I've some suggestions for the TEC Loyalists or the game in general. I don't want to be a troll and mind you, they are just ideas! You can ignore them if you want! The game is nice enough to play as it is and the developers will probably not even read this kind of stuff. But maybe some of the ideas make sense? Perhaps the forum moderator could make a suggestions-forum for this kind of stuff.
- Trade ports.
I think they're essential, but they don't give much revenue. They cost 900 credits (not counting the cost of the research upgrade) and they earn about 2 credits/s. This means it will take about 10 minutes to earn them back, which is a pretty long time imo. If they were a bit cheaper then they might be more useful.
The calculation of the longest trade route is a bit strange. The calculation of the trade route doesn't take into account unused planets, but trade ships don't mind! They'll travel through unoccupied planets, through the star, even through enemy territory.
There are lots of trade ships flying around everywhere. I would like a general setting to ignore them, because I don't like that my ships are distracted by them.
- The Cielo unit.
Why can it target a starbase? It's a huge structure, it's not designed to "paint" targets on such an enormous hull...
Why is the shield restore rate only 2.5 and why does it not stack? 2.5 is hardly useful in battle.
Why does it have so little hull and armor, even though it has to be in the middle of the battle because its specials have such a short range?
- The Hoshiko robotic cruiser.
Why does its repair rate not stack?
Why is this cruiser so vulnerable (low armor and hull) even though it's meant to repair units in the heat of battle?
It already does so little damage, why doesn't it have decent armor. Or give it invulnerability or something like that (red cross...).
Why do they have offense ability (which you can research)? They are repair cruirers, not combat units! Those are conflicting roles and it seems not natural for those units.
Perhaps add some tech to research Robotic Cruisers level 2 or even level 3, which are more expensive but also last longer (to make them more suitable for late game when I've enough resources). E.g. level 2 = extra armore, level 3 = extra hull and shield.
Why do Hoshiko's engage a starbase? They just get destroyed... they should support the fleet when needed, and otherwise they should stay away from danger.
- The carriers.
They have the most hull and armor of all units, yet they never enter the battle. Perhaps give them less armor at least.
They create fighters yet they have no AA against enemy fighters. Why is that... ? It just seems so artifically "balanced" that way, it seems not natural.
- Missing higher level ships later in the game.
Flak, missile frigate have no late game equivalent. That means building lots and lots and lots of tiny weak units instead of fewer more powerful units.
Also, those tiny units are really weak against Titans. I've lost hundreds of them in a few minutes against the Vasari Titan. I would like more powerful, fewer units late in the game. In order to balance this, I'd make those units relatively powerful but also relatively expensive, so that they are only economical to build when fleet capacity becomes a serious issue - and that's very late game. For example make them 3 times more powerful (hull, damage), but make them 4x more expensive.
- Missing an anti-Titan unit.
There's one specialized unit to destroy starbases (the long-range torpedo cruiser) so why is there not one that is specialized against Titans?
- Ogrov torpedo cruisers
The only quick way to destroy a starbase is by bringing along a bunch of torpedo cruisers. In case of a moving starbase, you need about 10 of them. However, this will make your fleet weaker against enemy ships and if the enemy fleet is present, you will lose badly because the have more ships (and also a defense bonus)
Also the torpedo cruisers are weak and once you lose them, it's really hard to destroy a starbase. Imo they're just too weak, they are so easily destroyed... perhaps increase their range even more? Or make them more durable against fighters/bombers? Or give them some kind of repair upgrade?
Also they cost a lot of fleet capacity yet they are cheap resource-wise ... which makes no sense to me, just make them more expensive, maybe even a lot more expensive. After all, they are really useful. It might be nice to increase their range, this won't make them that much more powerful, but it would make them more worth their resources more.
- Starbases.
A starbase is a huge structure and you can build only 1 (or 2 for TEC Loyalists) in a gravity well, yet there is a limit to 8 upgrades. Why not make this unlimited? Why: because their trade facilities are so important to boost your economy, you just have to buy those upgrades. And once you upgrade the merchant bays, you can't remove them so you cannot reconfigure a starbase from economic mode to combat mode and back when the need arises. In any case, scuttling upgrades make little sense to me, there's enough room to build more things. Each additional upgrade is relatively weak anyway, they hardly make an impact when a big fleet arrives and attacks ; the best upgrades (armor and weapons) are enough to do major damage to an enemy fleet. The other are just little addons I think.
If more upgrades are possible, this increases the ability of a starbase to engage a small fleet (because it can have both weapon upgrades and squadrons in addition to trade). But imo the starbase is a bit too good against large fleets, especially with repair bays nearby.
Perhaps reduce its ability to get aid from too many repair bays... just so that it's not able to destroy a complete (AI) fleet, which is a bit strange. Or reduce its armor so that it's easier to destroy. The TEC starbase, especially the Twin starbases, are really durable against most units, except the torpedo cruisers.
Perhaps also add the possibility to add research stations to a starbase. This could be useful on small maps.
For Vasari it might be nice to add a planetary bombardment upgrade to the starbase, which also increases allegiance and/or tax-rate. If jumping into an enemy gravity well, the fear-factor might make the population change allegiance all of a sudden.
Maybe starbases in empty gravity wells could have some additional features... maybe they can become a bit of a trade/diplomacy hub like Babylon 5?
- Too many fighters and bombers.
It is possible to build lots and lots of fighters and bombers, to the point that the game slows down because of them ... perhaps just reduce their number, by making everything 2x as expensive and 2x as powerful.
- Capital ships.
They don't come back with highest level and I think that's a shame. You can train the ship's crews of course, but that's only up to level 4. So perhaps record the highest level per capital ship type and allow training of those ships up to that level (perhaps research "escape pods" or "combat recordings" or something first). Imo it'd be a nice added feature to also add an elite-training for capital ship crews, which allows them to go from level 10 to level 11, so that they are better able to engage a level 10 Titan. This is only needed very late in the game, where Level 10 Titans plus a supporting fleet are almost impossible to destroy. So the research and the level 11 training upgrade can be made very expensive.
I think capital ships that are heavily damaged are difficult to find, perhaps give them a red icon overlay.
- Fleet formation:
capital ships are placed on a long line that span half a gravity well, even in "tight" settings. A line is not tight... that's the worst formation possible.
when moving back (180 degree turn), the "line" is point-mirrored, so ships move from one end of the line to the other. This is also the worst movement possible. It would be better to simply mirror the positions.
Hoshiko cruisers and flak form their own "mini" positioning with a fleet. This means they protect their own turf, but are out of range of parts of the fleet. It would be more useful if those support ships are distributed evenly over the fleet, or maybe they don't really need fixed positions inside the fleet, instead they could patrol across the fleet. This is important in case you choose to hold position (of the fleet).
- Before phase jumping, ships first go to their fleet position, but that takes time and time is precious when you're running away from the enemy. They should just do the jump and go to their position on arrival.
- Diplomacy possibilities are disabled when teams are locked, but why? Why can't you make a trade pact or another kind of pact when you're in a team? You're teammates so you should assist each other as much as possible... anyway I thinkg that would be nicer.
- On small maps when playing 3v3, with 5 AIs, the normal AIs are too easy and the hard AIs are too hard. The normal AI doesn't really attack because it's pretty weak. The hard AI is too powerful, before you know it there are 3 capital ships on your doorstep and in the meantime your allied AIs are just running around, doing nothing to help ... tha'ts not very nice. I would like an AI that is somewhere in-between for such maps. Note that on larger maps or 1:1, hard AI is doable.
