Suggestions

[x4000]

I was more thinking of selecting the group of enemy ships, and then hitting priority button.  Not too complex in a middle of a fight.  Say, double-click the offending cruisers to select all on screen, and hit a P9 button.  This would be more to guide the AI rather than override its target selection logic outright.

Gotcha -- I see now what you mean.  Still, there are several complexities in this at the moment including 1) we don't support selection of enemy ships, and changing that will be a challenge 2) all of the 0-9 keys are already used for control groups in the main window.  This last can be overcome, but still.

In the current target selection logic, each ship is currently acting independently and killing what it can best kill, whereas with this sort of prioritized approach they would presumably have to just limit themselves to the current highest-level priority and kill whatever they are best able to kill in there.  I could see a few mild benefits from this, but overall it's fairly redundant with a lot of what is already there in the game.  This is one of those cases where I just don't feel like the juice is worth the squeeze, for a variety of reasons.  If there's widespread demand for this I'll look into it more, but no other RTS game that I've played has had this, and I just don't feel like there's a lot of value there compared to the several days of programming it will required (and the number of bugs a change of this magnitude will likely introduce in unrelated areas).

I was thinking that this command would set the priority on the 2000 enemy ships, and then tell the 6000 ships to re-prioritize targets.  Only 8000 commands.  Alternatively, perhaps it's time for a multicast attack command. Say attack( firer array, target array).  Then of course you would need code to figure out what multicasts to send...

Yep, something like this would work -- given your example here, actually it would just take the 2,000 commands for setting the priority on the enemy ships.  The other 6,000 ships would not needed cross-network commands at all, that would just be part of the simulation logic when they are auto-targeting.  So your approach as outlined here is certainly vastly more efficient network-wise than what I was thinking, but I'm still not feeling the love for this one.  Sorry!  I hate turning down a feature, but at this point this particular one is just more of a bear than I really want to get into.  The feature is on my maybe-down-the-line list, though, so if it comes up with a lot of players then maybe we can revive it.

Oh, and I second the vote for explicit Windowed mode (where I can resize the window, and where the mouse is not snapped to the window).

Hmm, resizing the window is not going to ever be possible with the game in realtime, just based on the way everything is coded out it has to be restarted after every resize.  But what I will do is put some common resolutions in there so that you can choose from a list as to what you want.  Should have something for this in there today for you to try out, hopefully that will be a help.

Thanks again for posting!

[netWilk]

Oh, and I second the vote for explicit Windowed mode (where I can resize the window, and where the mouse is not snapped to the window).

Hmm, resizing the window is not going to ever be possible with the game in realtime, just based on the way everything is coded out it has to be restarted after every resize.  But what I will do is put some common resolutions in there so that you can choose from a list as to what you want.  Should have something for this in there today for you to try out, hopefully that will be a help.

Thanks again for posting!

No dynamic resize is not a problem at all.  And you could always add a custom resolution entry for those who just have to run in a 999x777 window.  

Thanks for looking at our suggestions!

[x4000]

No dynamic resize is not a problem at all.  And you could always add a custom resolution entry for those who just have to run in a 999x777 window.  

Awesome!  And yeah, in looking at it I realized that it would probably be better to be flexible.  So what I'm adding is where you can type in the size you want, although it won't let you go below 1024x768 at present (the game has various serious overlap problems below that, it's just not meant to be any smaller).  But that way if you must have 1025x3333, you can do it, haha.

Thanks for looking at our suggestions!

Of course!  They are always welcome.

[Blam Stokel]

I won't be doing any more bonus ship classes except in expansions (that's going to be one of the defining things of the expansions, as well as other larger game-changing additions that you expect from a good expansion), but I will definitely keep this in mind for the expansion ship types -- I think it is a good idea.  In the meantime, you might find that you like Anti-Armor ships, which have a fairly high range (about 4/7 that of a cruiser, if I recall) and fire armor-piercing missiles at that range.

