Lharrs

Join Date 02/2007

Give some constructive thoughts based on the walk through here.

Well, I have noted some mixed feelings about hte delay announcment, though we are all appreciative of hte update( of sorts) the delays is a bit unwelcome.

Given that, it was stated that part of the reason for the announcement was so that feedback could be given before hte beta was released.

My first comment on this would be to reduce the number of planets per system by a margin of 35% to 65% and increase the number of systems allowed. This comment is based soley on the fact that it appeared byt the way the information was presented that those three systems were considered a large map.

Weather or not that is a large or small map more systems with fewer planets will allow a play greater control over his/her empire and provide more of a challenge for solar assaults.

I understand your attempt to make the game seem epic by making a solar system look like a galaxy both far away and close up, but it just seems too messy to me. I know that it was stated with regards to system screens that it is a matter of artistic choice or some such, but just because a babe chooses to paint with its own fecal matter doesnt mean it is a good artistic choice.

If you wanted a grand EPICNESS( royalties paid to schem who coined the word, as far as I know) feel too it, simple, create say 10-20 systems per glaxy with each sytem containing between 1-5 habitable planets and perhaps a total of maybe 10 solar objects( ranging from belts to artifacts and brken planetoidial bodies). This would be huge.

I wil try and think on my suggestion a little bit more, but I didnt want to say that designing a solar system to look like a galaxy( and nothing liek a solar system) was bad, without at least presenting some sort of solution. Currently my idea would be to large for the game engine as it seems to be presented. If there were some esimate as to how big the game could get and still run properly, then my idea may have more weight but an idea of the scale would be needed.

If one was to overlook the solar layout of hte game, I would have no further comments at this time and will look more at teh game pics we have been presented with.

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I agree with the more solar systems, less planets idea mentioned above.

unless it is configurable to set it to however you like...

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That is a possablity aswell, there should at least be an option for that I think for a custom game. The other parts with regards to the order in which the solar systems are set-up would be nice, but as far as the size and number the SSs, that should be an option.

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I think one of their side goals was to make MP as customizable as possible.

if its not, then thats my critique.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

You should all be happy to hear that galaxy size and number of planets is configurable.

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nice.
just how configurable then? does it come with a "standard" layout?

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

Well, and of course this may change, there are default settings for game size. However, you can configure how many star systems, how many planets per system, how many planets you start with, etc. So if you wanted to play a quick game, you may start yourself off on a small map with initial control of 3 planets for instance.

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so its possible to have 20 star systems each with 10 or so planets?

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Can you also determine how far apart (rare) planets/solar systems are? That way they would be more isolated and harder to take.

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Personally, i would like to see more victory conditions. With the possiblity to set different senerios.

Some different victory conditions may be take and hold were you need to capture a planet and hold for a period of time. or first person to capture a set # of planets

Maybe a secenrio were one person has a larger empire and he has to battle several smaller people. (simmilar to the TEC backstory)

of couse all this would be optional.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

so its possible to have 20 star systems each with 10 or so planets?

Probably not, since you'd end up with a lot of empty solar systems. The finals of what will be possible will be determined during the beta, however.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

Can you also determine how far apart (rare) planets/solar systems are? That way they would be more isolated and harder to take.

Not distance, no. Remember that it takes about 10 real-world minutes to travel between solar systems. I don't think many people would enjoy waiting an hour or more to have their fleets get somewhere.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

Personally, i would like to see more victory conditions. With the possiblity to set different senerios.

This is planned.

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my bad, I meant 20 solar systems with 10 planets in EACH solar system... damn my poor writing skills.... or is 10 planets in a system too little?

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

I do agree with you that it would be good to be able to say N stars with Y planets.

There are significant scales of distance between interplanetary travel and inter-star travel. So you could really increase the strategic variance by having more configuration. We are looking at all kinds of different setup options presently.

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Thats what I would love to see, at least for the longer games....

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Thanks for the the ideas guys and thanks to the dev. team for the responses thus far. Keep up the good work, the game is looking great.

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I was just hinking( a shock I know), I had said in my first post on this thread, that that he solar systems seemed a little waky as to how they look. I undestand the idea behind it though and the desire for it to look like a galaxy of sort when veiwed from a distance.

That being said, I haven't seen info on the level of cusomization availible to the player. I am no moder, but I know that if some one with the proper skills and hte same view point taht I have were to see the solar systems adn the way they look, they would like to have the option to go into the game and change the basic structure to make it a bit more realistic.
- How will this be achieved? Are there plans easy modability?

I would also like to say that given the time it take to travel to each system, I understand why it is you chose the set-up you did for the solar system design.

Thanks for your time, and keep up the great work as I know the team will.

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I have seen some suggestions around that they want MP to be ranked or have an online ladder. I am in favor of this

however i ask that players have the ability to play in games were this is turned off.

so that casual players (like me) who play one or two games a week dont get their butts handed to them by someone who is trying to get into a clan. That way casual players can play with there own kind, and the hardcore players know that the others feel the same way they do, and you can cross over anytime you want.

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I
however i ask that players have the ability to play in games were this is turned off.

so that casual players (like me) who play one or two games a week dont get their butts handed to them by someone who is trying to get into a clan. That way casual players can play with there own kind, and the hardcore players know that the others feel the same way they do, and you can cross over anytime you want.

I second that, 'cause my Warcraft profile makes me look slightly worse then I am

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Can Multiplayer games be saved? and if so , can this be a way to swap in and out players.

For example , I give my savegame file to another player , and he carries on with my race.

I know the faq says you cant join a game halfway through.

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Multianna

Join Date 10/2006

+10

Can Multiplayer games be saved?

yep its savable

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the planets on the galaxy map dont look right is it just me or do they seem a bit too big and cartoony? theya re a little dissapointing compared to the zoomed in view they seem to be a little out of proportion everything else looks great

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Yes agreed.

Some of my suggestions....

1> The unknown planets shouldnt be represented by a grey ball , it just makes the galaxy look like it has many big grey planets. I would suggest black spheres with a red question mark in them. I also think the size of the black spheres be smaller to make the galaxy feel less crowded

2> I think the Suns could do with being a bit bigger.

3> Id like full cooperation between main-view management and left bar management. If you select something in main-view ,it gets highlighted in left bar, if you select something in left bar , it gets highlighted in main view if in sight.

5> Id like a smart-zoom click feature maybe with middle mouse button. Basically , if you click on a planet in the left management bar , the main view smart-zooms to solar system view with the best zoom to manage that planet. Click a ship in the management bar , and the main view smart-zooms to a tactical view, smart-zoom click a sun and the main view shows the galactic view. - obviously you need a different button , since sometimes u might want to manage your left bar without jumping the main screen

6> During messages "Fleet arrived etc" , you should be given 3 tool options with the message - flag on left management bar , goto tactical view of fleet , goto solar system view of fleet location.

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Ok heres a big suggestion , that might work...

Ive noticed that ships in your fleet are listed.
However all it tells you is who has the bigger fleet..

One suggestion , is to list ships within engagement distance and those that arent , seperately. When you select on the ships that are not within engagement distance , you can order them to go into engagement distance. You can even order engaging ships to retreat or be evasive , and you can see them slowly moving to the non-engagement list. Good info

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

my bad, I meant 20 solar systems with 10 planets in EACH solar system... damn my poor writing skills.... or is 10 planets in a system too little?

This is possible, but right now you can't have that many solar systems.

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