Official v1.04 wish list (Unofficial)

from Sins Forums
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|
| OK i have some ideas i have been writing down while i play the game.
| Here they are:
|
| - An option to have the alt button always pushed. so that health bars, targeting
| orders, and range indicators are always present.
|
| - The black market and pirate bidder be separate buttons on the top of the screen. So that you can quickly choose
| which window to open.
|
| - The pirate bidder screen can be minimized to only show a small portion of the
| screen so that you can control your empire while keeping an eye/bidding on pirates.
|
| - Have a little pirate target indicator on the main hud, showing who is the current
| target and what the price is.
|
| - When you select multiple colonies and set ship build orders, the factories should
| split the build order between them. Ex, i have two planets, with one factory each,
| selected and i build 4 ships, each factory will build 2 ships.
|
| - This is just my opinion, but im not really feeling any of the symbols. They all
| are really generic. Like, triangles with circles inside them, or circles with
| triangles inside them.
|
| - An exp bar for the capital ships. For at-a-glance exp monotoring.
|
| - A customizable AI attack order hierarchy; which can be custom per ship/fleet. This
| will allow me to customize what the AI makes my ships attack. For Example, I want
| all my flak frigates to attack only bombers, then fighters, then frigates, ... ,
| lastly base defense. Or make my light frigates attack other light frigates before the
| capital ships. Also a setting for my ships to either, attack lowest hp or shields,
| attack highest hp or shields, or spread damage equally or randomly.
|
| - A filter for multi-player to filter out games with passwords and AI players.
|
| - It would be nice if i could double click a planet and it will very quickly zoom into
| the gravity well, or a star and it will zoom to the solar system.
|
| - An option to block/squelch ppl in ICO chat because i have experience some one spamming a buch of random
| letters. Then he was kicked from the game but he rejoined the chat channel of the game from the lobby and
| continued to spam.
|
|
| Thank you Ironclad and Stardock for this excellent game.
|
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48,242 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
My wish list:

-An in-game clock that tells you either how long have you played or tells the real time.

-A in-game MP3 player

I think thats all for now.The in-game clock is quite important for me.Even with the demo,i tend to play it till the wee hours in the morning.I cant afford to play this uber addictive game till midnight when im in session.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
A screen that shows me who has what with other players. Like peace, trade, shared vision, ect ect.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
more movement tactics and combat options for ships. Like functions for guarding structures and other ships. Having different formations options and also ability for evasive manuvering and also cover fire would be nice. Last thing is options of attacking while holding its ground would be nice too. This way, there are more tactical elements to combat.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I second the pirate ideas mentioned by the TC (as well as the separate black market button)

Also wanted: The (hopefully) future black market button to show the market graph
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Like all the above ideas too. I have some minor issues

1) Why do the assembly drones, etc. start crystal/ore mining starting with the furthest asteroids? Sometimes I see them travel a long distance when they could have been halfway through building on the closest astroids.

2) Locked teams gets turned off when I restart a saved game during a FFA match. It'll be set to locked but I'll get missions sometimes when starting from a saved game.

These next two more along this thread:

3) When you queue the exporation of a planet (or planet health) to max the planet summary screen shows the planet expoaration at 100% right away even though it hasn't been fully explored yet. This has thrown me for a loop sometimes when I am trying to get artifacts.

4) This one really bugs me: If you have a capital ship that uses one those "disable abilites" bonuses on an enemy ship the rest of your fleet will ignore them and go back to their resting points "even when it is the only enemy ship in the gravity well". OK, I understand if there are other high priority targets in the gravity well they would attack them instead of a disabled ship. However, in this case wouldn't the other ships in your fleet just finish that single ship off? Instead they leave the local battle and return to their resting points. I've had too many instances where a single enemy capital ship makes its way through a gravity well of a planet from one end to the other vs. 200 ships because my fleet stops attacking it when one of my cap. ships applies the disable ability. I shouldn't have to micromanage this ability in the heat of battle.

5) Since Homeworld 2 I've always wanted the ability to be able to suicide a ship into another ship or group of ships that causes more damage (or collateral damage) than normal damage per second. If you know one of your capital's are not going to make it why not try to RAM 'EM AND GO OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY TAKING AS MANY OF THEM AS POSSIBLE!! Arrrrrr.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
- An option to have the alt button always pushed. so that health bars, targeting | orders, and range indicators are always present. ||
Great idea

- The black market and pirate bidder be separate buttons on the top of the screen. So that you can quickly choose | which window to open. ||
Na, good how it is, don't need more UI clutter. It remembers the last one you had it on, which is good. Works fine.

- The pirate bidder screen can be minimized to only show a small portion of the | screen so that you can control your empire while keeping an eye/bidding on pirates.||
Another good idea.

- Have a little pirate target indicator on the main hud, showing who is the current| target and what the price is.||
Does on the black market screen.. don't need lots of UI clutter.

