Formation of new ships. I know someone else stated this. When queuing up a bunch of new builds, the new ships will go to the rally flag and stack there. When zoomed out I can't tell what ships are there. And if I select them all (with a cursor collection box) they are not displayed anywhere (that I know of) to select the one ship I need at the moment (colony, scout, etc.). Then again, maybe part of the game play is to have to zoom in and see what I ordered.

Does the research icon at the top already tell you what you are currently researching when hovering over it? I queued up a bunch of techs (Civ and Military) and had a hard time determining which one was currently under active research.

Love the specialization of all the ships types and the upgrades within the ships that can get them. The veteran crews/ships is very cool. Hope more are in store.

I know this has been posted about, but fleet formations and directives. I like to have task force / balanced fleets, but when sending them into a battle they scatter about each for their own target. A fleet that is grouped together should stay together, unless managing that fleet is meant to be part of the management of the game. But either way, I manage them micro (telling each ship type what to do) or macro (give them directives on what task to accomplish next in the well).

Info on scouted planets shows in seconds. Can this be made to show minutes and seconds? I am not that fast in my math. Or is this an option setting? Just about everything has been thought of already.

I want to add on the subject of ships formations. When going to a rally point after being built, for example, they not only stack there, but the ships literally bump on each other, trying to pass. There should be a minimum distance that a ship has to respect to any other space structure or thing.

The same problem can be observed when putting a ship in the Trade Route. The trade ship bumps the ship I placed there, moving it a little, just enough to have enough place to pass for trade delivery.

It looks bad. And it is not really "space friendly" to bump on another ship.

After playing some multi player games, I feel that structures have much too much hitpoints and take way to long to get killed. Especially mines are very solid.

This makes raiding (if not centered on destroying the planet or stealing the resources with the Sova Carrier) quite hard and often not very useful.

Imho mines should either get a decrease in hp to about 20% of the current amount, or, which I would also like, make it possible to bombard mines with the Krosov Siege frigate.

Any thoughts on that?

i noticed something that made me want to cry today...

apparently there is a fleet cap of 2000

WHAT!?!?!?


no, no no no wayhow no WAY no WAY no WAY!

remove that.

I was talking about an external toolset, which is still too time consuming to implement. Balance is just too tricky in an RTS with differing races to pull that kind of thing off. (The time consumed isn't user end, its dev end to actually try and balance what you're doing).

Please note that there are several existing threads on this subject, in which it got thrashed to death and the basic answer is "not going to happen"

Aesthetic design might be possible, however. (Change the appearance, not the stats).



Devs have called that idea "wack-a-mole" -- it existed in an earlier game version (pre-public beta) and did not work. Any more than orbital mechanics did. Just wasn't "fun" that way.

If it doesn't exist at this point, it would be very nice to have a shortcut called "Return home" that would tell your ship/fleet to get back home (capital planet) right now, by the shortest way already discovered (no exploration).

Um, whats the point of that?

some more issues:

imo even though I like the (random) map layout, the homeworlds tend to be fairly secluded, so there are only one or two ways to reach them. furthermore it leads to a usually unidirectional expansion meaning your homeworld is later in the centre of your empire, but at one end. the point I intend to make is not so much the relocation of the capital which I think is a good idea, but the limitation of attack routes. I'd say an extra phase lane per planet would make the game a bit more open I think. once I learn how to create maps I will be testing it, I already saw a 3 player map which looks intesting and was more the stuff would like to see.

to give you an example of what I mean: the current layout makes you start at the "end" of a map, whereas I would rather like to see the situation where you do have a couple of border worlds and some core worlds, but you can be attacked from several directions. maybe changing the star to star travel in larger games would help it a bit. I had an astroid field in one game where it said "ancient jump relic" and the description said it enabled jumps to distant star systems. however ships in the system, when prompted to phase to another star still went to the system's sun. the idea is pretty good, I would make it more frequent and make it work ( or work the way I thought it would)

secondly, though I do like leveling capships I, somehow have the impression the improvements are a bit too strong. sure, you can train new ships to reach a good level, but that takes time and a lot of credits and at the point training is mostly lower than the level enemy capships have. they are a bit similar to heroes in wc iii and I wasnt too happy about them getting so strong there either. its just my taste and impression anyways. it makes it very difficult to come back after a bad battle.

