I've delved into Beta 2 without having played Beta 1 so I might not appreciate some of the changes that have been made so far. A fresh perspective, however, is always a handy thing.

I've been playing the game for a bit now and there are a huge amount of ideas on these boards that are excellent. I'm not sure how many, if accepted, would be able to incorporated into the game as new textures, model sizes or even new mechanics would need to be introduced and time isn't a friend

Regardless, I wanted to post some ideas that popped to my head while reading the Beta 2 Gameplay thread while offering some possible changes to make the game even better than it already is. I suppose my idea theme for most of my following suggestions would be to Stretch Things a little bit, it will become clear as you read on.

1. Technologies
2. Rarety and Priorities
3. Speed, Distances and Time
4. Jumping
5. Sight Range and Upgrading Buildings
6. Other Minor Thoughts


Technologies

I like the system for technologies at the moment, not quite a Research Tree system, but still bound by requirements (Research Bases, Level-in-previous-tech, Resources). However, research seems cramped and unorganized. On the surface, the visual representation is a small window with three tabs where the icons for techs are too close together. I just dont get a positive feel when going to look for the next prospective technology to be researched.

I believe that increasing the window and spacing out the tech icons would be a good first step. While I might be used to Tech Trees, I am no stranger to pretty much every other form of research implemented in games. There is something to be said about following the 'train-of-thought' idea when going about a project. When I see how the icons are organized I also scratch my head a bit: Kodiak Cruiser's special ability 'Intercept' is to the right of the actual Cruiser tech and so is the Arid Colony tech (forgot exact name) to the right of the Terran Colony tech. Other techs are upwards.

It's just a little confusing and messy...

The game "Earth 2160" and its predecessors had Tech Trees in the research window that had no or maybe one branch. What this means is that if you want to improve your damage, you would start to research a better vesion of the starting laser, which would allow you to get another upgrade and another. For this game, this would be the Levels to technologies we have right now, it's like a tree just stacked. But then you would unlock Rate of Fire upgrades and maybe even range (Like our Missiles). However, if you would want to start upgrading your Machine Guns in "Earth 2160" you would need to go to a totaly different tree and do the same thing.

Now obviously this doesn't quite work for us as we can't choose the weapons that are on our ships, but we can choose which ships we build and how we fight our battles, both defensive and offensive.

I just feel we would get a bigger satesfaction from having a bigger research window where techs would lead to advancements in that same field. The Missile Tree for the TEC is just that, it's nice to work your way up through three 'icons' and then hit the Range bonus. While some people might not find it worthwhile it actually get that high up with the current way of fighting fights, every little bit helps in combat.

Now following this, I suggest to make either a full screen tech window or increase the current one by scrolling. Second, to arrange techs upwards and by either continuing to have tech "Levels" or just going the old fashioned Tech Tree routine, make techs in the same area, more dependant on a first tech. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of independant techs further up the window that you get only after you built a few research bases and this should be just as is is now.

Now you can't just have a tree without height so expanding the ways of improving a field would also be nice. Colony techs are just about population cap, why not have other ways of improving the colony in the Research department: such as increased flight and construction speed of the Builder Frigate, bigger build area (maybe up to what it is now but start at half the size), etc.

I suppose I am asking for the research tree to be expanded with this idea, but it would increase satesfaction with researching as well as depth (and depth is always good), make the whole Tech window more organized and interesting and finally, it would allow you to lengthen the time for us to burn through the techs for those really long games with multiple solar systems (Keep tech costs high as well or have an option before the game to set a "Tech Price Level").

Also, on the note that some techs are useless, make them a little better and allow the player to access more technologies of the same area to come after it so you can capitalize on your time spent.

Rarety And Priorities

Now onto one of the bigger ones: The Economy. I've not had a sufficiently long play experience to comment on the fundamental mechanics but I do want to comment on possible ways to work on the Crystal Rarety problem and maybe even give you pointers to expand other resources.

