Lakotavar's observations

[Iceman]

I've split these observations from the MP game thread.

I would have some more general observations and some are really just side-notes or bold wishes

- Could ships maybe be upgradable while sitting at outposts or at least starbases for somewhat less resources than a new ship?
- The auto building seems to ignore upgrades or am I wrong? It would be nice to keep the priorities balanced but have the upgrades included.
- Is there an auto building setting that could be used like "build everything"? Some special equipment seems to be not included or only for priority categories.
- I remember botf 1 had the crew training while a ship was stationed at a starbase - that would be nice to have.
- My research news told me twice in a single break-through message that orbital batteries III were discovered.
- I noticed I cannot bribe minors to leave their empire an join my own even if the relationship state is worshipful.. maybe not just through credits but it would be nice to see this feature again.
- If a colony ship has a course set but I decide to terraform or colonize a system instead (where the ship is at the moment) the course does not get deleted (only in the next turn).
- It seems a construction ship I can build an outpost II - is that intended?

I would have some more general observations and some are really just side-notes or bold wishes

Hehe, please don't hold back on your wishes and observations, post *everything* you feel could be fixed/improved, as minor as it might seem. I'm a bit OCD'ish about details, so I actually welcome that type of thing
Obviously, the ToDo list is huge... But bringing issues up tends to somewhat prioritize them

- Could ships maybe be upgradable while sitting at outposts or at least starbases for somewhat less resources than a new ship?

We have extensively discussed ship upgrades in this thread. The code already kind of supports ship upgrades, but the shipyard doesn't yet show the upgrades. I'm not sure how easy it would be to add that.
Upgrading in OP/SBs would require it to be done via a fleet order (like repairs).

- The auto building seems to ignore upgrades or am I wrong? It would be nice to keep the priorities balanced but have the upgrades included.

It shouldn't. I had it upgrade my health centers just a few days ago.
Are you refering to upgrades to Production Facilities only? I think I tweaked it some time ago, to prioritize building over upgrading, might have screwed up something. Will check.

- Is there an auto building setting that could be used like "build everything"? Some special equipment seems to be not included or only for priority categories.

Do you have examples of things not being built?
IIRC some of the bonuses are "disabled" in the AI colony management code because they need to be properly implemented - buildings that take a lot of energy for example. Some unique buildings are also not yet built IIRC, especially the intel ones - since it is not yet fully implemented.

- I remember botf 1 had the crew training while a ship was stationed at a starbase - that would be nice to have.

But starbases do not have a crew XP bonus...

- My research news told me twice in a single break-through message that orbital batteries III were discovered.

If you have any minor civs as members of your empire, the sitrep will inform you of both your empire's specific design, and the minor civ's generic design. Currently they have the exact same specs, but they can be modded to be different.

- I noticed I cannot bribe minors to leave their empire an join my own even if the relationship state is worshipful.. maybe not just through credits but it would be nice to see this feature again.

You mean yo can bribe them, but they just won't leave? I think this feature is still incomplete, but I'll have to check.
Minor civs can break membership agreements, IIRC that is working.

- If a colony ship has a course set but I decide to terraform or colonize a system instead (where the ship is at the moment) the course does not get deleted (only in the next turn).

I'll check that.

- It seems a construction ship I can build an outpost II - is that intended?

Yes. Any construction ship can build any station type. It just takes more time for a low level ship to build a high level station.

[Iceman]

Some general thoughts:
- Diplomacy was a joke in botf but it seems a bit too difficult now.. some races would be uncooperative or neutral for a long time even with a diplomat and ongoing gifts
- The interface had a tiny delay generally when interacting which is just a side note
- For crazy resolutions as for my friends ultra wide screen the diplomats recall popup was cut (he switched to window mode as a work around)
- The handling of the map was a bit tricky. Maybe some kind of "click and hold to move around" would be an option

If I understood you correctly something like missions would be very fun actually. Like escort a diplomat somewhere or deliver something to a planet.

