Feedback for [6870] and [6281]
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 7:48 pm
I've been playing this over the past couple of months and thought I'd give some feedback. Mostly I'm really impressed with it, especially given that it's a work-in-progress
[6870]
I just checked this out last night. After starting one game I removed it and went back to 6281. In the build queue, the planet where the item is being constructed is not displayed. This is vital information and (for me) the game is unplayable without it. I did like how in the status updates it announces when you can build new items like outpost bases, shipyard addons, etc.
[6281]
I really like the build queue. Having the total production of your empire applied to all projects makes a lot more sense than how it is in other games where each world has a separate build queue. It's nice to see all my projects in one place. It would be even better though to have separate queues for ships and planetary improvements, along with a slider that would control what percentage of industrial output goes to each... or even possibly use the "infrastructure" stat for the planetary improvements. As my empire grows, the combined build queue tends to get really long, as I add items to improve the new worlds I have settled or conquered, and I find myself spending a lot of time rearranging items in the queue to get high-priority projects completed faster. Having separate queues would make this process less of a hassle IMO
I've seen mention of how certain races have bonuses or penalties to their starship piloting skill here on the forums, but in the game, these stats don't appear in the race descriptions. Every other stat is apparently there, but this one seems to have been overlooked. Where can I find this information? (FWIW, in 6870, some of this info had been added, but most of the races still had nothing in their 'pedia entries.)
Xenophobia is a concept that needs some refinement or adjustment. Currently, exobots cause xenophobic frenzy in races with that trait and suffer from xenophobic harassment also. Given that nay race can build them, shouldn't they be immune from this effect? Additionally, I have noticed that the range extends well beyond the current star system. I did experiment with xenophobic races briefly but given the extreme range of the effect, found them too much trouble to be worth it. I also neutralized a xenophobic AI race once just by settling around him: my nearby colonies crippled his production and he never expanded beyond his inital colony as a result, in spite of the fact that there were available star systems nearby that he could have taken. If this effect were toned down a bit so it only caused problems when you mixed different races in the same star system I think it would be more reasonable.
System defense mines cause damage regardless of whether you are at peace or not. IDK if this is intended, but it's especially annoying when I share control of a star system with another empire and their mines start damaging my ships. IMO the way these work currently needs to be reexamined.
AIs seem to use good strategy when I am fighting them, but the fact that they remain at war with each other makes them a lot easier to defeat as a human player. I generally make peace with everyone at the start of each game, but I have noticed on a number of occasions that a neighboring AI will get wiped out by one further off because he is so focused on posting large fleets in my territory that he neglects defending his own star systems and the other AI is able to easily conquer them because they are not adequately defended. The only thing that seems to deter them from this behavior is system defense mines, and even then the foreign fleets sometimes linger and take a lot of damage when they could be better used back home defending their own territory.
One thing that I really enjoyed about Galactic Civilizations was how ships eared XP from combat and became more effective as they won more battles. Along with this, you could refit a ship with more advanced weapons and defenses as you researched them. As a result, an older ship that you had upgraded would be much more effective than a brand-new one of the same type that just came out of the yard. Adding a feature like this would add an interesting dimension to gameplay.
[6870]
I just checked this out last night. After starting one game I removed it and went back to 6281. In the build queue, the planet where the item is being constructed is not displayed. This is vital information and (for me) the game is unplayable without it. I did like how in the status updates it announces when you can build new items like outpost bases, shipyard addons, etc.
[6281]
I really like the build queue. Having the total production of your empire applied to all projects makes a lot more sense than how it is in other games where each world has a separate build queue. It's nice to see all my projects in one place. It would be even better though to have separate queues for ships and planetary improvements, along with a slider that would control what percentage of industrial output goes to each... or even possibly use the "infrastructure" stat for the planetary improvements. As my empire grows, the combined build queue tends to get really long, as I add items to improve the new worlds I have settled or conquered, and I find myself spending a lot of time rearranging items in the queue to get high-priority projects completed faster. Having separate queues would make this process less of a hassle IMO
I've seen mention of how certain races have bonuses or penalties to their starship piloting skill here on the forums, but in the game, these stats don't appear in the race descriptions. Every other stat is apparently there, but this one seems to have been overlooked. Where can I find this information? (FWIW, in 6870, some of this info had been added, but most of the races still had nothing in their 'pedia entries.)
Xenophobia is a concept that needs some refinement or adjustment. Currently, exobots cause xenophobic frenzy in races with that trait and suffer from xenophobic harassment also. Given that nay race can build them, shouldn't they be immune from this effect? Additionally, I have noticed that the range extends well beyond the current star system. I did experiment with xenophobic races briefly but given the extreme range of the effect, found them too much trouble to be worth it. I also neutralized a xenophobic AI race once just by settling around him: my nearby colonies crippled his production and he never expanded beyond his inital colony as a result, in spite of the fact that there were available star systems nearby that he could have taken. If this effect were toned down a bit so it only caused problems when you mixed different races in the same star system I think it would be more reasonable.
System defense mines cause damage regardless of whether you are at peace or not. IDK if this is intended, but it's especially annoying when I share control of a star system with another empire and their mines start damaging my ships. IMO the way these work currently needs to be reexamined.
AIs seem to use good strategy when I am fighting them, but the fact that they remain at war with each other makes them a lot easier to defeat as a human player. I generally make peace with everyone at the start of each game, but I have noticed on a number of occasions that a neighboring AI will get wiped out by one further off because he is so focused on posting large fleets in my territory that he neglects defending his own star systems and the other AI is able to easily conquer them because they are not adequately defended. The only thing that seems to deter them from this behavior is system defense mines, and even then the foreign fleets sometimes linger and take a lot of damage when they could be better used back home defending their own territory.
One thing that I really enjoyed about Galactic Civilizations was how ships eared XP from combat and became more effective as they won more battles. Along with this, you could refit a ship with more advanced weapons and defenses as you researched them. As a result, an older ship that you had upgraded would be much more effective than a brand-new one of the same type that just came out of the yard. Adding a feature like this would add an interesting dimension to gameplay.