From: dave@prc.unisys.com (David Lee Matuszek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Looking For Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Suggestions
Keywords: MultiPlayer Strategy Game
Date: 31 Jul 92 15:45:47 GMT
Organization: Paoli Research Center - Paoli, PA

In article <1992Jul24.221553.16667@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> commons@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Peter Commons) writes:
>About a year ago, I posted a request asking for suggestions about what could
>be added/improved/etc. to Spaceward Ho! to make it a better game. Although not
>all suggestions were used (obviously), many were, and, in general, I believe 
>they helped make version 2.0 even better than it otherwise would have been.
>
>Well, now it's a year later, and I would like to make the request again. 


Low upgrade price.  :-)  :-)  :-)

I've ALWAYS had trouble with losing track of where I'm building ships.
It was worse in SH1, but SH2 doesn't help a lot.  I really, really
want a List shipyards... command, similar to the List fleets...
command.

People have been complaining about the universal metal concept, but I
like it.

Someone wrote that the somewhat less uniform galaxies in SH1 were
better, and that you should make games more fair by spacing out the
players better, not by making the galaxies themselves boring.  I agree
completely.  (Of course you still want SOME randomness in player
placement.)

I liked being able to set the number of stars in SH1.  You can keep
the adjectives if you prefer, just give some indication as to how many
stars that translates to.

There's no reason not to use the highest technology available for
everything (except Mini, which is very expensive).  More balance here
would be a good idea--say, by reducing the cost of lower technology as
you reach higher tech levels.  (BTW, I really like the fact that
improved tech improves a planet's innate capability to defend itself!)

I find the Compare Players... screen in SH2 too hard to read.  The
column headings (footings?) just don't stand out well.  Tech levels
aren't grouped well.  This window should be redesigned.

In SH1 the computer players cheated.  I have some reason to believe
they still do in SH2.  In particular, in one game it was clear that
The Enemy would always hit a planet as soon as I moved a colony ship
to it; it didn't matter how many turns the planet sat first with just
a marooned scout at it.  This was totally repeatable.  How about a
guarantee of fair (computer) play for SH3?

Better control of the order in which planets get listed (via a
Preferences... command) would be a big help.  

I'd like a new "Long Range Scout" type ship.  Something that could go
1.5 or 2 times as far as a Scout, at the cost of having NO weapons and
NO shields (and probably slow to boot).

It's cute that the game keeps around old ship names.  But you really
need some way, short of ResEdit, for editing or deleting these; my
young daughter tends to name things randomly.  On a related note, I
tend to name certain fighters "Doggie" or "Wolf" (for obvious
reasons); these names don't always apply well to ships at other tech
levels.

At the beginning of the game there are a number of options whose
effects are unclear (e.g. whether you're a Beginner, Novice, etc.)  I
don't know how, or if, this interacts with how smart the computer
players are.  Maybe this was explained in the documentation, but when
I upgraded from SH1 I only got a new disk, not new docs.  Please
explain these; please include new docs with upgrades.

And finally, one tough request:  figure out some way of making a FAST
(10 to 15 minute) game.  I'd play SH a lot more if I didn't have to
have a couple of hours free.  (Saved games get stale very quickly....)

In general, I approve of making SH playable rather than complex, and I
hope my suggestions reflect this.  Keep up the good work!

  --dave

-- 
 -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -   -    -
I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.
					-- Vice President Dan Quayle