Say hypothetically...

[rytram]

while this isnt a topic of game Mechanics as Mecron specified. i am wondering if he has heard about the buzz surrounding the Epic Games Store. you can read the article https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/7/18130 ... onsole-war

why do i think this is useful? because STEAM does or did take 30% of game sales and additional fees and such. Epic's Store is offering to only take a flat 12% no hidden fees or BS. 12%, and if you use the unreal engine, EPIC will cover the 5% royalty cost. EPIC is openly trying to dethrone Steam. i only bring this up because i believe that it could save Kerb money on future games they produce. and i feel as though Kerb would find this information very useful (assuming they are not already aware).

[Slashman]

while this isnt a topic of game Mechanics as Mecron specified. i am wondering if he has heard about the buzz surrounding the Epic Games Store. you can read the article https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/7/18130 ... onsole-war

why do i think this is useful? because STEAM does or did take 30% of game sales and additional fees and such. Epic's Store is offering to only take a flat 12% no hidden fees or BS. 12%, and if you use the unreal engine, EPIC will cover the 5% royalty cost. EPIC is openly trying to dethrone Steam. i only bring this up because i believe that it could save Kerb money on future games they produce. and i feel as though Kerb would find this information very useful (assuming they are not already aware).

That's been discussed in the off-topic area and Kerberos has been understandably quiet about it.

[fivve]

I was thinking, you could merge both ship designer menu and ship builder menu into a shipyard menu. In shipyard Menu you could have all the normal ship designing stuff, but on the left hand side for example you could have a list of all your systems, clicking on a system allows you to edit the build queue. It would kind of reduce the duplicate information between the two screens considering they are very similar.

[rytram]

while this isnt a topic of game Mechanics as Mecron specified. i am wondering if he has heard about the buzz surrounding the Epic Games Store. you can read the article https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/7/18130 ... onsole-war

why do i think this is useful? because STEAM does or did take 30% of game sales and additional fees and such. Epic's Store is offering to only take a flat 12% no hidden fees or BS. 12%, and if you use the unreal engine, EPIC will cover the 5% royalty cost. EPIC is openly trying to dethrone Steam. i only bring this up because i believe that it could save Kerb money on future games they produce. and i feel as though Kerb would find this information very useful (assuming they are not already aware).

That's been discussed in the off-topic area and Kerberos has been understandably quiet about it.

good to know. thanks for the info. ill go and take a look.

[rytram]

I was thinking, you could merge both ship designer menu and ship builder menu into a shipyard menu. In shipyard Menu you could have all the normal ship designing stuff, but on the left hand side for example you could have a list of all your systems, clicking on a system allows you to edit the build queue. It would kind of reduce the duplicate information between the two screens considering they are very similar.

i second this. it seems like a good idea. for the longest time i had some problem making use of all my worlds as construction sites. that is until i learned a better way to do it by using tab or the empire screen. but nonetheless. figuring out a simple way to merge all of these screens into a single screen would no doubt be useful.

up until now the difference between design and build has always just been hitting "D" and "B" for me. but i still agree with you

Fivve, you think you could tinker with paint or some other program to illustrate what you believe it would look like and then submit it

[Mecron]

Its an idea that did not survive implementation. If we could have merged them we would have but the information needs of the 2 different screens always overwhelms screen real estate.

[fivve]

Thanks rytram, but you don't want to see my drawings, unless you want a good laugh.

At least you thought of it Mecron. But yes, looking at the build screen and design screen in SotS1 now, I can see what you mean about it being too much for one screen, for some it could be too cluttered. Its layout is nice though and I like the button that allows you to switch from build screen to design screen quite easily. Perhaps on the build screen so you can have a list of all systems to make it easier to cycle through your other systems.

Perhaps in design screen you could add a counter similar to that of SotS2 where it tells you how many of each ship type you have built and how many you have left. I know in SotS1 its under ranking but, the empire ranking part could be moved to the Diplomacy screen. As for Diplomacy...... I'm sure you have some ideas. I'll have a look at it and throw some thoughts out there for you.

I'd say your research menu is better in SotS2. easier to navigate with all the techtrees at the bottom, it's good for us lazy people.

