Suggestions for Improvement (not sure where to post this)

[ArthurDent]

Greetings,

First let me say that this game is amazing. I am completely obsessed with it and very anxious to see where it heads in the future. Thanks to all of those who have worked on this project providing a great product for 0 cost.

Next, I would like to say that I have played multiple games that last beyond turn 300 in order to try and fully grok this game. Here are some things that I don't understand and could possibly be implemented into the game to help improvement.

1. When you build the "collective thought network" building it states that it will increase production/research on planets but will cease to be effective if starlane travel takes place within 200uu. I have no idea what 200uu is in this game and have tried looking for it. For my suggestion could possible add in a better definition or create some highlight of this effect so that people know what this building is effecting?

2. Is there a text that describes how shields vs structure works in battle? For instance is I had x structure and 10 shield vs x structure and 15 shield, how many x structure and 10 shield ships would I need in order to win that battle?

3. Can you make a ship that specifically targets mines? If you get super late game mines become a serious pain and that might be something to consider.

4. This is probably a very long way off but obviously having a tutorial that walks the player through scenarios and such in order to learn the game would be good to implement.

That is all I got really. Sorry in advance if I simply missed something that is already in the game.

[MatGB]

1. When you build the "collective thought network" building it states that it will increase production/research on planets but will cease to be effective if starlane travel takes place within 200uu. I have no idea what 200uu is in this game and have tried looking for it. For my suggestion could possible add in a better definition or create some highlight of this effect so that people know what this building is effecting?

The distance measure used to be used a lot more, but the little distance slider at the top left (which I'm fairly sure defaults to ON, if not you can tick it on in Options) displays how far units are. We've considered (well, someone suggested but it never got committed) having a map circle that would show such radii, something I think would be very helpful, but the distance is the same as the starlane speed per turn, etc.

2. Is there a text that describes how shields vs structure works in battle? For instance is I had x structure and 10 shield vs x structure and 15 shield, how many x structure and 10 shield ships would I need in order to win that battle?

I was in the process of writing an update to the in game text and wiki text explaining this far better but then life got in the way and then I got quite ill, but it needs doing.

Shields don't affect structure directly, they reduce the damage caused per weapon shot, so if you're using a weapon that does 15 damage (say, Death Ray 1 or Plasma 3) then each weapon fired will reduce structure by 15 if there are no shields, 11 if there's a defence grid, 8 if there's the level 2 shield the name of which escapes me, 3 if there are plasma shields and nothing if there's a multi-spectrum shield or a blackshield. Weapon stats can of course be modified by the species piloting it, shields currently aren't modified but likely will be in the next stable release (if I get time to script it).

3. Can you make a ship that specifically targets mines? If you get super late game mines become a serious pain and that might be something to consider.

Troop ships

We upped the power of mines a fair bit recently by nerfing the way damage control works, and there have been a few ideas for parts that could negate mines for that ship or the fleet in some way, but the best way is to rotate your blockade fleet out and have armoured troop ships following on from the invasion very quickly.

4. This is probably a very long way off but obviously having a tutorial that walks the player through scenarios and such in order to learn the game would be good to implement.

Discussed heavily, it's definitely needed and will be worked on as dev/scripter time becomes available, as it happens the barebones of it should happen fairly soon, but a full on tutorial will wait until the game is closer to finished (as rewriting it every time we change the game isn't something worth doing).

(apropos of your username, keep an eye out for Magrathea in the starnames, always makes me smile)

[Vezzra]

Hey Arthur,

well, the obvious answer to all your questions would be "42" of course

Anyway, in addition to what Mat already addressed, with regard to this question:

4. This is probably a very long way off but obviously having a tutorial that walks the player through scenarios and such in order to learn the game would be good to implement.

There have been some people in the past who've been posting "Let's play" walkthroughs for previous versions of FO, mostly on YouTube. They are of course out of date, however the most recent ones might still be useful. Just google them or search for "freeorion" on YouTube.

[ArthurDent]

Thanks for your replies!