Future changes and thoughts... For 1.0.8

[zarkwizard]

A lot of good reading. We really appreciate the feedback and your thoughts on everything. While we may not respond to every post, it's not because we don't want to answer, but more so we need to discuss it. While it's easy to point out a flaw, it's generally tougher to point out a solution.

Ideas are more than welcome. On the topic of combat for Warlords... What would you like to see some of your capabilities be? I understand about maybe the combat CO/RO not being enough... What would you like to see?

In the case of the trader... They build things faster currently because in beta we found that Warlords would destroy traders. Traders seemed to have no early game defence. One of the things we did was speed up the traders build times, since we thought that a trader being a master of commerce should understand what it'll take to create better production lines. Certainly with changes being made to planets and allowing people to set a planet to focus on building by moving a slider all the way over to PU even a warlord could produce ships faster at the cost of learning skills.

The trader will have a 10% build bonus... What does this translate in to? The trader get 10% build bonus, if you have a 400mu planet and it has 3600 units per hour maximum of points. Since the default is 50/50 1800 PU, and 1800 RU is generated. A trader will gain +180 PU / hour, just as a researcher will gain +180 RU / hour. Now if they move that slider all the way over they will top out at +360 RU or PU. Factor in population size then that number gets higher. We may or may not scale the bonus (it may cap at +360 bonus), it's in the air at the moment as we run numbers through testing. Once we get the exact numbers we'll certainly let you know.

About the super capitols.. I was just thinking.. and this is thinking out loud, perhaps some of you can comment.. What if we opened up Super Capitols (except the PK), and made it so Warlords received a % cost reduction, and maybe a reduced PU cost for the Super Caps? So while anyone will be able to build a super cap, the Warlord will be able to build them most effectively.. Thoughts?

[Parsons]

Thanks for the insight on where the trader bonus comes from, it makes sense now. I'm for warlord keeping the PK exclusive and giving them a reduction on cost to the other ships. Opening up the other caps would be nice.

[ChickenHawk07]

I like truckingyoda's idea of the warlord being able to pump out more ships than anyone else. As a warring nation, one expects their production capabilities to be higher than normal. Think The United States and WWII, we won because we were able to out produce the Axis. To combat this, the Trader should start with Orbital Defenses already researched, as their primary focus should be defending their trade routes.

I also love the idea of effectively blockading an area of space around your planet(s) or attempting to lay siege to another player's planets. If someone wants to spend their unit cap on Orbitals or minefields surrounding someone else's planet(s) or their own, why stop them? Fleets definitely shouldn't have unrestricted access to someone's own territory. Mining the area around the Sun would help slow down or destroy would-be attackers.

Obviously having a limited area of expansion based on PCCs would also help this, but one would have to protect those PCCs, as in Jet's idea of refueling stations. The PCCs with limited range of outward expansion would effectively act as a form of "refueling station. If it had a visual radius, one would have to consciensly make sure hey overlapped each PCCs radius in order to continue traveling to their desired area of expansion or conquest.

On the topic of Warlords scavenging, I don't like the idea and I think the Warlord getting a production bonus would solve this, as well as Traders having orbital defenses already researchEd (maybe even advanced Orbitals). I know I always research that tree right off the bat as a trader anyway, as I know I can't compete with a Warlord's Super Caps. But my 30 Advanced Orbitals around my HW can (to a degree).

Let me stop here and see if there is anything I missed.

[ChickenHawk07]

To be honest the conversations internally are leaning towards making the PCC a radius rather than a specific planet count. We have been discussing adding a range to ships. The grid as it sits for the sector maps will probably be going away in favor of jumping to systems. Once we get a little further on this we'll publish our thoughts.

I sort of touched on this in my last post, but instead of PCCs having a planet count attached to them, why not make it so the PCCs radius is as far as anything other than a probe can travel. (See my past post of overlapping Radius for outward expansion) I also would like to see Probes only being "shot" out from a planet or location and traveling in a single direction until it reaches the ends of the universe. (Voyager nearing the outer limits of our solar system is what brought this idea to fruition). A single probe shouldn't be able to map out an entire galactic sector. Maybe make the probe's "FOG uncovering" be like 3 sectors wide. And once it exits the stage of play, is destroyed by a black hole or aliens, it is removed from the ship count and sends its usual Spartan Notice. Probes are cheap enough and produced quickly enough that I don't think this would hinder anyone, infact, I think it would free up A LOT of time for players and would negate the need for waypoints (making your coding changes less drastic, I assume).
A player would only need to pick the direction of travel and the probe would do the rest.

