Astro Galaxy - a realistic space exploration game
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1  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Mutual Mining Agreement on: March 13, 2021, 08:02:32 PM
I'm not a fan of the schemes used to "protect" prospector sites. My reason is if I come across a prospector site and see one miner there, I think I remember it doesn't even show what the miner is mining. How're you to know the miner isn't just an old leftover miner from an older site or from ancient times? Second of all, it's hard to reach most players, since they can be gone for months or years. Another thing is small planets only have a couple slots. If I find another site on the same planet, that's 1 less slot for me to use. Lastly, not everyone will know of the policy. I know I've left behind many prospector sites because they weren't worth the effort.

I'd rather we can purchase ownership to the site for a small charge, maybe lorewise dropping a beacon to the site which doesn't take a slot, but this would require in-game development to support it. Really it just means adding a ownership attribute to deposits.

Mostly I think the alien sectors should have good mining sites also. It's not right to stuff mining into the (-4,-4,+4,+4) sol sectors.
2  Feedback Terminal / Suggestions / Re: new methods of prospect mining. on: March 30, 2020, 12:29:26 AM
1. OP, can you explain how this reduces the gap between low level players (slow miners) and high level players (fast miners).

2. And you say PT mining is overpowered. Do you mean prospector missions are overpowered? Can you explain and how.

In my own experience, mining profit is mediocre, and it's more time consuming (and risky because you can lose miners and stations to PvP) than COM's. When I first started out, I did a lot of mining and enjoyed it. It's easy to do if you find vacant planets and somehow it made more sense to me than COMs. I guess what I didn't like about mining was it didn't scale. I enjoyed just finding a planet with a decent deposit and stripping it. But the deposits didn't get better (like into the millions of solars) unless I did prospector missions.

Right now, I'm going to experiment with doing prospector missions and stripping gas giants as a side activity. One thing I found during my play is it's not fun to do just one thing. Like JUST doing COMs. I like variety, so it's nice, if you got the time, to have a ships doing SOS, COM, exploring alien sectors and mining.

Look forward to your repy.
3  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: March 12, 2020, 10:04:34 PM
I added star/planet highlights to the OP for COM missions (or other missions with known star/planet destination). Feel confident that's helpful change, even if it's only available for hte active ship (a mission in its cargo for example). I also added the Attack missions highlight for active ships. Again, these things keep coming up during play, and hard to live without them.

Another thing came to mind just now. Are entries in cargo alphabetically and numerically sorted??? If not, why, I wonder.

This isn't sorted:
Marine Assault Unit Mk D
Electromagnetic Shield Mk CVII
Electromagnetic Shield Mk CXLI
Electromagnet Shield Mk L

This is:
Electromagnet Shield Mk L
Electromagnetic Shield Mk CVII
Electromagnetic Shield Mk CXLI
Marine Assault Unit Mk D

Notice that it's sorting the roman numerals by their numerical value.

Just little thigns like this can help in cargo management.
4  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: March 08, 2020, 10:07:46 PM
Have another minor one I just thought up:

1) In the Attacks screen, which shows all your active COMs (and/or other possible attack missions), highlight the mission your active ship is engaged in, if any. If it's possible for a single ship to be in multiple missions hten highlight multiple entries. I oftne find myself losing track of which mission it's. ( At present, either I click on each one to figure it out, or I go to cargo and talk to the crew responsible for hte missioon. )

How it's highlighted doesn't matter, as long as the missions the active ship is engaged in stand out.

It might also be useful if the "Attacker" category shows a ship name. I assume this would be one of my ships, since I think I'm always hte attacker in COMs. Presently, it just shows the number of units and an "(owned)" flag. The intent is to increase feedback, so player is more informed wherever they're.
5  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: March 06, 2020, 10:15:24 PM
Few more ideas. I'll get around to adding them to the main list when I'm confident. I'll check over the main list sometime to see if I still agree with it. Because it has been a long time and sometimes ideas seem good at the time but later you're sober up and see their failings.

