Spartan's Impressions

I just finished my first game with the beta. I think this title has a lot of possibilities and I hope they will be fully realized.

For my first game I played a 1v1 on a medium map with medium resources. The game lasted over 5.5 hours. This was mainly because I was taking my time and exploring things. I could have soundly defeated the AI by the two hour mark.

Some things that bothered me with the game at present are:

1. The travel lanes. The system needs to be reworked. I utterly wasted the AI using a line of G-guns and hangers.

2. The lateral plane should be broken when viewing the galaxy. It looks like a 2D game and that is sad because it is so damn pretty. This is not a real issue but adds to that extra polish that will make the game a classic.

3. The ability to scrap items. If it is in the game I have not found it.

4. Ability to set some sort of tax and trade rates with appripriate tech and adverse affects -etc...

5. The voice sounds are way to low. I can barely hear them and I have them at max.

6. The maintenance level seems to be locked at the 75% level.

7. The ability to control ships one at a time in combat easily is sorely needed.

8. Some priority target function is also really needed. The "auto shoot planet" thing makes simultaneous attacks a very dangerous thing to try.

9. The AI auto placement ability real needs to be redone because it simply does not work with a degree of logic that I can see.

10. I would to be able to name ships and fleets.

Again these are just what I can think of off the top of my head right now. This is by no means a comprehensive list nor is it a bitch list. Just some things that stand out for me after one game. I'll update this list more as I get more experience.


UPDATE

I have had a couple hours with the new version and I have the following thoughts and comments. They are in no particular order.

1. What is the benefit of heavy fighters?

2. Are Orbital refineries for meteorite systems just as trade stations are for normal planets or should they be placed in both types of systems?

3. I got a crash on load when I tried to zoom out at the exact time the startup sound effect started. It only happened once.

4. For my last game the AI players refused to expand to planets on the other side of the home star system. For example: AI---AI---HS---P---P---Me
^AI-----AI^.......^---P---^

5. The "defend local area" seems to not work anymore. I set ships to it yet they target enemy ships on the other side of the planet and try to go to them.

6. Regarding my saved game minidump that I UL to my domain (see other thread) the saved game starts me at the exact place I saved it yet all my other saves have started me at my most developed system. Why is this so? Should I not start at my home world regardless of its development level?

7. My biggest peeve is the auto target to mines!!! I lost two level 10 and 3 level5 battleships to scouts!!!! It is near impossible to control more then one battle if you care about ship loss ratio. The situation was this... I had wasted the home world and sent my fleet back to my other real hot front and left one level 10 battleship there to mop up by wasting the factory and the mines - easy yes? I come back 5 minutes later and my ship is gone and I see about 5 enemy scouts!!! So I sent in another one (my flagship) then went back to my other battle. Well same thing happened!!!! This time seven scouts were there.

I was PO big time so I sent 3 battleships and I KNEW they would do the job. Guess what??? TOAST!!! They ALL kept shooting at the damn mines while the then 10 scouts scouts cut them down. I was so angry I slammed my keyboard and it cost well over $150!!! That has to change or it is a deal breaker. We must have a priority target system that the player can select.

8. I would also like to see firepower consolidation for multiple attackers (a swarm effect if you will) especially for attacks on capital ships when more then one is involved and when being attacked an auto selection of the closest ship to you with a priority on the one that is actively shooting at you if there are more then one close by. Far too many times I have seen ships shooting at a target way in the distance with a low hit ratio while some enemy ships were up close and personal on its ass plowing it and it simply could not careless. The humanity of it all!!

9. It is not a real issue but something that bothers me. I dont like all the stars and planets for that matter being on the same plane. The same applies to ships although I can move the ship to different elevations (always by accident at this point).

10. As I said before lanes bother me as well. My defense system is basically a slam dunk with the current AI. If there has to be lanes then have them between the stars only and free space between all the planets.

11. A suggestion, i would love to be able to track battle stats by planet and star systems. I know its an egghead suggestion but if you going to give the player stats then make them highly detailed I say.

12. I would like to have medals to award to ships with special bonuses. They could be based on a level of tonnage per engagement taking into account the specific planet and or star system and number of battles fought there as well as players -etc... Something like the system used in Silent Hunter but ship based would be nice.

13. The scale of ships next to the stars looks good but next to the planets they simply look wrong. I would consider making the planets bigger and adding some moons. While I'm on the topic of size the objects also seem rather large for the planets as well.

14. The gravity wells (GW) seem a little to small when one has a fully developed system. While I'm on the topic the placeable objects seem a little to big as well. Maybe it is them coupled with the ships that makes the planets look dwarfed.

15. The capital ship explosions are truly something special to behold. I would like to see them cause damage to other ships within the explosion area just to really make it meaningful.

16. An auto retreat option that can be set by the player would really be nice especially when one has dozens of high level ships in combat and cant look at all of them at one time.

17. An auto level advance option would also rock. For example when I build a capital ship I can select all the advancement options I want up to the max level and when it reaches that experience level it enables that selection.

18. An easy way to use the elevation ability. I simply cant figure out how to do it at the moment. When I do manage to do get ships to climb higher then the others it is always in a pitched fight and I dont know what keys I am hitting (large fingers) and I would like the ships to enter a system already on different levels. This would also go a long way in reducing the crowded feel when one gets a couple dozen ship together all at the same elevation. I cant count the number of times I have seen ships hit each other moving becasue they are all on the same plain.