- When you select multiple colonies and set ship build orders, the factories should| split the build order between them. Ex, i have two planets, with one factory each,| selected and i build 4 ships, each factory will build 2 ships.||
Just build two factories on one planet and it'll split them automatically like you described.. I don't see why you'd have factories on different planets which y ouwant to build the same ships as.

- This is just my opinion, but im not really feeling any of the symbols. They all | are really generic. Like, triangles with circles inside them, or circles with | triangles inside them. ||
I like a lot of them..

- An exp bar for the capital ships. For at-a-glance exp monotoring.||
UI clutter isn't good. Maybe if it went under the health bar so was easy to see, though. But I think ther eis more important things, hovering over works fine.

- A customizable AI attack order hierarchy; which can be custom per ship/fleet. This | will allow me to customize what the AI makes my ships attack. For Example, I want| all my flak frigates to attack only bombers, then fighters, then frigates, ... ,| lastly base defense. Or make my light frigates attack other light frigates before the| capital ships. Also a setting for my ships to either, attack lowest hp or shields,| attack highest hp or shields, or spread damage equally or randomly.
Not a horrible idea.. but why? What they do now is good except for flak frigs chasing around fighters instead of attacking LRMS. Why would you want ships to not attack their optimal targets?
Yeah not a horrible idea but probably not worth the time to implement.


- A filter for multi-player to filter out games with passwords and AI players.|| - It would be nice if i could double click a planet and it will very quickly zoom into| the gravity well, or a star and it will zoom to the solar system.||
I thought filtering out passworded games was already in? Hm if it's not it needs to be. Good idea with filtering out AI games too!
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
To be able to CHOOSE your starting point.. Like in ALL other strategy games ever produced....
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
.Even with the demo,i tend to play it till the wee hours in the morning.I cant afford to play this uber addictive game till midnight when im in session.
End of quote


Windowed mode -> Drag bottom bar upwards -> See taskbar with time -> ??? -> Profit
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Windowed mode -> Drag bottom bar upwards -> See taskbar with time -> ??? -> Profit
End of quote


Windowed mode no fun lah.My screen is small enough and i dont want to lose more space.

Maybe i just set an alarm clock when i play.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
only have 2 issues with the game so far.

first is a minidump crash issue when i try and make maps that are too big(started getting crashes steadily when maps had over 1000 planets). not a big issue really, i'm just a fan of creating huge galaxies and then spending months of playtime conquering them.

second problem ties in with the huge map idea. the research tree is either too small or abilities cost too little and are gotten to quickly. in larger galaxies where you may not run into another player for 5-10 planets, it is too easy to build defenses and then sit back and wait for money/metal/crystal to accumulate so you can build and buy all research. i just started a map with 20 stars and 500+ planets, i've only conquered 8 planets and 3 asteroids and i've already completed all the research. now i get nothing new for 490+ planets.

possible solutions:

raise price of research

add more researchable skills

and (my personal favorite idea)

add new ships and research buildings that become available when you have a certain number of planets under control. exp. "Quantum Research Facility"(available to all factions upon control of 50 planets.) maybe it allows you to build wormholes.

anyway besides that i think the game is awesome. i can run the 500+ planet map well enough on highest settings, but i'm curious what the v1.1 patch textures will do.

keep up the good work.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
You made a 500 planet map?

How long does it take to finish a game?
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Research costs scaling a bit (half cost on smaller maps, twice on big multistar ones) would be nice.

But if that's going to come there also needs to be increased cost per additional lab or tech rush will be too easy on the smaller ones.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

I would like to be able to look at my planets on the map and be able to tell immediately which ones need upgrading.

And this one is way out there, but..
I would like them to investigate the possiblity of tying some of the fleet points to how many planets you own, so empires with 5 planets cannot afford to have the same fleet size as an empire with 30 planets (like in the beta).
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
A lot of these UI requests could be accomplished if: (1) All the dialogs (tech/bounty/black market/info card/network activity/artifacts/diplomacy etc) had a minimal form, and (2) you could toggle these minimal forms on and off as floating windows, or possibly just docked windows on the right hand side (opposite of the empire tree). Being able to detach a pin from the empire tree as it's own window would be cool too.
Of course, these suggestions are more on the scale of 1.10 feature requests (as are a lot of the OPs)
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
I would love a windowed mode for this game, I do multiple things on my computer and hitting the windows button to open a new webpage on my other screen is a pain.

WINDOW MODE FTW
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
My wish list:-An in-game clock that tells you either how long have you played or tells the real time.-A in-game MP3 playerI think thats all for now.The in-game clock is quite important for me.Even with the demo,i tend to play it till the wee hours in the morning.I cant afford to play this uber addictive game till midnight when im in session.
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Aahaha. I think perhaps Sins is more personally destructive than the better turn based strategy titles, since that opportunity for self restraint - "just one more turn" - is lost with its real time play. On a few occasions I've beaten the AI to my satisfaction and noticed that somehow five hours have elapsed. A clock might indeed be handy :). Pretty low priority feature though.