1) when you complete a mission, you should automatically talk to the ship crew responsible for the mission, so you can complete it immediatley and get the reward. ( At present, you're required first go to your inventory and talk to the crew to get the reward. )

2) highlight any planets or stars linked to an accepted COM mission (or maybe any mission with a  star/planet destination) in light blue. stars shouldn't be highlighted if they're not previously mapped by sensors. ideally planets or stars should be highlighted for ANY of your player owned ships that have a COM mission located there. however, it might make more sense to only highlight COM missions for the active ship and any player owned ships in its hangar--or in its orbit if that makes more sense. ( At present I have to go to my cargo and find the entry so i can identify which star and planet is the mission destination. )

3) allow us to scan the whole fleet in a COM mission. So if the fleet is 6 ships then it'll require 6 hours to finish. Normal scans are 1 AP per ship. Because of entry (6), this scan result should persist for the remainder of hte COM missions--the player does not have to scan again if htey log off or go to a different screen.

I chnaged entry (6) to include scanning the whole fleet.

EDIT: Just changed entry (1) in my OP so ships can be ordered by location. Another idear for ordering ships is to place htem into fleets. This way when ships aren't hangared they'll still be nearby in the list.

4) Yet another idea is to show your ships with a special icon for the planets in system view. This wya when you visit a star and see the planets, you'll also see where your ships are without having to remember or looking at another screen. Teh whole point in this is to reduce the rampant clicking in AG.
6  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: March 04, 2020, 03:54:00 AM
I decided to come back yesterday nd look around.

Something more I can add:
1) When trying to transfer marines from power armor marine assault units the game doesn't inform me i need to transfer to another power armor marine assault unit. Insted it just says 0 MAU's on the ship, even though it definitely has a MAU. It seems to require another power armor unit, but didn't tell me.

And I can't believe the game still hasn't given us a way to purchase minerals/gases for manufacturing in one go. For example, if I need 50 MK for Standard Cargo Bay, I can purchase either directly from manufacturing or from a redesigned store interface. right now, the store just allows us to purchase individual minerals/gases. A redesigned exchange would allow us to purchase for a module, like Advanced Cargo Bay. Since the interface might look somewhat like Manufacturing, why not just do it there?

Minerals/gases are pretty much only used for manfuacturing (except diamonds for fuel conversion), so why wasn't this done in the first place.
7  Feedback Terminal / Suggestions / Re: Instant complete opposition scan report on: March 04, 2020, 03:14:14 AM
I agree. It's something i've wanted for a while. I just came back the other day to see what has changed if anything. It's sad to see not much has changed. The UI (user interface) in this game is so bad. And I don't even necessarily mean what it looks like or whether it's easy to click things. It's the number of clicks to do things that's terrible. It's like everything was made independently and jumbled together, instead of it being looked at as a whole and pieced together that way. I appreciate the effort SirEmi has placed into it, as I'm unsure I'm underestimating it. I mean no disrespect. However the number of clicks to do things can't be ignored. It's a common complaint. It's really really not good to leave alonel.

Just for example, among the many possible examples, is when I'm getting together some minerals/gases for a journey into the stars. Usualy i need some for upgrades while i'm out there. Typically i have ot open a separate window and figure out how many i need for a partciular item (like advanced mining facility). I might need 500 or 1000 or more MK. Right now i have a spreadsheet i open up and it shows me how mcuh cargo i'll ned and how expensive it'll be. Then I go to the station and purchase the resources. Ultimately it's a lot of clicks. It doesn't have to be this way. It's so tiring and it's so sad to see nothing has been done about the myriad of things that need to be looked over.

Therer'e better MMO's out there. Just today I was asking msyelf why am I coming back with no progress since i left.
8  Caffe / Whatever / Re: Warring Factions is back! on: February 28, 2020, 09:06:54 PM
Looks fun. Just checking in on Astro Galaxy. Sad to see updates stalled. IN my mind it has/had some potential.

