Suggestions Thread for v2.4.0

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Moving ships between Admin Commands.
A movement order specifying a change in Admin Command was promised in 2017 (https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103849#msg103849) but never added. Ship Construction into Admin Commands is a step in the right direction but it gets increasingly tedious to drag existing fleets between admins the more fleets and admins you have, which is a real problem with a large empire. Therefore I propose adding an order or a menu to quickly change the Admin Command of a fleet.be delighted to hear your response, Steve.

On this one, if required you can open two fleet windows and drag between them.

You can open two fleet windows? How? That would make moving battlegroups between geographic fleets much easier.

If you hold shift when clicking on a toolbar button, it will open another window rather than selecting the existing one.

[clew]

Moving ships between Admin Commands.
A movement order specifying a change in Admin Command was promised in 2017 (https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103849#msg103849) but never added. Ship Construction into Admin Commands is a step in the right direction but it gets increasingly tedious to drag existing fleets between admins the more fleets and admins you have, which is a real problem with a large empire. Therefore I propose adding an order or a menu to quickly change the Admin Command of a fleet.be delighted to hear your response, Steve.

On this one, if required you can open two fleet windows and drag between them.

You can open two fleet windows? How? That would make moving battlegroups between geographic fleets much easier.

If you hold shift when clicking on a toolbar button, it will open another window rather than selecting the existing one.

I'm still learning new tricks to this game years later. Thats what makes it amazing! Thanks!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Can we get the option to zoom the galaxy map? Even my relatively small explored area is starting to feel cramped, and big universes seem like big pains in the butt to visualize.

Also, a bit more pie-in-the-sky, it might be fun to have an option for naming themes of systems that works on a system-by-system basis. Each system has a naming scheme for things that get discovered from it, and every time you do, that'd be inherited by the newly discovered system. That way, people could have chains of systems keep similar names, but different chains have different schemes. (This means that instead of the current option for a system naming scheme that applies galaxy-wide, you'd just have the scheme for your homeworld, and it'd automatically spread outwards from there until you changed it somewhere.)

Zoom is a lot of work. I would like it myself, so it will get added eventually.

The second suggestion is already in the game. You select a system theme on the Overview tab of the Galactic Map and that will be used for all systems discovered beyond that one.

[Ghostly]

Moving ships between Admin Commands.
A movement order specifying a change in Admin Command was promised in 2017 (https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103849#msg103849) but never added. Ship Construction into Admin Commands is a step in the right direction but it gets increasingly tedious to drag existing fleets between admins the more fleets and admins you have, which is a real problem with a large empire. Therefore I propose adding an order or a menu to quickly change the Admin Command of a fleet.be delighted to hear your response, Steve.

On this one, if required you can open two fleet windows and drag between them.

I have never even considered that the fleet window could interact with its copy! To me, extra fleet windows often seemed like a nuisance because I'd open them by clicking on fleets on the tactical/galaxy map then forget to close them. I will certainly be using this trick.

And to elaborate on my stance on unmanned ships, it's not the lack of micro that I have an issue with, but the fact that a newly boarded ship can become fully operational in all aspects in 30 days without any player input at all. Perhaps it is exacerbated by the fact that I've been having a shortage of crew for my new ships, but I can still use prize ships offensively without tapping into my strained crew pool. I just think that the crew loss meter should feel more impactful (self-repairing, fully combat-capable unmanned ships are definitely immersion-breaking!) and that crew morale code needs an adjustment because while it seems to handle minor crew losses just fine, having unmanned ships with 100% morale definitely seems like a bug to me. Boarding is already very powerful, it should at least force you to re-crew your ship at a colony or from your other ships before you can make full use of it.

[Kaiser]

Hi Steve, following the new add on the alien missiles, what do you think of adding the same possibility for ground forces?

Let's say you invade an enemy outpost or homeworld and after the conquest we are able to recover alien ground units (vehicle and artillery for example) then we can research these units and use them as for the missiles.

