Fairin's List of testing for devs

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Fairin
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Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

moved to in testing

Alpha v0.0.1.28
tutorial for combat came after combat with probe, took a second to figure it out after combat was redundant.

expected a click to move interface sort of like Moo1 / 2 pressing M to move was a little troublesome (minor)

graphics for planets / ships dissappeared. made combat heniously difficult without auto ai to fight for me
Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.31
auto ai lines ships up like a conga line for destruction if i placed my ships correctly

defenseless planets dont need my ships pounding on it for 20 turns because im too lazy to include bombs for my ships (needs an auto calc - bomb planet? done)

(obvious) some tech trees (biology) seem emptyish (might just be me or my game)

are some tech's "random" (awesome!) for the races? had some allies send me some worthless armor i couldnt research

auto ai wouldnt engage ships across the system when they are easilly capable of getting there in 5 turns or so, made me loose pluto to bombardment cause my ships were centered around mars/earth/mercury and wouldnt bother to intercept

combat tactical simply needs to zoom out. end of discussion

the movement grid for ships needs to be brighter (or im just blind) - optional bright green w/movement squares i.e. classic moo2 options =)

windowed (borderless) please - also game pauses when tabbed (minor) Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.31

my first game i nearly went on the path to bankruptacy before figureing out precicely how (bad shipyard stop takin my monies!) a tutorial explaination would suffice a lot of starting greiveance Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.29

its classic cliche to have first contact then the only option is "end discussion" when they are like "who are you?" this isnt mass effect with the . oh . we lost com signal *nod to joker*

tactical combat could use some lines on ships for "shield/fire arc's

ship design needs weapon fire arc's too (wouldnt hurt so newbies first playtest of a ship design wont be like. why cant i fire half my weapons!!!111!1)


did not discover any "toy" ship weapons / systems (the classic spin your ships to death gyro distabilizer!) plasma webs and what not before i conquered the whole galaxy

it "felt" like the computer didnt bother to colonize all too much, their economy was in shambles the entire game (had 3 under 100mc / turn while i was over 500bc - and they only had maybe 2 planets tops)

there came a point i couldnot spend my credits. even if i bought a mothership on every single colony every single turn - probably intended

i never built (erm. bought) anything but a mothership, and explored with transport ships (far more range than "scout" ships (far. far too cheap!)

while reasearching i had half the galaxy. was researching "SO much" junk per turn -.- (probably intended - total research =2.5 million)

Terraforming? - one of the joys of Moo 2 was turning every planet (cept those darn toxic planets) shiny blue earth replicas (then green gaia's down the line) turning the economy up to fullspeed on my opponents!

wouldnt hurt to see a little homage paid with max populations being displayed as well for the planets

your ship(s) have arrived popup somewhere out of the way on the ui wouldnt hurt also.

incomming ENEMY ships need to be HIGHLIGHTED for interception (suprise attack on 3 of my planets when it takes 9 turns for me to intercept from my primary fleet?)

stations need to be upgradeable or .. gasp. designable! take that moo2! (or did i somehow just completely miss the option?)

(more to come, as i test more and post my personal feelings / suggestions / storys)

of course the obvious racial selection unique home systems, ship designs and racial bonuses... goes without saying right? =)

- Fairin
Last edited by Fairin on Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:16 am, edited 5 times in total.
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" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

the bombs.. they do nothing 0.0, remember moo2 "energy torpedoes" were fire once. reload 2nd infininte ammo otherwise torpedoes are just fancy missles.


Balancing pick a solution. how to bomb a planet - ship guns > missles > bombs (measured over a 20 round bombing fest) guns shoot everything, take up the least space and are far more usefull against ships. (consider 20 ammo for missle/bomb)

suggested solution. make bombs far more devastating make guns far less devastating to planets.

also could not get MY invasions to work for whatever reason. (trying to invade kamzaks) troop transports get the option to invade but never get the screen, on that note theres a system the kamzaks instantly invade me (through my fleets! . withoutships!!) when ever i colonize it (dunno if it matters. but the planet is arshag 1) there have also been times i tried to invade a defenseless planet and gotten the "you cannot invade a defended planet!) cause he had a small scout ship somewhere in the system my 20+ motherships couldnt find =) (nerd raging over how zoomed in i am) Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.31