While I"ve been gone I tried Astro Empires. Its inteface is better. Its ok. Maybe less like a treadmill, but it has flaws too and is more strategy-like.
9  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Alien Cluster Trading Centre on: September 30, 2017, 03:08:00 PM
If you could name the home star--for your trading center--what would you name it?

And thanks for putting something there. This song is about how you make our lives whole:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07-yKnKRMQ

 16
10  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Date: Jul 2014 on: July 24, 2017, 04:31:07 PM
July 2014 is when I created my character in Astro Galaxy.

I have some random questions.

1) If a ship is inside a hanger (inside another ship), is its cargo vulnerable to capture after a loss in combat?no
* Can I put items inside a ship and put that ship in a hanger to "protect" those items?yes
2) When a battle stars, and you have more than 1 ship, what's the battle order? I read the most powerful ship is attacked first, but what happens after that? What happens to your other ship(s), regarding battle order?most powerful, then second, then third, etc
3) When I investigate a COM, the difficulty is dependent only on the active ship--and not on ships in hanger or nearby?only active ships (if the nearby ships are in the same orbit, they add to your attack/defense strength
4) If a ship has 0 armor and 0 shields, how mcuh damage do I need to do to overwhelm the manpower/hitpoints?a lot of factors involved in this...  does the enemy employ EMJO's? How powerfuyl is their ship(s)

I'm currently experimenting with a mothership carrying the primary COM ship. Why is below:
a) protect any loot from players
b) protect any loot if I somehow lose the COM
c) to remove WHG/FTL/Cargo modules so the primary has more slots
d) i'm lazy and it seems to work for me

I think it'd be better if the difficulty of the COM was based on ships marked for inclusion. So if a 13m power ship--marked for inclusion--is in my hangar and my mothership is 2m, the mission is 15m power.

Right now I have to active my primary in the hangar and get the mission then reactivate my motehrship. It works somewhat, but anytime I have several ships things are dicey. I had another setup with about 6 ships and a mothership and what I did was base the mission on my mothership, but that comes with problems.
11  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: June 21, 2017, 05:26:34 PM
Added (11) and (12) for multiple-selection upgrading.
12  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: June 16, 2017, 04:35:24 PM
Just going to rant a bit about armor. I don't have any formulaic answers to armor yet, but it's not working for me. I hate how what you see in the combat report doesn't necessarily reflect the results. I hate how 1/3 damage to my armor means it's 100% damaged. I hate how if it's damaged it can't be removed from the module unless you repair it first. I hate how you have to haul the repair minerals along with you and put them on a separate ship because otherwise a loss in combat might cause them to be lost.

And there're other things I'm hating too. Like not being able to determine when my weapons will fire during combat. Why don't we have more control over combat order? Overall my impression of the combat system is not good.

I'm not just another person wanting the game to be "easy". I never like games to be easy. Cheating and hand holding and always winning are boring. What I'm complaining about is how empty the combat is. To elaborate, this is what I do mostly:
1) Scan all the ships using AP
2) Calculate their shield/armor total
3) Calculate their offensive damage total
4) Look at the first order ship to see if maybe I should use a couple lasers or railguns (does it have dodge optimization?)
5) From that, set my shields and marine modules and weapons and look at the timer

I usually do it regardless of saved time because sometimes a mission is hard for my ship.

The issue is it's too simplistic, too mundane, too repetitive, too bleh. Is that the best Sir Emi can do?

Honestly my feeling is the total shield/armor should be automaticly shown at the bottom in the Battlefield view--after the ships are scanned. The total MK of all weapons and marine modules could also be shown at the bottom. The bottom line is, these calculation shouldn't be considered gameplay, so it should be less cumbersome? Gameplay should be tactical, not technical. For example, during a game of Jagged Alliance 2, I'm not calculating the armor/hp/damage of each enemy I encounter. I'm setting up my squad to have cover and be within range and not be vulnerable to flanking or being overrun. I'm making sure they all have first aid and a doctor nearby. I'm going after the nearest or most vulnerable enemy that doesn't expose my squad. I'm dividing and conquering if possible. I'm looking ahead to see how I should advance forward so that all of these condtions I listed above are met. Nowhere am I using a calculator, or feel I met benefit from it.
13  General Talk / General Discussion / Help me make a mammoth suggestion list on: June 10, 2017, 11:04:12 PM
I don't want to post this in suggestion yet. Didn't feel right. This forum allows us to modify old posts so I'll just keep it here and evolve it over the months and/or years I'm here. If a mod believes it belongs in suggestions, go ahead and put it there.

