I know it is coming at some point in the future, but let me preface this post by saying that I can't wait for Galaxy Forge created maps to be auto transferred over ICO. I have so many ideas for maps* but until auto transfers are incorporated into the game it is generally all for naught.

Last night my two buddies and I decided to play around with the in-game custom map tool. Our intent was to create some random one star 3v3 maps with around 30 planets. We feel this is a nice size for a 3v3 and the random factor should make for an interesting game each time we play. Unforunately we were never quite able to get our Phase Lanes right. The custom phase lanes seemed to flatten the tires on all our ships. It was completely unplayable for the amount of time we had to spend jumping from planet to planet.

The phase lane slider doesn't seem to make a particularly huge impact even if it's slid all the way to either extreme. Is there something we should be doing with the min/max distance sliders? And though this should be obvious, if you slide to the red side (left) or the right side (green) which is more/less?

Also, I kept holding the mouse cursor over the slider bars expecting, hoping, willing a tool tip to pop up and tell me "More" or "Less" but none ever did. Perhaps tool tips like that could be a little something added in a future patch (obviously this would be a low priority, but it'd help idiots like myself).

*One idea is a map I would name Breakout. Each player has four or five planets behind a pirate base around three jumps from their home planet with no means of reaching the other players save going through the pirates. You would have to decide whether or not to try and wipe out your pirates to reach enemy worlds, to develop your economy to out bid other players and play the culture game while using your pirates as a sort of shield, or maybe even develop super weapons to hit enemies despite the pirates. Obviously static defenses would be important and assuming the one getting attacked by pirates had solid statics, they'd have free levels for their cap ship. So do you send pirates and potentially make your enemies stronger or not? Also, a reward for killing your pirates like maybe a set of wormholes allowing you to sneak into your enemies back door or a planet with a guaranteed artifact for the man who colonizes it first. It might suck, but it sounds interesting in my head!