemy/Other Faction Ships Highlighted

I would also like an easier way to see enemy ships. Seriously, I was tooling along until I realised there were about half a dozen Pirate ships farting around behind my nice system defences. Then the little turds would move, and I couldn't see them very well against the background (yes they were within detection range).



Bug

Occasionally I lose the ability to click on planets. Haven't been able to replicate on demand, but it appears to be after playing for a while and expanding in the early game.



Empire Wide Improvement Queue/Review

When the option becomes available to Survey Moons, or Remove Anomalies, and things like that, the little button in your empire window should probably bring up a new window to ask how you want to approach it. For example, some of my systems are busy producing widgets for my war machine, while others could afford to put the moon at the top of the list. I'd like to be able to check each system in turn through a series of screens that have colonised planets with moons/anomalies that need addressing instead of having to go through ALL my systems if possible.

Furthermore, if you are sitting on a Wonder and you've got a fair bit of research to go before you get the required tech, perhaps a little notification that the tech has become available to go ahead and reap the rewards would be handy. -see further below labeled "Administrator Button" for further discussion-



Clearer Text On Help

Sometimes things (like the battle cards mentioned in the OP) aren't exactly clear what they are doing. Another example is a random event where there is some sort of plague. I recall having to really concentrate and say each line out loud just to figure out what on earth the effect was... (also, the three descriptions of them side-by-side instead of on separate pages would be handy).

Often, things just need to be colour coded and re-worded to clearly state if it's a positive or negative effect, and on whom it will apply.



Influence Bug

Yep, I just wanted to re-clarify Influence and it not working correctly: I have now observed TWO fleets from different factions that had peace treaties but no Open Borders policy go right through my Blockading fleet in my own Influence-generating star system - in the same turn.



-- adding more --



Need to have in-game tooltips on:

• What is Expansion Disapproval, how does it occur and and what rate?
• What is Overpopulation Disapproval, how does it occur and and what rate?
• What is Anti Aircraft and how does it work?
  
  

Need to be able to set a 'path' in your tech tree.

Clicking on a specific tech a few jumps ahead results in the computer just picking the path it wants. On converging paths, it may take the side you don't want (and in my experience, it almost always does). Being able to set the path one jump at a time would be a great help.

In light of this, it would also be good to be able to set a few techs individually as well, similar to a build queue. I might want to research one tech in one tree, set that target, then a line of three in another tree, add those to the queue, then back to the first tree and select one there, then pick four techs in a row on another tree and add them last. Being able to set this up well in advance would be far greater than having to constantly click to achieve the same result.



-- adding more --



Need to be able to set a 'path' for your ships when moving in the galactic map

- Good gracious. The pathfinding sent fleet after fleet into a blockaded system. I had two system side by side, and each of them connected to the AI's two planets (also) side by side, as if they were a trapezoidal shape. I was attacking one, and wanted to attack the other, yet the AI saw fit to send my ships from my system, through his system instead of my own, tying them up until I could get through the twenty-odd fleets he had sitting in that contested system. Frustrating to say the least.

- Also noticed a few other pathfinding anomalies when you have an extremely high movement, as the pathfinding will avoid wormholes. Perhaps a tech to reduce their movement cost through them from end-to-end once you achieve a certain tier (note "but only from one end to the other" - i.e. not to other wormholes)



Auto-scrap and Auto-upgrade ship building designs are permanently on?

Never had the option checked. It did it anyway. Not so much of a bother, but it raises two questions...

1) Does the option itself work or is the code busted?

2) Shouldn't this be an option from within the Empire menu anyway? No good having it as a game option unless it purely sets the default for your in-Empire-menu setting which you can easily see and address when you see fit.



What are Rally points?

See an option for them, but no reference to them.



A button to press and hold to 'see' a system that is affected by something

Tired of having to close a window, go find a system to check to see if it is some backwater star in the middle of nowhere, or a system close by to potential enemies. A button you can hold down to flick to the galaxy view, with the system highlighted with a cool reticule, and then let it go to return to the previous screen. (Or click it, and right click to go back, whatever takes your fancy)



An "Administrator" button

An administrator (Chancellor, Vizier, whatever) that you click on that brings up a list of planets with the following conditions not met:

• Moons Unexplored
• Stellar Improvements / Wonders with conditions not met or unbuilt
• Anomalies currently not reduced
• Exploitations not set
• Systems with colonisable worlds.
• Improvements no longer giving benefits (with a reason why)
  
  

... and so on.