I will read any replies and add or change here if I agree.

1
In -Ships-, add these saved check boxes to the top-: [ x ] Licensing date, [  ] Name, [  ] Hull Size, [  ] Power, [  ] Location
These will order the list shown so it's ordered by that category.

2
Increase the size of ship names from 15 characters to 20 or 25
-or-
Consider adding a hidden name shown only to the owner of the ship or the corporation members?

For special cases when player is desiring to better organize their ships.
Several times I've found myself wishing ship names were longer.

3
When transferring personnel, it shows the amount/maximum on each ship, not just number of modules
(It shows the amount/maximum for marines, I think)

4
Add "[ # ] [ Set % ]" to "[ 0% ][ 50% ][ 100% ]" when managing personnel or marines.
Change "With selected: SET [ 0% ] [ 50% ] [ 100% ] [ Move to cargo boy ]"
to
"With selected: SET [ 0% ] [ 50% ] [ 100% ] [ # ] [ Set % ] [ Move to cargo boy ]"

This is to allow other percentages. The "[ # ]" is just an edit control for entering a percentage: 0-100.

5
Instead of W|S|A|M color bars with percentage active for each ship in "View Battlefield", show the actual ratings. If the ship hasn't been scanned yet, just show a (?), otherwise show what's below:
(image) (mouseover gives the ship name)
W 327k (power of combined weapons (or combined MK?); doesn't include marines)
S 60k (actual shield protection w/ optimization)
A 15k (actual armour protection w/ optimization)
M 1.2k (marines in marine modules)
P 5k (personnel in quarters)

Also add the optimization of the ship to the list regardless of scan status.

Why? Because I never look at the color bars. Mucho useless clutter as-is.

6
Previously scanning NPC ships (in combat mission) permanently shows their weapons/shields/armor/manpower ratings in "View Battlefield", regardless of login status, unless hte mission is cancelled

Alternatively, show the last scan results indefinitely--as well in "View Battlefield". Perhaps keep a maximum of 25 scan results per player.

Additionally, allow hte player to scan the whole enemy fleet for the COM. If six ships are present hten it'll take 6 hours. If 4 then 4 hours. Normal scans are 1 AP for 1 hour per ship.

7
-Planets- can be ordered by category and shows modules by type (S=science, M=marines, M=miner, H=harvester,etc)

8
Completing SoS mission reloads the cargo page automatically.
(Currently, completing prospector missions will reload the cargo page automatically.)
(Currently, completing SoS missions loads the System view.)

9
In -Cargo-, ability to filter cargo by a search term, by adding "[Filter by...] [ search term ]" below "Ship manifest:"
So I might type "Laser" into the search term and click [Filter by...} to filter the cargo.

10
In -Cargo-, convert the "Ship manifest:" categories (shown below) from buttons to saved check boxes:
[ x ] All cargo [  ] Products [  ] Minerals [  ] Gases [  ] Passengers [  ] Station [  ] Modules
("All cargo" will override all other check boxes)

11
In -Cargo-, add "(Mark Upgrade)" to cargo items upgradeable by the player, like so:
"[ ] 100 m3 | Electromagnetic shield, Mk CLXXX (Install) (Mark Upgrade)"

Add this...
"With selected: [ Mark Upgrade ]"

Below...
"With selected, amount: [    ]m3 [ Convert to fuel ] [ Transfer to another owned ship ] [ Eject ]

12
In Manufacture->Mark Upgrade, change what's below teh buttons, like so:
"Select module to upgrade from ship cargo bay: |Electromagnetic shield CLXXX [ v ]|"
"-OR-
Select module(s) to upgrade from [ Cargo ]
"

