I haven't played in a while, so I figured I would give it a go this weekend.
I always play with everything on occasional. Before it would sometimes mean there wasn't squat to settle around you. So I choose huge map and all factions (all gifted) plus minors. Well, imagine my surprise when almost every star had a habitable planet, some two and most were about size 10! ?????
Even if they didn't have a habitable planet, they were of the kind that could be habitable with the right techs. Many 13 and up!
So inevitably the start is the colony rush. I think I am doing ok, then I start to meet the ai's. They have 2-3x my score? Say what? I look at it, and I am either close or have more than everyone but the Iconians in number of planets, middle of the road in tech and what not. It says I am a wimp in military, but when I look at their ships, they are all constructors, colony ships, scouts and a survey ship. That is a strong military?
So overall, I have been near where they are, but the scores are way higher for the AI. What is this score based on? It doesn't seem to make much sense and it doesn't break it down either. It seems heavily weighted on ranking vs real numbers, but that is a guess.
So after a while, of all factions, the infertile Iridium have the most colonies of anyone! WTH?
Anyway, thinks I think need worked on.
1) When creating a map and choosing all the options of size, type of galaxy, number of stars, planets, etc. when choosing opponents it should tell you that this will equal about X habitable planets per faction or it will say there will be about X habitable planets and let the user decide how that equates to how many factions they want to put in.
2) Notifications can't come in soon enough. I had two planets I didn't colonize all the sudden ask for build orders. I may have clicked through it, but there was nothing I could see to tell me why the heck I have these things. I think one was a minor faction as I can't find it anymore, but it is still in the UP.
3) Give me a goto for minor faction planets, it is a PIA to find them again sometimes.
4) It is tough, for me at least, to see what ideologies I have already researched. I was surprised when a bunch of factions hated me because I was pragmatic and they were benevolent. So I just choose a bunch of benevolent choices whether or not I wanted them to improve relations.
5) Tying into #4. I think there should be a scale of approval/disapproval between these. I think the bonus/malus is way to high. If you are both the same, then a couple of approval points max. If one in pragmatic, then it should be either neutral or perhaps -1 max. The opposite ends can be -2 or more. I don't see why a benevolent faction should view a pragmatic the same as a malevolent.
6) Trade routes have a penalty with other factions if they don't share ideology as well. Why?
7) AI, stop declaring war when we can;t reach each other. (Newer ai will hopefully fix that)
8) Can we only get mad about ships in each others area when they are military? A scout or survey ship causing issues is a bit weak. At least scale it by threat.
9) Will there be advisers at some point? Perhaps the graphs that aren't in will help.
It is getting better, keep it up!
