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Let us know what you'd like in v1.03

Let us know what you'd like in v1.03

Wow.  We're just so happy that people are liking the game.  We're also happy that the reviews are coming out very positive so far.  And, well, we're definitely happy with the sales.  It's doing even better than Galactic Civilizations II did which was really well.

Here's our upcoming schedule:

  1. Get a v1.03 update out
  2. Make Demo
  3. Start work on v1.04

We hope to get v1.03 out by the end of the month (no promises though). Ironclad (and Stardock) are pretty exhausted from the final weeks of effort and the first week of launch so resting will be done. :)

So think of v1.03 as a few key tweaks that you think would really make the game more enjoyable not just for you but other people.

Here's an example of things we're talking about right now:

  • Updated AI players
  • More Game Speed Options
  • More aggressive AI players replacing dropped players (i.e. active AI)
  • AI surrendering
  • Improvements to ICO
  • Unit cap increases

We have lots of ideas. But the key thing to remember, we want to get 1.03 out this month if possible. So sure, we can all imagine things like random events or fancier diplomacy or other things of that nature but those would take far too long to get into the game.

 

556,101 views 1,040 replies
Reply #252 Top
being able to set a difficulty for the AI you fight, like ranging from that wasnt so bad to this is intense.
Reply #253 Top
I would really like to have scouts "Auto Scout" upon build. The only reason that I make scouts is to have them scout, and it's a pain in the butt to have to turn this on to auto every single time.
Reply #254 Top


4) this one is abit out there but i really would like to see another kind of combat ship like the cobalt that was lower on the tech tree (cruiser sized ship) which would act as an interim ship instead between the cobalt and kodiak, this would be an excellent way to stop the cobalt (and equivalant ship) spam tactic that seems to be employed alot - now i know there are already ways to counter it so don't tell me that i need to L2P. it's a suggestion.
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i totally agree on that, its nice to have a nice medium sized ship as your standard fighter, in stead of having to tech almost all the way up to get the next level of standard fighting ship.
Reply #255 Top
First off, fantastic game!

I'd also like to add my support for dynamic multiplayer (AI replacements for dropped players and/or AI drops for new players) as well as additional victory options (economic, cultural, etc.).

Thanks!
Reply #256 Top
I'm noticing there a quite a few abilities and techs that say do such and such to "Fighters". Does this mean only fighters and not bombers, or is it trying to say all strike craft?

Next patch should clean those descriptions up, if neccessary. Abilities that affect both Fighters and Bombers should say "Strike Craft" and not just "Fighters".
Reply #257 Top
Oh I have another:

Allow teamates to use vasari's phase lanes!
Reply #258 Top
Hi guys... Loving the game WELL DONE!!!

I would like a phase jump inhibitor that does what it says on the tin... or a unit that acts like a Star Wars Interdictor class Star Destroyer... Would love to lock down certain routes, but that is just my playing style - slow and defensive - hence why I havent ventured online yet!
Reply #259 Top
I think it would be cool to be able to buy out the nuetral factions or pirates gaurding nuetral systems kind of like in Rise of Legends. I also think the minor races should be in control of the world so start out with, so you have to take them out to get the world.
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I totally agree with this. It would be EASY to make the symbol that appears on this ship appear over the planet. This way it is OBVIOUS to those new comers that all the planets are already colonized, but make the hit points on the planet ridiculously low. They are not warier civs so they are not good at protecting themselves, but that doesn't mean they WANT to be taken over...
Reply #260 Top
Great game! I've so far played a couple medium maps with a friend to learn the ropes. I've had some epic battles with a normal AI opponent over a critical planetary system. That was fun. My simple suggestion for 1.03 is related to pirates. Pirates are fun, but would be more interesting if you could choose to not display the timer. Also, let there be an option when setting up a map that says pirates will attack between x and y. You can set x to 10 mintues and y to 20 minutes. So it will add a more random element to the game. Currently, the time between attacks is preset and not customizable. The pirates make the game more interesting. This would add flexibility to the game creation.

