This thread is for little details or small touches that would help add to the game but aren't big enough for a thread on their own.
It would be neat if sailor and air marine hats (or some other detail) reflected the heraldry colours of their faction. It'd also make it easier to tell what's going on in boarding actions.
Frames around the decals. I believe they used to have them, but they were removed for some reason. The coats of arms just look a lot better with the frames than without.
@HarpyEagle: That would make sense, but I fear the AI would pick some garish colors.
Suggestions:
When there are several fires going at once, the crackling fire sound effect should be replaced by a roaring sound effect. Currently, the crackling fire sound doesn't sound too nice when it stacks.
If/When you make a new trailer, you need a shot of a Belial exploding all at once. It's a sight to behold.
The option in a campaign to save new designs "locally" to the campaign. That way I can create stripped-down versions of my designs with prohibited technologies removed without cluttering my designs folder.
Here's some small usability things that have been bugging me:
In defenses, allow multiple ship repairs, building constructions and similar to queue - I don't want to have to leave the defenses screen and wait for every single step to be completed every time!
Constructing multiple smaller ships is cumbersome: [build ship] - select ship to build - name ship - wait for ship to be built - repeat. I'd like an option in the ship naming screen to add more ships of the same type.
Ship repair is not possible in the fleet overview (afaik)
When building new stuff, the last thing you've built is previewed on the right side of the screen, but not selected. You'll have to still pick it out of the list on the left side.
Small bug: Ships often think they're about to collide with something despite there not being any obstacle. I'll often have to use Ram to get them to go places.
I'd love more intuitive ship controls in battle. Here's a suggestion:
Clicking a ship selects it as usual.
Now, when hovering the cursor over empty and valid space, Move will be the default click action. When hovering over an enemy unit, "concentrate attack" will be selected instead.
Currently, it's a bit cumbersome to select Move every time.
When designing buildings, placing something below the lowest part of the building will cause it to raise the building up by the height of the newly added component.
Now, so far this is excellent, but: As long as the mouse is pressed, it'll instantly add another component where the last one was before, causing the building to shoot up into the air on a tower of new components! :D
When all the bridges in a ship are taken out, the game says it has a crew of zero, even if it doesn't. Wouldn't it make more sense to display the crew number as "???" or "Headcount Unknown" or "Not Under Command"?
Ship measurements displayed on the side of the ship in blueprint mode.
@Slimy I like that, it would add to the whole blueprint idea. Maybe expanding on that idea would be little notes drawn on the blueprint paper like the formula M=SG/m where M=the maximum service ceiling, S=the mass of the Suspendium Crystal, G=the concentration of Suspendium on the ground and m=the mass of the ship. The notes could be anything not just mathematical formulas.
P.S. that formula means nothing and is just an example (though it does add something kinda cool to the lore). I don't even no if it makes senses Physics wise.
Adding frontier outposts in the campaign.
Adding a way to destroy trees.
Adding a % of accuracy for when you have anything that buffs or debuffs it in the blueprints.
Ultra-VLAMBEER mode??? (might be a bit too much)
Getting "Shovel Knight" as a playable character >_>
Adding a way to block the windows out the ship from appearing.
^ ozark actually had a really good one for saving the campaign maps.
I'm assuming the campaign map generator uses seeds and the seed would generate the same land-forms every time. Or if other people used the same seed.
So instead of simply saving the map layout or the seed locally. What could be cool, and sorta "world-build-y", instead of a random number to define the seed, you pick it from a list of set names.
So it can procedurally assemble the whole world name based off a couple random names; like "Zarkonnia", "Carltropolis", "Ozarklandia" etc. Essentially by having a limited set of actual names for the maps you would be able to actually define all the naturally occurring land-forms of the airships universe.
Given enough time, the game can sort of organically build lore up around these 'known' locations; i.e certain empires exist on the map everytime the seed is played.
Names could be submitted by the community or something, if making up like 200 names sounds tedious.
