Fix the client crashes, hotfix exploits as you know them (don't wait for maior patches to fix game-breaking exploits), fix the network code (this host quits - game stops thing is not acceptable). I know some things couldn't be tested in beta (but i still wonder how those regular client crashes made it through), now we're at 1.03, get those fixed asap because they are game-breaking, to all effects and all levels of gameplay (competitive or not).

Get rid of the orqange space background and make it black all of the time. The orange makes it difficult to read the screen and to see red icons...plus it is visually unappealing.

An idea I had for balance with pirates:

Pirates are a nice way to keep you from just turtling up against AI opponents, but later in the game they're just irritating; it's not as though you *can't* wipe out a pirate excursion, but your forces are committed elsewhere and you don't probably have time to babysit the bounty-bidding war. And since you simply do not have enough tactical slots to kill an entire excursion, there's not much that can be done but disengage one of your fleets. This, I think, kind of kills the flow of the later games.

Therefore, a simple trigger can be added: If you destroy the pirate homeworld and kill all pirate ships *in* the pirate homeworld, there are no more pirate attacks.

Simple, and it certainly makes assaulting the system worth it.

in thyis patch (or in the next one) i'd really like new ships, just a few per faction, that would be really different from all the standard types of ships, i mean there's planetery bombardent ships, light frigates ... but they're always the same type of ship for each faction. it could be fun to have really special ships with unique stuff (like interdictor vessels that stop the enemi from phase jumping or a ship that can teleport anywere in the gravity well of the planet he's orbiting and so on ...). it would also be great to have more choice for little fighters in hangar defense, like fighters with less firepower but small shield generators or boarding ships that could take over enemi frigates or even ships that attach themselves to enemi ships and damage the hull for a short period ... so in short : a little more diversity in ships and fighters would be welcome

Request 2 things...
First add a 6 person random map function.. Its the only size of even numbers you did not put in.. It goes 2 4, 8, 10.. Completely skipping 6.. (which is my favorite game size)

Secondly can you program TEAM random maps? Where its programed to start off in close proximity.. Instead of getting stuck in a system with 3 people against you.

AWESOME JOB DEVS !!!....LUV the Game !!!..../Bow

Just a few things I would ask...since you asked

The new AI stuff you are looking at are GREAT !!! Please do ! The AI jumping in on dropped players makes the online game 1000% better and the surrendering AI is just as good an idea. No more loosing the win online cause someone got mad and logged had PC problems or just ran out of time, and no more dragging it out in practice games at home !

Would there be a way we could select what voice reports we get and just have others appear just as printed text on the screen in the reports window? The Advent voice is awesome IMO,she sounds hot and I love the babe, but when you are popping out a bunch of ships after / durring a battle it can get a bit annoying hearing each ship pop, and sometimes you can miss an invasion report or pirate raid going on, shield reports and such with all the ship spam.

Raising Cap ship caps ROCKS ! In huge games you can run short with whats there now. Would be nice to have the first few increases in cap ships be a bit cheaper too, higher at the upper end if you absolutely have to, if you felt it needed that for balance.

Do NOT put caps on how many of any one of the smaller ships that can be built ......EVER ! If a few people want to just keep spamming a fleet of one kinda ship. Let them...PLEASE... let them, it is a very simplistic strat so very easily countered. Not to mention if a person keeps doing it soon noone will let the person play in one of their games. This is easily enough handled by the community itself without Dev help.

If I have to have 3 or more fleets, one keeping one or several players off me and my frontline planets and one expanding while one fleet is defending my primary deeper planets I do not want a cap lvl on my ships leaving me short some key ship I need in one of those fleets killing my gameplan !

PJI should at least cover a planet ...IMO...but do something with them please.

Lastly, please fix the bug with the Detonate Antimater ability on Advent's Radiance Cap ship, or have I misundertood the ability ?

The ability says it keeps the target ship from using antimatter abilities. Phase jumping is one of those abilities that uses antimater right? I was trying to use the ability to pop Cap ships running from me, figuring I would kill their jump engines getting more time to kill them, but it never stops them from using their phase jump ability. Was this intended and just aimed at the clickable abilities or something that could be fixed in 1.3 ?

