well, because I was completely unsuccesful in convincing anyone that this is a bad idea, and because my feedback has been completely overshadowed by these types of threads, I've decided to engage in hypocrisy for the good of the game. do not mourn my loss of morals, it is all for the greater good.
because I've been here from the beginning, and I have a TON of feedback, I am going to abbreviate everything as much as possible.
anyhow:
FEEDBACKcause mine's worth it-Missles are overpowered, and lasers are underpowered. thats 2 researches v 4. or...
-diversify the way in which the weapons are used, (example) lasers should be prevalent (maybe switched for autocannons) and spray out lasers all the time, but are relatively weak both before and after research, autocannons (switched for lasers?) would be slightly rarer, with a slower recharge, but would do far more damage. finally missiles would be the heavy hitters, would be launched in salvos, but would take a long time to recharge
-Frigates and Kodiak abilities are irrelevant/nearly useless. the most useful one is the LRMS one, and that hardly makes a notable difference
-Empire window needs some adjustment
---make it minimizable!
---List of all Cap ships
---I believe I found out what "orbiting planets" means, it appears to mean planets that you have fleets over, but dont have an owner
-Ship limit needs to be drastically raised, at least 2x
-Logistics also needs to be raised, at least 2-4x
-Tactical structures should be considered for reduction, as they shouldnt be able to hold off a serious fleet all on their own (the pirate raids are one thing)
-Change a limit system, preferably to the point-buy, point-spend system I described earlier
-update the battle AI fight protocols to attack most efficient targets
-Make AI smarter, and preferably give it more "stances" in how it grows its empire
-LRM, Light Carrier both a little "too techy"
-Shield color is standard yellow now, consider matching the color to the faction color
-Warheads should be launched from occupied planets (asteriods possibly, dead asteroids probably not) numbers should depend on tactical level
-Change way in which Siege frigates siege, currently they appear both too simple, and they are way too fast to arrive. consider giving them a more cinematic action, such as assuming a low orbit facing parallel to the planet surface, in which they drop the bombs (instead of launching them) this would both slow down the time it takes for them to initiate bombing (as they need to set up) and it would be far cooler
-Capital ships need diversification in cost and importance, a marza is not the same as a dunov, neither should its price or its ship cost be.
-Preferably another capital ship similar to the role of the Kol. One nice ship is dandy, but another would be perfect. perhaps it could be a large merchant ship with dozens of low power cannons taped onto the sides (would both look cool, and fit the backstory)
-Dont make the shield protection absolute, make it percentage based (similar to the way the planetary shields work)
-more types of planets, gas giants, planetoids (similar to asteroids) and barren (similar to desert, but more like mars) etc.
-update certain weapon visuals, including siege nukes, marza nukes, and missile explosions (in group they look like flashing white pings)
-update debris to fit the look of what it spawned from AND scale size to (I've had enough of seeing the spindly repair station of my opponents spawn large blocks of solid steel when they die)
-Reduce jump angles down to 45-30, not 90. 90 brings back the first beta1 issues of things jumping around a little too quickly.
-AI rarely expands at a rate 1/3 of my speed (If I'm lucky), makes overpowering easy. should include at least a randomized AI stance that would include massive early expansion
-Tie AI allegiances into strength of possible opponents, small groups ally to take down big threats
-Have allies coordinate attacks
-Include system to tell computer allies things (attack here, help me! etc.)
-reduce effectiveness of siege rushes
at all costs for beta 3, can easily become a win-all strategy in multiplayer
-increase Rock-Paper-Scissors element of units, currently the swarms are highly effective (cobalt swarms especially, although considering the nature of the game I dont know if this should be dramatically changed)
-end game is an utter dissapointment, could be fixed either by making the capitol planet an absolute fortress (with great ammounts of planetary health, a vast recovery rate and more than average surface-to-planetary defences) or by initiating a "last stand" protocol where the last 3 planets of an empire are that powerful
-All/near All relics seem to research the same thing in any one game. there shouldnt be
any overlap, let alone concentration on one research
-relics seem generally unimportant outside of their research use, I would like to see more done with them, perhaps if you research everything something special happens (access to a hidden location?) thinking single player here.
