What I want changed.

[Martin the Dane]

If I should list all I want changed here, I'd probably end up on everyones ignore list for posting long messages, so I'll just add a few to the ones already in this thread.
List[list=1][*]I would like the whole TF idea redesigned:
When a star-ship is built it should appear at the planet where it is built. And assigning it to a given TF, would tell it to get there ASAP.
TF's should be dynamic, and consist of a number of elements, each element being single ships or a number of ships. Have nayone ever heard of a navy or army not being able to regroupe or accept reinforcements in the field?
The AI should be able to automatically create usefull TF's of units in any given star system.
[*]Magnate races:
First, add those races to the TeraFormZone selection lists, both for the individual planets and for the planet list.
Second, Why do I only get the race of a magnate when I'm the first to discover them, and I have no way of seing what they are untill I plant a colony/outpost there. Have this info show up both in the planet description in the system and on the planets list.
[*]Mouseclicks and GUI:
There are far to any mouseclicks. Make overall planing posible from the planets list, (it was possible in MOO2 so it should be possible in MOO3)
let the player decide priorities, ie. If I want a certain ship built in a given system, I want the AI to do that ASAP, without having to micromanage the build-priorities each turn until I have that ship.
[*]Micromanagement:
As it is now micromanagement is not an option its a must, I have seldom played a game where I had to micromanage so much to get what I want. I want to be able to tell the AI build a certain number of any item, or to prioritize certain items, furthermore I want buildques, that can be saved/loded.
[*]Ships design:
I agree that the Ship design nedds a complete overhaul, but I dont have time to go into details now.
Mainly it should be possible to select a ship design and press and update button, and the design is updated with the latest engines, weaponds, shields etc. and a Mk# is appended/updated to the shipname.
[*]Ships update:
Let ships be taken out of service and updated, for a reduced prize compared to the cost of building a new ship of that size. (the way it was implemented in MOO2 is OK with me)[/list=1]

[BobD]

Bob,

I hear you, but there is a little check box on the options screen to turn that off.

Thanks RPMisCOOL, I completely missed that one.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Martin the Dane [*]I would like the whole TF idea redesigned:
When a star-ship is built it should appear at the planet where it is built. And assigning it to a given TF, would tell it to get there ASAP.
TF's should be dynamic, and consist of a number of elements, each element being single ships or a number of ships. Have nayone ever heard of a navy or army not being able to regroupe or accept reinforcements in the field?
The AI should be able to automatically create usefull TF's of units in any given star system.

I suspect that this would be very hard for the AI to handle and take an enormous amount of debugging.
I would be happy if TF's could be grouped into an army for travel so they would arrive at the same time.

[YC4B4U]

I can't find the pause button for the beginning of manual combat. Missiles are halfway home before I have assessed the situation! If there is no pause button then this should be added.

It takes too many clicks to get to the build queues. This is the most used function for me and yet it is deep down in a list of screens.

I have no idea when I lose a battle, why I lost a battle. Sure I can count ships but what about other things. I must know whether it is number of ships, technology, tactics or incorrect mix of ships in my task force that caused me to lose.

Thats my three bob...

[Martin the Dane]

Ok here are a few extra
[list=1][*]Technology:
The technology system is too complex, especially with regard to weapons technology. Let's have a quick poll: Who would like not to use all available miniaturization technologies? Anyone? Well I thought so. My point is that such optimization technologies should be automatically added to the parent technology.
[*]Combat:
Give us back turn-based combat please, as it is now it is near impossible to manage the combat manually. I would prefer simultaneous turn-based. If this makes it to complicated just put an upper limit on the number of TF's that can be in any given battle. Oh! and get rid of that ridiculous isometric map, either true 3d or a top down 2d map.
[*]Combat selection:
I want to be able to choose to avoid combat when encountering a non-allied race. This should not always work if the opponent chooses to attack, but then my computer controlled TF’s should try to run.
Furthermore I want to know what I’m facing not just a number, is this three planets, three cutters or three titans etc. depending on my ships scanner technologies, this info should be more or less complete and accurate. As to my side: I want to know what I have, I should be able to get info on my own troops.
[*]Main map:
On the zoomed out map, add tiny flags to each star indicating who's there, etc. (and keep the star names there as long as possible). Furthermore display red star-lanes if hostile forces are on their way to one of my (and depending on selection also to my allies) star-systems. And why does the enemy sometimes disappear on the turn prior to attack.
Another thing: I need a goto command, that lets me chose any known star from a list or edit-box, and then centres the galaxy-map on that particular star (and make this function available from the sit-rep)
[*]Magnate races revisited:
Why do I have to guess where my magnate races would like to live, and which race is on the colony ship.
[*]Multirace and migration
When setting a planet as a migration target I want to be able to choose what race should be encouraged to go there. Furthermore I want to be able to encourage single races to emigrate from certain planets. Like when I have a planet with a racial majority that doesn’t like that planet, while a large minority has it as “sweet spot” I want to be able to encourage the race that doesn’t like it there to move out. Otherwise I end up with planets terraformed to a point where both races have it as yellow.
Finaly when colonizing a planet with a magnate or competing race, I need to know how many of my people are there, not just the total.
[*]Army (ground troops):
Let the player request a certain army and the AI will figure out where to build the best troops for that army.
[*]Events for the sit-rep:
Make it more customizable. I want to be able to filter out DEA built, while seeing units built etc. And I do want to know when my ships reach their destination, not just if it’s a new system
[*]Galaxy knovledge:
When my forces get kicked out on the way into an unknown system I want to se on the map who kicked me out, and what the name of the system is, the amount of detail should depend on whether or not any of my ships made it out and their scanning ability. And I want to be able to tell my ships to avoid certain star-systems.[/list=1]

