Hi there,
I just started my first game of BETA 3. I've been playing some time on it and I want to post my playing feedback here, as a journal in which I'll add post as I discover things or get ideas. My present game is Single player... I know multiplayer should be the thing to try, but haven't had the chance to compete for now.
There is my list:
1- I personnaly think that the colored skyboxes should be a little less present. I don't activate this option, because I find the space to not be black enough. I think I would make the colored skyboxes a little more transparent. The Deep Space skybox is perfect though.
2- I love the game pace. Please leave it like this. BUT, I agree there should be a Manual Speed control ingame to allow players to skip some waiting time. This is a must.
3- Maybe it exists and I haven't experienced it so far, but I would make different pirate gangs. They could even fight between each other for planet/system occupation or ruling.
4- I read that somewhere but haven't experienced it. I totally agree that Pirates should not be affected by Influence.
5- I like the Local Militia idea but I have two comments:
a) I think that the Local Milita should be able to replace lost ships if the planet is not conquered.
I find it a little weird that the only way you have to conquer a planet is by destroying the Local Milita (and colonize). My idea is simple: Diplomacy, basic. Have a certain level of Diplomatic ability, increasing with some Civic technologies. So, when entering a gravity well, that Diplomacy factor could keep the Local Militia guns down, depending on your level and their level of aggression. It could be all automatic. Some diplomacy talking in the background. If you succeed, the planet once conquered, the Local Militia ship could be yours, and the colonized planet could have an Allegiance/Approval bonus. If you don't want to wait, or the diplomacy fails, then you get attacked and once conquered, you Allegiance/Approval level has a penality (that reduces with time). If you want to go deeper, you could have an alignement based on your diplomatic attempt (if you try, you have a better ethical alignement than if you attack first and that would enhance the Local Militia level of aggression against you). Of Course, the presence of one or more Capital Starships could boost your diplomatic ability locally.
6- I read in a post that when colonizing a planet far away from your core worlds, your Approval level is quite low. I would implement some kind of Allegiance boost. Like if you read Star Wars books for example, some systems are very loyal and some not, independantly of their proximity from Coruscant. That's my idea. Having a Planet Improvement(or other thing) that could be built and would increase the allegiance level locally after some/a lot of time. That would allow the establishement of some strong loyal factions of your civilization. You could have a limit of one per system (sun) and could be quite expansive.
That's about it for now!
Thanks for reading.
