OFFICIAL: Gameplay Suggestions

[General_Antillies]

I like that idea a lot since it would allow fighters/bombers to remain in the fight longer, saving some of their ammo for later. The one thing I'm concerned about is would this changed rate of fire hurt the capital ships with missiles to much? For example, a Bothan Assault Cruiser has 20 PT Tubes. so with the change it would go from firing 200 PTs a turn to 40 PTs a turn. Also, I'm still pushing for that damage increase on missiles.

[Kobra_warlords]

Intriguing. Sounds promising. And confusing. I think I like it

 

Mark you are one insane person ;D

 

Be sure to tell us more as it progresses. And as usual I'll be glad to spew tons of dirt out of which you might be able to dig a diamond or two, LOL.

[markb50k]

yeah it would affect cap ships as well, but i think it would be realistic to have a ROF slowdown for missiles.

 

as for the damage increase I am thinking of raising the PT to 300.

[Kobra_warlords]

I'm all for those changes.

[markb50k]

I have started trying to code some of the initial pieces necessary for this and it is a hundred times more complicated than I foresaw, so I am not sure what result will come out of this.

 

Even a simple jump order for a fleet, how does it determine what status it is in as different ships are all calculating to get into jump position, or what if someone adds another ship in just as the ships are about to enter hyperspace.  Sure, I can talk and say "its over when this or this" but code wise it is a nightmare.

 

I am definitely going to have to simplify all of this and as a result it is not going to be as cool as some of you want.  I'll try but changing an entire foundation paradigm on how the game was created is not a simple task.

[Kobra_warlords]

It would be very useful to be able to set Nav Points, both for yourself and for your allies.

 

The idea would be that, when giving an order such as Jump, Move or Patrol, which require you to double-click on your destination, you could either do that, or select one of your "bookmarked" co-ordinates (e.g. "Home", "Nav Alpha", "Rally Point", whatever you want to name them) from a list on the left screen. This would save a lot of time and grief when moving units into battle zones, as you'd avoid not only the searching/scrolling/zooming but also the GUI slowdown caused by manually selecting a crowded sector or doing mouseover on a stack of units.

 

Nav Points should be either visible to allies or (ideally), selectable between Private / Allies Only / Public. This would help a lot with co-ordination between allies, but also make it possible to "rendezvous" with neutrals for e.g. trade, or even with enemies for duels - no need to roam around looking for something to shoot at.

 

Of course there should be a limit to the number of nav points -especially public ones-, as otherwise it can get quite messy. One interesting way to do that might be to implement them as a "beacon" unit, unable to move but either deployable by a spaceship or jump-capable, and give each player three or four.

[markb50k]

interesting idea and one I will look into

[Idle_Scholar]

I'm not sure what the eventual scale you're going for but right now it would be useful to be able to tell if a sector contains ships at range. No other information, just a kind of 'sector x has ships in it', when your zoomed out.

[skyblazer]

I have a few questions about ground combat -

 

-Will there be any

-If so will there be things like ground based turbolaser emplacements or other forms of defensive buildings

-Would ground combat be a lot like space combat or be a lot more automated sort of like Rebellion style

[markb50k]

- yes there will be ground combat

- there will be things like tanks, infantry squads, and turbolaser emplacements

- it will be done like space combat

[Idle_Scholar]

Can we have a simple chat client in-game? Maybe like a PM system so I can ask a player if they want to trade or something and then they can reply when they log on.

[markb50k]

i actually had a message board in EvR, but with the proliferance of message board availability on the net and this message board, i didnt think it was as necessary.  I can look at it, but it would be very simplistic.

[Idle_Scholar]

Yeah it doesn't need to be anything too complex, just something so that if I see a random player I can say hi, and have a realtime chat if they're online or leave them a message if they're not.

 

Later on it could provide the basis for in-game information and bulletins, with each sector having its own channel and sub channels, letting people chat privately, communally and post articles ("this sector is claimed by DreadEx, pay up or die!" "Ore for sale, 10000 units at 10C" etc.).

[Idle_Scholar]

Can there be a 'null formation', where the ships positions are set to wherever they happen to be at the end of the cycle? At the moment you either have to set each group you want to move independently into a separate fleet with no hierarchy or put up with them bouncing back to their parent fleet formation at the end of any orders.

 

For example I'd like to have

 

Byss Sector

                      - Defence Fleet

                      - Scout Fleet

                      - Ground Installations

 

And not have scouts constantly returning to the defence fleet hovering over the ground installations.

 

Also it seems that orders after "Exit Atmosphere" don't execute.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Idle_Scholar

[markb50k]

I'm thinking a DEFEND order would keep them in place wherever they happen to be....

 

As for not doing stuff after EXIT ATMOSPHERE ill check..