We know, you know that crystals get a little rare later on in the game. We run out, can't find enough sources and end up driving the Black Market prices for 100 Crystals up into the thousands, despite the two techs(add more! Yay.). So you either increase the amount of crystals in current asteroids or you could increase the amount of crystal asteroids. But with either solution, you elimnate the special nature of crystals, thus decreasing panic, sweat and pain of gaining a bigger pile of crystals which is a bad thing because these games are about achieving big things and that's what's fun.

What about adding a new element to the equation: Ice Fields. Ancient Wreck Fields. Or any of the other many manifestations of new Crystal (And other resource) sources.

Lets go with the Ice field because that's the closest to what we have now, Asteroid Fields, and thus easy to implement and work with. Ice Fields would look just like our current Roids, just more like frozen pieces of H2O rather than Rocks containing Metal. To translate: Retexture with bright blue, maybe add a few pokey crystal bits and voila, insta-soloution.

These new Crystal heavy fields would be rare and should be a prize for the empire that holds it. Keep the current Crystal Rarety in place but add the (IMPORTANT!!!)->small chance<-(IMPORTANT!!!) of Ice Fields of being generated. These Ice Fields would have 3 Crystal Chunks (Maybe 4) with the ability to establish a very small colony. Now you also have another reason for invading an empire and since this game is rather combat oriented, it fits nicely.

Now I would prefer some sort of mysterious source of crystal such as a hidden field near Dark Matter that you can only find with an expensive survey ship unlocked by a high-grade technology, but... whatever works (I'll have more on this survey idea later btw).

Now, I named the section topic Rarety and Priorities and for good reason: As stated above, there should only be a small chance of finding these Ice Fields so I suggest another implementation of this idea by giving the Galaxy Generator a Planet Generate Chance. A probability percentage for each type of Planet/Asteroid Field. Volcanic, Ice should be more common, then Desert and Asteroid Fields, Terran Planets and lastly Ice Fields.

Idealy you want Volcanic Planets close to the sun, Ice Planets far away and Terran + Desert in between + all this based on the strength of the Sun, but if that isn't possible in the Generator, no big loss.

Having something like this in place would make you fight more in defense for your valuable planets and invading other Empires for thiers. Again: A big game like this should really make you feel proud and fuzzy inside when you achieve something. Either through luck, hard work and dedication or sheer wealth. So we're aiming to increase chances of people being happy by giving them more chances to be.


Speed, Distances and Time

One of the more surprising moments for me was ordering my fleet, which I had been building up for an hour in my own conquered solar system, to Jump to a different Solar System to start my conquest there. Upon starting their journey, I suddenly noticed how far away the other system was... it took my fleet at least 5-10 minutes to arrive. In that time I thought just how awesome distances were because I got a feeling of the game being epic and my fleet really embarking to something totaly unknown... I had no idea if I would land on a homeworld bristling with firepower (I had a BIG fleet, doubt they would have survived ) or a barren rock with no owner. I got the sense of having my own fortress out of which I was sending my knights.

Keeping this in mind and reading some of the gripes about Jumping, Jump Time, Time it takes to leave the Gravity Well as well as writing my own post, I gathered a few ideas on how to solve various issues currently around.

1. To combat the issues with jumping out of Gravity Wells taking too long, how about making each class of ship need to be different distances away from the Stellar Object in order to jump. Frigates, speedy little ships and early on, the only thing you've got, should be able to jump early, only having to be away a short distance... perhaps half of what the distance is now? Not sure on this... while cruisers requiring 25% more distance and Capitals 50% more.

This would have a few effects: It would give an added bonus to frigates: Hit and Run tactics. It would make you think a little bit more about placements of defenses. And it would make big, ugly and evil capital ship fleets slower. The player would think about how to utilize fleets, groups and ship types as well as opening up more tactical choices he has available.

As a side note, this could also be part of a Jump Tech line by improving distances by a small amount(more on this later).

