Semi-Official 6.x Suggestion Thread

[sloanjh]

One of the new players had an NPR pop into an already-surveyed system through a hidden warp point http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6351.0.html (I'm reverse-engineering what he said) and had a LOT of trouble figuring out how to re-set the survey points so that he could re-survey.  In fact, he thought he'd done a re-survey.

He pointed out that it would be good if the button that clears the accumulated survey points in a system were non-SM-only.  +1 from me

John

[Steve Walmsley]

One of the new players had an NPR pop into an already-surveyed system through a hidden warp point http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6351.0.html (I'm reverse-engineering what he said) and had a LOT of trouble figuring out how to re-set the survey points so that he could re-survey.  In fact, he thought he'd done a re-survey.

He pointed out that it would be good if the button that clears the accumulated survey points in a system were non-SM-only.  +1 from me

John

Added for v6.30. I've moved the button out of the SM-only area on the System View window.

Steve

[Shipright]

Academy suggestions.

Allow us to change the name of a planet's academy. You could then have Starfleet Academy or Olympus Mons University or Titan Tech or Luna Space Academy. It would be pretty cool RP wise.

Let us have multiple academy groupings on the same planet. The purpose being that you can RP having Cambridge and Harvard and Stanford all on Earth for instance. The other reason being you make it a game play decision. Lots of lower level academies give you more officers/scientists/administrators but fewer higher level ones give you less but higher quality bonus graduates.

Perhaps treat academies in a shipyardesque way, a new tab where you build each new academy in the planetary construction menu with CF but after that each academy can upgrade like shipyards do for capacity/slipway upgrades. You could actually level up each academy's various departments corresponding to each research area plus a new one each for Naval officers, Army officers, and Administrators. This would let you have an actual naval academy, or a renowned engineering school. If this would be done I suggest academy upgrades after initial construction be research projects instead of construction to simulate a renowned field expert improving an academy department (with each further upgrade being more expensive, perhaps exponentially) with the relevant officers and administrators doing those projects for their specialties. It's not so much building a new building that's important, but rather those doing the teaching. However, to make it more difficult to advance academies you could also have each one have a facilities level that that caps the level any single department can be that can be improved via a resource expensive upgrade, but one that again is upgraded in a shipyard capacity type mechanic rather than using CF. Maybe you can have both facilities level and department upgrades be possible simultaneously like shipyard capacity upgrade and using slipways for new ship construction, where new ship construction still can't exceed current capacity.

I believe the source of an officer is tracked already, if this is the case there should be a bonus for officers in the same chain of command being from the same alma mater but also a random corruption type penalty.

[Saibot]

Make changing ships and task groups between task forces more user friendly and less complicated. The dropdown menu on the task group screen doesn't work and the group always reverts back to fleet headquarters task force.

[joeclark77]

Academy suggestions.

These suggestions could also be used in conjunction with the new "anomaly" feature or even with environmental features.  So, for example, a high-gravity or cold-weather planet may produce officers with ground combat bonuses (cold weather training...), and a planet with a sensors/electronics anomaly may train scientists with that bonus as well as naval officers with "survey" bonus.  A planet with ancient ruins may train better xenologists.  A planet with a thin atmosphere or low gravity may train better space pilots (less costly spaceflight training).

[Khanti]

Make changing ships and task groups between task forces more user friendly and less complicated.  The dropdown menu on the task group screen doesn't work and the group always reverts back to fleet headquarters task force.

I would just say, that all ships-naval-fleet menus could be rewritten.  I am very glad to have economics menu (all package in one) as it is really helpful and elegant. 
I hope someday similar naval menu will be available (grouping ships F6, fighters F7, task forces F12, task forces organization Ctrl-F4, ships requiring repairs Ctrl-F11, fuel situation Ctrl-F12).

[Saibot]

Maybe if there were drag and drop functionality, instead of the way it works now.

[Khanti]

F9 shows system information which gives info about ships survey, but I can't see team's survey there.   Are there team's reports also (like: Geological Team Survey Completed NO/YES).   
If not, it will be helpful to have it here.   I tend to use it more, as it shows whether space body is moon, planet, comet, asteroid.   F2 colony summary does not show this info and I am not happy to send Geo Team to comets


F4 Commanders menu (called Leaders)
Clicking inside Potential Assignments window I can see commander detail in window Current Commander Bonuses but Additional Details (commander details) remain unaffected.  Please make it auto-refresh as well, to the same current commander view.