Some general thoughts:
- Diplomacy was a joke in botf but it seems a bit too difficult now.. some races would be uncooperative or neutral for a long time even with a diplomat and ongoing gifts

Some races are more difficult to get good (lasting) relations with, namely Raider and Mercantile races do not particularly like being "attached" to another civ.
The race's tech level also plays a part, with more advanced civs being harder to convince to join you. Some civs will want to join you easily, especially if you're the Federation - like Peaceful and Pacifist minors. Relations with other empires are obviously harder to improve.
Then there's other factors, like colonizing or building stations right on the borders of that civ, which will negatively affect relations.

- The interface had a tiny delay generally when interacting which is just a side note

Yes, we will need to address that. There's an improvement to galaxy map refresh that I'll probably try for the next patch.

- For crazy resolutions as for my friends ultra wide screen the diplomats recall popup was cut (he switched to window mode as a work around)

Can you post a screesnshot please, so we can address that?

If I understood you correctly something like missions would be very fun actually. Like escort a diplomat somewhere or deliver something to a planet.

You mean the comment about fleet officers and covert operatives? Those are the types of agents still to be implemented, we only have envoys working at this point. Officers will boost the stats of ships/fleets in combat, and operatives will perform/improve espionage/sabotage missions (when intelligence is working).

- The handling of the map was a bit tricky. Maybe some kind of "click and hold to move around" would be an option

You can hit F9 in the galaxy map to get a list of the game's keybindings.

Some races are more difficult to get good (lasting) relations with, namely Raider and Mercantile races do not particularly like being "attached" to another civ.
The race's tech level also plays a part, with more advanced civs being harder to convince to join you. Some civs will want to join you easily, especially if you're the Federation - like Peaceful and Pacifist minors. Relations with other empires are obviously harder to improve.
Then there's other factors, like colonizing or building stations right on the borders of that civ, which will negatively affect relations.

Yes, ok, after more than 200 turns in a SP game I would take this back. Easy minor races are like 30 turns with full effort (diplomat and gift treaty) and difficult minor races about 100 turns. Eventually one could think about "easy" settings but it's fine and feels actually more like I had to work on it especially with the diplomats.

You mean the comment about fleet officers and covert operatives? Those are the types of agents still to be implemented, we only have envoys working at this point. Officers will boost the stats of ships/fleets in combat, and operatives will perform/improve espionage/sabotage missions (when intelligence is working).

Yes basically but this idea went probably too far. Maybe one day small missions would be imaginable.

[Iceman]

For crazy resolutions as for my friends ultra wide screen the diplomats recall popup was cut (he switched to window mode as a work around)

Can you post a screesnshot please, so we can address that?

He took a screenshot but it was not the actual issue.. I will ask again later. But it shows the resolution and from what I remember basically the "recall" button on the pop-up window for diplomats was cut. For this very special case it would need to open more centered to the screen (but the windows mode is a proper work around).

The bottom part is cut off.

[Iceman]

We have extensively discussed ship upgrades in this thread. The code already kind of supports ship upgrades, but the shipyard doesn't yet show the upgrades. I'm not sure how easy it would be to add that.
Upgrading in OP/SBs would require it to be done via a fleet order (like repairs).

We felt like it would be a really cool feature and via fleet order sounds convenient.

But starbases do not have a crew XP bonus...

OK, sorry I flat out missed this and only checked OPs.. it was late when I wrote this.

You mean yo can bribe them, but they just won't leave? I think this feature is still incomplete, but I'll have to check.
Minor civs can break membership agreements, IIRC that is working.

Yes, in botf 1 you got an extra option like "convince them to leave and join you" once the minor race was at 100% diplomacy level (worshipful). This should however be difficult I think and require a diplomat or something new even. Ofc right now you cannot send diplomats in this case.

[Iceman]

But starbases do not have a crew XP bonus...

OK, sorry I flat out missed this and only checked OPs.. it was late when I wrote this.

OPs shouldn't definitely have this ability I think.
SBs, maybe. What does everyone else think But it would have to be a low XP bonus per turn, correct

You mean you can bribe them, but they just won't leave? I think this feature is still incomplete, but I'll have to check.
Minor civs can break membership agreements, IIRC that is working.

Yes, in botf 1 you got an extra option like "convince them to leave and join you" once the minor race was at 100% diplomacy level (worshipful). This should however be difficult I think and require a diplomat or something new even. Ofc right now you cannot send diplomats in this case.

