Poll: what most needs attention for 6.0? (Or: let's see if we can break polls!)

[Bognor]

Looking at the current leaders:

18 - Unit behavior: change engineer prioritization to repair low-hp expensive stuff, quicker at switching from a full dock, etc.
18 - Unit behavior: make rebuilders target the same thing less often and do less yo-yoing back to FRD point
17 - Balance: no Fabricators or Advanced Factories near wormholes
14 - Mechanics: make teleporting ships not teleport when group-moving
13 - UI: Make hybrid's displayed mark number reflect their maturity
13 - Balance: Making multiple-ingress-points (including sattelite worlds) not so much less viable than singe-chokepoint
12 - Fix: Spider V fabs always seeding two per map
11 - UI: show icons for devourer and trader on galaxy map
11 - Balance: make human ships tractored by AI ships not trigger deepstrike threat or raid engines
9 - Fix: AI Engineers not repairing
8 - UI: support subfolders for save/load

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but is a single one of those something that wasn't in similar need of doing back in 5.0?

You skipped

10 - UI: reorder turrets on buy menu so basic, mlrs, missile, and laser are together

which didn't need doing in 5.0 

[keith.lamothe]

You skipped

10 - UI: reorder turrets on buy menu so basic, mlrs, missile, and laser are together

which didn't need doing in 5.0 

Thanks, I was looking carefully but it doesn't surprise me I missed a tree in that forest

[Nodor]

I have to say, I'm impressed with the list. 

I also am glad to see some winnowing.   I do however want to plug for Champion Balance.  Having the key feature of the expansion feel right is important. :-)

[keith.lamothe]

I do however want to plug for Champion Balance.  Having the key feature of the expansion feel right is important. :-)

Part of what I'm looking for with this is how much it already feels right.  Given the expressed priorities, it seems to be borderline

[orzelek]

I do however want to plug for Champion Balance.  Having the key feature of the expansion feel right is important. :-)

Part of what I'm looking for with this is how much it already feels right.  Given the expressed priorities, it seems to be borderline

I think that scenario balance it's quite good at start but after few scaling starts to exceed your champion advance. Some scenarios hit further down the line are becoming either chaos or quick champion death. You can do them with a bit of save scum and configuring champion "the right way" for scenario. I'm not sure if thats intended or not.

[Hearteater]

I haven't tested the Champions or Scenarios yet, but one concern I do have from reading other people's experiences is they seem very linear.  There is a "solution" or narrow set of "solutions" you must find to win them.  Compare this with say a Dungeon in Torchlight 2 were I can do a dungeon with any class, pretty much any skills, and be fine as long as my gear is reasonable appropriate.  I'm getting the sense that each scenario is a puzzle, and so although the Champion is customizable, you don't really have a choice in customizing it because you need to slot the correct modules for each nebula.

I don't really know if I'm explaining this well.  But I was hoping the Champion might open AI Wars up to a friend of mine who doesn't like the base game (too complex).  I'm afraid he'll get into the first scenario and find the approach needed to win unintuitive.  Or even that he'll feel his contribution to the victory didn't feel very hero-like, which something like "just protect the X ships, they'll do all the work" might end up being if they aren't framed right.

I wish I had time to mess around with it more, and maybe I can this weekend to get a first-hand experience.

[keith.lamothe]

I haven't tested the Champions or Scenarios yet, but one concern I do have from reading other people's experiences is they seem very linear.  There is a "solution" or narrow set of "solutions" you must find to win them.  Compare this with say a Dungeon in Torchlight 2 were I can do a dungeon with any class, pretty much any skills, and be fine as long as my gear is reasonable appropriate.  I'm getting the sense that each scenario is a puzzle, and so although the Champion is customizable, you don't really have a choice in customizing it because you need to slot the correct modules for each nebula.

I don't really know if I'm explaining this well.  But I was hoping the Champion might open AI Wars up to a friend of mine who doesn't like the base game (too complex).  I'm afraid he'll get into the first scenario and find the approach needed to win unintuitive.  Or even that he'll feel his contribution to the victory didn't feel very hero-like, which something like "just protect the X ships, they'll do all the work" might end up being if they aren't framed right.