As for the MP3 player - this in my opinion is bloatware. I use the excellent foobar audio player for my music listening, and this merrily runs in the background (eg currently 0% cpu and < 7mb memory usage), burbling out my chosen playlist of ambient music. Foobar features global hotkeys, so you can skip back and forwards through your playlist from within Sins.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
I would love a windowed mode for this game, I do multiple things on my computer and hitting the windows button to open a new webpage on my other screen is a pain. WINDOW MODE FTW
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It has a windowed mode. Go to display options and tick the "Run in a window" checkbox (or untick the "Fullscreen" checkbox. I forget which way they have it).

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
beat me to it Sideshow_

krogothCAD : you sound suspiciously like an EVE online player. I've yet to find another game that is better improved by doing something else most of the time.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
I would love a windowed mode for this game, I do multiple things on my computer and hitting the windows button to open a new webpage on my other screen is a pain. WINDOW MODE FTW
End of quote


Windowed mode has existed since early betas :P I've always used it! Just go into video options and the check box is below the list of resolutions.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
i want to have the 4 crystal extractors on a ice planet back and the 2 metal and crystal back on the asteroids i love this game but not as fun anymore a lot harder to fight hard ai
dont play online so it kind take fun away when i have to spend 2 times as long building a empire or does anybody know how to take the update off my game
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
You made a 500 planet map?How long does it take to finish a game?
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haven't finished yet, 47 hours and ~50 planets and counting.

fyi, hard AI is sneaky. offered trade alliance, then snuck a whole fleet behind my frontlines while i was looking at another part of the system. the then proceded to come very close to destroying my home planets. they did succeeed ingetting most of my trade and media hubs and research centers. pain in the butt.
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
My comments:

- The empire tree scrolling behaviour is wrong in 1.03, it's possible to click on something and have the tree jump-scroll to put that item off the screen. tsk tsk. When you click on something in the empire tree, that item should stay still and the tree expand/collapse around it.

Example of current behaviour - if you click on a fleet to select it then the *planet* where that fleet is located is highlighted and the tree scrolls to have it on-screen. If this planet is not close (in the tree) to the fleet then the fleet is scrolled off-screen, even though you just clicked on it. Really annoying.

- fleet management. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do something as simple as have some ships leave one fleet and join another. The leaving bit is easy, but then the ships just sit around on their own, no matter how I try and make them join another fleet... in many cases the "auto fleet join" is ignored. It seems to work only when a ship is built and not afterwards?

Please, can we have something as simple as drag-and-drop in the empire tree to move ships between fleets??

- Finding out *where* a fleet is located could be made a bit easier. eg mousing over the fleet emblem might show the fleets current location on its infocard. At the moment you have to select the fleet and see which planet lights up, but this has the nasty scrolling behaviour mentioned above.

- Have an option to show fleets at planets just by their fleet icon and not show the ships at all in the planets info.

- Consider re-sorting the empire tree to put fleets immediately next to (above) the planets where they are currently located. This would work well with the previous option and save a lot of screen space.

cheers, Bird
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
My biggest wish would be: a game option that makes the fleet size and number of capital ships based on the number of planets under your control, fleet research would then be like a multiplier that defines how many ships you would get per planet. I heard that the beta had that feature for some time. I also know that some people don't like that, that's why it could be a starting option.

For ship ai: give the ships a priority list on what to attack, so that fleeing ships are ignored while another enemy is in the same gravity well and still attacking.

Starting position: i tried a huge map with 5 stars and 10 players, i looked around in the solar system and saw that there were 3 other players in the same system. This set me and the other 3 to a huge disadvantage, because of more competition in the starting system. I think starting position should be more even.

Diplomacy: in said 10 player game the 3 ai players almost immediately sent requests to give them resources, as i refused to do so, they allied with each other and startet a synchronized attack on me, which seemed a little ridiculous as the game was only running for less than an hour.... i mean 1 denied request = alliance with other ai players + attack... I also think it would be much better if everyone is on neutral upon game start and not at war.
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
a game option that makes the fleet size and number of capital ships based on the number of planets under your control
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This was the way it was in beta. It was changed, I suppose, to let small-# planet players with a good economy compete with larger ones.
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
This was the way it was in beta. It was changed, I suppose, to let small-# planet players with a good economy compete with larger ones.
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well, as it is know the strongest player planet-wise, is the weakest player considering defense, because he has the smallest number of ships per planet availible to defend. I think it should be a base number + an amount per planet. Something like on the highest cap ship research level: 10 + 1(per planet), or something. As weaker players are likely to ally themselves against the big one (talking about ai here), the ballance is not thrown off, but the strongest player would have a chance again. Even on a 20+x planet map i had trouble towards the end fighting off 2 planetwise outnumbered ais, just because both together simply had a lot more ships, than i was allowed to build.