Thanks for listening and again AWESOME JOB    !!!

Be well and safe

Overlord Sigurd
That which does not destroy us..... serves only to make us stronger !

Here's my tuppence worth

I have some UI questions which hopefully should be a sinch to add.

1. Can we have a research queue editor screen. Often, once your making sufficient funds, you'll have a pretty long list of queued up research items. I'd really like to be able to see the list of things I'm researching, have an ETA time for each and be able to change the order when my priorities change. Otherwise I have to go through and pretty much cancel everything in Military and Civic just because I suddenly need another capital ship.

2. Can the spacing of the unit icons down the left be reduced, this list gets very long very fast and even collapsed it still doesn't make the best use of my 1440x900 res screen space.

3. When holding down the left mouse button on the scroll bar for the unit icons on the left, the camera really shouldn't pan if the pointer hits the edge of the screen.

4. Can we have squad and planet icons in different scroll windows please? I'd like to keep my squads in view whilst looking through my planets.

5. Lastly, there may already be a key for this but as I just downloaded and jumped straight in I haven't looked at any readmes or manuals. Can we have a hot-key to press to take us directly to the affected planet when there's an alert (i.e. when you or a friendly player is being attacked, or when a build order is finished)?

Cheers guys, don't be down-hearted at all the change requests, we wouldn't bother asking if we didn't already love the game.

AsciiSmoke

One little thing here that could make a big difference on occasion.

Regards retreat. Can there be an auto option setting that would allow either ships or even entire fleets to retreat based upon damage level?

For instance, I want my cap ship to withdraw if it has 75% damage and my entire fleet to withdraw if damage is 60% cumulative damage of the fleet. That being 60% of the original fleet; i.e. 10 ships started with, 3 destroyed and the others untouched would not trigger retreat where as 2 destroyed and 7 suffering 50% damage would.

I see a need for this on occasion where I am engaged in 3 or 4 battles at once. A verbal warning of “Our fleet is in retreat” would prevent “I forgot about that” situations.

A bit more story; either in the form of a few custom scenarios with triggered events, or maybe even just putting it in the hands of some of the mod folks and letting them do it.

(I,E: Make one big map, set the three races on it, and have the story described in the manual occur, maybe answering the question of just -what- wiped out the Dark Fleet)

I'd like an option that completely turns off the UI. Similar to the existing cinematic mode, but not include the empire icons over selected ships and hide the top and bottom interface bars as well as hiding the empire tree. Make it mappable to a key (not mapped by default). This would be great for making you-tube or similar videos to help show off the game, or even just sitting back and watching as your fleet engages in epic battles.

AGREE 100% with Reply 1035 !

The command you're looking for already exists. CTRL-Shift-Z.

Perhaps this would make some games too long but I would enjoy having different government systems and economic systems that would utilize different things. Almost like Civ4. You can up the research bonus at the cost of monetary output. It would be cool if you were in a big crunch to re-orient the population to stress a particular thing like research of ship production.
I also do not understand the culture system at all but I do not know if because there is not much to it or because I just do not understand it so maybe thats a discussion for another thread.

1. An Acadamy for fleet and tactical increases.
It would be nice to be able to train capital ship crews through means of a structure or planetary development.
2. A seperation of bounty for an agenst.
This way if your enemy has a bounty on you, you will have to buy it off even if you have one on them.
3. Formations for fleets.
4. Patrols, both in a single system and multi system (fleets only)

I would very much like to see R&D costs become "unfixed". Having the cost POSSIBLY (not for sure) vary by a small but unknown amount (in a range of +/- 3% to 8%) would add a pleasant degree of uncertainty to the game without causing any horrendous displacements. I do not play multiplayer, but it might benefit that kind of game. And this would certainly reflect the uncertainty one would expect in any actual R&D program.

I'd also suggest considering an option in the game set-up phase to remove experience from the game. I have not played enough yet to know, but in many of these kinds of games experience can exert too powerful of an influence, unbalancing the game in a fashion disproportionate to its actual value. Perhaps that is not the case in SoaSE, but the option to remove it would be nice.