Thanks, and again, awesome game! Keep up the good work!
Reply #261 Top

I would like to see Dual core support for my AMD 64 processor.
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What makes you think it doesn't? I see 100% CPU usage on both my cores with my AMD processor. Have you not installed the dual-core optimizer from AMD's website? It helps applications use dual-core that aren't necessarily written for it.
Reply #262 Top
I like the idea of letting your human player allies use your Vasari Phase Gate tech as well so they can jump around your planets at least easier.

Reply #263 Top
I think the reverie ability of the revelation BC needs to be adjusted. Currently, with three points in that ability, it is possible to lock-down up to three enemy ships for as long as you desire. I have had several battles, that should have been pretty even, end up quite one sided because I was able to keep all my opponents capital ships out of action until I had destroyed all his frigates and cruisers. To me this seems a little over powered. I have been thinking about ways that this ability could be changed to make it more balanced. Here are my best suggestions:

-increase the cool-down or decrease the duration so that it is only possible to lock-down about 1 and 1/2 ships. The 1/2 ship being one where the ability expires at least 10-15 seconds before the cool-down from the second usage has expired.

-increase the energy costs, to create a similar situation as above.

-make any ship that is effected by the ability temporarily immune after the effect wears off, says for 15-30 seconds or so.

-make it possible for the affected ship to break free from the ability, even if they aren't taking damage. Something like a 30%-60% chance, with ships that have larger crew and/or higher levels, having a higher chance of breaking free.


Reply #264 Top


I would like to see Dual core support for my AMD 64 processor.


What makes you think it doesn't? I see 100% CPU usage on both my cores with my AMD processor. Have you not installed the dual-core optimizer from AMD's website? It helps applications use dual-core that aren't necessarily written for it.
End of quote


from the AMD site:

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer - The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.


When I install that application , my system becomes instable... and I read on several forums I am not alone. Why don't patch the game for real dual core support? It says on the recommanded systems specs "Intel core 2 duo processor"... so what it the deal? why not AMD support?
Reply #265 Top
I'm really enjoying the game right now. Here are things I'd like to see in upcoming patches:

1- AI taking the place of human players in multiplayer (also let the host decide the "level" of difficulty of replacement AI at the start of the game so it match closely the level of the players playing.

2- a Slider that adjust the freequency of the pirates. You added 3 minutes to their countdown in 1.02, but it would still be nice if we could adjust it ourself.

3- Add more ways to finish a game (economical, Cultural, deplomatie, etc). a la Galactic Civilization. Currently, beside destroying your enemy, there is no other way to win. Also, as you do this, you have to give players some clue of how one AI/players is heading toward which winable goals (economic, Cultural, research, deplomatie, etc).

I'm sure there would be more, but right now, these are the ones I'm thinking about.
Reply #266 Top
I read over the first page-- but not the other 5. I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already:
Research issues:

A) I want to know how many of which types of research stations I have.

B) I want to know what I'm researching without having to pour over 5 screens of research options, looking for the one that's slightly brighter than the others.

C) I want to know what my research que looks like. I can't always remember what I scheduled for when.

D) Since military and civilian research happen on different types of stations, I'd like to research the two branches simultaneously. Alternately, I'd like a good in-game (story) reason why not. Alternately again: perhaps all types of stations speed up current research?

E) other than that, this game _rocks_ :)
Reply #267 Top
Really the only suggestion I have to make is give players 5 extra minutes at the beginning before pirating commences.
Reply #268 Top
Some ideas i have are,

-I would like cap ships to feel more epic, more of an investment currently they feel like throw away ships but abilities, maby increasing thier health some more and making it so smaller ships wont be able to do as much damage as they do now.

-I would also like the AI not to freekin run so much dealing with this is alrite its just really annoying, also making the AI want to save thier citizens from certain doom would be good.
Reply #269 Top
A nice and easy thing u could add to ICO:

Give players a message when a friend joins ICO and the friend list should show who is online without having to click everyone.
Reply #270 Top
B) I want to know what I'm researching without having to pour over 5 screens of research options, looking for the one that's slightly brighter than the others.

C) I want to know what my research que looks like. I can't always remember what I scheduled for when.
End of quote


These are solved by hovering your mouse over the research button. It shows your current research progress as well as the entire queue.
Reply #271 Top

First off, fantastic game!

