UI & Gameplay Enhancements

[Lordling]

Here's my 2 cents worth:

A list of "nice to have" things:
(I would gladly pay an additional surcharge fee to see some of these implemented)

-Tab Views-

<Solar System>

Display Planet Size

Link to list of "Ships in orbit" with total CP stated

Link to list of "Objects on radar" with ranges

Additional ideas for optional infrastructure upgrades (Pro Account Only):

Cloaking Generator (sensor jamming): Grant ability to activate/deactivate. Consumes large, set amount of optium &
plasma per turn if activated. Should not prevent local sensor scans from superordinate imperators of the same house, as their warplanet & planets/systems with radar installations should be considered equipped with the decryption key for viewing through the cloak. Otherwise, if planet/system is cloaked, then it is considered "dark", unable to see or be seen. As it's use will automatically disable local radar, it will also disable participation in the House Intelligence System (see below). This should be an expensive upgrade.
Prerequisite(s) - Radar, Research Center.

Command/Intel Center (Home Planet Only): Ability to participate in House Intelligence System. Radar view (if so equipped, activated & not cloaked) of all planets/systems within the house can now be seen. Can be enabled/disabled. Consumes set amount of optium & plasma per turn if enabled. Superordinates may block subordinate's ability (if they also have built the Command/Intel Center) to view the superordinate's systems.
Prerequisite(s): Radar, Research Center, Population over 500k.

<Navigation>

Display coordinates of planet/system selected.

A line added to the object details on the navigation map stating the CP of the object. If hostile then potential only, actual if friendly.

Ability to plot courses with multiple waypoints.

Make each entry for attached ships (displayed at bottom of nav map) a link to the ship assignment page for that ship. As a bonus, add ability to select multiple ships for common mission assignment.

Jump drive course plotting. *(see section below under Warplanet).

<Warplanet>

Display currently plotted course.

Summary of ships in attached fleet with total CP. (i.e. 24 Interceptors, 14 Heavy Frigates, etc.,etc.)

*Allow jump drive activation to be for a variable distance, depending on waypoint. (i.e. from 35 to 300LY). Make recharge time be in proportion to distance travelled. (ex., 35-100LY = 3 days, 101-200LY = 4 days, 201-300LY = 5 days...Maybe Short, Medium & Long jumps?).
As a bonus, perhaps, make possible an option for an "Emergency Jump" when 300LY is just not enough. Give it a specific chance of malfunctioning if unsuccessful (say 35%) resulting in a random direction/distance jump; however, if successful, results in an increased jump in the desired direction of up to 50% farther.

Comments?

[Maelstroem]

Nice! I printed out your comments.
...to put them onto the stack of good things

Maelstroem
_________________
Commander Maelstroem in the house Nemesis

[PaulAtreides]

I do not like the idea of an emergency jump. It makes it impossible for a non-independent imperator to ever attack a jumpdrive WP.

[Lordling]

[PaulAtreides]

An additional 5 day recharge would make the modification more appealing to me.

[Locutus]

The only problem that I see would be that if a person bought a Intel center, and his sup disabled it after all that trouble.

For a big player, it might not matter, but small players wouldn't like it.

[Lordling]

You raise a valid point of concern, Locutus. Allow me to attempt redress:

Technically, under normal circumstances, the super wouldn't be able to deactivate the sub's Command/Intel Center, only prevent him from utilising his (the super's) radar feeds. The sub would still be able to view radar intel from any imperator within the house that he is either superior or equal to in the hierarchy. Additionally, I would think that a super would probably only exercise this control under extreme circumstances, such as the adjustment period after a hostile integration. In this case, I would perhaps suggest that, since the newly integrated imperator's Command/Intel Center (if existant), would be tuned to another house's network, then it's status should be made Disabled, immediately after integration, with an option button given to send a request to the super to be brought into the network. This would prevent an imperator, integrated by hostile action, from being able to view all the systems of their "new" house, and relaying this information to other hostile forces. The house leader should have ultimate control of this feature, with the ability to deny or allow participation to anyone in the house. This was suggested primarily as a House upgrade, which would incidentally benefit all trusted imperators of the house. Further, if the imperator has a poor repoire with his house (and knows it), then it probably wouldn't make much sense to build it in the first place.

