Suggestions Thread for v2.4.0

[MinuteMan]

A way to let the civilian fleet transport minerals and fuel between colonies.

• Supply / demand system like we have for installations
• Extended with "maintain minimal mineral reserves". minimal reserves level dictated by the minerals tab.
• Extended with "maintain minimal Fueld reserves". We should be able to set this for each colony.

[nakorkren]

Both thematically and mechanically, I love the idea of introducing orbital solar reflectors. They should be a ship module that's very large (500k tons each?) but relatively low cost, and you need lots and lots of them. That way they have to be built in-situ and can't be moved, but aren't prohibitively expensive. And they are vulnerable, much like orbital habitats, so you have to defend them more actively than just stationing ground troops.

Have them cause a % reduction in body max or min temp, whichever is furthest from the species nominal? That would allow them to be used for cooling, heating, or temp range reduction as needed for that body, all automatically. That way they have to be built in orbit of that body, and can't economically be moved, but aren't prohibitively expensive. I'd think duranium, probably nothing else. If you wanted to be super scientific we could weigh the effect by body distance from the star and star luminosity, much like terraforming is weighted by planet diameter, but that's more complicated to implement.

They should definitely be locked behind a low-ish cost tech. Could also have a tech to reduce material/cost to build, but that seems optional from a gameplay perspective.

[nakorkren]

A way to let the civilian fleet transport minerals and fuel between colonies.

• Supply / demand system like we have for installations
• Extended with "maintain minimal mineral reserves". minimal reserves level dictated by the minerals tab.
• Extended with "maintain minimal Fueld reserves". We should be able to set this for each colony.

Please please pretty please!

[Louella]

One option is building orbital installations that direct more sunlight on to the surface, or block it. They would need to be very large, but that doesn't necessarily mean expensive. They would be hard to move though, so you would likely have to move in place.

Open to ideas.

I think the problem would be finding a method that works within the game mechanics and is more efficient in certain situations than the existing terraforming mechanics - or something that goes beyond the limits of the current mechanics.

Solar shades / solar mirrors appear in other sci-fi games, (the one I am thinking of in particular is "Starsector", where they appear on some worlds.)

What I am thinking could be a thing with solar shades and mirrors, would be to mitigate the eccentricity of an orbital body to an extent. Shades to reduce peak temperature at perihelion, mirrors to increase minimum temperature at aphelion. Some worlds might need both mirrors and shades, some might only need mirrors or shades.

This might be a more viable thing to settle some more eccentric bodies, than to engineer a species with a higher temperature habitability range.

Amount of mitigation of eccentricity could depend on the size of the body (more shades/mirrors needed for bigger worlds).

It could be done with a planetary installation that is very bulky, but does not require a lot of minerals to build.

I'd also suggest that a solar shade/mirror installation would massively increase the EM/TH signature of a colony using one, and that the shades/mirrors should be targetable directly using ship-based weapons. This would be because an orbiting set of mirrors/shades would be an anomaly that could be spotted by sensors from a long long way away. And they'd be vulnerable to ship-based weapons from long range due to their sheer size and relative fragility.

[Froggiest1982]

Might be worth thinking about some other ways to allow techs to more effectively manipulate temperatures as well.

I'm lacking scientific knowledge here, but for me it feels highly plausible that advanced Sci Fi techs would allow for more efficient compounds, addatives or other means increasing the greenhouse effect (besides the current techline to just increase how quickly gases can be released into the atmosphere).

One option is building orbital installations that direct more sunlight on to the surface, or block it. They would need to be very large, but that doesn't necessarily mean expensive. They would be hard to move though, so you would likely have to move in place.

Deliberately adding dust through bombardment works too. Causing volcanic eruptions would add dust - perhaps a tech for tectonically active worlds.

Open to ideas. Redirecting comets or asteroids, even tiny ones, is not really an option within the game mechanics. A 1km comet would be hundreds of millions of tons.

I think the problem would be finding a method that works within the game mechanics and is more efficient in certain situations than the existing terraforming mechanics - or something that goes beyond the limits of the current mechanics.

There would be a way to integrate real science and sci-fi along with some existing mechanics from other games.

One of the driving factors of seasons and temperature on Earth is the Moon.

There may be a way to incorporate a moon (similar to Ogame) without debris and related features.

Essentially, you could introduce a 'moon tech' or similar concept where the Moon is constructed as an installation. It cannot be transported and could potentially provide benefits such as temperature manipulation, terraforming bonuses, or other advantages.

EDIT: It would work similarly to other installations where you can build 1 or 200, but the benefits remain the same. Alternatively, you could have level 1 or level 2, depending on how many you build. It should be expensive, both in terms of technology and the actual moon itself.

[Garfunkel]

Probably best to make a new thread just for terraforming.

[Alsadius]

When a commander dies, can that show up in the same event type as retirement, not the same event type as mild health issues? Or split "death" into its own event type, if you prefer.