Following this, I also suggest that the sizes and speeds of the different ship classes be more obvious. I'm not sure if this is feasable, but I'd like to see Cruisers being 1.5x - 2x times the size of a Frigate while a Capital ship be 3x the size of a Cruiser. I don't know if you intend to add more ship classes (I hope so hehe) but they would fall inbetween or higher (hehe Super-Capitals) but I digress.

The fast speeds of all ships at the moment are also a bit of a bother. It's all too.... monotone and uninteresting. I don't get a feeling of scale. The small should be fast and the big should be slow. Granted ships in space behave differently and big ships can also reach fast speeds with sufficient time to accelerate but this isn't reality it's fun and the two aren't always hand in hand.

This would also make fleet combat more interesting and to echo what others have said: Capital combat would be more meaningful if they are slow as the firing arcs would have a bigger meaning. Just make them be able to hold position and change direction to not have them making their loops. Acceleration would also be awesome but that, I know, would take too much time and CPU power to implement (unless I am mistaken, hopefully).

There is one major thing I'd like to add here and that's Range of Guns. Combat at the moment is very close quarters and the Range Increase in the Missile Tech Line is very unremarkable. I put forward that Capital Ships come out of Jump quite far from a planet. Two fleets would then have enough time to approach each other to make long range weaponry (Missiles and Beams. Missiles are guided and Beams are pinpoint accurate with good Targeting Computers like those on bigger ships) more important. Obviously this is going to make things take longer when you're trying to get somewhere but that problem can be addressed in other ways:

Jumping

Jump Technologies are in my opinion are a big big potential fun factor in this game and remain to be unused.

Option A:
The "Increases Jump Distance' Tech? Have a third level version that allows you to jump to almost all planets in the same solar system in one go. A fourth level would allow you to travel all the way to another solar system all together. Then there could be Jump Speed (As in speed while jumping) tech and not just the hardcore 50% bonus from the artefact. The Jump Charge Time tech gives too little a bonus to be useful but with a bigger time reduction would be quite awesome in cutting down travel time.

Option B:
The same as above but: If you think about the reasons why you could only jump from certain planets to another and the speed at which you would jump then you might say that the Jump Engine isn't powerful enough or doesn't have enough fuel. But why are they able to travel all the way to another solar system? My Explanation: Lack of knowledge about the route. You do not want to travel quickly on a road you don't know but once you know a certain route to work, for example, then you might travel much faster because you know what's ahead. If you translate this thought into space, what you get is that there are many many objects floating around, some in asteroid belts, others are planets or comets or whatever... there's just far too much in space for us to ever know.

As soon as you know what might come or that a route is safe, your ship would be able to increase the speed at which you travel. So instead of researching these things, you might want to have a Survey or Exploration ship that places buoyies with inbuilt scanners on a route and thus make it safe for ships to travel. Better buoyies will have better scanners and thus speed can be increased because ships have more warning. So instead of naming Techs simply: Jump Speed Tech and it requiring money and minerals to research, have an exploration requirement of some sort. This would also explain why new routes would open up when you improve jump distance. The more you know about your own solar system the more routes you have from planet to planet.

Also, being in a new Solar System would start you with no knowledge about jump routes except close line-of-sight planets. Invaders would have a hard time doing anything but make a Beachhead while defenders have a chance to react and either talk or fight.

I don't know how Jumping works in this game universe so I can't really say. All this logic and theory aside, exploration would be an interesting new addition to the game but I don't think if it's possible due to time constraints.


Sight Range and Upgrading Buildings

PSIDAR is a little useless for most people despite working by showing ships jump 2 jumps away. I think having more of a sight range system with LOS would be a lot more fun and realisitc at the same time (who knew). While we can find planets, nebulae, asteroid fields and stars by using telescopes because they are so big, finding enemy ships 2 jumps away would be redicuously difficult because of their small size. (Exception might be a future Super Capital Ship, hint hint) I would say if we could make a new sort of LOS system then things might get a lot more interesting and Ambush friendly, thus opening more choices for us the players.

