Official Suggestion Thread for 5.20 or later

[Erik L]

Right now, it is possible to instantly transport geology teams from one planet to another just by disbanding them and reassembling them on the destination.

It seems that officers do not have a defined location if they are not part of a team, and thus can materialize anywhere.

I didn't think this was serious enough to put in the bugs thread, so here it is.

The premise is that your naval command structure is competent enough to send the officer out to his new posting without you needing to dedicate a ship to it. This was a change introduced long ago. Prior you had to ship your officers around manually.

[DatAlien]

I have to correct myself, the CheckBox is called "This Population only", see it as somethink like No Overhauls needed

[welchbloke]

A ground forces suggestion:

How about creating a task force structure for ground forces?  Just like task groups can be assigned to task forces and benefit from their assigned staff officers, divisions could be assigned to higher formations (Armies or Corps dependant upon your preference).  I know Steve has shifted focus to Aurora II so this could be a suggestion for that as well.

[bean]

I have a couple of suggestions.   I'm fairly new to the game, so it might be that I've missed something, but I don't think so.
1.  The lack of versatility in cargo holds annoys me.   It's impossible to carry munitions, or small craft without the ship in question being classed as military.   I'd like to see the ability to carry those things in cargo bays.   I know it seems sort of unbalancing, but if it was set up right, it would simplify military logistics a lot.
2.  Missile launchers in PD mode shouldn't engage targets that are out of range.   This is almost a bug, but not really.   It's simple enough to avoid if you know it's there.
3.  I'd appreciate the ability to 'rough out' ships with designed components without having to research them.   It's annoying that you have to guess the final ship size, then research the jump drive, then build the ship.   And if the jump drive is the wrong size, you either have a more expensive and massive jump drive then you need, or you have to research another one.

[Brian Neumann]

I have a couple of suggestions.   I'm fairly new to the game, so it might be that I've missed something, but I don't think so.
3.  I'd appreciate the ability to 'rough out' ships with designed components without having to research them.   It's annoying that you have to guess the final ship size, then research the jump drive, then build the ship.   And if the jump drive is the wrong size, you either have a more expensive and massive jump drive then you need, or you have to research another one.

There is a fairly simple way to check this.  Copy the database then enter sm mode.  You can instant reasearch anything you want there.  So design what you think you will need, instant reasearch it and see if your ship design works out.  I admit that there have been times when I have also done this in reverse where I reasearched and designed a ship and then realized it needed a little bit bigger jump engine, ect and just went in and retroactivly gave myself the new tech item, and deleted the old one.  While this is a bit of a cheat it is not much of one as the reasearch costs will tend to be quite close together.
In any advent when you are done playing around with the design and know what you want then you copy the saved database back over the one you were working with and everything is reset to the save.  Continue on from there.  I know it is a bit cumbersome but it does work.  Another option is to go in and give yourself all of the relevent tech in a new game.  If you do this you can also create another race under your control and use it as a test for your new tech
Brian

[bean]

While that would work, it's a rather roundabout way of doing it.   I'm doing OK without it, but it's a feature I'd like to see.

[Erik L]

3.  I'd appreciate the ability to 'rough out' ships with designed components without having to research them.   It's annoying that you have to guess the final ship size, then research the jump drive, then build the ship.   And if the jump drive is the wrong size, you either have a more expensive and massive jump drive then you need, or you have to research another one.

I can't talk for others, but my design philosophy has always been to determine the sizes of ship classes before hand, i.e. scouts/survey = 4500 tons, destroyers = 6000 tons, light cruisers = 7500 tons, cruisers = 9000 tons, battlecruisers = 12000 tons, etc. Then design the jump drives to those specifications.

[welchbloke]

I can't talk for others, but my design philosophy has always been to determine the sizes of ship classes before hand, i.e. scouts/survey = 4500 tons, destroyers = 6000 tons, light cruisers = 7500 tons, cruisers = 9000 tons, battlecruisers = 12000 tons, etc. Then design the jump drives to those specifications.

I tend to do that as well.  The sizes do increase as my tech base improves.

[bean]

I do the same for warships, but for cargo ships, I find it easier to build a ship around a specific payload, then get its final size from there.

[Foolcow]

It would be nice if the Task Group order screen allowed you to delete or insert orders from anywhere in the list, rather than just at the end.  As it stands now, if I want to make one minor change in a freighter's schedule I usually have to delete all the orders then put them back.

[Charlie Beeler]

It would be nice if the Task Group order screen allowed you to delete or insert orders from anywhere in the list, rather than just at the end.  As it stands now, if I want to make one minor change in a freighter's schedule I usually have to delete all the orders then put them back.

This has been suggested several times over the course of several versions.  Long story short...  for Aurora it's not going to change.  I don't know if Steve is taking this into account in the design of Aurora II.

[bean]

One other thing that would be nice would be the ability to set up multiple default missile loadouts for a class.   That way your fighters could have anti-fighter loads, anti-ship loads, etc, and you wouldn't have to micromanage them.

[ZimRathbone]

One other thing that would be nice would be the ability to set up multiple default missile loadouts for a class.   That way your fighters could have anti-fighter loads, anti-ship loads, etc, and you wouldn't have to micromanage them.

The answer to this is similar to the one Charlie gave above (I think that it was Charlie or Kurt that suggested it originally)

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

It would be nice if the Task Group order screen allowed you to delete or insert orders from anywhere in the list, rather than just at the end.  As it stands now, if I want to make one minor change in a freighter's schedule I usually have to delete all the orders then put them back.

The problem is that by inserting an order in the middle of the list, the remaining orders may make no sense. At the moment the program only allows you to choose orders that you can carry out in your particular location based on what happened in the preceding orders. For example, you can't unload an automated mine unless you are either carrying one or having an earlier order to pick one up. Its a lot harder to filter out possible orders based on what you plan to do in the future as well.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

2.  Missile launchers in PD mode shouldn't engage targets that are out of range.   This is almost a bug, but not really.   It's simple enough to avoid if you know it's there.

When you set point defence orders you can specify a max engagement range. It should default to the max weapon range.

Steve