play some multiplayer?

We ARE sheep... baa baa baa...

wow, I almost forgot the idea I am going to post, I got it when chatting in preparation for the big game.

just before that I would like to stress again that I want to see in the ability descriptions exact measures on the effects. like how much damage the gauss canon does at every lvl, how much income is sources by embargo, how strong sova missile batteries are, how long the akkan ion bolt kills electric systems. I'm pretty sure, its not in there in the level of detail I would like to have. maybe you devs are aware and its just not a high priority, but I wanted to bring it to your attention in any case.

now for the idea: I think most will agree that capships at higher levels are pretty damn powerful. now, I thought of an elegant way to balance this a bit with normal ships and the game flow. just exclude capships from research upgrades. capships get more hp, firepower, abilities and so on as they level up anyways, so why make them even stronger with research? you can compensate it a bit with either making resarch slightly cheaper or if you find this nerving too much, making level increases a bit more pronouced (even though I think they already are too much). in any case, it would make normal ships be a bit better against them in later stages of the game, while barely limiting the role in the early to mid game and since you can train them to a certain degree anyways, you can still get a strong ship in late game.

would someone plz answer my question in my post: "quick question (universe size)"

I would love to see players in multiplayer games have the ability to donate/trade planets (or even tech) with other players. This really is something that should be there.

I think high lvl capships (which at that point mostly also have upgrades) tear frigates apar too well for my view. only thing to stop it is another capship or an very large amount of smaller ships.

exactly my point.



hm, interesting, I was wondering why you had so much trouble over there with ai's. ok, before there was ai + annatar vs dutch more or less. didn't watch those battles that closely though I have to admit. too far away.

they don't, but in the mid game where this is an issue they will level fairly fast du to the large battles taking place, if you manage to keep them alive. and yes, making them a bit less powerful towards the was the intention.

weapons: you mean because armor affects everything and weapons just a few kinds of ships? agreed, upgrading lasers almost exclusively for cobalts is tough. maybe there is a way to compensate for this, I wouldnt mind if it leads to a more specialised research approach, say individual upgrades are more expensive but also more noticeable.

At the start, Dutch took a beating from Annatar and the AI, while Jam3 and I were helping Shadow take out Multi's homeworld.

When Annatar was dropped from the game, we simply assumed that Dutch would clean house on his own. We didn't take into account that Dutch was already badly damaged and both AIs never let him recover.

Once I started to help Dutch out, we were beating both AIs. It was just irritating because they would constantly attack all our phase connections simultaneously. My long train of reinforcements (siege frigs, carriers and colony ships) had a bad habit of trying to cross gravity wells that were suddenly packed with AI ships. By the time I would notice, my ships would already be toast.

It was like whack a mole...but worse. Each time we smacked one enemy fleet down, another 2 would attack elsewhere. Of course we would have won, but the time it would have taken would have seen Shadow defeated and Multi/Gauntlet attacking us elsewhere.

something entirely different:

I read multis post and the thread about the 100 planet game and so on. now, apart from all other things that need to be done like increased automation, you could include two things, if they aren't in already:

1. the shift option for ship building so you can construct larger fleets more quickly. i.e. shift click builds you 5 or ten of that kind.

2. star based production instead of planet based production: basically, I'd say that often you have star sytem that is not under attack and totally colonised by either you alone or with your allies. if you want to produce stuff there, why bother going into planetary menus? just click on the star and have those options light up as if you selected the planet and the orders will be spread out among all the factories you have in that system.

sorry if its already in, I'm too lazy to check right now.

the thing with capital ships is that late game they can VERY easily be spiked, thats why they are so rediculously overpowered later on.

currently they are as balanced as possible, and no in late game they do not level up excessively, rather they level quite slowly.

If they allow people to just join as observers Otherwise, most people probably wouldn't stick around much after being wiped out to wait for the next guy before being able to talk.

But I seem to remember reading that they weren't going to allow 'join as observer' stuff, though I could well be wrong

Sorry, this won't happen. It's not so much that the engine can't handle it but it would require a massive redesign of the GUI for something that would be used rarely.