Library/Encyclopedia of Units

[Tankor Smash]

Hey,

 This would require a huge effort, be entirely superficial, and it could involve some more story telling, which I understand not everyone is okay with:

 How about having an encyclopedia of all the ships (and buildings) in the game? Like an easily accessible journal of all the ships in the game. It would have all the details of the units available from the tooltip, plus a phrase or two of strategies, just to give the newbies an idea, plus that page from the wiki with its efficiency against the certain ships. And maybe like a short backstory of the unit, to give every ship a little more personality?

 Or, if you want to add lore to the game, list each ship's size, height, cost to build and date enlisted in the fleet, etc. PLUS, what I'd really really love, would be a zoomed in picture (or animation) of the ship in question. For example the ship's picture would be the same size as a reactor mk III for example, with all the detail that that would bring. And beside the detailed picture you would have the default ship and the icon for comparison.

 Now I realize that this is a huge undertaking, but I can see it being an addition that comes with the premium expansion or something similar. It would add enough levels of polish to make the game stand out from all the other RTSs even more than it has already. And then it will have it so we are one step closer to having high res ships/ really really close zoom functionality in the game.

Thanks
  Tankor Smash

[RCIX]

There's actually a good solution to this: get a Wikia wiki and let anyone interested help and fill it out. Supcom has one, and it's pretty good.

[x4000]

We have the community wiki already if you want lore or what have you, or strategies beyond the basics, I don't see ever including that in the game itself.  If you want the in-game unit list with various detailed info, just hit F1!

[Fiskbit]

Tankor: I proposed a similar idea a while ago, but it was deemed not worthwhile, particularly with the F1 feature Chris just mentioned. http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,860.0.html

[Haagenti]

Now I realize that this is a huge undertaking, but I can see it being an addition that comes with the premium expansion or something similar. It would add enough levels of polish to make the game stand out from all the other RTSs even more than it has already. And then it will have it so we are one step closer to having high res ships/ really really close zoom functionality in the game.

If ArcenGames was this 800 employee corporate outfit spread out over five continents: brilliant idea.

Under its current setup: do we want X to work on gameplay or on graphics/civilopedias?

[Kjara]

One option would be to open up a section of the forum(or the wiki) for people to add most of this info(at least the more important stats/strategies), and then at some point(perhaps 2.0), roll it into the game in a civpedia style. 

[Haagenti]

http://www.arcengames.com/communitywiki/index.php?title=AI_War:Fleet_Command

is an open wiki.

[x4000]

and then at some point(perhaps 2.0), roll it into the game in a civpedia style. 

The problem is, this then becomes a localization burden.  Anything that we put into the game has to be translated, and that's potentially a LOT of text that most people would not even use.  Again, a challenge for a tiny company.  But the community wiki is wide open!

[Kjara]

Ah true, I didn't think of that fact .

[Echo35]

Maybe after AI War 2.0 and the Expansion are all settled down, this would be a nice addition, but even then X will be working on other games, so I think the Wiki is an excellent resource.

[x4000]

Maybe after AI War 2.0 and the Expansion are all settled down, this would be a nice addition, but even then X will be working on other games, so I think the Wiki is an excellent resource.

And even then there is the localization cost/time factor, too.  I think this is likely to stay a Wiki-only type of resource.  But it's certainly welcome in the wiki, I want to see that continue to grow!