Semi-Official 6.x Suggestion Thread

[Shipright]

RELIEF ORDERS!

So, basically I should be able to give a TG the order "Relieve TG #0001" which would make that TG go to wherever TG #0001 is and when it gets there trigger an order for "Upon Relief Move To XXX" in  TG #0001's queue.

Basically this would let you do the following for a stationary picket:

1st Survey Squadron

(Default Orders) Survey Nearest Asteroid
Upon Relief Move To Earth
Refuel From Colony Earth
Resupply From Colony Earth
Overhaul (Rewind Clock) Earth
Relieve 2nd Survey Squadron
Cycle

2nd Survey Squadron

(Default Orders) Survey Nearest Asteroid
Upon Relief Move To Earth
Refuel From Colony Earth
Resupply From Colony Earth
Overhaul (Rewind Clock) Earth
Relieve 1st Survey Squadron
Cycle

In this instance the ships would simply trade off stations but continue the overall asteroid survey mission. You could basically have this mission go on forever without any input from the player until it runs out of asteroids.  It would be great if you could add a specific delay to the Relieve order as well so that you can time it to roughly match crew rest needs.

The issue I see here is the linear way that orders are carried out. The default order would just queue up one survey location and them move on to the next order in line, so the "Upon Relief" order would have to be coded so that its not activated or moved beyond until a relieving ship with the "Relief" order gets there to activate it. In fact it if it could be coded so the ship cycles orders queued before the "Upon Relief" order until that order is activated you could have a warship on a constant patrol route.

You could have a less complicated order like "Relieve TG #0001 and send to XXX" with the relieving TG assuming whatever orders are left in the queue of TG #0001 and TG #0001's original orders cancelled and replaced with whatever location was in the relieve order, which could give you:

1st Defense Squadron

Relieve 2nd Defense Squadron and send to Earth

2nd Defense Squadron

Move to Mars
Move to Titan
Move to Waypoint XXX
Move to Waypoint XXX
Move to Venus
(Cycle)

In this case the mission would continue (though perhaps from the top of the list if you can't track where in the cycled queue the target TG is at) and the relieved TG would go back to base. Unfortunately you would have to manually send out the relief TGs and queue of follow on orders like refuel and resupply but its still less intensive.

Lots of issues with this, but the gist is in a game that keeps such close track of fuel, supplies, maintenance clocks, ordinance and crew rest an option to have different groups of ship cycle between the same mission automatically could be a micro management life saver.

[Saibot]

A screen to view all teams and ground units including division/brigade heirarchy would be nice.

[UnLimiTeD]

As far as I know, AI ships don't calculate fuel.
This creates a hole in their economy, and allows them to scout forever.
Maybe instead of not using any, at all, the ships should have a default order to return home at 10% fuel, excluding combat, but not actually face consequences if they run out.
Bar any better suggestions made that I just haven't seen.

[sloanjh]

As far as I know, AI ships don't calculate fuel.
This creates a hole in their economy, and allows them to scout forever.
Maybe instead of not using any, at all, the ships should have a default order to return home at 10% fuel, excluding combat, but not actually face consequences if they run out.
Bar any better suggestions made that I just haven't seen.

+1.  I think the "not actually face consequences if they run out" eliminates the problems with coding up the AI, since it essentially just moves the current behavior to (fuel<10%) with an auto-order to return home when in that state.

John

[Thundercraft]

I read an interesting suggestion on the Genetic Modification: switching between subspecies? thread on The Academy. As such, I thought I would mention it here on the official suggestions thread:

... it appears that modifying members of a subspecies is totally impossible.  Under the GMC drop-down, the only available option is "No Modification for Derived Species. "

I think I won't bother trying to colonize Triton after all. . .

Yeah, the current rules make GMC [Genetic Modification] mostly useless. Dropping the no remodifying subspecies limitation would do a lot to fix it IMO. It would break the limitations of genetic modification at the cost of slowing modification. It's already difficult to modify large populations anyway. Maybe bump up the rate of GMCs as well...

Perhaps it was feared players would abuse the GMC system? The wiki says:

You cannot genetically modified a previously modified species, only a base.  For example, you can drop Human Temperature Tolerance by 205 to create Homo Artcis, but you cannot drop Homo Artcis' Temperature Tolerance by a further 20%

But I see no reason why it couldn't be implemented in a way that prevents such abuse.
At the very least, a lot more players would consider using GMC if it allowed a transition from sub-species back into the base species.