Or after the surrender of enemy ground units after a battle, it would be nice to recover some of the ground units.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Having unmanned ships with 100% morale definitely seems like a bug to me.

Yes, I agree on this point. I need to find a mechanic that creates a penalty but without any fiddly micromanagement and without players ending up designing ships that carry extra crew around. I have an idea that I am going to try out.

[ty55101]

and without players ending up designing ships that carry extra crew around.

Why not this? I definitely don't think it should be required, but this being a viable option would make sense.

Honestly, I have always felt like crew was a tad underutilized compared to some mechanics. Something that makes crew more of a consideration on needing to return to a colony and rearm would be a nice addition as right now that really only happens with a lot of combat on a ship and repairing the damage with damage controls. Even an expansion on the boarding via docking with a ship that is going less than 1/10th your speed and letting all crew and ground units on the ships fight would be a cool mechanic that would add crew more into the equation as we play.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Having unmanned ships with 100% morale definitely seems like a bug to me.

Yes, I agree on this point. I need to find a mechanic that creates a penalty but without any fiddly micromanagement and without players ending up designing ships that carry extra crew around. I have an idea that I am going to try out.

I've added the following new posts on the Changes List:

Under-manning Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171631#msg171631
Captured Ship Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171632#msg171632

[Ghostly]

Having unmanned ships with 100% morale definitely seems like a bug to me.

Yes, I agree on this point. I need to find a mechanic that creates a penalty but without any fiddly micromanagement and without players ending up designing ships that carry extra crew around. I have an idea that I am going to try out.

I've added the following new posts on the Changes List:

Under-manning Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171631#msg171631
Captured Ship Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171632#msg171632

Thank you, this is excellent! Being able to load conscript crews is an especially nice touch.

I assume there's no intention to make under-manning impact refueling/ordnance transfer rates? This would mean captured enemy tankers could be pressed into service without crew replenishment, but this is a non-issue compared to losing the ability to use their fuel in the middle of an offensive campaign.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Having unmanned ships with 100% morale definitely seems like a bug to me.

Yes, I agree on this point. I need to find a mechanic that creates a penalty but without any fiddly micromanagement and without players ending up designing ships that carry extra crew around. I have an idea that I am going to try out.

I've added the following new posts on the Changes List:

Under-manning Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171631#msg171631
Captured Ship Penalties: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171632#msg171632

Thank you, this is excellent! Being able to load conscript crews is an especially nice touch.

I assume there's no intention to make under-manning impact refueling/ordnance transfer rates? This would mean captured enemy tankers could be pressed into service without crew replenishment, but this is a non-issue compared to losing the ability to use their fuel in the middle of an offensive campaign.

Yes, I considered that but decided it wasn't important enough for the amount of effort required to adjust all fuel, supply and ordnance-related code.

[ty55101]

Could the smart drag in the ground units OOB be made to have a non smart mode? Maybe a button to switch between smart drag and a specific function. Right now you cannot attach a smaller bombardment formation to support a larger formation with an HQ which is a common complaint and this would be a fairly simple resolution.

[skoormit]

On the Class Design window, it would be nice if the generic components that are available in different sizes would be ordered by size, rather than the mostly arbitrary order they are currently in.

These categories:

Cargo Hold
Colonist Transport
Engineering
Fuel Storage
Hangar Deck
Maintenance Storage

[relmz32]

it would be nice to see, and be able to filter on, the total accessibility of a body in the mineral search screen.

[nakorkren]

it would be nice to see, and be able to filter on, the total accessibility of a body in the mineral search screen.

This, this, a thousand times this! Sometimes you're searching for specific mineral type due to bottleneck, but sometimes you're just looking for efficient deposits to park lots of AMs/OMs on.

Ideally both ways, i.e.
A) Sum of (accessibility * deposit size) across mineral types
B) Sum of accessibility across mineral types

[nakorkren]

Option (check box) to automatically scrap any modules at or below your tech level that result from scrapping a ship. This way you don't have to manually go through the resulting pile of components and scrap them all individually.