Suggestions Thread for v2.4.0

[nakorkren]

In the aftermath of a recent battle/slaughter of an NPC fleet around their home world, it took me several hours to clean up (read, finish blowing up and subsequently collecting life pods. There were 240 ships involved on the NPC's side. To rescue the life pods, which I wanted to do as a decent human being (ok, horrible alien to them) and to collect intel, I had to sort through the list of 240 life pods to find the one I wanted to rescue next, queue that up, then scroll back to that point on the list and look for the next one, etc. This will likely be a very similar problem when I try to salvage this mess before any Swarm finds it.

There are a number of ways this could be made less painful. In order of increasing likely difficulty to code:

1. Sort the list of life pods (and wrecks, and contacts, and fleets for that matter) by distance to the fleet, rather than by... I'm not even sure what criteria are being used to sort, but it's not distance, time created, size, or ID. Or make it an option to sort by distance vs alphabetical.
2. Don't automatically re-scroll the list to the top. Or make resetting to the top of the list a behavior you can turn on or off with a checkbox above the list.
3. Change the standing order associated with rescuing life pods (and salvaging) automatically (which is a great idea!) to check for nearest life pod at completion of most recent order, rather than waiting for the next construction tick (or whatever the current trigger is, not 100% sure. It appears to pick up the next job after 3 hours in my current game, where I have the construction period set to either 1 or 2 days, can't remember which)
4. Allow the use of the mouse to double click on life pods to add a "rescue" command to the current fleet (and while we're at it, same functionality for adding salvage commands).

Note that 4 would be the most work but would open up all sorts of options for UI improvement. E.g. it would let you move fleets to points in space (near enemy ships, out of the way of enemy ships, to planets, salvage long stretched out lines of wrecks, survey specific grav locations, etc) visually with a single click rather than hunting through menus.

Also note that I have been posting a lot of suggestions for changes lately. Hopefully this isn't coming across as whiney or demanding. I've just had the rare opportunity to play much more than usual and more exposure = more ideas.

[nuclearslurpee]

3. Change the standing order associated with rescuing life pods (and salvaging) automatically (which is a great idea!) to check for nearest life pod at completion of most recent order, rather than waiting for the next construction tick (or whatever the current trigger is, not 100% sure. It appears to pick up the next job after 3 hours in my current game, where I have the construction period set to either 1 or 2 days, can't remember which)

This rework is desperately needed as the current standing order is more or less useless. Ideally it should work like a survey standing order where the ship can queue up the nearest 5 or 30 or however many life pods. I'd be fine with a big number like 30 here, I don't usually use more than 1-2 ships to collect life pods anyways.

Currently, if it takes 3 hours to collect a single life pod marker, it takes days to collect everything after a battle, if not weeks after a really big one, and when you're trying to clean up in an active combat zone that is simply untenable.

[paolot]

From another discussion, about laser warheads:

...
They keep closing past their detonation point during the increment when they detonate. ...

So, in 2.5.1, are they more powerful than expected, as they detonate at smaller distances from the targets?
This makes the suggestion: is it possible to add a selection of the explosion distance for the laser warheads?
The nearer to the target, the more energy arrives on it, so more potential damage can be done, but at higher risk to be intercepted.

[nuclearslurpee]

From another discussion, about laser warheads:

...
They keep closing past their detonation point during the increment when they detonate. ...

So, in 2.5.1, are they more powerful than expected, as they detonate at smaller distances from the targets?
This makes the suggestion: is it possible to add a selection of the explosion distance for the laser warheads?
The nearer to the target, the more energy arrives on it, so more potential damage can be done, but at higher risk to be intercepted.

This is how laser warheads (are supposed to) work right now - you select a distance at which they should detonate, closer = more damage but farther away = harder for enemy PD to intercept.

The bug is that the laser warheads are detonating at a closer distance than the design selection based on 5-second increment math. We can already choose a distance, it's just not working quite right.

[paolot]

OK. Never used this weapon!   

[paolot]

I don't know if this was already requested.
Technology "Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity". The explanation says: "Speed at which the gauss round leaves the cannon. Higher velocity provides better accuracy at long ranges".
A bullet at high velocity has high energy, and higher velocity/energy delivers more damage, if it hits the target.
But, higher velocity means also a shorter time to arrive at the target.
I think accuracy should depend both on the bullet velocity (but a low contribution from this) and on the calculations to determine the future position of a target (i.e. on aiming, the precision in positioning a barrel, as this strongly influences the probability to hit the target).
So, can I suggest, for all the turret mounted weapons, to have a technology line like "high speed/high power computing", which increases the aiming ability, as it foresees the target position to aim to? Together with the "Turret Tracking Speed", it helps the probability that a shot could hit the target.

[Kiero]

When a ship surrenders, its crew can become "prisoners/survivors" with a greater chance of acquiring intelligence material.
Additionally, it would be great if a surrender call could be sent out.

[Ush213]

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.

