Suggestions for v5.1

[sloanjh]

Can I have an unload ordnance order on the F12 screen please. Makes it much easier for colliers to transfer missile stocks without undue attention and much easier to replace a ships missile load with an updated model. Or is there one and I just can't see it?

Seconded.  I think "load ordnance from planet" will empty the magazines of old missiles before reloading, but without the "unload" order I can't give a collier an order sequence to transfer missiles between planets.

I'd also like to re-mention the "multiple standard loads" suggestion here - allow multiple load-outs for classes, so that a ship can configure its load-out to its mission.

john

[waresky]

Object: ARMY MANAGEMENT
Needed: a more flexible Army designation and management under certain circumstances

Suggestion: Change whole Army section and make same as TASK GROUP windows management like type,for more flexible,put-in,regroup,redesignation target,and more easy to find where a single Division and reassign Battalion.

edit: am sure are a awesome thoughest work..but in a growth empire are a benefit more and more than we have now.
Am found very boring actually Amry assign system and management.Army NEED urgent a overhauling in presentation,management and cosmetic,.

  More appeal than now,because soem time am left Army management only because r too boring and too waste time..srry

[Shadow]

This may've been pointed out already, but the Sensors tab on the System Map needs clarification. I really can't tell which slider represents thermal signatures and which EM ones, since both have practically the same description.

[sloanjh]

Have Aurora launch an "are you sure" dialogue when launching a refit task if the cost of the task is above some threshold (like 50%) of new construction.

It's really easy right now to accidentally launch a ridiculous refit (e.g. a Carrier into a FAC).  More subtle is the fact that a lot of times a refit will be a significant fraction (e.g. 75-80%) of the cost of building a new ship.  In such cases, I'll often want to keep the old ships around and simply build new, since the incremental increase in capability of the new ship isn't worth the expense.  That's why I suggested the threshold at something (50%) which might initially seem rather low.

John

PS - This have gotten 3-4 seconds so far in the The Academy thread where it came up.

[sloanjh]

Have merchant ship TG from the same company and of the same type "auto-merge" into a single TG if there are a lot of merchie TG in existance.

Right now my civies have 56 ships, each of which is all alone in its own TG.  This would be ok (and/or even good, since it shows lots of civies buzzing around), except that I suspect it's hitting performance, and I know that it's cluttering up the map and contact lists (yes I know about the "no civies" filter, but that's pretty heavy-handed plus it doesn't keep them from showing up in the right-click "ships" menu).  If the civies merged their TG when appropriate, then this would reduce the clutter.

An alternative would be to do something like is done with escorts not being drawn seperately - have the ability to display the number of civie TG at a particular location, rather than the individual TG.  In other words, if there were 11 civie ships at Earth, then in this mode there would only be 1 line for them in the stack of TG shown on the map, e.g. "11 Civilian TG with 11 Ships", or one entry each for cargo ships, colony ships, or luxury liners.

John

[sloanjh]

Have the "Refueling could not be completed" event message which comes when a tanker goes below 10% fuel tell you which tanker/TG it happened to.  

At present I've got a lot of TG running around doing training, and the only information I'm getting is that the even happened in Sol.

John

[Aldaris]

Have the "Refueling could not be completed" event message which comes when a tanker goes below 10% fuel tell you which tanker/TG it happened to.  

At present I've got a lot of TG running around doing training, and the only information I'm getting is that the even happened in Sol.

John

You can double-click on the event (Even in system view) and the game will zoom to the relevant TG. Even so, this is a feature I'd like too.

[S.K. Ren]

I started another thread for this suggestion, but I would like to see Space Colonies. Coupled with the announced Genetic Modification, it would open many new paths players can take.

Link to Thread

[Sainthe]

What. a. headache.

Please remove the following rule:

"Military engines are unable to traverse a wormhole created by a commercial jump engine."


I didn't see this rule anywhere except AFTER I had problems; meaning that the description for jump engines does not include this feature. I'll just make believe and it'll be alright though.

[Sainthe]

Include prefab PDC sections in the list of components which the "SM Add" command may place on the planet.

[The Shadow]

How about a new kind of treaty allowing immigration, as per Space Empires.

This is a great way to get races that breathe different atmospheres in your empire.

[The Shadow]

Another idea, related to terraforming.

There are all sorts of engineering projects a starfaring race can do to adjust the temperature and other characteristics of a world, besides messing around with atmospheric composition.  Like, it's been discussed to build a gigantic sunscreen to cool Venus down.  Or building orbital mirrors to melt Mars' ice caps.

Likewise, bombarding a barren planet with comets to introduce water.

What this would look like in the game, I don't know.  Perhaps just give extra options in the terraforming screen.

Adjusting the temperature by geoengineering would be much faster than atmospheric terraforming, but there would be a catch...  Your geoengineering project could be destroyed by enemy ships.     There could also be catastrophic events that would cause losses of population or sudden temperature shifts.

EDIT:  Geoengineering as a weapon is also scary - imagine aliens setting up a sunshade over Earth to G'voontform it to a comfortable -150 degrees!

[Shadow]

Having the ability to delete medals and custom hull types would be nice. I know I've fumbled a handful of times, and can't presently get rid of those mistakes.

Being able to change a medal's image would come in handy as well. You can quickly change the look of whole planets, so why not tiny medals too?

[Venec]

Maybe an option to crash a ship onto a planet's surface? Couple of times while fighting on enemy's homeworld orbit I had ships critically crippled, so it would be nice instead allowing them to be blow up to order them to crash in a final "up yours" gesture  

[Beersatron]

Couple of NPR suggestions, put in spoilers in case Steve goes for them but not everybody wants to 'know' bout them before hand.

[spoiler:3o0yrlg1]Independent Tramp Freighter/Miner/Fuel Harvestor

- This would be a low-tech, slow, light armor, 1 Cargo Hold/Asteroid Miner/Fuel Harvestor ship ran by a Clan or Family.
- They would spawn in system with a large population and a certain number of CMCs, asteroids or gas giants with Sorium.
- Their goal would be to transport trade goods or mine minerals and then sell them to a CMC or Colony, or produce fuel and sell it to a Colony or Shipping Line.

Smuggler/Pirate

- This would be a low-tech, fast, lightly armed (Meson?), FAC/Boarding Craft.
- They would spawn in system with a large population and lots of civilian activity.
- Their goal would be to trade in explicit/banned goods. Or, to chase down, disable and then board the Independent Tramps. They could then sell the Tramps on the blackmarket (this would mean you need to setup blackmarket logic ) or use them to "expand their base".
- Their base could be 5 maintenance facilities on an asteroid to take care of their craft plus maybe some rudimentary defences - but nothing glaringly EM or TH since they are meant to be hiding. The smugglers could provide the fuel/minerals for upkeep.[/spoiler:3o0yrlg1]

Thoughts? Put them in spolier tags.