Slitherine

Hm, we could tie the functionality to a national building -- i.e. the mechanic is locked until you research and build the building.

SephiRok wrote:Hm, we could tie the functionality to a national building -- i.e. the mechanic is locked until you research and build the building.

I quite like that idea.

SephiRok wrote:
Another good one would probably be about suggestions to make the aliens more diverse. We want to give every species something unique (functionally a device), we just need to figure out something interesting and simple enough for each. Just like Galeths for example do more damage to cities, we want to give everyone something cool and special.

I think you would be much better served making the player-factions more diverse. The natives (humans are the aliens) I assume are not designed to last the entire game while the player faction are. More bang for your buck and as I've said before the current faction differentiations only interest statisticians. They have no soul.

SephiRok wrote:Another good one would probably be about suggestions to make the aliens more diverse. We want to give every species something unique (functionally a device), we just need to figure out something interesting and simple enough for each. Just like Galeths for example do more damage to cities, we want to give everyone something cool and special.

How about some strength 4 aliens to help them out? Especially for hive defence - currently the Xeno Queen is often the most powerful defender and so the first to die, which seems weird. Also it's pretty easy to capture a devourer (sacrificing one hellfire trooper) and then take out every hive... or just wait for tanks. They could use better defence, at least as the game progresses. Maybe nearby devourers and galeths could come to the hive's aid..

I guess if I were the aliens I'd want strong units with a defence bonus to protect the Queen. Then some shock troops with attack bonus. And a strong defensive unit who could escort a couple of spitters in a stack.

In terms of unique stuff
- Camouflaged units that only appear when attacking (or being attacked)?
- A fire-resistant alien (it'd make the player's life trickier, can't just spam hellfire troops)
- Aliens dropping from the sky (like orbital deployment) or coming up out of the ground is another standard alien tactic.
- the equivalent of the pheropod, a device that lets aliens zombify humans into joining their side

Evrett wrote:I think you would be much better served making the player-factions more diverse. The natives (humans are the aliens) I assume are not designed to last the entire game while the player faction are. More bang for your buck and as I've said before the current faction differentiations only interest statisticians. They have no soul.

A good way to make factions diverse it to give slightly different gameplay mechanics to each of them. Not just bonuses, unique buildings or units.

One game that really accomplished this in a great way (IMHO) is 'Fall from Heaven', that is actually a mod for Civilization 4. Each faction in that game really felt unique. I hope the people form Proxy Studios have played it, so many good ideas.

SephiRok wrote:The new near-term gameplay things we're currently considering are a marketplace, per-city taxes and turning all advancements from immediate gains into one-time buildable projects.

Let me preface this first post by expressing my gratitude for the amazing game you've built - it's one of the best turn-based strategy games ever designed in my humble opinion. Talk about "one more turn till the sun rises"..

Having said that, and having played a few games with different settings now, I think the couple things that would enhance the game-play most are a few unique unit classes for each faction to start with, and special fixed tiles worth visiting again over time - "visitable operations" if you will.

Regarding your post above, I think the best way to implement the functionality of a marketplace is just to extend the gifting and tribute features of diplomacy to include food, minerals, and potentially cities; and add a neutral option to make a proposal for an instant trade. However I feel that giving each city it's own tax slider would just increase micromanagement (something this game dodges wonderfully) and remove a fun little balancing mini-game.


Thanks again.

Raja wrote:

SephiRok wrote:The new near-term gameplay things we're currently considering are a marketplace, per-city taxes and turning all advancements from immediate gains into one-time buildable projects.

However I feel that giving each city it's own tax slider would just increase micromanagement (something this game dodges wonderfully) and remove a fun little balancing mini-game.

I agree with Raja. I don't feel the need to set taxes by city. I also think it would increase micromanagement needlessly.

SephiRok wrote:turning all advancements from immediate gains into one-time buildable projects

You mean turn all the instant advancements (e.g. -25% alien aggression) into buildable projects? I think advancements (immediate gains with no need to do anything else) are good as they are. \Edit: Gave it a bit more of thought. So, the idea would be to have secret projects for each advancement ala SMAC? It's just that the insta-tech advancement thing also works ok. Perhaps some advancements could require a special buildable project while others do not. Just a thought.

Would love some feedback on the state in the beta. There's per-city taxes and a preliminary implementation of the market.

SephiRok wrote:There's per-city taxes and a preliminary implementation of the market.

I just now saw this. I'll take a look in the next few days.

Tomorrow I'm focusing on production reordering and research queuing. Release version will be updated towards the end of the week.

SephiRok wrote:Tomorrow I'm focusing on production reordering and research queuing. Release version will be updated towards the end of the week.

Nice - Happy Thanksgiving!

SephiRok wrote:Tomorrow I'm focusing on production reordering and research queuing. Release version will be updated towards the end of the week.

Will this allow you to finish more than one tech in the same turn if you have enough research points?

For now only 1 tech per turn.

Production reordering is done, working on the research queue now.

Queuing distant research was more complicated, but I finished it today, so it should be in the next version.

What did you guys think of the AI pillaging improvements in the latest version? Was it too annoying? Should only human factions do it?

I pillaging improvements is part of every 4x Game...i like it because every human player do that in mp! Its normal...you penetrate the economy of your enemy
So why should the ai dont do that?!?!

Pillaging is fine, however maybe it's too fast. I think it's one turn right now, yes ? Maybe two turns is better, so player has a little more time to react. So if player interupts IA before the end of turn two, then the hex is not pillaged.

Tchey wrote:Pillaging is fine, however maybe it's too fast. I think it's one turn right now, yes ? Maybe two turns is better, so player has a little more time to react. So if player interupts IA before the end of turn two, then the hex is not pillaged.

I agree wholeheartedly.

SephiRok wrote: What did you guys think of the AI pillaging improvements in the latest version? Was it too annoying? Should only human factions do it?

I like the change, it gives aliens more nuisance power and give to the AI a mean to force player out of his city defense if he don't want to see his economy ruined.

I noticed however that AI will immediately start pillaging improvement of a city he just lost, before even trying taking it back. This seems a little bit unrealistic. By the way they also don't hesitate wiping a lost city with nukes and black holes, got Solar dynasty destroying his 30 pop capital the following turn I captured it...

boulugre wrote:

SephiRok wrote: What did you guys think of the AI pillaging improvements in the latest version? Was it too annoying? Should only human factions do it?

I like the change, it gives aliens more nuisance power and give to the AI a mean to force player out of his city defense if he don't want to see his economy ruined.

I noticed however that AI will immediately start pillaging improvement of a city he just lost, before even trying taking it back. This seems a little bit unrealistic. By the way they also don't hesitate wiping a lost city with nukes and black holes, got Solar dynasty destroying his 30 pop capital the following turn I captured it...

I agree. But just for the sake of historical discussion, it is somewhat believable because it's been done before. Scorched Earth. Scorched earth was destroying the land before it was captured, but the concept is similar.

Gameplay >>> Realism