Well done for a great alpha.



Got a LOT of thoughts as an old 4x player.



[Foodtech]

There are too many food techs, especially mid-to-end game techs. From the mid-game, these techs clutter up your build decision tree when they pop up after research. From the mid-game, you are not colonizing many systems and even if you were, you'd have a full population before you could build these techs.



[Tradetech]

I've played 10 games and I find all trade techs useless. Perhaps this is because the diplomacy model is not fully functional and nobody or at most one race will trade with me. I've never seen a system with all its trade routes used so all + 1 tech is useless. +% bonuses are useless for the same reason. The same applies to hero bonus abilities that affect trade.



[Carefulsweeping]

Seems mostly useless except in exceptional systems with plenty of moons. + 2 * moons * tax rate doesn't balance out with -4 in most systems.



[Techdevelopment]

Towards the end game, tech developes much too quickly. MOO2 had the same problem. There needs to be logarithmic progression on costs, not x1.5-2 per level because the technology researched accelerates tech research more quickly. Researching end game tech every 2 turns is too quick. Especially if



[Generaltechtreedevelopment]

I think the trees shouldn't be balanced out equally. Much of the development, i.e. production boosting technology should be moved lower tech levels while weapon technology should require massive research investment. This turns the end game into an expensive weapons race with the race with the technological advantage reaping the benefits.



[Diplomacy]

Can't seem to get anybody to like me, is this model finished?



[Spacemonsters]

Definitely need them to ambush fleets, attack planets, add randomness. Even a destroyer of worlds, that can jeopardise your carefully built empire through being almost impossible to kill



[Randomdiscoveries]

Adding random discoveries in space (not just systems) would be fantastic. Find a hibernating hero in an escape pod, pirate treasure, an ancient dreadnought, random technology, a special warphole, etc... Perhaps if you boost your detection range you discover a reward floating in space outside of a system.



[Spaceopera]

A narrative element to the game would do wonders, a la MOO2.



[UI]

Is fantastic but I'd like to be able to order moon surveys/terraforming/anomaly removal without going into the planet screen.



[Influenceconquestsuggestion]

I've got the feeling this is supposed to be implemented, a la MOO2 and Galciv. If you exert influence over a system, you take it over.



[Waypointsuggestion]

Planet produces ship, sends it to another system or point automatically.



[Techsuggestions]



1. Repulsor shield -> blocks enemy ships from moving through space, only down space lanes. Denies entry into an empire via a back door.



2. Blocker field -> forces enemy ships to enter into a system on a turn, allowing attack.



3. Hero home -> boosts your hero limit.





More comments and suggestions coming

I must say, excellent post. You found things I saw but I did not understand. I think too few games I played



[Foodtech]

In my games I avoided develop high level food techs. They are useless. Especially whem they are in left tree.



[Generaltechtreedevelopment]

true. Especially when You have some fully developed systems which do nothing only science.



[Spacemonsters]&[Randomdiscoveries]&[Spaceopera] are cool and suggested earlier. There is nice connection random discoveries and scan range.



[Waypointsuggestion]

+1!



[Techsuggestions]

1&2 good. 3 already is in game.

Some really good ideas here - I really like the idea of random discoveries and space monsters. Trade seems broken at the moment and diplomacy is a bit unbalanced since just being in close proximity to your neighbors guarantees they will hate you.

oriondust wrote:
Well done for a great alpha.

I also think that this game is very great for an alpha.

[Foodtech]

There are too many food techs, especially mid-to-end game techs. From the mid-game, these techs clutter up your build decision tree when they pop up after research. From the mid-game, you are not colonizing many systems and even if you were, you'd have a full population before you could build these techs.

I also think that there are to many food techs. There is more need of other Techs.

[Tradetech]

I've played 10 games and I find all trade techs useless. Perhaps this is because the diplomacy model is not fully functional and nobody or at most one race will trade with me. I've never seen a system with all its trade routes used so all + 1 tech is useless. +% bonuses are useless for the same reason. The same applies to hero bonus abilities that affect trade.

The trading seems to be useles at all. The lack of diplomacy makes it unable to etablish enough trade routs.

