Various Minor Improvement Requests

[Earthmichael]

Suggested minor and hopefully easy to implement improvements:

1. Having the Enter key always function as a hot key to accept the current dialog should be easy to code and would save a lot of time.

2. Document on the splash screen when you start a new game that the ESC key bypasses the introduction.

3. I have found that a couple of games were hopeless because of a combination of factors: Native life become aggressive very early in the game, and I could not find the technologies I needed to research to defend myself early enough. There are two ways to address this (I hope you implement both)

2A. Delay Native life aggression for a while (maybe 20 or 30 turns). This would allow a player to maybe have time to create a new city and still be able to defend himself. With the current timing for native aggression, I have found that the only winning strategy is (after making a single Former) crank out defensive units as fast as possible, and research defensive techs as fast as possible. Forget expansion until you establish a defensive perimeter. With an extra 20-30 turns you could look at expanding early and still have time to defend yourself.

2B. Show two extra tiers of the technology at the beginning of the game, so that one can find that path that lead to critical early technologies right from the beginning. It is a disastrous start when you can't find identify the tech path to get to Flamethowers, and you have to flounder around for awhile. You can still make it so that one gets no further visibility into the tech tree until they research the earlier techs.

As a general note, I find that if I can survive the initial Native Life Aggression, the game is a cake walk on Average. The other factions are no threat at all. But if crank up the difficulty level to try to get more competition from the other factions, the Native Life will more often than not eat your lunch.

[azpops]

3. I have found that a couple of games were hopeless because of a combination of factors: Native life become aggressive very early in the game, and I could not find the technologies I needed to research to defend myself early enough. There are two ways to address this (I hope you implement both).

Yes, it's tough getting past the aliens in the beginning. They developers have actually made it easier (in my opinion) since the earliest releases. The aliens were really tough and seemed to be more aggressive in the early versions. Now, you get a little break before they go after you. My initial urge when I started the game was to go all out for expansion. Every time I did, the aliens eat me alive. It was only when I took the time to build up a decent military force and could start taking out the hives that I found I could begin to expand. Don't waste your time on a former for a while. Even if they can build a farm or mine, they are quickly destroyed by aliens and then they kill the former. Concentrate on fighting units. It was actually pretty easy to kill off the hives in the early versions, and they queens were introduced, which now makes it harder to finish off the hive. I like the idea of overcoming the local alien life before I can begin to colonize the planet. Seems more realistic. Why wouldn't the local life revolt against a foreign life invading their territory. Besides, they affect the other factions the same as they do you. The other factions must eliminate the hives before they can grow. Don't be in a hurry to expand, work on killing the hives. Play a few more games to get a feel on how to defeat them and the game actually becomes more exciting (at least to me).

[Giskler]

I played a game on hard and I only found myself in problem with the aliens because I didn't prioritize researching flame throwers. I don't think a grace period at the start is good, maybe at lower difficulties, but it's already easy enough to win the game once you get past the initial alien phase. Keep alien aggression the way it is and make the AI's a lot more aggressive, that would make the game more challenging and add to the replay value.

[azpops]

I played a game on hard and I only found myself in problem with the aliens because I didn't prioritize researching flame throwers. I don't think a grace period at the start is good, maybe at lower difficulties, but it's already easy enough to win the game once you get past the initial alien phase. Keep alien aggression the way it is and make the AI's a lot more aggressive, that would make the game more challenging and add to the replay value.

I agree. The flamethrower is a must as early in the game as possible. Researching artillery is also a must as it allows you to wipe out hives quickly. I would like to see the AI for the other factions a little more aggressive, but it is better than it was in the earliest versions of the playtest.

[Earthmichael]

I get a lot of value for my Former, so I will still build a Former first.

In addition to improved mineral and food production, the roads are often lifesavers against native creatures, especially Spitters. If a Spitter gets close enough to attack my HQ, I can engage him due to roads with ordinary Troopers. Also, I can attack any native creature on the periphery of my city before they get a change to move in and undo my terraforming. And if a native creature somehow does get a chance to undo some of my terraforming, at least that is one turn that they are not attacking my units.

I am sure I get enough enhanced production to more than pay for the Former before native aggression starts, so the roads and anything else is a bonus.

I have no problem handling the native life if I don't get shafted by the tech tree. Sometimes the random tech tree puts key technologies out of initial view, so you don't know what path to research to find them.