4.3 Suggestions

[James Patten]

I discovered the Combat Overview window (or whatever it's called - the one that lists all ships in a system along with fire controls, missile launchers, missiles, and contacts).  This is a really handy window and I like it a lot.  Thanks for putting it together.

I have some suggestions to make it better.  Currently I highlight a ship in the left part of the window, but when I go to any of the other parts of the window the highlight disappears from the left part.  Could you keep the highlight there or better yet would be something at the top telling me what ship I'm looking at.  Also horizontal scroll bars on the contacts part of the window, so that I can find out what the distances are for longer named ships.

Thanks to this window I discovered how to put my beam weapons on PD mode against missiles!

[IanD]

When a ship is refitted with new armour it seems strange that battle damage is not repaired at the same time! Would it not be sensible for battle damage to be figured in to the cost of a refit, especially if that particular component is being replaced?

Regards

[Steve Walmsley]

An "unassign all" would be helpful for officers.  Not "auto assign", but a quick "wipe the slate clean"

I've added this for v4.3. The only exception is that officers assigned to teams are not unassigned as that would cause a lot of complications.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

I discovered the Combat Overview window (or whatever it's called - the one that lists all ships in a system along with fire controls, missile launchers, missiles, and contacts).  This is a really handy window and I like it a lot.  Thanks for putting it together.

I have some suggestions to make it better.  Currently I highlight a ship in the left part of the window, but when I go to any of the other parts of the window the highlight disappears from the left part.  Could you keep the highlight there or better yet would be something at the top telling me what ship I'm looking at.  Also horizontal scroll bars on the contacts part of the window, so that I can find out what the distances are for longer named ships.

Thanks to this window I discovered how to put my beam weapons on PD mode against missiles!

Some of the problems you have are due to the restrictions built into the controls I am using. Once the treeview loses focus, the highlight is lost and Microsoft list boxes don't have horizontal scroll bars. However, for the treeview control I have used your suggestion to put the selected item in the title bar of the window and for the contact list I have added a toggle that allows you to temporarily extend the horizontal size of the box over the Weapon and Fire Control Summary section.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

When a ship is refitted with new armour it seems strange that battle damage is not repaired at the same time! Would it not be sensible for battle damage to be figured in to the cost of a refit, especially if that particular component is being replaced?

That's a good point. I've changed it so that In v4.3 if the armour type is changed during a refit then all armour damage is repaired.

Steve

[Beersatron]

Not sure if this is already in there, but would it be possible to flag somewhere on the economy screen to state that a 5man Geological team has already surveyed a planet/moon/asteroid?

Would be handy for keeping track of what has been dried up for definite.

[schroeam]

Not sure if this is already in there, but would it be possible to flag somewhere on the economy screen to state that a 5man Geological team has already surveyed a planet/moon/asteroid?

Would be handy for keeping track of what has been dried up for definite.

Additionally, we used to get an event every 5-day if a survey team is on a planet, moon, etc that has been surveyed out telling us that there is nothing further to be gained by additional survey.  Somewhere along the chain of revisions this reminder went away.  I found it useful if I didn't have a ship available right away as a reminder to pick them up.  Any way to get this back?

Adam.

[schroeam]

The discussion of using colony ships as emergent troop transports has led me to think about the current mechanism for colonist transport.  Imagine saying good bye to your family, going to the SolTrak terminal, stripping down, going through the showers (assembly line process), putting on a grey jumpsuit, entering your coffin (destined for Titan), going to sleep (deep freeze), being loaded on the ship, one day later ship leaves Earth, next day arrives at Mars, coffin unloaded at local SolTrak terminal, defrost process and you wake up with the worst cold of your life (sneeze), you get back in line, strip down again, new shower (hot water heaters malfunctioning), new jumpsuit, look out a window and wonder at the redness of Titan, and read the "Welcome to Mars" sign, Anger, Disgust, and finally, submission as you are escorted to your new fully furnished apartment.  You are given your new provincial citizen number (non-voting status) and a map from your apartment to your work site (oh, by the way your career path has been changed from administrative assistant to construction worker putting up more apartments at the foot of Mons Olympus).  This would have never happened if you had never had to go through that damned cold-causing deep freeze treatment (long term side effects still under investigation).  Two weeks later word arrives that a new class of colony ship is to be built that will ship colonists without the cryogenic freezing.  By the time it is completed you are firmly entrenched into the Martian society and due to a lack of workers all requests to move to Titan are denied.  You walk up to an airlock, equalize pressure, enter the airlock, equalize pressure with the outside, sit down to await your death, only to realize as the outside door slides open that the long term terraforming project has produced the minimal amount of oxygen to keep a human alive.  You fail again.

Long story short, how about changing the mechanism for colony transport from cryogenic freezing to something more akin to the current cruise liners?

Just a thought.

Adam.

[Father Tim]

If you rename the ship component to 'Luxury Passenger Accomodations' nothing is stopping you from defining how it works any way you want.  I'm not sure if you have to go all the way into the databse, or if the F2 'Population & Production' screen, 'Research' tab will enable such a change.

[schroeam]

Another thought...
The biggest difference between a race that starts pre-TN and one that starts with TN is the civilian economic growth, i.e. colony ships and freighters assigned to civilian corporations.  Maybe some mechanism to generate the equivalent number of civilian ships to support an equivalent level of economic expansion.

