From: mmhazewi@cs.ruu.nl (Maarten Hazewinkel)
Subject: Re: Looking For Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Suggestions
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 13:31:56 GMT
Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science
Keywords: MultiPlayer Strategy Game

Ok, I've just read about 100 messages about this, so despite the fact that I
don't have 2.x yet (I'm waiting for it to arrive), I think I got some
background.
Anyway, here are some suggestions/comments in no particular order.

Carriers.
I must say that I like the Carrier/Fighter idea. My thoughts on this are that
a Carrier should be EXPENSIVE, though maybe less so than a Colony Ship. The
Fighters it carries should be rather cheap, but more expensive than
satellites. I like the idea of the Fighter craft being launched only in the
second round of combat. Also, I think that Fighter craft should be able to
operate out of inhabited planets without a Carrier to support them. On the
other hand, if fighters get marooned on an uninhabited planet, they become
helpless, and can be picked up by another player to examine for tech, or just
use. This is because the craft is not built to support a pilot for long.

Hull Types.
Different types of hulls might be nice. Bigger ships would be harder to
destroy than smaller ships of the same tech level, but easier to hit, if
evasive capabilities are going to be introduced. But I think it would be
difficult to do this right. I think most of what can be said about this has
been said already.

Alliances.
I like the idea of alliances also. Here it should be possible for one player
to tell, in his own units, what gravity/temperature his ally likes, so that
they can point out interesting planets to each other. Also, it should be
possible for allies to exchange planets that the other likes better.
Alliances should also be able to exchange tech/metal/money. Different members
can concentrate on different technologies, and share that with the others. Of
course you might keep back the newest technologies in case of a backstab (By
you ore someone else).

Metal.
There are I think arguments for both global and local metal supplies. Global
metal undeniably makes things easier. Local metal introduces some nice
strategic possibilities like cutting someone off from his metal supply, so
that you can gain time to build a fleet to wipe him out. I think an option
would be nice for this. I don't think it would take a lot of extra room,
savefile-wise. I can also think of an intermediate option. This would allow
metal to be available at planets it's mined from, and be sent to a central
planet on the next turn. Planets building ships would draw from this central
planet as neccesary. Transfer might take 2 turns, or something depending on
distance from the central planet. It might also be affected by a Tranport
budget to finance the transport.
Now find an enemies central planet, and you can really hurt him.

Disable ships.
While capturing ships during combat does not seam feasable to me in space, I
would suggest the possibility of disabling a ship in combat to salvage it
later for tech, or possibly for repair and own use. Disabling might be done
with blowing up the life support area of the ship, while leavign the rest more
or less intact. Unsupported fighters (see above) could count as disabled.

Auto-upgrade satelites.
I think I like the idea of doing this automatically. One of the most boring
tasks I find is to go back over 40 planets that I inhabit, and which I have
thrown out of the budget window, to put up a new generation of satellites. I
think it should be possible to upgrade an existing satellite type. The costs
could be the same as scrapping and building anew, but it would take away the
work for the player. This woudl of course only work over inhabited planets.
Alternatively, you might classify planets (profitable, potentially-profitable,
unprofitable, strategic, etc), and assign a certain defense to each class. The
computer could then see to it that those defenses are put up, and upgraded
when you tell it to upgrade defenses for a certain class. Users should be able
to define new classes, and assign planets to them.

Recorded Battles.
Finally, there's one simple option I'd like. I am often low on diskspace, and
I have the impression that if it were possible to scratch the recorded battles
from the savefile, it would be significantly reduced in size. That's an option
I'd like to have, since I don't watch them often anyway.



Well, I hope I made some sense in this.

Maarten Hazewinkel
mmhazewi@cs.ruu.nl

PS: Great Game!

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