The warp lanes could enter space at different places on the Z axis, maybe the entrance is way above the planet and the exit way below.




Agreed, Though I think the TEC should have music that feels hopeless/hopeful since they are the underdog, the Advent should have chorus and booming music as they seem to be on a holy war and the Vasari should have the music from the Tatooine Cantina.

Drat now im whistling the cantina music, it will be stuck there for hours.

Woops, I didn't see that "Multiple research centers are needed" bit in the patch notes. Disregard my complaint about research centers.

On a related note, maybe research centers to one per system, to increase defensive requirements for high tech.

i hope custom maps will ultimately allow for more independent design.

the current version is weak because it gives you a minimum of 20 planets...i want to be able to have a minimum of 1 per faction!

also, there should be a map editor, either in game or a separate component to the game, where the player can make maps. i.e. position planets, link them with phased jump lanes, and select what types of planets.

i'd love to see a more complex map.

planets with moons, planets with rings, gas giants, asteroid belts; not the dinky collection of chunks posing as a planet.

i also feel the camera is extremely difficult to operate. i don't know if this is a problem only i seem to have. to claridy, the current camera isn't horrible, it simply could be MUCH better.

also, will we be able to have ships that ram into each other?

a la in Return of the Jedi when the Super Star Destroyer Executor crashes into the Deathstar? can we please have ramming???

please? i desperately want to be able to sacrifice my dying cap ships by ramming into the enemy as it begins to explode.

i use that mode and i don't like it.

The gauss cannons might benefit from displaying their range when selected...?

I updated the beta build today to 0.62[b].010

The way the cameras handles seems to have changed - moving the mouse to the edge of the screen moves the viewing area. Not a bad idea but I found a couple of times that I was going for a menu (research / diplomacy) and found the screen wandering off. Perhaps it was like this before - but I hadn't noticed.

I also experienced a couple of bugs it seems.

I withdrew all alliance standing with one empire but still seemed to be getting their cries for help when they were being attacked (by my own people hehehe). I'll see if I can reproduce and post more precise details.

Also - I think the alliance logic doesn't deal well with situations where A is allied to B and also to C .. yet B and C are at war. I had two empires fighting in my back yard this morning - both sending me messages saying that they would hold off the enemy until I arrived. Perhaps this is how it should be (because B and C are probably not aware that A is allied to both). Awkward but interesting.

I still wish the game played much slower.

Still ... very addictive for a beta.

Good question as with only 1 thing be researched at a time, it takes forever to get stuff researched...

Yeah ummm... thanks IC for the great explanation when they put out the changes

*pulls out sharpened spoon "waves it at the IC staff"*

Problem:

-The game seems pretty heavily favored for the defender. If you take a key system, and build 20 Defense Hangars and an Inhibitor, it is extremely hard for even teams of 3 to get through. This 'Defense Rocks' concept could cause many stalemates in multi player.

Ways to fix this:

-Perhaps by forcing Phase Space Inhibitor platforms/ships to use Anti Matter to work, attackers could try to hold out until they were able to jump to the next more vulnerable system. Or they could attack in waves until the inhibitor was out of juice.
*This would also be a useful feature for modders.

-Perhaps Phase Space Inhibitors could have an effect range that only prevents ships from jumping that are within range. This way, an attacking fleet might have a chance to knock out an Inhibitor and jump out before death.
*This is going to be important for players/modders using larger gravity wells, as it would suck if 1 inhibitor stops all Phase jumping in a super massive area.

-Perhaps Phase Space Inhibitors could only slow down enemy ships from jumping. Like make it 10-20 times longer to jump. Or perhaps make Inhibitors only stop ships from jumping within a close range, but ships outside that close range only take longer to jump.
*Once again, modders would love this.

-Implement the open Connection Map. Constructible faster Phase Lanes between colonies/allies, intrinsic planetary shields based on planet level, good long range sensors to detect incoming fleets, and hyperspace jump ranges based on research will all serve to balance the game and prevent chaos ....you know you want it!

-Some way to bypass strongholds by creating a temporary and slower Phase Lane...without having to send ships through the stronghold of death to make it.
*modders will like this



A couple of other suggestions:

-AI needs to colonize planets that are available for them. As is, the AI sometimes goes the whole game leaving a good uncolonized planet right next to them alone.