Also, I'm not sure how this would work, but I'd love to be able to hide notifications about unassigned commanders. I don't usually care much about their skills increasing or their health worsening, but that's a lot of what the event log shows during quieter periods.

[Kaiser]

When a commander dies, can that show up in the same event type as retirement, not the same event type as mild health issues? Or split "death" into its own event type, if you prefer.

Also, I'm not sure how this would work, but I'd love to be able to hide notifications about unassigned commanders. I don't usually care much about their skills increasing or their health worsening, but that's a lot of what the event log shows during quieter periods.

+1 for the unassigned commanders and skills increase, It would be a huge improvement in cleaning up the interface. Of course not removing them, just an option to hide these events.

[nakorkren]

Could the NPC commercial ship designs be updated to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP? I routinely capture commercial NPC ships and then can't repair even a single engine because they don't carry any MSP beyond what's in the required single Eng bay.

[nuclearslurpee]

Could the NPC commercial ship designs be updated to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP? I routinely capture commercial NPC ships and then can't repair even a single engine because they don't carry any MSP beyond what's in the required single Eng bay.

This doesn't make any sense - why would the NPRs, logically, design their ships in a less optimal way (slightly bigger, slightly more expensive ships + the cost of supplying this MSP) merely so that their enemies can be less inconvenienced after capturing all of their ships?

The reverse suggestion - forcing player commercial ship designs to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP so that NPRs can capture them and repair a couple of engines afterwards - is quite obviously silly and would never be implemented. I don't think it makes sense to force the NPRs do something that players generally do not want to do (not to discount that some players might put MSP on some commercial ships for other reasons - but this is definitely not a universal design paradigm).

[nakorkren]

Could the NPC commercial ship designs be updated to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP? I routinely capture commercial NPC ships and then can't repair even a single engine because they don't carry any MSP beyond what's in the required single Eng bay.

This doesn't make any sense - why would the NPRs, logically, design their ships in a less optimal way (slightly bigger, slightly more expensive ships + the cost of supplying this MSP) merely so that their enemies can be less inconvenienced after capturing all of their ships?

The reverse suggestion - forcing player commercial ship designs to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP so that NPRs can capture them and repair a couple of engines afterwards - is quite obviously silly and would never be implemented. I don't think it makes sense to force the NPRs do something that players generally do not want to do (not to discount that some players might put MSP on some commercial ships for other reasons - but this is definitely not a universal design paradigm).

It absolutely WOULD make sense to force player commercial ships to include a small but reasonable amount of MSP. The only reason we don't is because the maintenance system as designed would drive non-value added busywork for the player, so we have the artificial "commercial" distinction. Commercial ships should (and do in real life and in my games, which I acknowledge is my choice) carry material and spare parts to enact reasonable repairs.

The cost to the NPC is miniscule (50t maintenance bay on a 40kton plus ship), and it fixes a fake situation (no MSP on a captured ship) that is not fixable via SM (you can SM refuel but not SM resupply).

Maybe a simpler alterative would be to add an SM resupply button?

[nakorkren]

Doing a ground invasion of an alien home world, and the information is overwhelming. Would it be possible to handle ground combat reports in a separate tab of the ground forces window, rather than (or in addition to) via the event list? When the enemy has dozens of unit types, the paragraph format of estimated ground forces is extremely difficult to absorb. It would be a lot easier if it were presented in table format in a specific tab of the ground forces window.

I know UI isn't super high on the list of priorities, but hopefully Steve will be doing a home world invasion in his current game and take pity on us!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Doing a ground invasion of an alien home world, and the information is overwhelming. Would it be possible to handle ground combat reports in a separate tab of the ground forces window, rather than (or in addition to) via the event list? When the enemy has dozens of unit types, the paragraph format of estimated ground forces is extremely difficult to absorb. It would be a lot easier if it were presented in table format in a specific tab of the ground forces window.

I know UI isn't super high on the list of priorities, but hopefully Steve will be doing a home world invasion in his current game and take pity on us!

Don't forget you can hide most of the events. In major ground combat, I just leave the overall results events and the intel events, so it is very easy to read. If you need to see the hidden events without un-hiding them individually, use See All Events on the events window.

[nakorkren]

Unfortunately I did have most of the events off, just the estimate of enemy ground forces, the summary for attack, the summary for defense, and intel updates. The issue I was having was struggling to understand how well or poorly it was going, since there were so many types of enemy units for which the quantities was being listed. I wish I'd taken a screenshot; I'll see if the prior save is part way through the fight and grab an example.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Unfortunately I did have most of the events off, just the estimate of enemy ground forces, the summary for attack, the summary for defense, and intel updates. The issue I was having was struggling to understand how well or poorly it was going, since there were so many types of enemy units for which the quantities was being listed. I wish I'd taken a screenshot; I'll see if the prior save is part way through the fight and grab an example.

If you struggle to understand if you are winning or losing, check the size of the ground forces contact, check the size of your own forces and see which is dropping faster.