[shadowkhai]

The biggest issue I had as a trader is explained here:

http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/showthre...-Trading-issue

In a nutshell the ability to properly set up more than one trade route to separate planets at a time.

[SG7]

Lots of very good ideas were presented already. I am fine with all of them. Once some of the ideas become new rules I think I can adapt to them.

These are *my* suggestions:

1) Make font bigger wherever it is possible. Readability of the text on many screens was an issue for me. (Personally it was and it is a big deal for me).

2) Add more precision for CO and RO (eg: 1.550k not 2k)

3) Allow cancelation of moving orders for normal ships/fleets. If my ship is moving across universe (and I change my mind) I want to be able to stop it. I can even agree to pay a penalty in CO for that.

4) I was not a trader but if I were I would definitely need more info, visibility and control over my trading routes.

Well, that is it. Thank you for reading.

[zarkwizard]

Since some of this touch on bigger topics... I thought I would address this here as well.

Make font bigger wherever it is possible. Readability of the text on many screens was an issue for me. (Personally it was and it is a big deal for me).

I agree totally. Yes some of the fonts are small, but this is in part because we have a lot of information, and not much place to put it on a mobile device. With some of the changes to things like factories going away we will be opening up a ton of screen space to place things. This should allow us more room to display information better.

2) Add more precision for CO and RO (eg: 1.550k not 2k)

See comment #1. With the changes going in we will be able to bring in more precision, and larger numbers. This is in the plans for 1.0.8

3) Allow cancelation of moving orders for normal ships/fleets. If my ship is moving across universe (and I change my mind) I want to be able to stop it. I can even agree to pay a penalty in CO for that.

Ship movement will most likely be undergoing a major overhaul. This would include way points and what not. We are looking at implementing ship range restrictions as outlined above. So for the most part you won't be able to fly beyond your visible range. Not like you can now. You won't have the grid as you see it now. That will be changing to ranges for your jumping. When you jump you will be jumping to a system. You will be able to stop the ship from continuing on a way point path, but once the ship is in transit to a location you will need to wait for the ship to reach it's jump destination. You will also have about 5 min to cancel the ship from jumping to a system while it preps it's hyper drive engines.

4) I was not a trader but if I were I would definitely need more info, visibility and control over my trading routes.

We agree. This is a major issue, and with the changes going in to systems it should allow for us to implement a better display for system connections. As we progress, and when we have something in place we will be sure to put up more details.

[Marked]

I like a lot of what I am reading. Let me give you my biggest fear. Please do not take this as a slam I mean this in good ways.

I'm not hardcore on this game. While I am a gamer this game has enough issues early on that I am not 100% involved with it. I am staying with it as I believe as it evolves it will be something wonderful to play.

I am sure you have lost some early players due to this. Not to mention the tutorial video's are sub-par and don't explain well enough game play. There are only the few of you trying to do a million things and that takes time.

My biggest fear is while the game is being tuned and fixed your going to lose your player base to the point that it is not profitable to continue. Not to mention with these new changes making the game totally different from the tutorial new players who are not 4x fans are going to say forget it.

I am suggesting you scrap the tutorials and have players go right to the wiki to learn to play the game, that or actually take the time to make an in-game manual. Course you would have to update the manual for every change.

Course the wiki isn't near up to speed. You obviously have some very dedicated players here. I am thinking maybe one or two of them might trade some serious work on keeping the wiki up to speed for free game time. That way the wiki is 100%, players will not be near frustrated trying to play, and you'll have people keeping up with changes made to the game as there being made.

Just my two cents...

[zarkwizard]

My biggest fear is while the game is being tuned and fixed your going to lose your player base to the point that it is not profitable to continue.

We have heard this a few times. We have more than enough money set aside to make sure the servers will run for a VERY VERY VERY long time. We were paying for the servers, and bandwidth for 2 years without making anything. We are determined to make everything work. We have much bigger plans than just EotE, but we will not focus on the new, until we make sure this game is right.

We plan on doing some new things once we get settled down. We have been working on a scripting tutorial engine that would allow us to script some basic things in the game to get people in the swing of things. Although things like that won't go in to place before we get all the changes settled, and we can show how the mechanic will work.

All of the things you mention are important to us. We are in this for the LONG haul, I can assure you.

[Marked]

Awesome glad to hear it. I tell you one thing you all have nailed down and that is talking and making your players and fans feel that they are important and part of the game. Very few companies can do that and I for one thank you.

Any idea when you expect 1.0.8 to roll out?