Ok that makes sense, I usually use the anti armor when it is seeded, it's nice to outrange many defenses with a ship that speed. The thing I really would want is range + survivability, which is one reason I like the repair ship so much, it can make cruiser swarms even more devastating.

I'm glad you like the research ship idea, I can't wait to give it a try on my save where I am super pinned down.

[Blam Stokel]

hey sorry for two posts in a row, but I have a couple more suggestions.

1) some sort of longer range anti heavy defense ship, it could be super weak and easy to kill but an alternative to taking out force fields with special forces inside them

2) more buffer ship types like munitions but for different stats like fire rate or range.
I know that a defense buffer already exists in the form of t3 force fields but I was thinking more of a smaller area bonus like munitions give.

These are more like bonus ship types that I'm thinking of here, so I don't expect to get them without an expansion. That's all for now

[x4000]

Ok that makes sense, I usually use the anti armor when it is seeded, it's nice to outrange many defenses with a ship that speed. The thing I really would want is range + survivability, which is one reason I like the repair ship so much, it can make cruiser swarms even more devastating.

Yeah, hopefully that won't be too overly powerful, but I suspect not since the repair ship has the same limitation (as engineers) of not being able to repair stuff that was damaged in the last 3 seconds.  So it should help and be an augment, but I don't think it will make for invincible cruiser swarms.

I'm glad you like the research ship idea, I can't wait to give it a try on my save where I am super pinned down.

Yeah, when I do this next prerelease you can use it right in the existing one, so hopefully that will be a big help.  They'll still need to be protected from conventional small ships that might come over to kill them, but all the big arms fire, ion cannons, etc, should be no worry.

[x4000]

hey sorry for two posts in a row, but I have a couple more suggestions.

No worries.

1) some sort of longer range anti heavy defense ship, it could be super weak and easy to kill but an alternative to taking out force fields with special forces inside them

This I'm fairly against, just because it creates too easy of a solution to one of the more interesting problems currently there.  Really, EMPs (especially when paired with Starships) are meant to solve this same problem.  Or a mobile force field would also work.  And Mark III and IV bombers have a pretty long range (about the same as anti-armors, I think).  I wouldn't want to dampen the strategy by making these nuts too easy to crack.

2) more buffer ship types like munitions but for different stats like fire rate or range.
I know that a defense buffer already exists in the form of t3 force fields but I was thinking more of a smaller area bonus like munitions give.

Oh yeah, I definitely have some stuff like this planned for the expansion, too.  We're definitely on the same page there.

These are more like bonus ship types that I'm thinking of here, so I don't expect to get them without an expansion. That's all for now

No problem!  I'm collecting and collating ideas of all kinds from people, even if some of them aren't going to happen until the expansions.  So don't worry about suggesting things "too early" or something, there's no such thing.

[x4000]

New version:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=71.0

[Blam Stokel]

Yeah, when I do this next prerelease you can use it right in the existing one, so hopefully that will be a big help.  They'll still need to be protected from conventional small ships that might come over to kill them, but all the big arms fire, ion cannons, etc, should be no worry.

yeah it definitely helped a lot, I actually managed to gather enough knowledge to get myself some t3 ship classes to bust my way out with, definitely an extremely useful addition to the game, same with the negative energy turret, it helps for those uncomfortable situations where your main command post gets seeded on a space train line.

This I'm fairly against, just because it creates too easy of a solution to one of the more interesting problems currently there.  Really, EMPs (especially when paired with Starships) are meant to solve this same problem.  Or a mobile force field would also work.  And Mark III and IV bombers have a pretty long range (about the same as anti-armors, I think).  I wouldn't want to dampen the strategy by making these nuts too easy to crack.

Yeah I agree that being able to totally outrange force field defenses would be a bit too diminishing to the strategy. Now that I actually look at the stats, I can tell now that even t2 bombers can outrange those special forces bases that were causing my t1 bombers such a problem, so the issue I was responding to is actually fairly easy to solve with what is already implemented.

