Hey there



So I tried the alpha, played 2 games on normal.

Liked it alot, and can't wait for the final thing.



Also, couldn't hold myself from giving you a piece of my mind

Wasn't sure in what forum to post this so excuse me if this is the wrong place.



As I see it the biggest problems currently are:



1) Technology trading, hate it. - the entire idea in technology is to have to make a decision what you need right now the most. yet technology trading tends to make you choose things you think others didn't pick so you can trade... (especialy on hard when others research faster than you usualy) also makes checking for new technologies with all your opponents a tiresome yet neccesary evil... Sid Mayer's Civilization decided to remove it for their last game and it was the best in the series.



2) Planet specialization feels kinda week, letting you affect the productivity of a planet far less than the system improvements.



3) AI does not try to match his defenses to counter my weapons, wich makes it easy to destroy them once you got your ship design right.



4) Farming output is way too high. played an entire game on large map without any need to build any food improvements or specialized planets - makes half the diplomacy tree unimportant.



5) Trade seems extremely underpowered, wich makes the other half of the diplomacy unimportant, good thing theres still fleet size increases in there!



6) From my 2 games so far it seems the galaxy is always get split in 2 by a wormhole of some sort. doing the first part of the game with only 1 or 2 other empires in my side of the galaxy feels far less interesting (Also you should tell me from hovering over the wormhole wich technology I need to cross it, hell, I wasn't even sure what it was at the beggining).



7) The early on buildings with large lumps of FIDS bonuses feel far more powerful than the ones with bonus per citizen, especialy at the beggining of the game or newly colonized systems.



8) Unclear how to make friends with other races - they hate you if you're weak, they hate you are strong, they hate you if you expand... o hell I was gonna kill them all anyways.



9) AI does not seem to try and build bigger ships, usualy just makes alot of the smaller ones.



10) Missiles seem overpowered - it takes some time till you get anti-missile cards, and as they are best for the first combat phase, you can usualy destroy half his fleet or more before he has the chance to hit you with his guns.



11) Events should be added for planets blockaded by enemies... when your empire is large its easy to miss it.



12) Should also send an event each turn that player forgets to choose a technology to research and for systems wich were not assigned productions.



13) For the larger maps, would love a feature to help automate production, maybe something simple like giving it the priorities of creating the different buildings and ships, with the option to add/remove planets from the ai autoproduction management.





Well, except for that wonderfull work guys!

Hope I helped!

To 2): The exploitations usefulness is increasing in power due to techs on the left hand side tech tree.



4) Depends on your faction. Maxing out food works wonders for the horatio who simply begin to spam the galaxy due to their crowded planets attribute.



For 7) you might want to have a look at /#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/9708-how-pop-growth-works

There's basically the discussion that constant FIDS bonuses are strong in the beginning, but become decreasingly important as the population grows. It surely has to be balanced, which will happen in the beta, but I think the idea of the system is sound.



11) In the empire screen, blockaded planets have a red instead of a white planet symbol. Sadly that is easy to miss. -.-



13) There is an AI governor included, although it's not making a very good job, yet.



Anyways, lots of useful comments.

Thanks for numbering!



For (8), the diplomacy is another thing that will need balancing. Right now war is probably the best option.



For (10), some players have claimed that beams are overpowered. I guess the key take-away is build what the other guys don't have. But, the AI can be tuned so that they will do the same. Right now the number of different ship builds the AI makes seems very small. They rarely use flak or shields. Therefore, either missiles or beams will do a lot of damage. IMHO this isn't so much because they are overpowered, but becaus e the AI doesn't build these defenses. A good rule of thumb I have heard is to go for 20%/60%/20% split. For defense, build 60% against their current strongest weapon. For offence, build 60% against their current weakest defense. Use instant retrofitting to update your schematics.

Good feedback. And about the 8) it's due to A.I mood swings

Hi there,



i think i hijack this thread and continue the numbering with other things that i have realised:



14) The AI seems to have difficulties defending their systems when you attack more than one system at the same time. I attacked three different, yet neighbouring systems, and the AI did not respond at all. When i changed my tactic and concentrated my fleets on only one system, the AI send large fleets to defend the system.



15) Heroes. Well.. i all the games i played so far, i took all three heroes from the begiining of the game and developed them. When other heroes became availlable, there was no need to replace the old ones, as the new ones have been much weaker. It would be more interesting, when new heroes would be as strong as the ones you already have, or have some special ability (like a certain advanced tech they will provide, a partial star map, a special fleet, an instant terraform, etc.).

Btw, is there any possibility to have more then three heroes? I think having the number of possible heroes changed by events, tech and/or the size of the empire would be nice.



16) Trade routes. There are trade routes, ok. But how do i develop one? The possibility of influencing trade routes would be great.



17) Resolution problems. Right now, i am not able to change the resolution at all. There is an option, but it does not change anything, when i use it. But i am sure, this is a known issue.



18) Pirates. I like having Pirates in any game (even Tetris ) They keep you constantly under pressure and are able to ruin a lot. That is great. Not so great is, that their ships are really difficult to see. I almost lost several systems to them until i found out, that there are three pirate fleets attacking my planets.

Btw, would it be possible to include an option, where you can bribe the pirates to attack other systems/empires?





Well... if i have more input, i will post it

Until then i will enjoy your great game!

to

15) Yes 2 techs on the left tree gives you upgrades... Max number is at 8 if memory serves.

16) Trade works automatically, provided you are at peace with a faction (or even open borders or commerce treaty not 100% sure) and have a clear communication line to it.

Eheron wrote:
Hi there,



i think i hijack this thread and continue the numbering with other things that i have realised:



14) The AI seems to have difficulties defending their systems when you attack more than one system at the same time. I attacked three different, yet neighbouring systems, and the AI did not respond at all. When i changed my tactic and concentrated my fleets on only one system, the AI send large fleets to defend the system.



15) Heroes. Well.. i all the games i played so far, i took all three heroes from the begiining of the game and developed them. When other heroes became availlable, there was no need to replace the old ones, as the new ones have been much weaker. It would be more interesting, when new heroes would be as strong as the ones you already have, or have some special ability (like a certain advanced tech they will provide, a partial star map, a special fleet, an instant terraform, etc.).

Btw, is there any possibility to have more then three heroes? I think having the number of possible heroes changed by events, tech and/or the size of the empire would be nice.



16) Trade routes. There are trade routes, ok. But how do i develop one? The possibility of influencing trade routes would be great.



17) Resolution problems. Right now, i am not able to change the resolution at all. There is an option, but it does not change anything, when i use it. But i am sure, this is a known issue.



18) Pirates. I like having Pirates in any game (even Tetris ) They keep you constantly under pressure and are able to ruin a lot. That is great. Not so great is, that their ships are really difficult to see. I almost lost several systems to them until i found out, that there are three pirate fleets attacking my planets.

Btw, would it be possible to include an option, where you can bribe the pirates to attack other systems/empires?





Well... if i have more input, i will post it

Until then i will enjoy your great game!