[ZedF]

I actually preferred the SotS1 tech tree. One thing I liked in SotS1 that was missing in SotS2 was cross-links between different parts of the tree, like how you could potentially get access to HCL just by researching cruiser tech, or how researching power techs unlocked all sorts of goodies from other trees. I also liked how it encouraged relatively broad research by making the jump between fission-fusion-AM eras much more expensive than in SotS2, where the way science stations and tech prices worked made it often better to specialize in a small number of tech trees than to pick up a broad variety of improvements across the board.

[fivve]

I know what you mean Zedf, about the link between Cruisers and Heavy Combat Lasers. That stuff was good, it made you explore more. I think their wasn't enough mandatory cross-tech requirements.

I'm looking at it from a navigation point of view, where in SotS2 in the research screen all of the techtrees are listed on the bottom and all you need to do is left click on one and it will take you to the techtree directly. In fact you can even browse up and down the techtree by left clicking on any tech, which also gives you a brief description about the tech.
In SotS1 you have to right click and move your mouse left or right to move between the techtrees. I also find moving up and down the techtree is not as easy as you have to double click the tech to find out what it is then double click to zoom out again.

[Mecron]

I preferred the carousel arrangement as well but it was something we changed because of fan feedback.

[fivve]

You could keep the carousel but add the techtree shortcuts along the bottom, so you get the best of both.

[rytram]

speaking of Tech. i always felt that Salvage missions were ridiculously long, regardless of income. i am not sure the design behind this, or if there is any ways to manipulate how fast it is.....reverse engineered. maybe we could have a slider on special projects as well, and maybe some more details like eta and such. honestly. since the techs themselves (salvage) are intentionally mysterious. maybe every so often we can get an announcement from the Science team that they discovered something new about the tech. for example. initially it is a random tech(ship part) and it is mysterious, as it is in SoTS. so when researching it after a few turns, science team provides a report that they have deduced it is a (weapon, armor, communications, etc type of component), after another turn or so u get more details, "it seems to be powered by a [power era] source" so on and so forth. this may be a way to add more lore into the little details of the game. some may think it a bit spammy so i dont know maybe there is a checkbox you can select to mute these notifications.

additionally, i know i stated this before somewhere. but allowing the salvaged tech to rebirth that tree/branch would be massively appreciated. after all when the tech is reverse engineered it should provide insight into where you failed before. newer understandings and all.

[fivve]

Your idea does have merit rytram, it starts out as an unknown tech, then as you pump research points into it, it slowly comes to light as to what it is.

That reminds me it would be good after researching a tech it tells you what other techs has been unlocked, like it does it SotS1.

[Mecron]

"additionally, i know i stated this before somewhere. but allowing the salvaged tech to rebirth that tree/branch would be massively appreciated. after all when the tech is reverse engineered it should provide insight into where you failed before. newer understandings and all."

...this is what is known as "I want candy that won't make me fat!" fan design requests.

[THIEFs]

I actually preferred the SotS1 tech tree. One thing I liked in SotS1 that was missing in SotS2 was cross-links between different parts of the tree, like how you could potentially get access to HCL just by researching cruiser tech, or how researching power techs unlocked all sorts of goodies from other trees. I also liked how it encouraged relatively broad research by making the jump between fission-fusion-AM eras much more expensive than in SotS2, where the way science stations and tech prices worked made it often better to specialize in a small number of tech trees than to pick up a broad variety of improvements across the board.

Totaly support ZED.
SOTS1 tech tree was better, as he said, with tech interlinks - possibility to get tech through alternative paths.
I also preferred the ability to drag the tech tree to the left and right with mouse while I'm exploring techs... where as in SOTS2 I had to click a button to switch to next tree, and I could only look at 1 tree at a time... sots2 tree kind of annoyed me.

I also loved that there was random roll of tech research possibilities from start (uniquely generated technology tree regardless of race).
I do not understand other player obsession with "I want all tech researchable"... SOTS 1 provided much bigger replay variety, as each game may have significantly different play... you had to play with what you get.. and there is no guarantee that you will get that one uber tech you always love to use. But there were too many other players crying and the "fixed/guaranteed techs" got implemented.