FreeOrion

I played the game like one would play a game that was finished.

I'd like to report on the ideas and annoyances that I noticed.

I will not list any annoyances like missing images or more complex AI that are obviously unfinished due to time constraints.

FreeOrion ideas by RedAdder

I know you would prefer if i just coded these for you;
I will, when I find a slot in my brain for it.
I just don't want these ideas to be forgotten, so here they are.

-improvements to producible items dialog
-extra column "number in empire"
-extra tab for "wonders"
-extra tab for "special" (or sort by difficulty of the requirements, or by number in empire ascending)
-show only one tab at a time, or all
-tabs Available, Unavailable, Unresearched
-make empire effect wonders show in Unavailable if the wonder ahs been built

-eyecandy: make it feel like 3D, without confusing the player
- z-coordinate of about +-50% the average distance between systems.
- no user control over tilting, but:
- the outer systems tilt a little towards the mouse/center when the user moves the mouse outwards
- unreachable stars position and type generated according to game starting seed
- unreachable stars displayed as a few dots of random color and intensity on the same plane

-friendliness to new users
- use the function written for AI that determines focus to determine the focus of a new colony/outpost

-information in user interface
-top bar: < (less than)-symbol before the industry and research number whenever resources are wasted.
-ship combat strenght: do not display as 0.499k before it reaches 1.0
- as above but display as 0.51k when it reaches 0.5, and then display only 2 significant digits
-top bar: hide neutronium (hard to get anyway)
-top bar: maybe replace neutronium 0/0 by (special) resources overview tab

-options
- no tilting, no z-coordinate
- hide alls unreachable stars
- hide unreachable stars in front of the reachable systems
- hardcore mode (all AI assistance off, e.g. all new planets start off like now, with food focus)
- no victory by transcendence (esp. multiplayer)

-problems with FPS, esp. on slow systems
- when displaying multiple planets, especiallly with visible set-planet-focus-dropdowns.
- there is something wrong here FPS drops even more -after- closing the tab with set-planet-focus-dropdown

-game balancing (ships)
- many hulls I didn't research, but I guess it depends on the game
- Also better hulls sometimes cost a lot more, reducing the benefit
- stealth doesn't seem to be very useful out of combat, I would like to sneak scouts and troops past

-game balancing (victory by transcendence)
- it now takes me 25 turns for transcendence
- but 27 for bio-adaptive hull, and there are more hulls
- but 15 turns to build a scattered asteroid hull
- increasing research time of transcendence with the number of systems in game
- cheaper slow-down counter techs (don't apply to self), like:
- "traps of transcendency 1+2"(+41% research) (1.41*1.41=2.0, 1+2=100%)
- "riddles of transcendency 1+2"(+41% time)
- informational techs
- what is my opponent researching
- how far is transcendency

-UI improvements
- In dropdowns, especially hull or design selection
- after deleting an item, try to scroll to the position of the deleted item, or to the first entry
- Since in ships designs, no item is mandatory:
- right-click on item, "mark item as obsolete"
- right-click on item, "mark item as not obsolete"
- have a tab "hide obsolete items" or short "obsolete"
- doubleclick on planet info window should bring up production mode

-game balancing (mind control)
- counter mind control ship components
- mind control immune hulls
- counter mind control building effects (just mind controlled a big fleet at the home of the foe)

-supply question
- I supplied my empire from home, because i researched other ways of supplying too late
- cheaper way of getting +1 supply

-AI
-should sometimes be less into combat ships
-should colonize more

-outpost question
-regarding "cannot be built at an outpost":
- how is an outpost recognized? <=1 pop? if not:
- how can I see in UI whether the planet is an outpost?
- how can I upgrade an outpost to colony?

I for one would very much welcome a smarter display of numbers. "0.123k " is not better than "123". But it is an issue pretty much anywhere big numbers can occur.


Outposts as they currently exist are kind of a hack to get as close as possible to the concept within the constrains of the current code.
See this thread for where we want to go with them.

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