LOS would work like this: Every Planet currently owned by you would be able to see other planets, Asteroid Fields in the same solar system and Stars from other Solar Systems. Currently owned planets would have a limited knowledge of the Jump lanes coming and going from their Gravity Well. Traffic would therefore be a mystery. Unless you build sensors which take a Logistic Point (Don't stone me just yet, read on). This would put a bigger emphasis on us making the choice of specializing "Crossroad Defense Planets" and get us thinking. With the low Logistic Points available to us, which I find a good thing, we need to think about how we're going to specialize our planets.
Because we need to think about how we use our planets and what we built, we should have low logistic points to work with.

Now with the sensor base built for 1 logistic point, we will be able to see a short distance of the Jump Lanes and the ships traveling on it. By upgrading the base we can increase this all the way to 100% of the Jump Lanes. Upgrading the sensors would go through an Upgrade Facility button and would cost money, resources and time. This could also be dependant on researched technologies. Or, if we leave out the Upgrade Facility feature then make it solely dependant on Techs.

Now to carry on the "Upgrade Facility" awesomeness, I think it should be expanded to most other facilities that we can build in orbit. Though I think Defensive structures could be left out unless we lower the defensive build slots and lower their starting strength. If we do that, then we wont be flexible in their placements and thus have open areas which enemy fleets can use to slip past defenses. Maybe that's a good thing... tactics and all.

Anyway, upgrading a Shipyard would increase it from Light, Medium to Heavy and make it bigger. If we think about Books, Movies and TV Series that deal with big empires in space, they never have just one scaffold for ships, they have a whole complex. Planetia Shipyards for those Trekkies among us or Kuat Shipyards for the Star War... sies...
So Upgrading your shipyard would make it bigger and add more scaffolds for the looks. Light Medium Heavy status doesn't have to be reached after one upgrade. But adding another scaffold should let you build another ship at the same time or at the very least make it faster for you to build the one.

Anyway, upgrading facilities is awesome and gives us more things to do for the longer games. Also, the biggest upgrades should cost logistic points... for those uber production planets

Other Minor Thoughts

The thread is already long enough but I just want to have a few additional points:

1. Zoom feature, while already known, why not make it left and right mouse button for quick zooming by dragging the mouse.

2. When zoomed in close to watch a big battle, fighters are so small that they get replaced by the Fighter wing icon, giving them a longer, visible engine trail and making the fighter icon only pop up after a little higher zoom level might make things more cinematic.

3. Formations, would play in nicely with my 'Big Ships/Fleets Drop Out Of Jump Further Away From Stellar Object' idea because it's much more badass to have a nicely organized fleet drop out of jump. Formations should have bonuses +5% Damage -5% Hull for example...

4. Barren Rocks don't make sense... you can put an outpost on it just the same as a Rock in a valuable field of metal + crystal. So let us put one on... people might want to settle in a place they suspect has no value (invasions less likely). Though do allow us to turn them into hidden research researches to conduct our Black Project Zombie research .

5. The starting planet of your Empire should be a "Homeworld" type not a Terran. It would have more Logistic Slots, bigger population cap etc than any other type of planet. This would help people start out at the start of a game and at the same time be a reason to defend the planet. This does NOT mean that it has to be your political Capitol. A homeworld and capitol are two different things. Ideally, the "Homeworld" status should only be extended to Empires of the same race.

6. Artefacts are a little.... random at the moment. I think more needs to be done with them, have the Artefact Techs more meaningful, with a few beginning techs to begin to understand what they are, then allow you to build a special facility which allows you to research the artefact you found and reap the bonus. The bonus itself should remain hidden until you finish researching it. Gives you a surprise instead of saying "No I wont investigate this piece of ancient and powerful technology from unknown origin because I don't like what it does." There should be more mystery and chance to it.
People like to gamble and in this game it's Time more than anything they are gambling with.


And that's it. Sorry for the long post but I'm used to writing long essays or stories.
Besides, this game is so worth investing time. Woot Woot Sins!

Thanks for reading!
Zero