-phaselines are tangled (NEEDS to be fixed), would prefer that planets be connected to all other planets
within a certain range, rather than having them be connected to planets vast distances away, but not the ones that are adjacent (this is optimal, but I understand how it would be near impossible to program with distance variations that keep gameplay fun) keep the distance variations as more important than these little details (gameplay over realism) but at least try to get the second idea working.
finally, and this one will be controversial: keep the pirates at their current level of difficulty, or make them scalable (Easy, medium, hard, with this being medium at the worst) I think they are quite possibly the only challenge from the game at this point, and sadly they arent too much of a challenge. the other AI factions are simple to wipe out, but the pirates (because they arent bound by logistics etc. and because they keep reappearing no matter where you chase them away from) are far more capable of creating strike forces, and I like being on the defensive (even if its an easy win).
this is a small section of my advice, expect updates as I continue along.
[EDIT: 17:34:35 06/26/07]
-change the way in which ships turn, if they have several orders about movement and/or are told to change direction for a linear move, they should predict (if its a chained order) and begin turning while still moving so as to not slow down, or they should immediately fire up their engines and turn around gradually rather than while sitting in place. this makes things feel more fluid and real, and probably will make battles more fluid to
-preferably include an auditory cue as to the launch of planetary missiles (if they're included) something along the lines of "P-StoOT missiles away, clearing atmosphere in three... two..."
-balance of planetary missiles should be discussed now (to save the devs a headache later) I'm favoring a slow missile that has a relatively high chance of missing small targets and has a long time between firing but does relatively large amounts of damage. this way its not a garunteed kill to groups of siege frigs and is a threat to people not wary about their capital ships. these things should be powerful enough though that an attacker is taking a lot of pause about how he is to deal with the planet
-diversification in planetary defenses would be preferable. currently the gauss cannon, while powerful, seems too simple and easy to counter. I personally would prefer it being weaker, but replacing that lost ground by making other planetary defenses that would serve secondary purposes (a great example is a close range AA one, or the idea of the "zergling platforms", numerous cheap platforms bought in bulk (4 maybe?) and placed either together as a self-orbiting group, or seperately as the player prefers) this way planetary defense isnt a real blow-dealer with the wrong ships, and easy as pie with the right ones. although the concept of "bringing the right ships" should always be there, LRMs should not be a win-all, and the gauss shouldnt be capable of taking down everything else with ease.[EDIT: 16:55:34 06/27/07]
-desync the Kol forward lasers, I modded that in and I found out it makes battles quite a bit cooler, also increase its width from 35->50
-slowing down weapon speeds (including the Gauss cannon) always makes things look cooler, just my recommendation
-I noticed that ships actually do have max speeds 
. sad the devs didnt let us know they included it, but after screwing around with it I see why it needed to be included
-pirate recommendations!
--I like the idea of a "pirate base" that the Devs originally hinted to (make it an absolute fortress, but make conquering it REALLY worth it), the concept of making them a faction has been raised, but I dislike the idea as it would really change the way pirates function, even making them more like normal AI (yuck) especially if they become remotely concerned with defending planets they own. perhaps give them control over planets, but dont nescessarily make them a faction
--pirates need to stop attacking unless it accomplishes something, they can raid trade ships for instance, but whats the point in bombing hundreds of thousands of people into oblivion if theres no bounty for it?
-gravity at this point plays little into my tactics, I would like to see it play a slightly more important role
-the concept of "directional sensors" has been raised, would be ideal to have, but its understandable why it would be difficult to implement.
-any form of stealth, even if it is EXTREMELY limited, would be appreciated
-patrol function needs to be included (infinite, not me having to reset using shift+key) including inter-planetary patrol
-would appreciate sneak-peaks at both Advent and Vasari, even if we get a very limited selection of ships, or even just pictures with sheets explaining their exact stats and abilities of units and buildings would be most helpful. as I see it playing with one faction and no info about the other two will not help us actually help in terms of gameplay.
check back in later for more of my wonderful genius
