Ok, I've played through two games on 0.76[b].017 so I thought it was time to share my thoughts.
Here they are in no particular order.
1. In both games I found that my outlying planets were very susceptible in the opening stages. I lost two planets in the first game and one in the second. On both occasions it was a standard rush tactic used in many RTS games. Maybe I was concentrating on colonising more than ship building which allowed the AI a free hit at an unprotected planet.
2. I've seen many posts on these forums about the Pirates. The only thing I'll add is that the nature of pirates is to be of an annoyance than a threat. Sure they should be able to sweep in take out a installation, but they shouldn't hang around and get into a war of attrition which they lose 90% of the time. I also like the suggestion of being able to pay them off, sort of like paying protection money to the mob
3. When selecting a planet for colonisation, it would be good to see the current cultural influence affecting the planet so you newly constructed colony doesn't immediately switch sides.
4. When a race has been eliminated, it's influence should disappear, maybe not instantly, but it shouldn't stay there.
5. The starting positions for the races needs to be spread a bit more. In the first game I had five clusters and 4 AI races and four of us started in the same cluster.
6. When sending your fleet to attack, they should still stay as a group until they are at the farthest range of attack. Quite often my fighters and crusiers got blasted out of the sky as they had accelerated beyond the covering range of the larger ships.
7. Not sure if it's in this release or not, but I couln't see any means of removing a ship from a group. This meant that my groups were a real mess by the end of the game as I reorganised my ships to achieve particular objectives.
8. It would be nice to be able to set the orientation of the fleet when it reaches it's destination. That way I can have all my ships facing the enemy when drop by for a visit. Instead, I have to wait for the proverbial titanic to turn, so the guns come to bear on an enemy that's powered straight past, and is now merrily bombing the planet while my ships are still turning.
9. Is there any chance of changing the notification that there is an Autosave occurring. Towards the end of the game I think it caught me almost every time and I was thinking the game had locked up. Maybe a change of cursor or something more prominent?
10. Have an option to limit the number of autosaves. I do have gigabytes of free space on my hard disk, but please don't use it all up. I need some for my MP3's
All in all a terrific effort so far. None of the above a game breakers by any means. Loving the graphics and the music. Zooming in to watch those battles is awesome, I want to by a 30" widescreen now. Gameplay is very enjoyable and I have only played TEC so far.
Thanks
Phill
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http://philcart.blogspot.com