They could then be addressed individually in a streamlined fashion, one by one.



bug: Infinity door reflects the blue dots when your planet is moused over

Looks tacky. Really, really tacky.

Hero Ability Tree Chart

- Resolution looks out of place (very low res). Also, there is no tooltip or help on this screen. Would be better if, when you clicked on a hero class, the hero portrait and stats window shuffled over to the side and the chart appeared next to that window. Almost like the tech tree.

Having a hero tree similar to the tech' tree would be fantastic, and could work as offense, defense, labor, and wit could be the four branchs (though offense/defense would interweave a lot)!

- Have influence do more than just "establish borders".

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Influence

Battle cards

-snip-

Agree. Could also do for some reevaluation and balancing too while they're at it.

System Build Queue and Available Improvements

- The build queue is too small to see and manipulate. It should be able to be expanded to, for example, show ten items. Having a long queue and then dragging item #14 all the way to item #1 because that brand-new system improvement you just discovered is a pain - multiplying it by forty systems is a nightmare

There should be an option to make the build queue, improvements, etc full screen for when you need to input a lot of orders, and need to see how many ships you can build in one turn without spending a lot of time scrolling up and down.

- Expand the improvements window as well, and perhaps have the option to categorise them according to when they do (System defence, ship building, FIDS improvement, other).

Agreed.

- Should be able to grab an improvement and drag it over and insert it into the queue wherever you want.

You can add it to the queue and then drag it where you want, but, due to the small build queue screen (as you aforementioned) this can be extremely tedious. I do like the way it looks now, and (as I aforementioned) would rather be able to open a full screen window for it when I need, than make the UI less clean with a bulky build queue that I won't need a majority of the time.

Invasion

-snip-

Not sure I think the game needs all this, but I do want the 10 turn limit to be reevaluated. Troop Pods are extremely powerful because of this, and it gives Sheredyn a huge advantage when conquering systems due to the ease at which they give them.

I would love the ability to create battle card sequence pre-sets. I typically use a very small number of battle card sequences for the majority of battles in any given game. Could have a fixed number of pre-sets. They don't need to be saved for new games. Would like them to be saved for save games.



Thanks.

The enemy ships move after a few seconds into your turn. This is rather pointless, unless the whole 'simultaneous turns' thing is trying to be approached. If so, then everyone should have their turn THEN the moves be executed. I also noticed that when you are having your turn, and you shift one fleet in to replace one that's a bit damaged, the AI uses the opportunity to 'slip out' of the system immediately if you forget to set the new fleet to Blockade before you move it in. (I also swear once that the enemy still romped away even though I remembered.). It's a Turn Based Strategy game, please keep it that way. When the AI cheats a bit by moving in your turn, it kinda annoys me.



Occasionally I lose the ability to click on planets. Haven't been able to replicate on demand, but it appears to be after playing for a while and expanding in the early game.



When the option becomes available to Survey Moons, or Remove Anomalies, and things like that, the little button in your empire window should probably bring up a new window to ask how you want to approach it. For example, some of my systems are busy producing widgets for my war machine, while others could afford to put the moon at the top of the list. I'd like to be able to check each system in turn through a series of screens that have colonised planets with moons/anomalies that need addressing instead of having to go through ALL my systems if possible.

Furthermore, if you are sitting on a Wonder and you've got a fair bit of research to go before you get the required tech, perhaps a little notification that the tech has become available to go ahead and reap the rewards would be handy.

JIntegrity wrote:
Re: Influence effects

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Influence

Still doesn't explain exactly what Influence can do, or what a peaceful faction could do to use it as an advantage.

Personally, I don't want it to be the almighty roadblock, or free-system-giver-awayerer, just a mechanic to use instead of, or in tandem with, an invasion when you've cornered a couple of systems.