Barsig offered me a trade agreement, then the next turn offered me the quest to get them to offer a trade agreement. ><

Bug: send a fleet to an enemy system, then try to leave the system. the computer should engage your fleet. stopping your movement. locking your fleet to the system untill their planets are dead or your fleet is (intentional?)

bug: Troop Transports wont deposit troops on planets unless they are in bombing range at end of combat: 10 ships w/1 troop pod. 20k troops carried. only 8k could land cause 4 ships were in the "conga line" of auto combat =) Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.31

bug: victory/defeat message at troop invasions is black text against the blackness of space Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.31
Last edited by Fairin on Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

Grogger
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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Grogger »

Thanks Fairin, I just wanted to say that this is great feedback.

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

got 3 saves with bugs (fleet moving "away from target" their order is return to base)

colonizing a planet gets invaded before i can even name the system/build anything on it

last civ has 0 population. hasnt claimed a system. and prevents winning the game (i own the galaxy)

now for my 2nd game =)
Fixed in Alpha v0.0.2.33 -badass response =)

could we get version update logs, and visible version numbers on the load screen? Fixed =)

also noticing an interesting gameplay "feature" sometimes i "loose" a ship i have occupying an enemy colony, like they attacked me. but i engaged a different system - example

declare war on galaxy. send 3 fleets of 10 to 3 home systems arriving at the same time, you get to engage one. the others might loose a ship or two. when they realistically dont have a chance of breaking one =)
Last edited by Fairin on Thu Jul 11, 2013 4:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
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" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by crimsonsun »

Fairin wrote:
also noticing an interesting gameplay "feature" sometimes i "loose" a ship i have occupying an enemy colony, like they attacked me. but i engaged a different system - example

declare war on galaxy. send 3 fleets of 10 to 3 home systems arriving at the same time, you get to engage one. the others might loose a ship or two. when they realistically dont have a chance of breaking one =)
You can use the COM's button to jump between fleets in different systems in a single turn. Very clunky but would save your ships from auto combat.

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

games 3 4 and 5 - all classic versions 0.02.31 (what was changed btw besides nerfing my auto repairing op armor i forgot to mention =P)

the AI isnt growing very quickly - somecases not at all (varaians im looking at you!) they're economy is relatively stagnant, maybe a boost in the beginning of 1bc per turn untill they reach 3 or 4 colonies? so they at least -do- something by the time i go -a-conquering.

conquer a planet - choose assilimate = 20 turns of a huge (bloody huge!) bill as you pick up the check for their food supply (usually in the area of 35bc per turn) luckily i was in the trillions when i managed to actually capture a colony ( problem with auto combat continueing to bombard a colony i want to cap)

it doesnt matter if you improve the colony's food production for the above ^ the citizens wont work untill its at 100% so if you couldnt afford a 700bc bill (over the course of 20 turns) its gonna end the game super quick if you rush and take out an opponent

i propose a feature to auto build and buy infastructure on a planet - sometimes when i colonize and i have trillions of credits to spare i'd like to just buy everything the planet needs but micromanaging it for the 6 turns it'd take (not to mention forgetting i sent a colony ship out there) gets tiresome - i wouldnt even care if it took twice as long. or twice the credits at that point just cut down the micromanagement a smidge on a frige world i want to exploit even if i have to pay for it for a while =)

i feel like ships should be a little more highlighted on the map. i did have a fleet slip past and attack one of my newly conquered colonies (man my poor starbase with its terrible lazers just got shot to peices by a destroyer, someone put shields on that thing so its guns dont get immidately blown off..)

in my last game i picked up the cybernetic labs =) little things like that make exploreing worth it easilly, (seem rarer this last update)

also wanted to note i bought all the structures back on my planet being assimiliated and when they hit 100% i got a trade income of a rediclious massive ammount- easilly 2 trillion.

last one for the night, can we lower the decible level of the ui button clicks? after a short session (of 12 hours) the high pitch (even at minimum volume) was grating

also wheres my ending video! my army is undefeatable! my fleets controll the skys of every planet in this galaxy!
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" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Lithari »

I was able to get the similar thing, but for the trade part of the colony, as well as the stargate tech and beam defense....not in the same game, but recently....all 3 were from surveying and finding dig sites....nice touch.