What I'd really like to see, however, is the option to "convert" members of an alien species into my player race, or visa versa - either by a forced conversion or by allowing some (random number?) of volunteers to undergo a conversion.

Anyway, it sounds like genetically modified species are still buggy. It seems to cause serious unrest / rioting problems based on prejudice - even in cases where there are no baselines present to treat them poorly:

i found a planet where humans would require infursturcture.  I Genetically modified and created a human 2 race now the colony 3 jumps out from earth had humans on it so i sent human 2 there and removed the humans.  Now im getting messages that human 2s are still resenting minority status even though all other original humans have been removed and their colony buildings etc sent over to the new ones.  Seems to be a bug or a ability to change the race on a planet but the unrest still rises

...I just started producing genetically engineered "Lunies" on Earth.  Every 5-day, I now get a "Unrest Increasing"/"Unrest Ruthlessly Suppressed by Ground Forces" pair of messages which interrupt auto-turns.  I assume it's coming from "Unrest Increasing", and I'd like to turn it off.  [snip]...i.e. the interrupt is forcing me into 1-click-per-turn mode.

[joeclark77]

I read an interesting suggestion on the Genetic Modification: switching between subspecies? thread on The Academy. As such, I thought I would mention it here on the official suggestions thread:

Perhaps it was feared players would abuse the GMC system?

I would assume it's because you could get a much-lower temperature tolerance without doing the research.  Instead of studying temperature minus 30, you could just do a temp minus 10 modification three times.  At any rate I don't think the solution is to modify modified species.  I think this actually creates a good incentive to go out and conquer alien species, so you can modify their races to make new types of slave populations.

[Thundercraft]

I would assume it's because you could get a much-lower temperature tolerance without doing the research.  Instead of studying temperature minus 30, you could just do a temp minus 10 modification three times.

Fair point.
However, it should be possible to have the game measure from the base species when calculating how much temperature or gravity tolerance/adjustment to allow and how much it costs - giving the same results as if one had just modified the base species.

But, again, I see no reason why we shouldn't be allowed to return a modified species back to the original base species. If nothing else, this would allow us to get our base species back in cases where we don't have many of those left in the immediate area.

At any rate I don't think the solution is to modify modified species.  I think this actually creates a good incentive to go out and conquer alien species, so you can modify their races to make new types of slave populations.

Heh. I really don't think players need an added incentive to go out and conquer other races. Largely, that seems to be what players do - or what they aim to do. Anyway, as it is, modifying alien species for your own purposes is a tempting idea. And I don't see how having the ability to re-modify your own species or return them to their base state would detract from any of that.

[Steve Walmsley]

*Ground unit theme names.

I would love to able to set default names for ground units. IE if I train up 5 Mobile Infantry, it might name them Security Company or Feudal Levy or Response Team or Armored Raiders.  It's kind of a  pain to rename them one by one, too much to bother with, especially in a multi faction game.

For v6.30, you can change the default names of ground unit types for each Empire using a button on the GU Training tab of the Economics window. For example, in my current campaign the French have changed Assault Infantry to Légion étrangère. You can also change the associated abbreviation.

When you build units of this type it will create a default name based on this new name (so 5th Légion étrangère instead of 5th Mobile Infantry)

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

Give us a reason to spread our labs around a bit. It's not logical that they all should be focused on earth (or what your starting colony is called), but just like with mines you need to move them around and expand.

4.) Add "anomalies". These can be located on planets and give a local bonus in one certain fields of research, for example +50% power and propulsion research on that planet. Anomalies can also be out in space related to jump points, for example a stalbe or unstalbe wormhole allowing travel for crafts with no jump engine without building a jumpgate.