I think the better way to handle it is this:

• If you have a superior invasion force, AND
• The enemy system is within your Influence, THEN
• ... you may take it without a fight, IF
• assuming current diplomatic status is followed (i.e. you're not in an alliance, etc)
  
  

-and-

• If you DO NOT have a superior invasion force, BUT
• The enemy system is within your Influence, THEN
• ... you may take it without a fight, IF
• assuming current diplomatic status is followed AND
• you pay a Dust cost equal to the defence of the system (multiplied by any modifiers the devs wish to impose)
  
  

JIntegrity wrote:
You can add it to the queue and then drag it where you want, but, due to the small build queue screen (as you aforementioned) this can be extremely tedious. I do like the way it looks now, and (as I aforementioned) would rather be able to open a full screen window for it when I need, than make the UI less clean with a bulky build queue that I won't need a majority of the time.

What I mean is to grab it out of the "available improvements" window and into the "build queue", directly. Saves having to drag it up and down.

Influence Bug

Yep, I just wanted to re-clarify Influence and it not working correctly: I have now observed TWO fleets from different factions that had peace treaties but no Open Borders policy go right through my Blockading fleet in my own Influence-generating star system - in the same turn.



- added to OP.

Need to have in-game tooltips on:

What is Expansion Disapproval, how does it occur and and what rate?

What is Overpopulation Disapproval, how does it occur and and what rate?

What is Anti Aircraft and how does it work?



Need to be able to set a 'path' in your tech tree.

Clicking on a specific tech a few jumps ahead results in the computer just picking the path it wants. On converging paths, it may take the side you don't want (and in my experience, it almost always does). Being able to set the path one jump at a time would be a great help.

In light of this, it would also be good to be able to set a few techs individually as well, similar to a build queue. I might want to research one tech in one tree, set that target, then a line of three in another tree, add those to the queue, then back to the first tree and select one there, then pick four techs in a row on another tree and add them last. Being able to set this up well in advance would be far greater than having to constantly click to achieve the same result.



--- added to original post

Need to be able to set a 'path' for your ships when moving in the galactic map

- Good gracious. The pathfinding sent fleet after fleet into a blockaded system. I had two system side by side, and each of them connected to the AI's two planets (also) side by side, as if they were a trapezoidal shape. I was attacking one, and wanted to attack the other, yet the AI saw fit to send my ships from my system, through his system instead of my own, tying them up until I could get through the twenty-odd fleets he had sitting in that contested system. Frustrating to say the least.

- Also noticed a few other pathfinding anomalies when you have an extremely high movement, as the pathfinding will avoid wormholes. Perhaps a tech to reduce their movement cost through them from end-to-end once you achieve a certain tier (note "but only from one end to the other" - i.e. not to other wormholes)



Auto-scrap and Auto-upgrade ship building designs are permanently on?

Never had the option checked. It did it anyway. Not so much of a bother, but it raises two questions...

1) Does the option itself work or is the code busted?

2) Shouldn't this be an option from within the Empire menu anyway? No good having it as a game option unless it purely sets the default for your in-Empire-menu setting which you can easily see and address when you see fit.



What are Rally points?

See an option for them, but no reference to them.



A button to press and hold to 'see' a system that is affected by something

Tired of having to close a window, go find a system to check to see if it is some backwater star in the middle of nowhere, or a system close by to potential enemies. A button you can hold down to flick to the galaxy view, with the system highlighted with a cool reticule, and then let it go to return to the previous screen. (Or click it, and right click to go back, whatever takes your fancy)



An "Administrator" button

An administrator (Chancellor, Vizier, whatever) that you click on that brings up a list of planets with the following conditions not met:

• Moons Unexplored
• Stellar Improvements / Wonders with conditions not met or unbuilt
• Anomalies currently not reduced
• Exploitations not set
• Systems with colonisable worlds.
• Improvements no longer giving benefits (with a reason why)
  
  

... and so on.

They could then be addressed individually in a streamlined fashion, one by one.



bug: Infinity door reflects the blue dots when your planet is moused over

Looks tacky. Really, really tacky.



--- added to original post

System Screen

- If I have to page through a bunch of systems using the arrows, the 'tilt' was quite disconcerting. It's good to have the planet you mouse over pop out like it does, but although the tilt shows off the 3D aspect, I'd at least like a toggle to turn it off.

Better yet, you also need a larger target closer to the menu system to page through systems. The current buttons are quite small and because they are 'all the way over there' the system automatically 'tilts' that way when you go to the next system.

The tilt is lovely, except when you're using the buttons to navigate sequentially.



--- This is an edited version of the original "System screen" part of the first post. It has replaced the original text.