I'd also like to add my support for dynamic multiplayer (AI replacements for dropped players and/or AI drops for new players) as well as additional victory options (economic, cultural, etc.).

Thanks!
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Seconded. This is one of the few things that I think keeps Sins from being a "true" 4X game.

Reply #272 Top
true ive not read the entire 5 pages. i see most of my concerns are already noted.

1)choose the lead ship in a fleet but also toggle ur flagship....maybe a reward or bounty can be placed/autoplaced on a flagship for extra bonuses. set a timer or make it so the ship can't be changed in combat. (not sure about a combat bonus for flagships....maybe a culture increase for the planet the ship is in orbit around)

2)being able to ask (ha! bribe) the pirates for intel on star systems they have raided or temp ship view. something more than just out right bounty.

3)MOD TOOLS!!!!! (improved and new) :)

aswell as all the previous posts mention. better PJI's (love to be mobile but dont think it'd work), more agressive AI, empire tree ctrl groups, better AI on fleet linked carriers, CHOOSE START LOCATIONS!!, set target priority, auto-build...there a more but they are my main ones......NOT point defence. i like the level they are at except maybe give a bit more range. great game and can't wait for the patch & really can't wait for the mod tools :).
Reply #273 Top
These are solved by hovering your mouse over the research button. It shows your current research progress as well as the entire queue.
End of quote


Thanks!
Reply #274 Top
Suggestions and balance issues:

Reverie ability of the Revelation Battle Cruiser:
As mentioned at lvl 3 it can lock down 3 targets indefinately. It reads that ships should be damaging it while stunned, and this damage will break it, but there seems to be an issue here. Often my ally would use it and the only thing I could get to attack the stunned target was the auto attack of my Halycon; the rest of my fleet would always try to fly off after another target. Net result: perma-stunned till everything thing else is dead. Easy fix would be to make ships auto aquire it and have that damage break the stun after a certain threashold.

The Iconus Shield Guardians:
These need to hang back further in fleet mode, esp when set to hold fire. They should try to get the most friendly ships in range, while still staying out of the front lines.

Units autojoinning a fleet seem to never or only rarely get the proper settings, especially noticable is the group jump not being set to match the fleets.

The long trade route line seems to have some kind of issue. It seems to go to the shortest line it can make. May be a trade pact issue however, as going from a 5 jump long route to a 3 jump long route had no effect on trade income bonus, while my trade partner had a 2-3 long route.

If killing trade ships has an effect (which I haven't been able to actually measure) it should be shown on the credit report as lost trade income.

Better documentation in game for things like long trade routes, culture bonuses, effects of allied culture in locked and unlocked team games, and upgrades to buildings and ships shown in some fashion (or at least an option to show them).

I've played ~40 games so far, mostly multiplayer, and I think I have managed to read a total of two loading screen tips. The load screen flashes up and then is gone as I load in so fast. Could be get an option to show the tip for a few seconds once the game loads? I kina want to see what tips people might be reading. :P

6 player random pirate and no pirate maps. Preferably 1 sun.

Better way to get allies in locked team games to start next to eachother. Some maps are designed for this, but not all default to the correct teams as people join, so you never can be sure where people will be. Those poor guys in 3v3 between the other team get smashed up really fast.

Faster replay speeds.

Ability to view the end game graphs in real time while watching a replay?

Clairvoyance should not auto cast the millisecond you get the ability. Its a waste of antimater if it doesn't randomly hit something you actually want to see. Should default to manual cast.

When holding shift while queueing up units, it should desplay 5x the cost of what you are mousing over.

Selling and buying on the black market do not seem to let the user shift click to buy or sell more since 1.02.

PJI: some improvement needed, but please don't over react and over buff them. Games take long enough as is. Lower tactic slot cost, make it so they cover the whole gravity well, and perhaps give them a long reacharge, anti-matter using, short duration jump blocking ability. Something like a small increase to the 250% slow plus a short 10-30 second jump blocking (all jumps in and out) ability would make them pretty powerful, but not the iron curtain some people seem to want. Static defense serves to either slow down or hold the enemy till you get there, not fight your battles for you. If static defenses get to powerful, multiplayer games turn into a challenge of who can play the longest, as everyone sits in their gravity wells waiting to be attacked.