[KrisB]

I've thought of a few other things that I would love changed with Spies. Why not build them as units at all the planets you'd still have to pick and chose what type of spy to build, then you'd have to deliver the spy into another empire via a transport. I'd want that part automated, but I'd love to send out fleets of spies that either get in or get killed rather than one or two. I generally don't care about individuals. I care about what actually got stolen/destoried.

[KrisB]

I just thought of something else. You could have a sping phase sorta like ground combat. You'd chose what the spies are doing hiding, destoring, or discovering. You'd see, which spies got captured and killed. Why not have rescue missions for spies, too?

Each planet would have to be have a spy or two on hand for counter spying. I think that would add a great deal of depth

[MichaeltheGreat]

1. Spying - Make counterspies actually work. (They don't, it's all controlled by Opressometer settings, as I have several games with no counterspies and Opressometer of 10, and no spy problems, while several earlier games, I had lower Opressometer settings (2-7) and "counterspies" out the wazoo, and enemy spies had my lunch.

The best way would be to make "counterespionage" agents a distinct type, with a relatively low cost and fast production rate. You would need a fairly good number of these to stop espionage.

It would also be nice to be able to beef up security at certain planets, or after some form of sabotage. As it is, seats of government are entirely too easy to demolish, unless you eliminate the spying issue entirely with the Oppressometer.

2. Finance - I have yet to see any actual use or benefit with the system tax levels. It would be far simpler, and more realistic, to eliminate system taxes entirely, and allow the user to manually make grants to specific planets, or let the AI handle it. The gamer should have a choice, at least of setting top level budgets at the planet level, and allowing or prohibiting deficits being made up from the imperial treasury.

3. Space Combat AI - Simply put, it sucks. When I have one ship that has the same system speed, better weapons and better everything and much longer weapon range than a squadron of enemy short range ships, why the hell would it close range into the middle of the enemy squadron and get blasted to pieces by the enemy's short range weaponry, when instead it could match course and distance (basic naval techniques for 400 years or so on earth) and use it's weapon range advantage to kill the enemy without risk of damage?

Same thing with IF task forces that have heavy point defense and short range weapons as well - why do they dance around and refuse to close with enemy ships, waiting for missile reloads that won't happen.

You have to repeatedly intervene with move orders to get fleets to do things any decent basic AI should be able to figure out.

4. Ground combat AI - Too many options that aren't distinctly different enough. NBC authorization, high med low collateral damage, and high low combat intensity are ok, but the number of tactical options are too high, considering the manner in which combat is abstracted by die rolls, rather than involving positioning of forces. If you want a rich ground combat capability, then build in a basic TBS fire-and-maneuver system.

5. Ground Combat Task Force formation. Once troops are dropped off, transports should NOT disband automatically, but should be under player control. Ground forces should be able to reembark on their existing transports. Some delays or reductions in combat readiness (but not unit status, i.e. veteran, experienced, trained) would be OK.

6. Mobilization Centers. This is essentially a cheat. The ability to disband fleets anywhere, and create "Insta-fleets" half way across the galaxy after a few turn delay is bogus. Ships should be commissioned at the planets they're built at, and fight as individual ships, until they travel to a mobilization center for integration into a fleet.

