changes I would like to see (or things I think about)

from Sins Forums
In settings someplace, it would be so cool to have a set of defaults for how your ships are built, for example, if you want all your scouts to be made so that they autoexplore, there would be a checkbox for that, as vasari, if you wanted your scout ships to come out no autoexplore, but autoattack, and auto take resource collectors, you'd just set the tic boxes and voila.. same for cap ships, just all the options would be listed for all the ships, and you'd set how they default out of the chute.. also along these lines, you could set so that your carriers would automatically produce fighters or bombers by default so that if you have them set to auto rally right to the front lines they don't show up naked..

Speaking of carriers, since there is no fighter range, they should by default try to circle away from anything that might target and chase them.. I micro-managed this and my carriers lasted a very long time drawing fire and the ships circling to chase them while the strikecraft were free to attack the pursuers.


What is up with planet health? what does it represent? you've killed off all the population, why not just go colonize?

There should be a t1 device for individual planet propaganda so you would be able to fight back in the propaganda war if you happen to get taken by surprise by it :S or maybe the bunkering system might assist with this, it really sucks to get bushwhacked by a colored line.. oh, and when 3 different colors are converging on your planet, is there a way to tell which is how strong?

ok, guess that is all I've thought of for now
18,583 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Does it not post on the official reader till it gets a reply, or does it have to be approved by someone to assure that it doesn't get filled up with spam or cussing? does a self bump overcome this?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
First point: Good idea for *some* behaviours, but it's not that hard to just alt+select your scouts and tick the autoexplore option. Doesn't really save that much time. I wouldn't want carrier capships to autoselect which types of strikecraft to build, however - if you already have a bunch of carrier cruisers set to fighters and you want some bomber backup to accompany them, it's nice to have that flexibility with a carrier that is just coming out of the capship builder.

Second point: I couldn't see how this wouldn't really reduce their effectiveness. Strikecraft require a pretty big run range to attack with - if they start jostling all over the map to avoid incoming flak and stuff, it could really slow down the number of attacks they get on, say, a fleet that is trying to warp out.

Third point: Planet health has been discussed elsewhere, and it's generally the number of administrators and managers on the planet, not the number of people overall. Vasari don't sterilize, they "lock down" survivors after surgical strikes kill their senate, governors, police, army, etc.. There is a discrepancy because TEC nuke the planet and presumably kill a lot more city people in the process, but maybe all the farmers survive or something.

Fourth point: There are several options to fight back against culture creep - park a carrier or two there to fend off culture loss until you can build your own media centres, or just assault the source planet and destroy its media centre, or redesignate a closer capital planet to increase its allegiance. You also get a warning that there is discontent on your planet before it falls silent. I think if you notice your planets are in the path of a different colour, or if they start off with really low allegiance due to distance, you should do something about it. It's one more thing to keep an eye on with the map, and it doesn't really move that fast anyway.

-- Retro
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
it's not that hard to just alt+select your scouts and tick the autoexplore option.


No, but it's tedious.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Second point: I couldn't see how this wouldn't really reduce their effectiveness. Strikecraft require a pretty big run range to attack with - if they start jostling all over the map to avoid incoming flak and stuff, it could really slow down the number of attacks they get on, say, a fleet that is trying to warp out.


I apologize, I guess I was unclear, I wouldn't have the strikecraft circle, but rather the helpless carriers..

edit:ps. someone earlier mentioned something about wanting a patrol option for ships, for carriers, and for example planet bombers and colony ships, that you really don't want engaging the enemy or really doing anything till the battle is over, but that the ai targets right in on, there should be an auto circle option, when the ship would just fly in a circle around the perimeter of the gravity well at full speed till it was time to do something else
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
double post to bump ;P
Just thought of something else.. and this is a biggie..

Why not have xp for all ships, not just cap ships, so you could have some pilots be better than others, the in game effect would be to make them a little more accurate, and harder to hit, so they do a little more damage/take a little less damage..

also, I played as vasari yesterday, and turned the t6 ability on the cap ship(carrier) on to duplicate frigate, and at first it did nothing, becasue the auto heal fired every time it got enough antimatter, regardless if there were any damaged ships within range or not, but even after I turned that off, I figured the autocast would pick a random nearby frigate and duplicate it and fill out my fleet.. :( no such luck. Why does it have autocast if it won't autocast?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree with the point on the scouts would be nice to have an option maybe at the factory where you could have the ships built with toggled on as they come out. Sometimes I get distracted by something more important and my scouts just end up sitting there doing nothing.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Actually, baka, that's my fault. I misread your point #2.

On the xp thing: two observations with that. First, the awarded experience now is calculated as "destroyed ship xp value / number of capships in the area". So if you take out a 400 xp pirate attack fleet with one capship and a bunch of frigates, it gets 400xp, but taking it out with a 4-capship fleet only nets you 100 xp each. If this xp reward model is extended to other ship types, your capships will never get enough to reach higher levels. The idea's not bad, but it requires a bit of tiering, say something like non-capships have a level max of 3, and it only takes 200 xp to get there; or xp rewards for capships and other ships are calculated in parallel.

Second, it concentrates the game even more on micromanagement to try and keep your entire high-xp fleet alive if your xp levels give your lower-level ships an edge.

With appropriate penalties (e.g. levelled frigates and cruisers cost one additional supply; experience is still awarded in full to capships) it might make an interesting game dynamic, though.

On your other point, I think the duplicate frigate power is hellaciously imba. You can duplicate cruisers too and save yourself huge amounts of resources, manufacturing, and transit time. and I wouldn't WANT to see it effectively autocast: Dark Fleet is bad enough. :)

-- Retro
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Next point.. why is there a stop button if the ships just ignore it, and why do the ships select the platform guns randomly instead of closest next? it is very frustrating to watch your fleet run through 8 turrets to kill one on the far side, then run back through them to get to the one by where they started :S

If I hit stop, I expect the ships to stop and sit there, if I hit shift stop, I expect them to move to where I had sent them, and then to stop..

oh, ps if I have lrms along with the fleet, it would be way nice if the normal short range frigates would just let them nuke the platforms safely from outside their little danger circles

pps about the xp thing, I was considering suggesting that the ships could get xp for what they actually damage/heal/move/whatever_they_do and get individual credit that way, but that would take some serious retooling on the whole xp system