Below that, change what's shown to this, if the player clicks on "[ Mark Upgrade ]" in the cargo bay, after selecting items for mark upgrade:
(if one items is selected, don't change anything)
(if multiple items are selected, change it to the following...)
"Input modules / techs:
Electromagnetic shield Mk CLXXX
Electromagnetic shield Mk CLXXX
Electromagnetic shield Mk CLXXV
Electromagnetic shield Mk CLX
Electromagnetic shield Mk CLXXX"


"Reverse Engineering tech level 200
|  Action  |       Output Module        | Max pers | Utility | Time | Resources needed |"

Handle processing the same, except account for multiple selections. So if any item in the selection list has a higher mark than the output module entered by teh player, give the same cancel notification, below:
"This module already achieved t hat mark level!"

Otherwise, upgrade all the items at once, ensuring there're enough materials in the cargo bay.

13
Highlight any planets or stars linked to an accepted COM mission, or any mission with a KNOWN star/planet destination, in light blue. Stars shouldn't be highlighted if they're not previously mapped by sensors. Ideally planets or stars should be highlighted for ANY of your player owned ships that have a COM mission located there. however, when implenenting this the first time, it MIGHT make more sense to only highlight COM missions for the active ship and any player owned ships in its hangar--or in its orbit if that makes more sense. ( At present I have to go to my cargo and find the entry so i can identify which star and planet is the mission destination. )

14
In the Attacks screen, which shows all your active COMs (and/or other possible attack missions), highlight the mission your active ship is engaged in, if any. If it's possible for a single ship to be in multiple missions hten highlight multiple entries. I oftne find myself losing track of which mission it's. ( At present, either I click on each one to figure it out, or I go to cargo and talk to the crew responsible for hte missioon. )
14  General Talk / General Discussion / Re: NewSol on: June 09, 2017, 03:06:12 PM
I don't know ESC. The joy of browser games USED to be you'd only devote minutes per day on them. The first browser game I played was 10 years ago and I remember I only played maybe 5 minutes per day. Thing is, I could ONLY play it a few minutes because my resources were so small. The game intentionally limited how long you'd play it every day. I liked that. It was nothing like hte MMO's where you'd play 2 to 5 hours straight. I've seen some browser games where htey outright hard cap how long you play.

I think having the maximum ships/station dramatically lowered would be better. As it's, the game seems not scale well with larger ships and lots of them. This would result in a lot less clicking/reloading and even teh playing field somewhat. Then a overhaul of the user interface so there's even less clicking/reloading. Then a overhaul and focus on the tactics/strategy in the years after.

Beyond that, whatever changes are made need to consider the time element. Don't add mechanics which encourage players to stay logged in for hours and hours. Don't allow players to easily grief others who're not logged in.

I also think the tutorial needs to be looked at. Right now, players can sometimes struggle to find slots on the planets, for example. It fails to give important information like the Salvage Crew and "issue fuel distress signal". Another issue is the PvP. There should be anti-griefing mechanics--like more bonus given to a non-aggressor defender. One example might be enabling players who haven't attacked others for X time to more easily track down the attacker. Maybe some areas would be no PvP too.
15  Feedback Terminal / "Bugs" and Problems / Re: bad game logic ? on: June 09, 2017, 02:47:25 PM
two examples

1) i have a ship with one cargo hold with a orbital base inside
I can deploy the base into orbit, then give the base the cargo hold
I can NOT reverse the process because the cargo hold has to become 'cargo' and then be installed

2) I have a (mining / science) module needing 50+ crew
I have 30 PoW in my cargo hold
I dont have a quarters module so i cant switch the PoW to unused crew (via talk to them) to module crew

I know that if I go to Earth I can temporarily install a quarters module and fix the problem .... until next time

I really really wanted to like this game but to much fiddly procedural stuff like this is killing me

This MMO needs less clicking/reloading and more tactics and strategy.
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