So, what's standing between the current version and something official-ready?

[keith.lamothe]

I'd meant to do another round of the 6.0 poll but the number of bugs caused by addressing the issues therein has put me off of that idea   We still did address the top 5 or 6 or however-many issues, counting both rounds of that poll, and I think that was good progress.

What I'd like to know now is what issues really need to be addressed prior to 6.0, in the view of each of you.  My current pre-6.0 list is:

(edit: updated list before starting 5.094 push)

(done) go through the tutorial, fix up what's broke/wrong/inaccurate/etc.

(done by Chris) redo several of the far-zoom-icons for Ancient Shadows stuff because a lot of them largely lack internal contrast

(done) http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9724 fix minifortress not buildable in defender mode (ship cap zero)

(done) http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9723 fix spire corvettes showing up in ARS if starships off

(done) http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9735 investigate ARS hijinks (more ARS spawning after hack, save, load; some other weirdness)

add endgame journal mentioning (redacted) if that's what happened in the nebulae

(done) http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11757.msg113410/topicseen.html#new investigate problems with fallen spire, signals spawning in multiple places, etc

add champion-related achievements

(done) make offroad planets not be considered by objectives window

(done) make offroad planets not be considered for gathered-knowledge galaxy filter

make ability structures not get throttled when doing try-assist, etc

(done) champion respawn logic:
- don't respawn unless shadow capcitor >= 100
- when respawning, empty capacitor
- change "are you sure you want to scrap this?" text to "are you sure you want to warp back home?" when "scrapping" a champion

(done) add galaxy overlay showing where champions are

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9309 compilation of ship description problems

make duplicate nebula scenarios impossible
- but add chat-line command to make them possible for people who really want more scenarios after he 9th, at least until there's enough defined (later months) to not need them
- if no scenarios available, nebula will just be blank

investigate "attack-move can cause ships to auto-attack against non-autotargetable stuff that shoots at it, including stuff that raises AIP on death"

make champion designs automatically upgrade to highest available mark of each module

fix nonsensical "CSG must be destroyed Second" bit on the objectives screen

(if there's time) Add champion-nemesis component to homeworld defense when there's champions in the game; scaling down as AIP goes up to avoid stalemate

setup new achievements on steam side

I haven't searched exhaustively or thought everything through so there may be something really obvious missing from that.  Or something no obvious that still needs to be there.  Either way, assume nothing, let me know   I'd rather be told something where "well, yea, obviously I would do that" than not realize it at all.

Thanks again for all the feedback, everyone   This is definitely a much better game than 5.0, and mostly due to addressing things brought up by players since then.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Personally, I think that the Ship Design window for the Champion needs to be redone. It takes too much time when you unlock a new Hull/Module level/Module to make a new ship and saving designs don't work too well unless you only unlock things in the same order and want to see a ton of them in your list for things like Basic Human Ship with Mk2 Shield and Mk1 Modules, Basic Human Ship with Mk1 Shields, Mk2 Lasers and Mk1 Everything, Basic Human ship with Mk2 Shield and Lasers and Mk1 everything else, Basic Human ship with Mk2 everything...

I could go on but I really would like to see a faster way to upgrade modules and put modules on the ship. Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

[Cinth]

Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

That option is still there. Settings > Advanced > Show Module Build Menu for Champion Ships

[TechSY730]

Can I add the "attack-move can cause ships to auto-attack against non-autotargetable stuff that shoots at it, including stuff that raises AIP on death" to the list (mantis link to come later)?

Anyways, my votes in priority order, highest priority first:
First, I would vote for looking into the ARS and fallen spire spawn issues.
Then issues with games under severe "throttling" (typically due to lower end machines), including orders not being processed until quite some time (especially noticiable with spite blades and tackle drones) and ship spawns not being triggered in a timely fashion (like popped carriers).
Then, the attack-move issue above.
Then, the ship description issues.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

That option is still there. Settings > Advanced > Show Module Build Menu for Champion Ships

That needs to be a lot more noticeable. Still I would like to see the Ship design window and ships automatically upgrade their modules to the highest level when they are rebuilt. Unless you can give me a good reason why you want to build MK1 Shields when you can stick Mk3 Shields on a ship?

