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Well, I like many others was initially disappointed by the game. Its not that its a bad game per say, just that it somehow fails to come out and grab you like its predecessor's did from the first moment of play. But more importantly I can think of some things which would help move it towards the game it should be, and Im sure others can too. Ive seen some of these in other threads (here and on IG), and some are just my observations, but I figure it may help QS to see them in one spot since its possible some of them might still be addressable.
1) There needs to be a seperate switch to turn off the AI for the build ques on a planet but not for anything else. I personally, don't mind the AI managing the sliders and unzoned DEA's, but I want to build my own ships.
2) Along with #1, disabling the Econ AI totally should totally disable it including for unzoned DEAs. Some players will want this.
3) If you have the AI disabled for build ques (either directly or by turning off the econ AI totally) and a build que comes up empty, you should get a message the turn it empties only that it is empty. This should be an option which can be disabled in the options menu. Much like how civ3 handles build ques.
4) There really should be an interface way to build things like hydroponics farms in individual DEAs. Probally too late at this point since it'd be a major interface change, but it definately should of been there.
5) The names of systems and their colors shouldn't vanish if you zoom out of the galaxy map slightly. Its annoying to zoom out slightly to get a better view strategically and have the labels vanish.
6) Diplomatic contact rules seem slightly off to me, and its possible I dont understand how it works yet. But it seems that you either have to be in the senate to know another race, or you have to have a colony/outpost in a system which is connected to a system by starlane which has one of theirs. It _may_ be based on distance and your drive technology like previous games though, I haven't actually advanced far enough yet in a game to tell. It just really seems odd that I can send an armada to attack them, but I can't negotiate with them. Possibly either contact should be established the first time both empires have ships/planets in a system and no combat results. Possibly that should just be a game option when you start a game as well for those who like it like it is.
7) Someone on the IG boards made a good point that the reserve/task force creation system amounted to near instant teleportion of fleets when players have multiple deployment centers. The easy solution is ships in reserve should remember where they were when they went in reserve, and require a certain # of turns to transit to a distant location to be redeployed there. The other thread had suggested that players have a limited # of deployment centers, which is also a possible solution. I should point out that I havent had a problem with this yet, but it does seem like it'd be a big balance issue in MP.
8) Minor gripe: When you encounter a planet special while exploring....why does it just say "You have discovered ____ special on planet ______" or something to that effect. It would of been MUCH nicer if it had had a more creative description (without the word special) that also give you some idea what the special did if you colonized the world before you do so or open the readme file.
9) Minor gripe: The in game encyclopedia seems incomplete. It has no entries on above mentioned planet specials or on any of the individual technologies. I could also mention the manual, but thats too late to fix :P
10) I know they'll say this is unsupported, but everytime I alt-tab out of the game so far, the game manages to either crash or stop functioning in some way. Most often, it continues to work but won't accept mouse input (though I can still move the mouse). This behavior combined with the planet specials being described in said readme file only, is annoying :P
Anyways, thats what ive noticed so far which could really be improved.
1) There needs to be a seperate switch to turn off the AI for the build ques on a planet but not for anything else. I personally, don't mind the AI managing the sliders and unzoned DEA's, but I want to build my own ships.
2) Along with #1, disabling the Econ AI totally should totally disable it including for unzoned DEAs. Some players will want this.
3) If you have the AI disabled for build ques (either directly or by turning off the econ AI totally) and a build que comes up empty, you should get a message the turn it empties only that it is empty. This should be an option which can be disabled in the options menu. Much like how civ3 handles build ques.
4) There really should be an interface way to build things like hydroponics farms in individual DEAs. Probally too late at this point since it'd be a major interface change, but it definately should of been there.
5) The names of systems and their colors shouldn't vanish if you zoom out of the galaxy map slightly. Its annoying to zoom out slightly to get a better view strategically and have the labels vanish.
6) Diplomatic contact rules seem slightly off to me, and its possible I dont understand how it works yet. But it seems that you either have to be in the senate to know another race, or you have to have a colony/outpost in a system which is connected to a system by starlane which has one of theirs. It _may_ be based on distance and your drive technology like previous games though, I haven't actually advanced far enough yet in a game to tell. It just really seems odd that I can send an armada to attack them, but I can't negotiate with them. Possibly either contact should be established the first time both empires have ships/planets in a system and no combat results. Possibly that should just be a game option when you start a game as well for those who like it like it is.
7) Someone on the IG boards made a good point that the reserve/task force creation system amounted to near instant teleportion of fleets when players have multiple deployment centers. The easy solution is ships in reserve should remember where they were when they went in reserve, and require a certain # of turns to transit to a distant location to be redeployed there. The other thread had suggested that players have a limited # of deployment centers, which is also a possible solution. I should point out that I havent had a problem with this yet, but it does seem like it'd be a big balance issue in MP.
8) Minor gripe: When you encounter a planet special while exploring....why does it just say "You have discovered ____ special on planet ______" or something to that effect. It would of been MUCH nicer if it had had a more creative description (without the word special) that also give you some idea what the special did if you colonized the world before you do so or open the readme file.
9) Minor gripe: The in game encyclopedia seems incomplete. It has no entries on above mentioned planet specials or on any of the individual technologies. I could also mention the manual, but thats too late to fix :P
10) I know they'll say this is unsupported, but everytime I alt-tab out of the game so far, the game manages to either crash or stop functioning in some way. Most often, it continues to work but won't accept mouse input (though I can still move the mouse). This behavior combined with the planet specials being described in said readme file only, is annoying :P
Anyways, thats what ive noticed so far which could really be improved.
Alt-Tabbing is as you say, unsupported.
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