Adam.

[Steve Walmsley]

The discussion of using colony ships as emergent troop transports has led me to think about the current mechanism for colonist transport.  Imagine saying good bye to your family, going to the SolTrak terminal, stripping down, going through the showers (assembly line process), putting on a grey jumpsuit, entering your coffin (destined for Titan), going to sleep (deep freeze), being loaded on the ship, one day later ship leaves Earth, next day arrives at Mars, coffin unloaded at local SolTrak terminal, defrost process and you wake up with the worst cold of your life (sneeze), you get back in line, strip down again, new shower (hot water heaters malfunctioning), new jumpsuit, look out a window and wonder at the redness of Titan, and read the "Welcome to Mars" sign, Anger, Disgust, and finally, submission as you are escorted to your new fully furnished apartment.  You are given your new provincial citizen number (non-voting status) and a map from your apartment to your work site (oh, by the way your career path has been changed from administrative assistant to construction worker putting up more apartments at the foot of Mons Olympus).  This would have never happened if you had never had to go through that damned cold-causing deep freeze treatment (long term side effects still under investigation).  Two weeks later word arrives that a new class of colony ship is to be built that will ship colonists without the cryogenic freezing.  By the time it is completed you are firmly entrenched into the Martian society and due to a lack of workers all requests to move to Titan are denied.  You walk up to an airlock, equalize pressure, enter the airlock, equalize pressure with the outside, sit down to await your death, only to realize as the outside door slides open that the long term terraforming project has produced the minimal amount of oxygen to keep a human alive.  You fail again.

Long story short, how about changing the mechanism for colony transport from cryogenic freezing to something more akin to the current cruise liners?

The reason for the cryo transport is to keep the size of the colony modules within a reasonable limit. If each person only occupies a coffin-sized cryo chamber then the 2500 ton size of the cryo module is reasonable - it's about 1/4 ton and 0.005 HS per person. If they are conscious and moving around then the size requirement would be much higher. However, as someone else pointed out, there is nothing to stop you roleplaying it differently in your own campaign. You could change the name of the module and maybe even the size/cost.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

Not sure if this is already in there, but would it be possible to flag somewhere on the economy screen to state that a 5man Geological team has already surveyed a planet/moon/asteroid?

Would be handy for keeping track of what has been dried up for definite.

Additionally, we used to get an event every 5-day if a survey team is on a planet, moon, etc that has been surveyed out telling us that there is nothing further to be gained by additional survey.  Somewhere along the chain of revisions this reminder went away.  I found it useful if I didn't have a ship available right away as a reminder to pick them up.  Any way to get this back?

I've put the message back in

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

Not sure if this is already in there, but would it be possible to flag somewhere on the economy screen to state that a 5man Geological team has already surveyed a planet/moon/asteroid?

Would be handy for keeping track of what has been dried up for definite.

I have added a line on the summary tab for Geological Team Survey.

Steve

[sloanjh (OP)]

Long story short, how about changing the mechanism for colony transport from cryogenic freezing to something more akin to the current cruise liners?

The reason for the cryo transport is to keep the size of the colony modules within a reasonable limit. If each person only occupies a coffin-sized cryo chamber then the 2500 ton size of the cryo module is reasonable - it's about 1/4 ton and 0.005 HS per person. If they are conscious and moving around then the size requirement would be much higher. However, as someone else pointed out, there is nothing to stop you roleplaying it differently in your own campaign. You could change the name of the module and maybe even the size/cost.

If you rename the ship component to 'Luxury Passenger Accomodations' nothing is stopping you from defining how it works any way you want.  I'm not sure if you have to go all the way into the databse, or if the F2 'Population & Production' screen, 'Research' tab will enable such a change.

I think that, between these posts, there's a suggestion that troop transport holds be able to load and transport a small number of colonists as luxury passengers.  From a role-playing point of view it sounds cool; from a game mechanics point of view I doubt it would have much effect (unfortunately).

John

[welchbloke]

Long story short, how about changing the mechanism for colony transport from cryogenic freezing to something more akin to the current cruise liners?

The reason for the cryo transport is to keep the size of the colony modules within a reasonable limit. If each person only occupies a coffin-sized cryo chamber then the 2500 ton size of the cryo module is reasonable - it's about 1/4 ton and 0.005 HS per person. If they are conscious and moving around then the size requirement would be much higher. However, as someone else pointed out, there is nothing to stop you roleplaying it differently in your own campaign. You could change the name of the module and maybe even the size/cost.

If you rename the ship component to 'Luxury Passenger Accomodations' nothing is stopping you from defining how it works any way you want.  I'm not sure if you have to go all the way into the databse, or if the F2 'Population & Production' screen, 'Research' tab will enable such a change.

I think that, between these posts, there's a suggestion that troop transport holds be able to load and transport a small number of colonists as luxury passengers.  From a role-playing point of view it sounds cool; from a game mechanics point of view I doubt it would have much effect (unfortunately).

John

Depends what you mean by luxury    I would expect troop transport ships to have 30 or so people to a room (platoon formations) with shared ablutions and the rest of the space taken up with firing ranges, gyms, office space, armouries etc. I think of it as how the John Rogers is described in the book 'Starship Troopers'.