[IanD]

While it is possible to select miles instead of kilometres it would be nice to have the choice of knots/sec rather than k/s or miles/s. In addition could there be a choice so that fuel could be measured in gallons as well as litres? It would make using Imperial units that much more complete.
Regards
Ian

[Saibot]

F9 shows system information which gives info about ships survey, but I can't see team's survey there.   Are there team's reports also (like: Geological Team Survey Completed NO/YES).   
If not, it will be helpful to have it here.   I tend to use it more, as it shows whether space body is moon, planet, comet, asteroid.   F2 colony summary does not show this info and I am not happy to send Geo Team to comets


F4 Commanders menu (called Leaders)
Clicking inside Potential Assignments window I can see commander detail in window Current Commander Bonuses but Additional Details (commander details) remain unaffected.  Please make it auto-refresh as well, to the same current commander view.

Definitely would like a yes/no for team survey completion. I'm a perfectionist, but I don't want to send a team to an already surveyed body or clog up my colony list with colonies I'll 90% likely end up deleting.

[Whitecold]

The civilian contract system is very comfortable as you don't have to design routes to transport installations and can just say what you want to transport, however there are several things that could be improved.

• Allow the transport of minerals and components: This would make it possible to fully rely on chartered civilian freighters, for minerals a repeating order would be even better. To prevent civilians from picking up 2t of duranium, maybe a minimum of filling half the ship would have to be added for them to consider the job.
• Show the number current installations on planet: If 'Supply: Automine x50 (0)' was shown, you could check if your orders actually make sense, or you're trying to remove nonexistant structures.
• Allow your own freighters to take jobs: By adding a default order 'Accept transport order', you could automate your shipping, as civilian shipping is sometimes unable to cope with your demands, but still don't have to individually baby your freighters through multiple jump points for each type of installation each.

[alex_brunius]

The civilian contract system is very comfortable as you don't have to design routes to transport installations and can just say what you want to transport, however there are several things that could be improved.

• Allow the transport of minerals and components: This would make it possible to fully rely on chartered civilian freighters, for minerals a repeating order would be even better. To prevent civilians from picking up 2t of duranium, maybe a minimum of filling half the ship would have to be added for them to consider the job.

My biggest problem with mineral transport is that it doesn't follow the general rules of refining. That is less refined materials (minerals in our case) Always take up more space/weight for transport since the very essence of refining is removing stuff.

That is not true at all in Aurora where you can fit many times more minerals in a single cargo hold then end products "refined" out of the same minerals.

Mineral freight and setting up these routes should be the core transport flows, and they should require huge civilian or imperial freighters.

In the real world what ships are the biggest of all? Oil tankers carrying raw unrefined oil![/list]

[ZimRathbone]

My biggest problem with mineral transport is that it doesn't follow the general rules of refining. That is less refined materials (minerals in our case) Always take up more space/weight for transport since the very essence of refining is removing stuff.

That is not true at all in Aurora where you can fit many times more minerals in a single cargo hold then end products "refined" out of the same minerals.

Mineral freight and setting up these routes should be the core transport flows, and they should require huge civilian or imperial freighters.

In the real world what ships are the biggest of all? Oil tankers carrying raw unrefined oil![/list]

I've always considered that the items created are not made up solely of the TN minerals used in creating the device, and indeed that the final device may not contain all of the minerals used in its creation (which is why when you scrap you only get a proportion of the minerals back).  For example in mu current game there is a 100mm Lightspear (Laser) which requires 1x Duranium  1x Boronide  3x Corundium to manufacture, but the device itsdelf probably also has steel, carbon fiber, plastics and various other component parts that are not accounted for in the game, presumably because the cost of obtaining these components is trivial when compared to the cost of the TN minerals. 

The TN minerals are more like rare earths in manufacturing today - used in small proportions to make devices but having a significant effect on the cost.  For example the use of Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Samarium (Sm) or Dysprosium (Dy) in creating Magnets or Europium (Eu) and Yttrium (Y) in making LCD displays.  Obaining these elements is not usually difficult, but it can be expensive (because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated as rare earth minerals in economically exploitable ore deposits)

[Erik L (OP)]

Currently, the only mineral that needs/is refined is sorium into fuel. Maybe if the others were refined into refined forms via refineries... But that might also hasten duranium crashes.

[Rolepgeek]

Perhaps a way to restrict or influence which leader types are produced? That way, rather than having 40 ground forces officers and 2 scientists, you can have 30 ground forces officers and 6 scientists?