I've considering something along these lines for a while and your suggestion finally spurred me into action (and provided a name)

There is now a chance to find an "Anomaly" on a system body. Anomalies will provide a boost for a single research field from 10% to 100% for all research facilities located on that system body. These will commonly be found at the site of alien ruins but not exclusively. There will be various types of anomalies, starting in v6.30 with the following three (unless I think of more before release)

1) Alien Installation. Usually found at the same location as alien ruins but can be discovered in isolation (any research field)
2) Unusual Radiation from Star. Innermost planet will be classed as having the anomaly  (will not be MK, CP or LG)
3) Unusual Magnetic field on Gas Giant. Innermost moon will be classed as having the anomaly (will not be MK, CP or LG)

With 2) and 3) it is possible the anomaly could be on a planet you can't normally colonise, or that has a very high colony cost. In that case you will have to decide whether orbital habitats will be worthwhile.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

i found a planet where humans would require infursturcture.  I Genetically modified and created a human 2 race now the colony 3 jumps out from earth had humans on it so i sent human 2 there and removed the humans.  Now im getting messages that human 2s are still resenting minority status even though all other original humans have been removed and their colony buildings etc sent over to the new ones.  Seems to be a bug or a ability to change the race on a planet but the unrest still rises

Unrest due to minority status has been removed in v6.30

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

If you captured a colony on the same planet as yours, it would be nice to have a button that could merge the two colonies on the same planet. It would be helpful for the multi-faction starts.

That won't be possible in general because the two populations could have different environmental tolerances and/or different political statuses. It would be possible for two imperial populations of the same species on the same planet but that is quite a rare situation so I haven't tackled this yet.

Steve

[Aloriel]

I've noticed that Brigadiers and Major-Generals have some issues, and had thoughts about those.

It seems to me that most Brigadiers are useless, and the same applies to Major-Generals.  The problem is that once you reach R2 rank, the only stat that appears to matter is training rating.  The ground combat bonus only applies to the unit they are assigned to, and Brigade and Division HQs are rather useless in combat in general.  With that in mind, I had this thought:

Why not have a similar system to how Major-Generals transfer their training rating with ground combat bonus?

For example, a given Brigadier might have a 20% GCB.  Transfer 1/4 of this to each of the battalions under his/her command.  A Major-General would similarly provide just 1/16th to each battalion (and perhaps 1/4 to each Brigade HQ).  This would imply that Brigadiers are giving better orders to their Colonels (and so on).

[Steve Walmsley]

I've noticed that Brigadiers and Major-Generals have some issues, and had thoughts about those.

It seems to me that most Brigadiers are useless, and the same applies to Major-Generals.  The problem is that once you reach R2 rank, the only stat that appears to matter is training rating.  The ground combat bonus only applies to the unit they are assigned to, and Brigade and Division HQs are rather useless in combat in general.  With that in mind, I had this thought:

Why not have a similar system to how Major-Generals transfer their training rating with ground combat bonus?

For example, a given Brigadier might have a 20% GCB.  Transfer 1/4 of this to each of the battalions under his/her command.  A Major-General would similarly provide just 1/16th to each battalion (and perhaps 1/4 to each Brigade HQ).  This would imply that Brigadiers are giving better orders to their Colonels (and so on).

The ground combat bonus of Brigadiers and Major-Generals applies to all units under their command.

Steve

[Aloriel]

It does? Oh.     Nevermind then.      Glad to hear it.   

EDIT: Though, upon further inspection, it doesn't appear to make reference to that in the GU display.    While I am sure that it happens in the combat itself, it would be good to have a reference to it for the player to see.   

Here's an example of several garrison units.    My GU combat strength is 16 right now.    You will notice that the bottom set doesn't have any change from 16, despite having a GCB of 20% from their brigadier.    The upper and middle groups do display changes because of the Colonel's ability, but not the Brigadier.   

hxxp:i225. photobucket. com/albums/dd86/aneiraelf/Groundcombatbonustroubles_zps67cd776a. jpg

(hmm, didn't like my image link.   I'll make it plain text.  )
(Ahhh! Now I understand why links and things aren't working.  Anti-spam bot.  Interesting idea! Anyway, the link info is all there.  It's a picture like I described.  Clearly I must become more active! )

[Khanti]

I have some minor suggestion:
Could you please allow using different named images in Medals folder (named with numbers and letters)?
As for now only standard numbers are valid (M003, M104 etc).

Example: M056. jpg, M056a. jpg, M056b. jpg, etc

I just made a recoloured version of many medals and I will be happy to have them under similar names, rather than numbers.
You may see some of them on the picture - just remove the spaces and follow the link.

http: //img5. imageshack. us/img5/459/sacq. jpg

PS: Great game btw