Serious Unplayability

[pepertje]

New to this thread, so not sure where to post this, but...
I really like this game, the atmosphere and potentials really excite me. But I'm experiencing some severe unplayability issues. These aren't bugs, but more likely balancing and features which render the game unplayable. I do have a couple of ideas on how to fix these issues, if it's possible. I'll be going through the stuff that makes the game (in my opinion) nearly unplayable, then something that annoys me and I'll toss in a wishlist because I do believe this game has a lot of potential.

Unplayable features:
Stealth devices. I get how they are a neat feature, but right now I've had 20 of my ships fire endlessly at a single enemy ship without doing the least bit of damage. Approximately 75% of all attacks miss, and the few attacks that hit are absorbed by the enemy shields and rendered useless. Their shields and stealth tiers are 10, my targeting systems 9. I've had this mothership hover over one of my planets for 6 turns now without even scratching its paint. My suggestion would be to have the stealth devices NOT be active whilst a ship is being heavily bombarded from all sides, or having its effect reduced so more shots get through.

Fleets getting seperated. I tried attacking an enemy planet. To do this, I had 50 ships to spare. The enemy defenses consisted of 1 starbase. The results: my ships got completely obliterated. I loaded up an earlier save to see if there was something I could do about it, but it turned out the fleets got seperated from each other and basically attacked the starbase in groups of 2 or 3 at a time. Obviously, they didn't stand a chance. Why did they do this? Because every time I end my turn, I auto-mode through the tactical view because every time I enter that mode, I go to my home planet and all I get is "Launch Fighters", I use ctrl+z and next thing I know half my invasion fleet is destroyed because there's no way of telling them to hang back. A possible solution might be to have fleets entering an enemy sector remain at its edge until an orbit command is given, or have the ability to merge larger fleets into a single task force.

Serious annoyance:
Constantly being dragged into the tactical view. Right now, every time I end my turn, I get something which sounds like a seisure trying to tell me "launch fighters". This is seriously annoying and slows the game down in a very bad way. This also results in constantly skipping this section, which leads to entire mega-fleets being destroyed because you don't even realize they're under attack. My suggestion would be to turn that into a sort of "Total War"-esque situation, where you have the grand map and battle map. Once opposing factions meet in the same sector, combat can be initiated and the fighting occurs ONLY in that sector. Have the ability to auto-resolve for very easy battles (or ones you just can't win) and the space fights become a lot more organized.

Movement through sectors. When I tell a fleet to head to an adjacant sector, it sometimes takes up to 3 turns. Another fleet from the same sector is there in 1 turn. It might be because they're launching from different planets, but I think that kind of movement should be based on sectors from the grand map, not the tactical map. The way it works now, it's nearly impossible to coordinate an invasion fleet, even if I gather them in an adjacant sector. This usually results in the aforementioned 50-ship invasion force being decimated by an underwhelming opposing force.

Dreamlist:
Customizable faction avatar. How awesome would it be to give your faction a bit of a personal flavor? Something as simple as being able to determine the gender and looks of your representative would be grade-A awesome, even if you only get to see it in cutscene-esque situations or diplomacy situations.

Battle Conclusion Illustrations. How amazing would it be to conclude a planetary invasion by seeing a picture of cheering marines on top of a conquered capitol building? pretty damn awesome. Same could be said for seeing your own forces reduced to a pile of bodies after you've lost a battle. The same can be said for space battles, which could be victory (celebrating on the bridge), defeat (a destroyed ship with bodies floating through space) and a stalemate.

Visible Colonies. I would love to see a small flicker of light on the planet's surface spread to a surface resembling Courescant as your colony becomes more populated and prosperous.

Conclusion:
Again, I really love this game for its potential and atmosphere, but some of the aforementioned issues are bugging me to the point where I'm sometimes more annoyed than enjoying the game. To sum it all up:

-Make sure ships with stealth devices don't reduce opposing ships to blind Stormtroopers
-Make seperate fleets easier to coordinate.

-Restrict Tactical View to actual battles, and have only 1 battle at a time occur.
-Make a move order apply to sectors, and don't take into account where in that sector a ship is located.

-A bit more customization options for your faction avatar.
-Illustrated battle results for added awesomeness.
-Show the colonies on a planet.

[Zaimat]

Welcome to the forums pepertje! And thanks for taking the time to write the detailed feedback, it's very much appreciated.

Are you playing with the current Version (1.0.2.145) of the game? It seems to me like you just might be on an older version of the game and/or with Instanced Combat disabled (in the game options menu).

If that is not the case please send me your saved game and I can check in detail. You can use the 'Report an Issue' link on the game launcher, it automatically grabs the pertinent save files and sends it. Just identify the saved game when you file the report and please refer to this post so I know.