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Zaimat
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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Zaimat »

Fairin wrote:got 3 saves with bugs (fleet moving "away from target" their order is return to base)

colonizing a planet gets invaded before i can even name the system/build anything on it

last civ has 0 population. hasnt claimed a system. and prevents winning the game (i own the galaxy
Fixed the issues relating to those 3 saved games. Thanks! The last Civ (Tantik) actually had a colony (outpost) on the top right corner which you hadn't explored.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

quickly approaching my badass seal of approval Zaimat >:)

gonna rock out a few more playthoughs in Alpha v0.0.2.33 leave a few saves for yeh guys again

also soon my weapon mathmatical sheet for Alpha v0.0.2.33 might come to fruition, try out other weapons besides crystal cannons =P
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" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

Weapon testing put on hold untill yeh go over and make it more complicated

fighter issue (save provided) fighters dont auto dock. or destruct when left in deep space, use imagination >:) - makes it kinda annoying to use carriers when its extra fun to get them to dock so they can be launched again

barsig issue, accepted don's offer this time around, 5% tribute to access the junkyards - did not recieve (or notice) a benefit from this, even visiting the location he told me his mansion was (i took the system over no mansion was found -.-) suckin 30bc from me a turn now kinda irritating cant seem to cancel it.

ok their names sound to similiar i keep getting half of them mixed up >< how about throwing the logic factory a bone with their race names in their game Ascendancy >:)

sorry if you liked their names and or created them yourselves! i speak only truth here!


did do a brief weapons overlook these are how things are looking in Alpha v0.0.2.34

Energy Weapons - light = 5 size 360 arc, minimal damage
Energy Weapons - Regular = 10 size 90 arc, average damage
Energy Weapons - Heavy = 20 size, 90? arc, Heavy Damage - can damage planets

all have the same? range hard to "test" that really

Missles + torpedoes - 10 for the launcher 10 for the ammo, gets multiplicitive at that point, 3 launchers with 3 ammo = 90 space meaning instead of 9 lasers we have 3 missles with 3 shots over 20 rounds

which the lasers can shoot the missles down, and pound the missle ship for 17 turns =)

bombs are the same way, heres the math =)

mothership. no additions just weapons, 8 bombs doing 150 dmg each (rk4 neutron bombs) does 1200 dmg per round for 5 rounds for a total of 6000 possible damage

now take the same ship and put 10 heavy lasers on it (rk 8 in this case) doing 30 dmg per shot adds up to 600 dmg per shot but can shoot every single round, for a total of 12000dmg to planet, in addition it can also shoot other ships =) AND missles. making energy weapons just redicliously formidible compared.

if you remember Moo2 weaponry (not entirely sure how much you want to blantantly copy but please feel free to "horizonize" it =) moo2 stuff in teal

torpedoes had a 1 turn cooldown and used no ammo with similiar effects as to missles

energy weapons dissappated in the atmosphere of planets reducing their damage (so bombs would look favorable)

bloody fun weapons! >:) everyone has lost a ship to a gyro destabilizer, admit it.

bombs were heniously more devastating due to their specialization, like point defense weapons are to fighters/missles comparatively =)


for horizon i would like to see a mass driver weapon that uses ammo (like missles) but comes with 10 shots per weapon (meaning you could devote another space for the weapon for a full 20 rounds of combat) and it would be damaging to planets. (mass drivers are great all around weapons for kenetic force after all) but limited by your supply - similiar damage to energy weapons perfered if not a tiny bit more (specailly to unshielded ships!)

Also i wanted to add in my recent testing of shipyards and space stations as of Alpha v0.0.2.34

"shipyards are offically worthless" in their current form, they cost far to much per turn to be of any benefit at all.

