Future changes and thoughts... For 1.0.8

[zarkwizard]

As always player feedback is VERY important to us. We compiled a list of changes we are looking at making to the game and would like to get feedback and thoughts to make sure we are addressing the main concerns. If you have something to add, it would be a good time to let us know while we are still specing everything.

Some changes are being made to allow better access to the game, and also the ability to not lose time when you want to build or train something. See below for details on time changes.

Main issues as we see them now:

Land Grab:
This is obviously a huge issue. Obviously those spending a lot more time in the game to uncover the maps are the first to grab the planets. In the beta you use to just be able to claim a planet with a flag, so we added ships you had to build to claim it. That has turned out to not work so well either. More resources means it's way easier for people to build things.

Plans to thwart the activity:
At the start of the game you'll be able to control 10 planets. You will require a Planetary Control Center (PCC) to acquire +5 planets per orbital PCC. You will need a population at a planet to have factories to be able to build the PCC. If you have 2 planets that have PCCs, and you own 20 planets, and you lose a PCC in battle you will keep your 20 planets, but you will require 2 more PCCs to start acquiring new planets. ie 3 x PCC = 15 Planets, plus your Base of 10 planets.

Taking over Planets with Massive Armies of small ships:
Seeing a fleet of 400 Battleships, or 400 Battle Cruisers take over a planet is not our intent.

Plans to thwart the activity:
Planets, ships and orbitals will all be changed in the next version 1.0.8. Please refer to the combat change thread for the details. Lee has been working very hard on compiling a list of changes, as well as laying out all the changes. Now is the time to speak up. You can find the comabt thread here: http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/showthre...mbat-Revisions We have created a combat simulator and are running multiple tests on the data to make sure combat functions how we would expect it to.

Building Super Capitol Ships:
For the most part we don't think there is a current reason in the game to motivate people to build the Super Cap (Warlord) ships, other than the PK. The PK obviously has a special ability letting you destroy a planet that gives it a reason to be built. The other Ships like the Monitor, or Super Dread really don't have a reason at this time.

Plans to change the reason:
After much debate here are our thoughts. The Super Cap skill will allow Monitors to "Absorb" damage. Rank one would give the Monitors 20% damage absorption, and every rank up would give it 10% more. So at max rank the Monitor would absorb 100% of a single attack. This would be a great way to protect your fleets from taking damage on other ships in your fleet. You would be able to bring Super Dreads in to attack a planet if you wanted to take it over, and build Monitors as damage absorbers for your army. It would also help in the case if you have a PK destroying a planet, the Monitors would be able to absorb damage that would have other wise gone to the PK.

RO and you:
Currently traders are the only ones that can really acquire Rare Ore. So it makes it difficult for others to acquire the ore needed to build the more difficult things in the game.

Plans to change this:
AMC (Advanced Materials collection) will be going away. All players will be able to acquire Rare Ore. Since the Planet Grab will be toned down we felt it wouldn't make a difference anymore if we let anyone acquire the ore. Traders will still be able to build faster, and screw people on trading, but with the changes going in for PCCs it will be much more difficult to do the massive land grab, which in turn will make it more important to acquire things like Gas planets that produce abundant amounts of rare ore.

Time requirements for Researching, and Building:
Currently you must start something to have it begin training, or building then wait a required amount of time while that object builds.

Plans to Change this:
We are going to be adding new stats to a planet. They will be RU (Research Units) and PU (Production Units). RU/PU is gained at a rate according to the planets population. Their will be a slider on the planet screen that allows you to say how many points are going to either Research Units, or Production Units. Default for a planet with be 50%/50%. Building a Refinery at a planet will increase the PU, just as building a Science Center at a planet will increase RU. Researcher will have a slight innate RU bonus, Traders will have a PU bonus. So if you had a planet with a high population you could set it to PU 100% and all off that planets Unit allotment will go to PU, and nothing will go to RU, just as you could focus a planet on RU rather than PU. Focusing several planets on RU will help you earn Research Units to acquire skills faster.

How RU Works:
RU is a global stat that will go in to a research pool. You will use the RU to purchase skill upgrades. As it stands now you must wait to start training a skill, and if you forget to change a skill, you my find yourself training a rank 2 of a skill you didn't want. Rather than have people "lose" the time we will allow them to purchase skills using RU that is acquired from their planets. This will make it so that skills will insta train of you have the required RU to purchase a skill. Prerequisite requirements will still stand. Example you must have a Tier 1 skill in a specific tech in order to train a Tier 2, even if you have enough RU to buy the Tier 2, you must still have at least 1 Tier 1.

How PU Works:
Planets will produce PU based on the population of the planet, and various skills. PU is specific to the planet, and not a global item, nor can it be traded, or harvested. It is unique to the planet and it's population. EXCEPT: If you build Matter Transmitters. A MT will allow you to share all resources, a production units between all your planets. Ships, orbatals etc will require PU to be build in stead of time. Building a unti will require a few things, the correct amount of RO/CO/PU, the correct skills. If all those things are in place you will be able to insta build the unit. No more waiting.

Hey you forgot about Warlords:
No, we didn't. Warlords will have a unique ability that will allow them to gain CO/RO from ships they destroy. They will be able to assign a single world that will get resources from combat. They will be able to change which world is getting the resources anytime, but only one world can be assigned. Only Warlords will have this ability.


Colony Ships, and Outpost Ships:
Currently a "free" starter population gets moved to a new planet.

What's going to change:
When you create a colony ship is will take 50mu of your population from the source planet. This will reduce the planets population according. An Outpost ship will take 10mu of you population from the source planet. Those populations will be deposited on the destination planet. If the ship is destroyed before it colonizes a planet that population will be lost. This causes more of a cost to be applied to your colony ships. The resources used for building the ship, and the colony will all be deposited at the new destination.


* One little note: This is a living document at the moment, and some things may change slightly because I typed it wrong. It should be fairly straight forward though.