Players who drop from a multiplayer games should be replaced by and AI, or at least atuo-surrender. There should be no quit option versus real players. My normal games are often 3v3 locked teams versus real people, and if 1 jerk quits then even if the other 2 surrender we have to clean the entire map. We won, give us our darn voctory. if we wanted to beat on an ai that doesn't fight back we would comp stomp. If there are no live players on a team that started with them, then there would be at least an option for the remaining players to claim the win without having to comp stomp to end it. Last game of the night yesterday, we had 1 guy drop and the other 2 quit because of it about 1.5 hours into the game. Took 30-40 mins to nuke their 15ish worlds and get our win. Waste of time and caused us to not have enough time for 1 last game.

When setting up a game, random people sometimes get into friend's slots. They might be friending me or something, but I know they were not on my friend list. Also friends should default to friend's slots. Mine have about a 50% chance to join into the anyone slots that are open.

Option to stop the join/leave spam in ICO chat.

Holding shift should display waypoint etas. This would not only allow coordination to be easier, but also is a lot more informative then, "I don't know. I am 3 jumps away, buy they look far."

Abiltiy to set fleet facing. Have the ships use manuvering thusters to slowly turn into possition rather then making a U turn over most of the grave well.

Capitol ships should not be stopped by a single frigit in their way, especially an enemy one. I lost a Halycon because there was 1 frigit that bumped into him and he not only lost all acceleration, but also started one of those fun U turns. Ram the idiot out of the way! Or at least let capitol ships push through frigits. Look at the mass comparison for goodness sake.

ICO needs to make it easier to help people find a game that is in their skill range.

Game filters should be added for games with passwords and friend's slots only.

After a multiplayer game could we be dumped into the game room rather then the lobby? This would make chatting about the game, giving tips, and arranging revenge matches much easier.

Any plans to release a G15 application? I would love one to show the bounty on each players head, and the remaining count down till the next raid.

Pirate warnings should be a little more noticable. Especially to the person that is currently targeted.

Fleet Ai improvements.

Hard Ai improvements. Siege spamming ai is a laugh now that the siege frigits were brought down in toughness. Some times the Ai waste all or most of its starting fleet on siege frigs which I eat for breakfast and know I may as well restart because its put the comp way behind. IF and notice that is a big *IF* there is going to be another change to siege frigits, imo they would be moved up a couple tiers. Maybe make them tier 3ish. This will stall the computer from early game spamming them. Other then that the only change I could see would be lowering their survivial a tad more. Nerfing their damage is not the way to go.

Abilities which affect both bombers and fighters should say strike craft not fighters.

In-game text about natural miss rates. Other then debuffs I have no idea how much an Akkan is acually helping with its +accuruacy buff.

Culture needs to be better explained. All to often people are telling me that my culture is a waste of time, but man they need to nerf my shield mitigation, weapon dmg and (theoretically) anti-matter regen. They obviously don't understand how culture works.

Super weapon balancing. TEC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Advent>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Vasari is about the current state of things. Tec needs to be brought down to the level of Advent, and Vasari need to be brought up. The Tec cannon should only be usuable 1 at a time on a target, or have its effect changed to like killing all pop or something. Advent culture cannon feels about right, once you understand what its doing. The Vasari one is a waste. It should not affect the players own units. Perhaps change it to draining all or most of the sectors anti-matter and make all units hit unable to phase jump for a period. 10% damage to everything and everything stunned doesn't do much. Most fights are focus fire, and timing your fleet to take advantage of the stun while not getting hit with it themselves is way too hard. Personally, I would like to see it have a decently long phase jump block.

And yes I have been taking notes for quite a while as you can see.  :p 

Lastly, when doing balancing please remember that there are many different ways to play this awesome game. Not everyone likes every way, but balance changes affect them all. What the comp stomper wants a PJI to do, may ruin the 3v3 locked team games, ect.

Thank you IC and SD for creating such an awesome game, and thank you a billion times for actually listening and talking to us.

P.S. When are the IC and SD guys online to play usually? I would love to get in a team game against you guys.  :)