Example i can build a shipyard to help me build ships, it shaves off quite a number of turns.

building my Avatar Flagships, cost is 7.31bc (660 industry) it would cost me 21.92bc to build it in one turn.

my planet in question will build the ship in 5 turns with the shipyard, it takes 10 without it

i can build them in 5 turns or buy one for free instantly every 10 turns with the money i saved not having a shipyard. which if im not building a ship, i dont have to pay 2bc per turn to upkeep the SY. which 2BC per turn can add up especally at early empire ages (when ship productions matters!) if i need 5 ships and i need them yesterday its far better for me to have saved up YESTERDAY by not having those expensive yards around

also thats the only reason i colonized pluto. so i could buy another mothership there per turn (pre terraforming) when i needed a fleet to emphasize my rolled up news paper to the poor alpha ai =)

note: if you look at my saves and notice hey- he did build shipyards!, its cause i was tired of clicking buy =) and well, look how much money i make per turn anyway...


ok last edit for the night. honestly.

Tradelanes need an option to not be shown *or faded into the background* i have yet to see (visually) an invasion force or even other empire ships floating around the galaxy since horizons movement between stars is unique i would like the option to intercept a fleet heading to me before they come and shoot pluto once and destroy it from low population =( or post a defending fleet before a detected invasion arrives! no fun in looseing a colony to a SUPRISE buttsecks fleet because you, the player, didnt notice their tiny ship moving on the UI.

also flags over star systems maybe im just a little color blind but some races colors blend badly. flags over ships too.. flags.. flags flags!!! feel free to horizonize it (im coining that term btw. Horizonize henseforth when refering to other 4x games !)
=(^.-.^)=

" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Zaimat »

>> fighter issue (save provided) fighters dont auto dock.
Known issue.

>> accepted don's offer, did not recieve (or notice) a benefit from this
Benefit is for research during breakthrough wait phase, tooltip will show if you have the bonus

>> even visiting the location he told me his mansion was
Should be able to go to his mansion, when in orbit should see a dialogue

>>ok their names sound to similiar i keep getting half of them mixed up
which ones? We might change them a little to make it easier to distinguish.

>> Energy weapons, light/reg/heavy
will be adding tooltips to give more details. light weapons have +hit bonus. Weapon ranges are the same but heavy weapons dissipate less (more dmg. from far) and can hit planets but at half normal dmg.

>> Missiles + torpedoes + bombs
we will review them. bombs should always do much more dmg. on planets. missiles need to be limited (special use). torpedoes we can increase amount of ammo and balance it by reducing their firing time since they can't be shot down.

>> mass drivers
on wishlist, I'd take the babylon 5 route, mainly usable vs planets.

>> shipyards
noted for balancing.. Thanks for the great feedback!
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

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Re: Fairin's List of testing for devs

Post by Fairin »

>> fighter issue (save provided) fighters dont auto dock.
>Known issue.

was referring to the fighter blockade in deep space >:) you can also scrap them for giggles.

>> accepted don's offer, did not recieve (or notice) a benefit from this
>Benefit is for research during breakthrough wait phase, tooltip will show if you have the bonus

was sayin i couldnt locate the tooltip either still cant =) was able to finally locate him after manually ordering my ships to orbit the planets and put a stop to his blatant theft. (meaning when i sent my fleet to colonize they auto orbited and did their job and didnt find him)

>>ok their names sound to similiar i keep getting half of them mixed up
>which ones? We might change them a little to make it easier to distinguish.

it Might just be me, but Korthaz and Kamzaks - my dislexia / autism puts K and Z together giving me a pause to make sure its whos planet i want to turn the surface to glass, however Barsig and Barbeck dont have the problem at least after a little talking to them.


>> Energy weapons, light/reg/heavy
>will be adding tooltips to give more details. light weapons have +hit bonus. Weapon ranges are the same but heavy weapons dissipate less (more dmg. from far) and can hit planets but at half normal dmg.

just reporting on my save i sent already you can attack the planet with 5x2 heavy lasers that do 30 dmg each doign 150 to the planet per shot =) as of Alpha v0.0.2.34 however its relatively moot when it removes a colonys defenses extra quick when my flock.. er horde.. er .. armada arrives in orbit.

never really watched babylon 5 =( but mass drivers and rail guns are probably gonna be the first rl space weapon =) since we basically use them already =(^.-.~)=
=(^.-.^)=

" A person can look for their one true love and find them, but could they look like the one true love for the person they find. " - Fairin