Perhaps I see it this way because I belong to a house where mutual respect & cooperation are the norm. Only 2 types of imperator would build this upgrade: A team player, or a spy.

[Locutus]

Ok, I think that your suggestions are very good. A thing that might be helpful would be to have under 'Shipments,' a list of the total incoming and outgoing resources per day.

[PaulAtreides]

That would be very helpful. Good suggestion!

[Grey_Wind]

i suggest that the heirachy chart also include last login time
for each sub - to assist with the management of disappearing subs

cheers
Steve

[alphabravo]

ok, finally, after the busiest week of my life (probably) i will share my opinions:


Display Planet Size
yes
Link to list of "Ships in orbit" with total CP stated
yes
Link to list of "Objects on radar" with ranges
yes

2 buildings:
no
sensor jammer would be too dramatic
command center shows too much, and isnt a use for a building, rather a feature... just give an option to share maps... or use tools which some people have made for joining maps


NAVIGATION:
YES - as it is i have to read the coords from the URL of the link showing the waypoint [handy tip for anyone who doesnt know how to get coords ]
Yes, but slightly different, and not the actual CP
i would prefer the following at the top of the list of ships:
Ships at solarsystem Niceplanet:
[0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 82] - maybe the option to set a default level of CP on the options page? [ie 2204 for a shields only levi, or 8 for many people's shield h1 etc]

Multiple waypoints... yes, but not too many



WARPLANET:

plotted course... dont think it's necessary because of navigation screen
summary, yes
varying jump distances, FIRMLY NO from me
as with emergency jumps
- destabalizes the game, and gives MUCH too much of an advantage to jump drives, the idea of warfare with them is that you must be between 270 and 330LY to attack something with a jump, and that if you are 150LY away from a jumpdrive WP, you are safe
this is a feature for me, definately not a bug

if you want a little story behind my "logic" rather than just opinions:
any less than 300 LY and the jump core has not fully warmed up before shutdown
any more than 300 LY and the jump core will overheat


one suggestion which i do think is interesting, would be to have an "error" factor in the jump of upto 10º? maybe the number would need adjusting for balancing
and then a normal distribution shaped around that, so 67% of the jumps are within, say, 5º of the targeted course, 95% within 10º, 99% within 15º and 100% within 20º of the targeted course... either clockwise or anticlockwise

and equally 67% within 5LY of 300LY, 95% within 10LY, 99% within 15LY and 100% within 20LY

so in theory, if you aim due north for a jump, the chances are that you will be no more than 5LY away from the point 300LY north of you, however there's a chance that you are a short distance away, maybe 2 days correction flying if you went 280 or 320 LY +/- 20º of the target, but just 1/2500 chance of the being >15LY / >15º out


just to add a slight error value, maybe only applicable when the target point for the jumpdrive is not in your own space, or a 50% reduction of error if it's within your own radar range...


the possibilities are endless, however controllable or frequent, or changeable or emergency jumpdrives are not right for the game in my opinion
_________________
Major alphabravo in the house Thalgados-Sissyhood

[PaulAtreides]

alphabravo clearly put some time into thinking about these changes. I agree with him completely on everything!

[Lordling]

How does everyone feel about this?

Add an Abandon System option to the page for each solar system, allowing the owner to surrender the planet. The planet/system would revert to neutral status, losing all upgrades, improvements, and resources left on the planet. Population would be negatively effected also, perhaps suffering a random percentage of loss. Limit the ability to perform this option to a set timeperiod (once per day/week/month, etc.).

[Rupsie]

[Shadowmaster]

i agrre for the most part with alphabravo....

and for the abandon planet option, that would only be a good idea as long as it cant be done before an attack, there would have to be a long wait countdown or some thing. if not that would be doen alot so that other players cant take planets from others...that would fair very well.