[TechSY730]

Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

That option is still there. Settings > Advanced > Show Module Build Menu for Champion Ships

That needs to be a lot more noticeable. Still I would like to see the Ship design window and ships automatically upgrade their modules to the highest level when they are rebuilt. Unless you can give me a good reason why you want to build MK1 Shields when you can stick Mk3 Shields on a ship?

I would really like that; you assign module types to slots, and by default, the ship just chooses the highest mark it can build at the time of that module for slot.
This change for the module process overall (not just for champions) would greatley improve module management and would be much more intuitive.
However, I don't think that is a pressing issue for 6.0.

Also, I would support the "right click the side bar to issue orders" suggestion, but I'm not sure figuring out how to handle all of the odd edge cases of this (mostly multi to multi orders) in time for 6.0 would be possible.

[Cinth]

Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

That option is still there. Settings > Advanced > Show Module Build Menu for Champion Ships

That needs to be a lot more noticeable. Still I would like to see the Ship design window and ships automatically upgrade their modules to the highest level when they are rebuilt. Unless you can give me a good reason why you want to build MK1 Shields when you can stick Mk3 Shields on a ship?

I'm just pointing out that one of the things you wanted was in game already. The rest is all on the man behind the code

Personally, I only use the templates for max module and max hull sizes. Way to many combinations otherwise for templates to be useful. Build menu suits me until I get there though.

[Toranth]

Why can't we have the same interface that the Module Fortress use in game? For that, if I want to put 4 Lasers on it, I hit the Laser module 4 times, I don't have to go into it select each open space and select laser for each one. Granted I still have to choose the MK level and do some scrap and upgrade when I need to, but it is far better then how you can build the Champions right now.

That option is still there. Settings > Advanced > Show Module Build Menu for Champion Ships

That needs to be a lot more noticeable. Still I would like to see the Ship design window and ships automatically upgrade their modules to the highest level when they are rebuilt. Unless you can give me a good reason why you want to build MK1 Shields when you can stick Mk3 Shields on a ship?

I'm just pointing out that one of the things you wanted was in game already. The rest is all on the man behind the code

Personally, I only use the templates for max module and max hull sizes. Way to many combinations otherwise for templates to be useful. Build menu suits me until I get there though.

In addition to the 'This slot is always the highest mark available' change, I'd like to have the ability to hold SHIFT to place more than one module of the same type.  Human BBs have 20 small modules, and clicking that much gets tedious.  Even with templates.

[Faulty Logic]

I think restricting nebula access somehow (maybe AIP, maybe CSGs, maybe simple time) is in order. Suggestion based on having a battleship and 147 (+25) minion starships (and gatlings) at AIP 10.

[Winge]

I think restricting nebula access somehow (maybe AIP, maybe CSGs, maybe simple time) is in order. Suggestion based on having a battleship and 147 (+25) minion starships (and gatlings) at AIP 10.

What about having a nebula difficulty increase of some sort if the AI still holds the planet?  I agree that something needs to be done; the Champion is very powerful outside of nebulas at low AIP.

[Faulty Logic]

I was thinking "cannot enter wormhole unless nebula planet is in supply or adjacent to a planet in supply."

Increasing the difficulty would not impact the problem much, imo.

[Cinth]

I was thinking "cannot enter wormhole unless nebula planet is in supply or adjacent to a planet in supply."

If that were the case I would have had to have taken around 17 planets just to get the 9 closest nebula. Would be a lot more if I wanted secure borders. That is a bit prohibitive IMO.

A lot of things in the game can be OP if acquired when you have low AIP. Like the Champs though, as AIP goes up that advantage goes away.

[Faulty Logic]

Good point, on many maps that would be prohibitive. I propose:

The champion has a nemesis: a ship of equal hull strength that continually goes to your champion and tries to kill it (could not enter nebulae, when your champ is away, the nemisis attacks the HW). The nemesis has no abilities and respawns at an AI Homeworld if killed.

You must take one planet per hull size, so:
Nebula 2 inaccessible until you take one planet.
Nebula 5 inaccessible until you take another planet.
Nebula 9 inaccessible until you take a third planet.

[Cinth]

Every AI is a Heroic AI!!

[Faulty Logic]

It wouldn't quite be that bad. But I would prefer some other method.

Also, could the nebulae display their income and k reward in the planetary summary please?