Hey all,
I've been thinking about this one for a while. There are a few modifications to Sins' interface that I'd like to see, and I'm pretty sure they'd all improve playability without needing balance testing. They range from relatively simple to really complex. I've selected my top 3 to share with everyone. Difficulties ratings for implementation are just rough guesses based on how much might have to be changed and tested to get them to work.
1) Always show the presence of my ships in the "summary" view when zoomed out.
Problem: I hate loosing track of my ships! When you're zoomed out at the solar system level, sometimes allied ships will hide the presence of your own. Having to run around highlighting planets to find where I left ship X isn't much fun.
My solution: There should ALWAYS be at least one tick-mark with my colours at a planet where I have ships.
Difficulty: Easy.
2) Improve manual targetting
Problem: Part of the allure of the empire tree is that it makes manual targeting easier... in theory. However, when units in the tree are changing, the whole thing becomes a jumble. This means when queuing up a set of attack orders you might miss your intended target... and have to start all over again. That's no fun!
My solution: I think the easiest way to improve here is to allow players to target ships as a class, just like alt-selection works in the empire tree for your own units. A fleet behaviour toggle to specify focused fire or "default"-fire would give a pretty good spread of behaviours, as long as it sticks to units when different fleet elements are given different orders.
Difficulty: Moderate to Hard.
3) Improve fleet maintenance
Problem: When fighting on multiple fronts, you have to keep track of not only your fleets, but the factories supplying them. This means you have to split your attention. Having to dart back and forth between fleets and factories just to add reinforcements is no fun.
My solution: Make fleet composition work more like carriers. You set the fleet composition much like fighter/bomber counts on carriers, and either automatically assign factories to keep your fleets reinforced, or use rally points to set up up factory -> fleet associations. Now when you're worried about your fleets, your focus stays on THEM, and since this is probably a bit more automatic, you'd have more time to manage combat or your empire.
Difficulty: Hard.
So, that's my two cents. Over to you guys. If you had to pick THREE things to change about the interface, what would they be? What would your solutions be? If you think the problems I've mentioned are worth correcting, would you use a different solution?