7. Ship upgrades. This should be a possibility, subject to appropriate costs and some reasonable limits.

8. Combat forces in general (space/ground). Experience (i.e. training) should acrue to ships or ground units formed into higher level organizations only (i.e. fleets, armies, etc.) Reserves should not accrue experience at all, or else very slowly. At the same time, higher level organizations should be dynamic, that is, units can be added or removed, even to downrating the unit (Corps to Division, etc.) Smaller level units should be mergeable at Mobilization Centers, i.e. several flotillas and detachments become an Armada faster than the current disband-delay box-reform process.

This encourages building, adding to, and maintaining long-term fighting forces, that have a long-range impact on your strategy.

9. Enemy AI - Enemy should be more aggressive with respect to blockades, ground assaults, etc., at least at the higher levels of difficulty. Enemy should also be less suicidal - when you send a colony ship somewhere, and it gets chewed up, how long should it take you before you either decide to colonize somewhere else, or send warships to clear out whatever is killing your colony ships? It's a bit entertaining to see someone send a dozen unescorted colony ships, one at a time, every three turns like clockwork at a system where two recon ships chew them apart.

10. Colonizing in worlds with allied ships. - This should be a non-issue, or at most subject to a diplomatic warning ("hey, Bub, colonize in my system, and you can kiss your little colony and our alliance goodbye") and a choice to colonize anyway or leave.

11. Diplomacy - This needs to be rationalized a bit. Having allied races threaten you, then declare war out of the blue, then do nothing, is a bit ridiculous. So is taking over someone else's planet by force, and not having a change in diplomatic status. I've gotten to the point where I ignore diplomacy in all but superficial ways. - try to offer trade agreements to everyone, steal techs rather than try repeatedly to exchange, and then do what I want. If someone offers an alliance, sure, why not, I'll kill you later. Diplomacy could be very rich in this game, but instead, it's so erratic, and so "noisy," that it's not worth the bother most of the time.

[clocknova]

My big three

1. Find a better way to represent different players in the game than with the current color system, or find better colors. In my last game, I chose a red color, and was flanked on either side by two other empires with -slightly- different shades of red. Drove me nuts- I have to quite the game.

2. Fix the save game system so that it saves the actions you take on a turn rather than just starting at the beginning of the turn. I'm quickly growing tired of having to repeat certain actions over and over because I had to reload a saved game. It's getting to the point where I do as little as possible every turn so I don't have as much to repeat. Consequently, my games aren't going well. Boring. And don't tell me that I shouldn't play that way. I paid my money, I'll play however I want.

3. As someone said, other races should not be able to colonize worlds in systems I already own without a diplomatic penalty.

[Dragonlord]

On System Taxes

They are actually quite useful if managed correctly....

In a system of 3 Small but mineral rich planets and one gas giant mineral/harvest poor full of industrious sillies/meklar , you can contruct a system seat in the large planet to direct revenue from the small planets' mineral sales to your poor planet, therefore allowing industry/research to happen in very big numbers.

I do this a lot and it's allowing me to pump out huge armadas from planets that cannot pay themselves for a lemon but that are huge and sweet spots for industrious races.

[CharlesBHoff]

Originally posted by Harry Seldon
Give us a minimap in combat and more options for diplomacy. I'd like to be able to thank my allies for going to war and honoring our treaties, or give specific threats like "Go to War with the Silicoids or I'm coming for you, too."

Make manual combat easier to fight right in MOO 1 and MOO 2.

[CharlesBHoff]

Re: My big three

Originally posted by clocknova
1. Find a better way to represent different players in the game than with the current color system, or find better colors. In my last game, I chose a red color, and was flanked on either side by two other empires with -slightly- different shades of red. Drove me nuts- I have to quite the game.

2. Fix the save game system so that it saves the actions you take on a turn rather than just starting at the beginning of the turn. I'm quickly growing tired of having to repeat certain actions over and over because I had to reload a saved game. It's getting to the point where I do as little as possible every turn so I don't have as much to repeat. Consequently, my games aren't going well. Boring. And don't tell me that I shouldn't play that way. I paid my money, I'll play however I want.

3. As someone said, other races should not be able to colonize worlds in systems I already own without a diplomatic penalty.

I agree about the savegame. At time my mouse freeze up and I must hit the power button to restart the computer.

[CharlesBHoff]

The reason why game company add saveing game was for when you need to sleep, eat or do other thing or when a car hit than power pole than the power goes out.

[Laryllan]

Me and some other guys have created a mod which addresses many of the things you propose. I don't want to write a list of all changes - you can find it on site (installer included).

Master of Orion 3 iMOD

Have fun!