I made a suggestion a while back that you could consider terraforming bonuses for uninhabited planets to simulate bombarding terraforming. It could present itself as a tick box and when ticked apply a decent bonus. The danger would be if you tried to apply it to a populated world it will kill the pops there very fast. It could also have a double use and be used on alien worlds that you conquered and want to terraform to your pops liking. At the same encourage the alien pops to ehh "leave".

For the orbital space mirror you could probably do something similar. If a mirror installation is in orbit apply a terraforming bonus and then the size of the installation determined the size of the bonus. Increase the size of the installed same way you do shipyards only you will need your cargo ships to deposit material on the planet for the construction.
For RP reasons after the planet has been terraformed the mirror becomes fixed and stay there to maintain the atmo. Or if possible if It could be destroyed in war that the temp start to plummet on the world. Something cool like that maybe. Although that could be more of a headache then anything else. ha

The mirrors size requirement and bonus would probably have to be calculated using the planet size and distance from the sun Etc. With cold planets farther from the sun requiring huge mirrors.

[Xkill]

Proposal: Galaxy-wide Factory Production Speed Modifier

What: Provide an option at game creation and at the game selection screen that allows the player to modify the galaxy-wide factory production modifier for all races, in the same way that research, terraforming or survey speed modifiers do currently.

How: The race information window already provides this sort of functionality, however, it is limited only to the races that the player can modify. As such, NPRs are not affected, potentially giving the player races unintended advantages. This is technical and so beyond my purview, but I presume it would be simple enough to copy the same logic that applies to the other mentioned modifiers to achieve the desired effect. Actual item costs would remain the same.

Why: Allow players to speed up (or slow down) the eXpansion side of Aurora, for both the human and NPRs, without providing an unfair advantage to the player (which can be done by changing the race-specific industrial modifier). At low-to-mid tech levels, particularly if using lowered research rates or the limited research administration option, even modest expansion can take quite a while, which is both nice in some ways and frustrating in others.

I believe that an optional modifier to expansion can provide willing players with more exciting experiences due to NPRs becoming more powerful, impactful and present in larger scales sooner or for the feeling of slow, arduous progress to be enhanced even more, if desired.

[nuclearslurpee]

Proposal: Galaxy-wide Factory Production Speed Modifier

What: Provide an option at game creation and at the game selection screen that allows the player to modify the galaxy-wide factory production modifier for all races, in the same way that research, terraforming or survey speed modifiers do currently.

How: The race information window already provides this sort of functionality, however, it is limited only to the races that the player can modify. As such, NPRs are not affected, potentially giving the player races unintended advantages. This is technical and so beyond my purview, but I presume it would be simple enough to copy the same logic that applies to the other mentioned modifiers to achieve the desired effect. Actual item costs would remain the same.

Why: Allow players to speed up (or slow down) the eXpansion side of Aurora, for both the human and NPRs, without providing an unfair advantage to the player (which can be done by changing the race-specific industrial modifier). At low-to-mid tech levels, particularly if using lowered research rates or the limited research administration option, even modest expansion can take quite a while, which is both nice in some ways and frustrating in others.

I believe that an optional modifier to expansion can provide willing players with more exciting experiences due to NPRs becoming more powerful, impactful and present in larger scales sooner or for the feeling of slow, arduous progress to be enhanced even more, if desired.

Seconded because I have no idea why this is a race modifier and not a global one.

[kks]

Proposal

Seconded because I have no idea why this is a race modifier and not a global one.

Third it, but I would not move that to a global but add the global modifier.

I like it as a race modifier, as that can really give some interesting diversity. I'm currently playing an 2M RP start with only 500m pops, 0.2 pop capacity and bonus modifiers for research and industry for testing. Has a different feeling and unique challenges.

[nuclearslurpee]

Proposal

Seconded because I have no idea why this is a race modifier and not a global one.

Third it, but I would not move that to a global but add the global modifier.

I like it as a race modifier, as that can really give some interesting diversity. I'm currently playing an 2M RP start with only 500m pops, 0.2 pop capacity and bonus modifiers for research and industry for testing. Has a different feeling and unique challenges.

Yes, to be clear I think it should be both. IMO, every race modifier of this sort should have a corresponding global modifier if possible. I'd also like if the inverse was true but I'm not so strongly opinionated about it.

[skoormit]

How hard would it be to implement a game-start option to scaled the research cost for ship components by the Research Speed setting.
That way, we would have the option to play a game where theoretical research takes longer, but component design research isn't such a pain point.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

How hard would it be to implement a game-start option to scaled the research cost for ship components by the Research Speed setting.
That way, we would have the option to play a game where theoretical research takes longer, but component design research isn't such a pain point.

More tedious than difficult. I would just have to find every place in the code where a component is designed and add the modifier. However, I suspect not everyone would want the components at a different rate, so it would probably be an additional global modifier set at the same level.

[Warer]

Boost factor for engines in the name or description in the component design screen since that's one of the three most important characteristics about an engine along with it's power rating. Just something like x1.5 at the end of the name after engine power.