I have noticed though that there is one way that you can actually trick the AI who are hiding in force fields: if you start building a force field generator within range of the enemy field, the defenses there will attack it to the exclusion of everything else, allowing you to move your bombers in and plug away with impunity. This actually will ONLY work against enemies inside the field. Ships outside of the field target as normal. I have only tried this in one game so far, it's possible that other ai types might handle it differently (I was playing a random easier ai on difficulty 7)

[x4000]

eah it definitely helped a lot, I actually managed to gather enough knowledge to get myself some t3 ship classes to bust my way out with, definitely an extremely useful addition to the game, same with the negative energy turret, it helps for those uncomfortable situations where your main command post gets seeded on a space train line.

Awesome!  And yeah, the negative energy turrets will help even more on higher difficulties, because the trains will come right into your planet on a pretty regular basis (although, if I recall correctly, I think you're already playing pretty high up there).  Part of the function of Astro Trains has always been to make certain wormholes harder to defend (because turrets are hard to maintain at them), and before the only solution was to kill astro train stations.  That's still the primary solution, but now if you're willing to expend some knowledge you also have a turret-based workaround for a limited number of wormholes.  I think my alpha group will really dig that this next weekend, too (they haven't seen this yet).

Yeah I agree that being able to totally outrange force field defenses would be a bit too diminishing to the strategy. Now that I actually look at the stats, I can tell now that even t2 bombers can outrange those special forces bases that were causing my t1 bombers such a problem, so the issue I was responding to is actually fairly easy to solve with what is already implemented.

Awesome.  You can also send your bombers around to the "back" of the force field, further from the special forces command post itself -- so if you are lucky, even Mark I bombers can do the job there.  But you're right, Mark II or III will do much better, either way you cut it.

I have noticed though that there is one way that you can actually trick the AI who are hiding in force fields: if you start building a force field generator within range of the enemy field, the defenses there will attack it to the exclusion of everything else, allowing you to move your bombers in and plug away with impunity. This actually will ONLY work against enemies inside the field. Ships outside of the field target as normal. I have only tried this in one game so far, it's possible that other ai types might handle it differently (I was playing a random easier ai on difficulty 7)

Humm, that's an interesting one.  I'll see if I can duplicate that, and put in a counter for it.  Thanks for reporting it!

[Blam Stokel]

yeah sneaky bomber placement is usually how I deal with those pesky force field/ special forces combos.

One thing I would really like to see is a researchable t2 engineer that has the teleporting ability that you see on the battlestation bonus ship type, it would be confined to the system it was built in but it would make setting up defenses and repairing ships easier.

[x4000]

One thing I would really like to see is a researchable t2 engineer that has the teleporting ability that you see on the battlestation bonus ship type, it would be confined to the system it was built in but it would make setting up defenses and repairing ships easier.

I love it!  Added that to my list.  It will cost some knowledge to unlock this, though, just to warn you -- it throws off the engineer balance somewhat, which is fine, but I'm going to want 3,000 knowledge in return in order to balance that out.  Let me know what you think!

[Blam Stokel]

That seems fair, I wouldn't expect such power to be cheap, I just find that sometimes I lose a ship that needs repair because of the slowness of the engineer, so that ability is something that in my mind would be worth knowledge.

[x4000]

That seems fair, I wouldn't expect such power to be cheap, I just find that sometimes I lose a ship that needs repair because of the slowness of the engineer, so that ability is something that in my mind would be worth knowledge.

Awesome -- if the knowledge output later seems to steep, we can always readjust it, but this is a fairly significant power that I think should come at a reasonable cost.

[Blam Stokel]

well I dunno if anyone uses this thread anymore, it sure looks like they don't.

Anywho, my friend and I had a rather difficult problem involving permamines blocking a major passage through our territory, such that pretty much every move order needed to be manually directed around them. We thought that a way to mark a hole as "off limits" to the pathfinding AI would be an extremely nice feature to have because it would give you a way to direct traffic and make move orders much simpler through empires where the shortest route can be deadly.