[Carefulsweeping]

Seems mostly useless except in exceptional systems with plenty of moons. + 2 * moons * tax rate doesn't balance out with -4 in most systems.

This is because of the as muliplyer working tax rate for the dust.

[Techdevelopment]

Towards the end game, tech developes much too quickly. MOO2 had the same problem. There needs to be logarithmic progression on costs, not x1.5-2 per level because the technology researched accelerates tech research more quickly. Researching end game tech every 2 turns is too quick. Especially if

This is a big problem i think. A logarithmic cost increase could be a solution.

[Generaltechtreedevelopment]

I think the trees shouldn't be balanced out equally. Much of the development, i.e. production boosting technology should be moved lower tech levels while weapon technology should require massive research investment. This turns the end game into an expensive weapons race with the race with the technological advantage reaping the benefits.

I think thate the balancing is queit good. But i think there should be connections betwene the trees. Like the shilding for flying throug worm holes has an shild tech from the

millitary a prerequisite. But increases the shilds too.

[Diplomacy]

Can't seem to get anybody to like me, is this model finished?

This is the biggest problem I think. The diplomancy makes it unable to play with trade rouds. Also to build up an allianz to attack an stronger opponent togehter is

not an option at the moment.

[Spacemonsters]

Definitely need them to ambush fleets, attack planets, add randomness. Even a destroyer of worlds, that can jeopardise your carefully built empire through being almost impossible to kill

I dont like this part. If we get some thing like this they should be optional or even extremly rare.

[Randomdiscoveries]

Adding random discoveries in space (not just systems) would be fantastic. Find a hibernating hero in an escape pod, pirate treasure, an ancient dreadnought, random technology, a special warphole, etc... Perhaps if you boost your detection range you discover a reward floating in space outside of a system.

This sounds very good. There are a lot of requests for more random events. But i love the idea of the floating in the space discovery with your extendet sensors.

[Spaceopera]

A narrative element to the game would do wonders, a la MOO2.

With the gates you can build there is an wonder wich leads to an wonder victory.

But I think what you mean is an wonder like in Civilization where thes are limited to one and give your empire an benefit of the coust of many ressources.

I like this part But i think that the in 4 parts splitet tech tree makes is difficult to bring wonders in this.

Because if you play with 4 and everyone preffers an different part of the tree. Their would be no competitors.

[UI]

Is fantastic but I'd like to be able to order moon surveys/terraforming/anomaly removal without going into the planet screen.

The UI is nice for an alpha but needs a lot of improvment. Look in the suggestion list there are a lot of requests like this.

[Influenceconquestsuggestion]

I've got the feeling this is supposed to be implemented, a la MOO2 and Galciv. If you exert influence over a system, you take it over.

But this should be only if it is an colonised system. Your influence can not colonise an planet. And i think its dificult to conqer an hole solar system

by influence.

[Waypointsuggestion]

Planet produces ship, sends it to another system or point automatically.

This would also need that the ships are automatical an fleet. Cause only fleets can move so far i understand.

[Techsuggestions]



1. Repulsor shield -> blocks enemy ships from moving through space, only down space lanes. Denies entry into an empire via a back door.



2. Blocker field -> forces enemy ships to enter into a system on a turn, allowing attack.



3. Hero home -> boosts your hero limit.

Requests for more techs are more than i can count. But the game will bring the abillity to mod it.

So i think we will get all techs we want sooner or later.

[Foodtech] Agree



[Tradetech] Somewhat agree



[Carefulsweeping] Completely agree



[Techdevelopment] Disagree, pacing seemed consistent and I'm still yet to finish a tech tree because there are already so many.



[Generaltechtreedevelopment] Disagree, they are fine as they are.



[Diplomacy] Not finished but has potential.



[Spacemonsters] Disagree, pirates are annoying enough that most people turn them off. We don't need a wandering Death Star.



[Randomdiscoveries] I like the idea of finding a her



[Spaceopera] Sure, a single player story would be nice.



[UI] Meh



[Influenceconquestsuggestion] An annoying feature in those games, so I would disagree.



[Waypointsuggestion] Sure



[Techsuggestions] Hero boost, sure; everything else is unnecessary.