-AI needs to try something different when piecemeal attacks don't get through my lines. Either build up a huge defense to my defended system and try to contain me until I am forced to attack their stronghold. Or the AI could try to build up a huge force to attack me with. Maybe the AI could even try to make an alliance just for the sole purpose of beating down my stronghold.

-When I attack with a huge force, and lose to the AI's defence, the AI should immediately try to counter attack while I am still weak and without ships.

Ramping cost for defenses could help with this a lot. I think what defenses really need though is a HP reduction. In fact, all planetary modules should be easier to kill. Tough modules discourages raiding.

Even the toughest defenses are beatable... 20 hangar defenses is a lot, but so is 20 Flak Frigates.

In one game the enemy built 27 (!) hangar defenses at their home planet. And this was when i had modded the game so fighter/bomber squadrons were twice as big and were built twice as fast. Which works out to about 600 fighter craft. That was rough.

The AI in this version seems more prone to dribbling its units in and getting smashed by defenses, though.

I'm going to chime in for the first time. I need to clarify that I am by no means a gaming professional, so let's just get that out of the way...I stink at 4x games. I do fairly well with the RTS genre though and LOVED the Homeworld series. So...naturally any space game created by some of the guys who made anything Homeworld, will definitely grace my harddrive!

I started my frst big game (with 3 AI's, the rest defaults) and began to turtle. 3 hours later and a (what I consider) BIG fleet went to "explore" the next planet to me. Of course there were alliances made, broken, made, broken, made, broken and the constant bunning hopping of the other factions through my space (that ticks me off, as I'm a very private guy!!! hehe), then the POO POO (rather use @$#!) hit the fan.

Holy crap did that faction have a HUGE fleet. I thought I could take him, but when it got scary I tried to retreat and after losing my second capital ship sitting at the edge of the planet's grav well relized he had a phase jump inhibitor. OMG, frantically I moved around his planet and engaged the PJI and was able to leave. Not after he took out most of my fleet. Then to add insult to energy, he followed me back to my planet and did some more damage. Luckily I had some good defenses up...

Now for thinking out loud (please forgive me if I have anything wrong):

1. There's PJI's, why can't there be phase jump prohibitors? I want to prevent factions from leap frogging INTO my space. I propose a tech level and/or class of ship with capabilities to stealth past the PJP and then have to disable it. Of course you can have a counter-measure to that with a tech level (high tier) and/or ship class that can attack/defend against this feature.

I like/dislike the space lanes...basically for the size (to quote...EPICNESS) of the game you kind of have to have this, but it turns the game into a 2D slugfest. The coolness of 3D space is lost. You can use 3D tatical strategy against human players, but the AI factions don't seem to use it!

2. My fleet's battle AI pisses me off. I had my whole fleet in one control group and found it difficult to split off groups to do different tasks. They would change there targeting right after I issued an order. Is this normal? Do I need to have them in separate control groups? Grr...If I have a ship(s) high-lighted, that should supercede his AI controls IMO.

I should make a note of how it runs on my PC...

Athlon 4000+
2GB OCZ DDR
dual eVGA 6800GTs in SLI
Hitachi 160GB SATA II hdd in a RAID stripe, for pagefile and the game
ViewSonic G90f 19" CRT

1600x1200 (75Hz) all the graphics turned up/4xAA

The game has been smooth all the way up until the BIG battle sequences. It's choppy as hell now when I zoom in. No problems to report at this time. Time to upgrade the gaming rig methinks! HEHE

i dislike the phased jump lanes too, they make the game's space seem like an Oprah marathon; from one thing to another with not possibility of independent exploration.

and battle AI is awkward. there' almost no strategy. the AI auto attacks whatever it wants, whenever it wants. strategy is nil.

also, unit caps are the way of these types of games. i think they should be certain levels of caps...optimum, stressed, and depleted.

optimum = perfect balance between military and economic needs

stressed = economics suffer in order to expand the military

depleted = your economy will go bust if you loose this fleet. basically, all or nothing move.

...but since it's almost impossible for a game such as this to make use of the intrinsic value of realism, i'd say this is about as far a stretch as the Second Coming happening tomorrow. but you never know!