Thoughts on my first play throughs

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ThePraetor
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Posts: 2

Thoughts on my first play throughs

Post by ThePraetor »

Great game. These guys really get it. I have not enjoyed a space-based 4x game since Master of Orion 2, and I much preferred the original game. The feel and ambiance of the game is perfect. Making it a campy space opera brings up some of my favorite old games like MOO1 (cheesy newsbot) and Star Control ("Launch Fighters!") So far I like that colony development appears pretty streamlined and simple. But there are problems in the UI here. For example, why do I have to go outside of the colony screen to see how many BCs I have, shouldn't information like that always be at a bar at the top?

Technology, good job on making it interesting. I like how races have different starting techs and you can "refine" those technologies into something better. I also think it is interesting that seemingly random new concepts will appear to focus on.

I really like the lore and the back story so far. I like that all races are not created equal, in that, like in games like Europa Universalis, each nation has a unique starting point and challenges to face.

The biggest problem with the game is the UI, especially in tactical combat. I am really glad that they decided to do tactical combat at all, but there are some big annoyances here. For example, when fighters stack on top of an enemy ship, making it hard to target. Also the enemy "buzzing" your planets with scouts, making you go into combat mode. I do not think that mode should appear unless there is a dedicated attack. And again, I think there is some crucial information here that is being kept from players. For example, I can fire my nukes from one planet to another distant planet? But are they really going to even reach that far? What is my chance to hit at this range? Maybe then combat should be about a single planet and not system wide.

And just some other annoyances, where the focus keeps shifting back to whatever unit is selected (maybe make this a hot key like space bar, but if I want to focus on an enemy fleet and not center on whatever ship gets selected, and issue orders in that area, not have to keep scrolling back to the fleet everytime I change friendly ships. Frankly, I think ships and star bases have too many hit points. And shields are overpowered. Combat generally lasts too long.

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Gliese
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Posts: 6

Re: Thoughts on my first play throughs

Post by Gliese »

Quite. I'd like to add that you've summed up my gripes a lot more succinctly than I have. That and the fact I grinned like an idiot at "Launch Fightes" and hope to eventually mod in something that will let the stars grow dark under the fearsome(ly fearful) shadow of Spathi Eluders.

Regarding BCs - There's actually a treasury bar on the colony screen, though it doesn't really stand out. It took me awhile to notice, but it's there. Look for treasury, about mid-top of the screen. Second, good on you for mention EU. Thirdly... I imagine a button to toggle units 'shifting' back would solve that majorly annoying gripe easily. As for shields, I think weakening shields would help somewhat, but both ion and particle weaponry can be very good versus shields; and if you've been heavily investing in assault shuttles, they are one of the cheaper ways of winning battles as they can make situations where shields are breached essentially victory for the side with shuttles.