saintxi.com

[Edit: - Feel free to add your own suggestions in this thread - Simk]

I hate starting a new thread, but I did not find one specific to feature requests. Perhaps a bug thread and a suggestion/features thread so we don't drown you fine folk at SaintXi in multiple threads with the same theme?

Once again, spectacular game and interface:-)

I've not played a 4X style game in awhile... ok, a long, long time. When I do, I've my old faves (any Emperor of the Fading Suns fans here???). Even without a current sandbox mode, there are still a variety of paths to take to accomplish a goal. My point is this; there is a decent replay value to this game and in many of my old fave games there are more difficulty options.

LOA can be a tough game, either that or I'm not as quick as I used to be. Perhaps an offer to the player of more handicaps or an easier gameplay level so as to become more familiar with the mechanics would be a good thing. Sometimes we want an easy game, sometimes we like a tough game- the whole point (or at least one of the points) of replay value.

Food for though... .

Thanks again SaintXi and do some guerilla advertising to get the word out more 'cause this game is a gem!

Thanks for the ideas - I have added feedback and bugs threads, cheers

I've an idea, if its not already in the game - a simple panel or some such that tells you who is currently friendly/hostile.

currently all parties are denying any involement

You can tell I am on an earlier mission but the above typo got through all our testing. I don't know how long it must take you to develop a new building/weapon or an entire level. It would be fun if while you were still delivering patches for these bugs we might be rewarded by finding a new mission. You could even have a new planet or a rogue comet that has to be destroyed.

I know you guys have plans for Episode 2 judging by the Episode one on the start up screen - what I am suggesting is not that. Without upsetting Episode 2, you could develop a prequel mission like they have done for Star Trek and Star Wars. It would be fun even to start at the very beginning of the space race with all the Publicity over NASA 40 years on from the Eagle has Landed but that would be a game in itself.

If it were quick to do then I am sure you would get a lot of extra publicity with each patch/extension and get more people going for our game.

The patches will be ongoing as we fix bugs, as for extra content... I wouldn't want to give anything away too soon

How about an option to delete saves.

Seconded!

Is my cruiser being repaired or not? After careful observation of the fleet in orbit I see that it is. How about when clicking on a fleet, the info panel includes a health number for all ships? Perhaps the finance detail (mouse over income or colony center) could include a Ship Repairs line item; perhaps only visible when applicable.

Rather than Destroy a building like a Factory, allow it to be disabled; powered off.

More than once I've wanted to verify the design of a ship that has already been built after the design was been modified. Also, I've wanted to do the same for enemy ships. This may be a noob request but nowhere did I find any info on existing ship upgrades, when and where did they occur and at what cost if any (what if my fleet is in transit or there is no shipyard?). So how is my existing frigate equipped? How about right clicking on a ship? Or click on the fleet and mouse over a ship in the fleet panel.

I'm not alone on this one. Merge/Split Fleets! The fleet experience has been argued as to how this should be handled or even allowed. This is a moot argument as new ships can be built into an existing fleet, which is no different than transferring ships from one fleet to another. My suggestion is simple. The recipient fleet experience is not changed even when ships from a fleet having more experience are transferred.

dieing for some sort of skirmish mode, some of the missions feel like their just getting started when suddenly your declared victorious and shipped off to the next colony, leaving all your hard work behind

A different style of fleet and range limit,multiple designs for a type of ship, and some price tweaking of buildings would boost game playability

As stated previously, fantastic game. You guys should get an award for smallest dev team to produce a great game.

1) My #1 wish for features is more visibility into the food/growth system, combined with an option to have secondary colonies (those other than the capital) act strictly as food exporters to the capital. To elaborate:

It is nearly impossible to calculate exactly how many hydroponics plants are needed to reach a specific city size. This is because the scale of citizen growth changes over time (the food plants actually feed more people each as the population grows -- against logic but not a big deal in my mind). For example, 1 food plant will get your population to 50k, eventually. But suppose I want to reach 1 million, and no more than 1 million? I might be able to figure it out by trial and error, but it really should be more transparent in the game.

Add to that the complication of having a secondary colony exporting food to the capital: The colony shares the food, and the share/export ratio changes depending on how many food plants are in the secondary colony. I've done some testing with this, and you actually get the secondary colony starving (shrinking) slightly, by adding a food plant to it, because the pop goes up but the food is being exported.

I think it would be a good strategy feature if the colonies could be set to only export food, keeping only what they need to maintain current population (or size 1, whichever is greater). ALternately, each hydroponics plant could be toggled as domestic or export, thus allowing the player fine control over the growth of both colonies.

2) Another strategy feature would be to have the position of buildings influence their effectiveness. For example, Placing an ore mine directly next to a colonial quarters should cause more unhappiness; placing anything next to solar plants slightly reduces the solar plant's output (because it is partially shaded at least part of the day). Possibly a different kind of happiness building (gardens, entertainment centers) could be available and their exact placement be important. Right now there's sort of a "just throw 'em in there somewhere" feel to the placement of buildings that could be improved.

3) Please streamline the dollars/money references throughout the entire game. For example, goods are worth $10 per unit, but income is expressed as a decimal of thousands at the upper left. I have repeatedly spent money, only to discover the item cost ten times more than I thought it did, thus triggering debt. My fuzzy brain has trouble translating the income of colonies at the lower left into the cost of items on the various purchase screens.

Look forward to your next installment. I need to download the 1.0.1 patch so I can finally get buildings OFF my mouse pointer! Those things stick worse than flypaper, once you select something to build.

Jeff