I wish I had time to mess around with it more, and maybe I can this weekend to get a first-hand experience.

The first few scenarios should be pretty forgiving in terms of what you take.  In the later scenarios it's more demanding but even in testing I've found that the loadouts I think are near-optimal are not actually what a lot of feedback indicates players are using.

In general the neinzul champions are not a great idea for the nebula fights because they're more utility players for the rest of the game (cloaking is a pretty big deal, along with the other specials later on), but the human, zenith, and spire champions each have their specialties that can turn the tide.  Spire obviously get the really heavy-weapon loadouts, but they can't use drones at all; zenith don't have quite as many heavy hardpoints but can use drones (and the heat beam), and humans get more light hardpoints than anyone else which can make the difference against some of the smaller targets.

Anyway, I'm sure it can be better, and I'm open to balance feedback, but it doesn't seem to be currently wedged into a corner spinning its wheels or anything like that

[Hearteater]

Yeah, I really do have to try it out to get the right feel.  I'm pretty sure he's going to pick a Champion race and stick to it the whole game if I can even convince him to try it.  With my luck he'll pick Neinzul.  Is the balance for the nebula assuming the player will hop between races for each scenario, or does it support a player treating his ship like a "hero" to upgrade and make better, rather than replace with an entire new "class" depending on the mission?

[keith.lamothe]

Is the balance for the nebula assuming the player will hop between races for each scenario, or does it support a player treating his ship like a "hero" to upgrade and make better, rather than replace with an entire new "class" depending on the mission?

My assumption is that people will play human in the nebula, until they get zenith or spire and then switch to one of those (or stay human) for the rest of the nebulae.  Human, Zenith, and Spire should all be decent for all of the scenarios, though some are better suited for certain ones.

[orzelek]

Is the balance for the nebula assuming the player will hop between races for each scenario, or does it support a player treating his ship like a "hero" to upgrade and make better, rather than replace with an entire new "class" depending on the mission?

My assumption is that people will play human in the nebula, until they get zenith or spire and then switch to one of those (or stay human) for the rest of the nebulae.  Human, Zenith, and Spire should all be decent for all of the scenarios, though some are better suited for certain ones.

For now this "specialization" is worst part for me. At later scenarios you may not even have chance to change champion since scenario will get lost before you can go back. From one side there is an assumption of "optimal" load out but you can't really change it. Unless you are expected to drag bunch of engies with cloaker each time you do scenario.
I found out that this starts to show after 6-7 scenarios. At start it's not that demanding and you can win with your favorite configuration.

[keith.lamothe]

5.089 is out now and addresses some of the items that were doing well in this poll.  I've removed those from the poll now, specifically:

Unit behavior: change engineer prioritization to repair low-hp expensive stuff, quicker at switching from a full dock, etc.
Unit behavior: make rebuilders target the same thing less often and do less yo-yoing back to FRD point
Balance: no Fabricators or Advanced Factories near wormholes
Mechanics: make teleporting ships not teleport when group-moving
Fix: Spider V fabs always seeding two per map

So I think if you voted for any of those you can reassign your votes.  I could be wrong, as the poll code has shown itself capable of strange and wonderful things (more strange than wonderful).

I'm planning to do a whole new poll in a couple days when I've had a chance to work through some more of this one, but for now I figured keeping this one going was probably the most convenient option for the meantime.

Thanks for the feedback

[Wanderer]

Revote seems to behave fine.  Just click 'remove vote', then reselect your 16 happiest choices.

[Volatar]

Thanks for the feedback

Thanks for listening.

[Wanderer]

Thanks for the feedback

Thanks for listening.

Haven't said this in a while, but +1.  The dev interaction is the primary reason I keep coming back to this game and keep trying to bump it by word of mouth.

[Hearteater]

+1 as well for awesome devs.  I recently read this quote on the Torchlight forum and thought of AI Wars immediately, and laughed.

Every game I have ever seen which involves constant nerfs/buffs is 100x worse 2 years down the road than at launch.