I agree it takes all of two seconds to tell you fleet to go back to your home planet with the Empire Tool Bar.



This is something for moders to undertake. What I think is the main reason for the seclusion of the original capital is to prevent raiding attacks to early. And also to provide natural protections since if the capital is destroyed it causes at 85% penelty to allegience.

And that is also why the Capital movment is also part of the overall starategy of a game.

Changing what? They've already gone from a phase lane system to any-star-to-any-star.



In theory, you can't jump between stars until after you've researched a technology that allows for it. This got broke a while ago, I don't know if its been fixed.

It hasn't been fixed as far as I know, but you need the research now I think.

Nope, you see someones colour and name if someone whispers to you but you dont see whom youre whispering at.

well lets not exaggerate. it takes time to put together an assault fleet that is any real danger for a homeworld and you need a few jumps which also takes time. I'm not sure how you are playing, but at the beginning of the game I use my capship to mop up local militia in nearby system, so my capship fleet is rarely more that 2 - 3 jumps at most away so even if you get attacked early on, its not devastating.

and lastly, would you say it is a bad thing be be attackable early on? I mean not rushing in 5 minutes, which wouldnt work anyway with the strengh of structures and the speed of ship buildings, but 15 minutes for an early strike seems okay to me.

and concerning later games, even if the system is more open, an enemy would still have to move past one or two of your systems to attack a homeworld, so if you scouted properly it should give you enough early warning and his fleet will take damage getting in and getting out.

edit: uh, one more thing, the fleet splitting option is a good idea. one way could be how it was done in imperium galactica 2. you right click to get a screen with all ship types and their numbers and draw/ click to pull them to the window for the new fleet. it was something that could be done in a matter of seconds and the benefits is probably quite clear.

Trade Ships pathing.

The pathing on Trade Ships is terrible. I had trade ships going through enemy territoy to get to an allies worlds. They appear to take the shortest route no matter what that might entail flying through. Couldn't they be routed through safe systems if at all posssible?

I've been known to mount serious raids pretty early in the game -- please don't take away my option of dropping an embargo-using Sova into an opponents capitol, just for the fun of it



I believe that thats a (confirmed) bug: one of the Devs said trade ships should not go through hostile territory.

Yeah your right. I don't use that Empire Tool Bar a lot... I should learn to do it

BTW, question for the Devs: is using two Dunov's good tactics, or an exploit? (The shield restore ability makes them a match for even three equal level capitol ships, or more).

The zoom, how it tasks me...

I'm sure someone likes it, it's probably even useful and a good idea, but that hybrid zoom to cursor and follow thing is... demonic? It makes me want to kill small children, or puppies. Three options, the third being pure zoom to cursor with no annoying frills, would be outstanding.

I agree, the new zoom to cursor system needs work, but once we get the hang of it / it gets tweaked, I think it'll be an improvement.

Wow, I've been so busy with work, moving, redoing the apartment I STILL haven't gotten a chance to even try the Beta 3. I am just trying to do some catch up reading here. I likely won't be able to play until this coming weekend...I forsee some serious pain in my first multiplayer games.

Anyway, does anyone know if Ron's Dunov X2 tactic is overpowered? Also, has anyone bothered to see if 3 Arkans with the Truce ability can keep all enemy ships permanently pacified?

I want the ability to que ships even if I cannot afford them; that way; when I CAN afford them they automatically get ordered up; IE Give me Sup-Com commands. Infinite build would also be nice.

I wish the cursor would go back to the way it was in the old times, I liked being able to follow my units when i clicked on them.

I'd love to do some experiments, but that is one seriously powerful approach. I had 2 capships, superior frigate strength, and just could not kill those things.

Ion Bolts and Distabalization Charges R UR FIENDS!!