Immersion suggestions

[zeusalmighty]

1) I think that the AI progress should have an additional tooltip such that it gives you a sense of the AI's interest in your activities. Personally, I like the idea of it saying stuff to the effect "a lion pays no attention to the activities of gnats" and progressing appropriately.

The number by itself is hardly indicative of what player's actions do to antagonize the AI.

2) Separately, I feel that the "Controller" needs to have some lore to make it more compelling and convincing as the strategic hub of the planet. As it stands, it seems to exist purely as a mechanic (a needed one) but without any rationale as to why the planet's control depends on its ownership.

This is somewhat related to the issue that the planet's themselves seem to be purely cosmetic background pieces. If feasible, it could be interesting if the planet's themselves determined what resources were available. To the effect that gas planets produced abundance of fuel, and terrestrial planets produced metal, etc.

IMO this would make the planets more immersive because they dictate the resources available.   

[x4000]

Hey there!  Excellent points.

To #1, we actually are looking at having a "Mood" indicator on the GUI coming up pretty soon, which should help do just that.  It was kind of a throwaway idea from our volunteer GUI designer, Eric, but I immediately loved it because of its ability to help tutorialize.  "Is 40 AIP good or bad?  What does that even mean?"  Etc.  There's been some further discussion about the mood indicator showing something related to how the AI feels after attacks or as waves hit or something, but that's not fleshed-out yet at all.

There will be a lot more personality to the AI in general as we start getting the many (many) taunt lines in there.

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To #2, the name of the "Controller," you know, that's one of those low-lying "I hadn't thought of it consciously, but now that you bring it up that's been bugging me, too" items.  My first thought was that we could rename it LaGrange Point or something, but then it couldn't move (or would have to move).

Perhaps it should be called "Space Elevator" or something, instead.  "He who controls the space elevator, controls the planet" -- Sun Tzu

That would also explain why the humans and the AI are capturing it, and not just destroying it.

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I agree that having planet types determining resource types would be good.  I'd love to be going "ooh, a gas giant, tons of fuel and science, yay!"  Having these also affect the movement speed of all ships to a small degree (+- 10%?) I think would also be a nice touch.

Will be interesting to hear what the others think about this.  There are more visuals for planets that I hope to get in sometime during the beta or during the press period, if I have time.

[TheVampire100]

I agree that having planet types determining resource types would be good.  I'd love to be going "ooh, a gas giant, tons of fuel and science, yay!"  Having these also affect the movement speed of all ships to a small degree (+- 10%?) I think would also be a nice touch.

Will be interesting to hear what the others think about this.  There are more visuals for planets that I hope to get in sometime during the beta or during the press period, if I have time.

I like this idea actually, maybe the community can help come up with some nice dieas what planet type could do what.
I always liked that in The last Federation different planet types affected the races living there. Somethign similiar having here (just in space) would make a nice addition.

[x4000]

I quite agree, and I'd love to have players involved in that.

[BadgerBadger]

If we're going to add speed modifiers, what about a structure you could build with a low galaxy cap (maybe you get 2 or 3 total) that gives your ships enhanced move speed on a planet?

[x4000]

If we're going to add speed modifiers, what about a structure you could build with a low galaxy cap (maybe you get 2 or 3 total) that gives your ships enhanced move speed on a planet?

We used to have those in Classic.  I don't remember if those got nerfed out or not.  I really liked them.  Using the new planetary power model here, having a larger cap of something like 5, but making them MEGA expensive in terms of power might make them interesting.

Having the electrical storm planets have a ton of extra power would be really fun, incidentally.

[keith.lamothe]

Gravity generators actually buff local ship speed, in addition to slowing down enemies.

[Draco18s]

I like this idea actually, maybe the community can help come up with some nice dieas what planet type could do what.
I always liked that in The last Federation different planet types affected the races living there. Somethign similiar having here (just in space) would make a nice addition.

Can we get a ring world model?  ^.^

[x4000]

I like this idea actually, maybe the community can help come up with some nice dieas what planet type could do what.
I always liked that in The last Federation different planet types affected the races living there. Somethign similiar having here (just in space) would make a nice addition.

Can we get a ring world model?  ^.^

Has anyone ever rendered that well in 3D?  I've only ever seen renderings that look pretty janky, in my opinion.  I'd love to see an example of that which excites me on the level that various Dyson Sphere models have, etc.  Anyhow, maybe a ring world will be an expansion thing.

[zeusalmighty]

Here's some thoughts on planet types/resource allocation:

Gas planet: fuel and/or power
Asteroid belt (with large asteroid mining facility as the "planet"): metal and/or fuel
Volcanic planet: power and/or fuel
Garden planet: all resources
Industrialized planet: power and/or metal
post-apocalyptic planet: research
Ancient alien civ planet: research + random resource

[zeusalmighty]

As I was thinking about the planet types, it occurred to me that I currently don't feel that AI2 makes me emotionally invested in my planets as AI classic--largely because in classic you had a homeworld and this dictated how you would expand your control over the galaxy.

To address this, (maybe in expansions or modding) it would be interesting to seed some planets that have their own unique scenarios attached with them along with corresponding bonuses/penalties.

For example, I imagine a planet in which a human population is enslaved by the AI. By capturing the planet, you can support the rebels to gain control of the planet but must provide metal while also increasing AIP during the rebellion. Once captured, you are rewarded with a substantial increase to limit of max metal, AIP returns to its prior state, and some suitable defense against the AI from recapturing (maybe a planetary cloaker)

Another possible example would be, say, a Desert planet that provides no resources but the most valuable resource in the known universe--and controlling it allows your ARK to warp DIRECTLY to any planet that you control. (Plus it's a nice homage to "Dune"  )

[x4000]

That would be pretty wicked in terms of the Dune-style planet.

As far as not feeling invested in planets, my hope is that will change as the tower defense element of this game starts ramping up more.  Badger has made us aware of just how insignificant waves have been compared to what the AI is doing with reinforcements and its defensive warden fleet, and so the AI is now a lot more offensively aggressive.

And you have one turret open from the start, so you can immediately see just HOW much more powerful turrets are than fleet ships (I believe turrets are about 3x the bang for your metal buck compared to fleet ships, with the caveat of immobility).

Hopefully the new balance makes you start caring about planets because of territorial concerns.  For me, in Classic the homeworld was rarely my most interesting planet.  Usually it was some bottleneck leading to my homeworld.  I don't see a reason why that sort of dynamic won't also wind up happening here.  Particularly with the changes to make the Ark no longer an offensive beast you bring to every party.

Balance still needs a lot of work, but hopefully as that falls into line things start feeling more like Classic when it comes to the significance of planets.  A lot of that feeling is just due to balance being off right now, or at least that's part of it.

[x4000]

Incidentally, I'm starting to throw this stuff up on mantis:

https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view.php?id=19474

and then:

https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view.php?id=19475

[BadgerBadger]

@Keith, remind me, why did you decide turrets shouldn't be buildable on planets you don't control? The Ark and flagships do provide some local power. I feel like Beachheading with turrets was a fun gameplay mechanic in AIWC.

[Draco18s]

Can we get a ring world model?  ^.^

Has anyone ever rendered that well in 3D?  I've only ever seen renderings that look pretty janky, in my opinion.  I'd love to see an example of that which excites me on the level that various Dyson Sphere models have, etc.  Anyhow, maybe a ring world will be an expansion thing.

Not that I've seen, at least not outside of science fiction movies/tv