If the minor is a member of another empire, it is not an independent government, so you can't assign an envoy. But you should be able to assign an operative in the future

Should we have such an option (a new diplomatic proposal), or should the player have to wait until the minor breaks membership, and then offer its own membership proposal

[Lakotavar]

OPs shouldn't definitely have this ability I think.
SBs, maybe. What does everyone else think But it would have to be a low XP bonus per turn, correct

Surely, can be quite low since it's just practicing .. Kobayashi-Maru and so on

If the minor is a member of another empire, it is not an independent government, so you can't assign an envoy. But you should be able to assign an operative in the future

Should we have such an option (a new diplomatic proposal), or should the player have to wait until the minor breaks membership, and then offer its own membership proposal

I mean one would just be making a proposal.. it should be difficult and maybe expect some other special condition. I vote for it

[Iceman]

OPs shouldn't definitely have this ability I think.
SBs, maybe. What does everyone else think But it would have to be a low XP bonus per turn, correct

Surely, can be quite low since it's just practicing .. Kobayashi-Maru and so on

The main issue though is that by giving this ability to SBs, and if the bonus is considerable, then the "academy" buildings lose (some of) their value.
Especially if a SB on a colony with a shipyard makes ships built there start as Regular XP, like academies do.

Should we have such an option (a new diplomatic proposal), or should the player have to wait until the minor breaks membership, and then offer its own membership proposal

I mean one would just be making a proposal.. it should be difficult and maybe expect some other special condition. I vote for it

Maybe only when relations (Regard only, or both Regard and Trust?) are fully maxed (instead of the regular 850 Regard for Worshipful)?
And relations with the current empire be below a certain level?

[Lakotavar]

The main issue though is that by giving this ability to SBs, and if the bonus is considerable, then the "academy" buildings lose (some of) their value.
Especially if a SB on a colony with a shipyard makes ships built there start as Regular XP, like academies do.

Like really low on SB I and somewhat low on SB II maybe and it could be capped - eventually even capped until the ship had a combat and then it allows some more training again. One level up after every combat max. Just to make it more complicated, I know. And I have no idea what this means for the coding, just brainstorming here.

Maybe only when relations (Regard only, or both Regard and Trust?) are fully maxed (instead of the regular 850 Regard for Worshipful)?
And relations with the current empire be below a certain level?

Sound reasonable to me. Both regard and trust maxed out for us and below 50% in both with their current empire maybe.

[Lakotavar]

I noticed some graphics glitch here and there for animations, I think mostly for planets (I have an RX 580):

noise.jpg (562.42 KiB) Viewed 972 times

And when playing Borg in SP I had an error during "resolving combat" phase (error log was empty). It was not reproducible but I thought I would still post it. I have the save game but it just didn't happen again.

error.jpg (508.92 KiB) Viewed 972 times

SP Borg Small Irregular 65 - before error.sav

(598.2 KiB) Downloaded 29 times

[Iceman]

I noticed some graphics glitch here and there for animations, I think mostly for planets (I have an RX 580):

Yes, a couple of people have reported this problem, it's probably related to gfx adapter and XNA (this is just guessing, but it occurs in places with XNA animations - the system assault screen and the star system panel).

And when playing Borg in SP I had an error during "resolving combat" phase (error log was empty). It was not reproducible but I thought I would still post it. I have the save game but it just didn't happen again.

Ok, thanks.

[Iceman]

I noticed some graphics glitch here and there for animations, I think mostly for planets (I have an RX 580):

Not sure if this might help ?

[Lakotavar]

Might be the psu.. I exchanged the gpu 3 times but I still have the same psu, so I'll check. Thanks.

[Iceman]

Should we have such an option (a new diplomatic proposal), or should the player have to wait until the minor breaks membership, and then offer its own membership proposal

I mean one would just be making a proposal.. it should be difficult and maybe expect some other special condition. I vote for it

I'm not sure I understood which option you prefer:
1) have an option to ask the minor to transfer directly to your empire, or
2) no such option, just wait for the minor to break current membership (then you can offer your own membership, or the minor might offer it themselves after some turns)

[Lakotavar]

OK, sorry. My preference would be number one. But with the discussed conditions. So they would only transfer if they're not really happy with their current empire.