I'm definitely up for Ozarklandia, but wouldn't it be simpler to simply be able to save and share the seed you used, or at least have a preview before you begin so that you can choose a different map?
That said, your option is pretty interesting (especially the lore stuff) but it sounds a bit too ambitious for me. Maybe a dedicated modder could do that.
I think that instead of having separate flipped versions for weapons modules there could be a button for it like R or middle mouse button to automatically flip the modules.
Robot Spiders should either attack module rooms (if the current game systems allow crew to damage airship modules) or abandon ship and find a new enemy if all the crew are dead instead of idly twiddling their robotic thumbs(legs?).
Adding to the theme of dumb robotic contraptions, I like the idea of having the latter feature and making the spiders attack ANYONE once they are done with the first ship. This may make them more balanced in comparison to boarding troops since the spiders can kill pretty much everyone but if they do it non-discriminately way then normal troops will be a more appealing option.
(for lore purposes the spiders could exist between being in a 'docile mode' inside of the carrier until told to board something and turned into 'kill everything that moves mode')
When creating a new multiplayer game, all mods should default to being disabled and have to be enabled by the player, defaulting to maximum compatibility with other players instead of minimum compatibility.
"Has no ammo stores!" warning should be checking if there is a need for ammunition, not if a weapon exists on a design (to avoid unnecessary ammo stores on suspendium cannon only vehicles)
The ability to choose on which side you start a battle (left or right).
Differentiating a ship's name and its model. It would be interesting to see two identical ships of the same model with different names.
Commander
This thread is for little details or small touches that would help add to the game but aren't big enough for a thread on their own.
It would be neat if sailor and air marine hats (or some other detail) reflected the heraldry colours of their faction. It'd also make it easier to tell what's going on in boarding actions.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Longer lasting/more variations in debris, option for debris to last the entire battle (no despawn time) unless x amount are present (setting option?).
Commander
Heraldry colour paint. Though it seems like the number of colours in a heraldry is variable so I'm not sure how that would work.
Commander, Engineering Corps
Frames around the decals. I believe they used to have them, but they were removed for some reason. The coats of arms just look a lot better with the frames than without.
This thread has some pictures of them.
Commander
Clueboe, I swear the crewmen in those screenshots look like ninja turtles.
If modules get destroyed outright, it would be neat if ragged edges were left instead of clean lines.
Commodore
@HarpyEagle: What do you mean by heraldry colour paint? You can already paint ships the same color as the heraldry.
Ragged edges post-explosion sound great.
And so what if they are Ninja Turtles? I bet you don't have Ninja Turtles.
@Clueboe: Ooooor we could have banners like this: https://airships.zarkonnen.com/forum/2/topic/114
Aerial Emperor
I approve of this thread. Small suggestions highly welcome. :)
Commander, Engineering Corps
Heraldry colours should change crew uniforms!
Commander
@Slimy Paint that when applied to a ship takes on the heraldry colours of the faction owning it.
Commander
Overlays are only visible in armor and module building menus. you don't need them to paint your ship, and they really just get in the way.
Commodore
@HarpyEagle: That would make sense, but I fear the AI would pick some garish colors.
Suggestions:
When there are several fires going at once, the crackling fire sound effect should be replaced by a roaring sound effect. Currently, the crackling fire sound doesn't sound too nice when it stacks.
If/When you make a new trailer, you need a shot of a Belial exploding all at once. It's a sight to behold.
Air Admiral
On a side note, i'm loving the smoke clouds, Zark. Thanks for adding them.
Captain
How about some cheats that can be enabled/disabled in the options, some could be like,
Unlimited Money
Click to Explode
Click to Set Fire
No Command Action Cool-Down
Unlimited Coal/Ammo
100% Weapons Accuracy
Commander, Engineering Corps
a
*No research/tech requirements
Commander
The option in a campaign to save new designs "locally" to the campaign. That way I can create stripped-down versions of my designs with prohibited technologies removed without cluttering my designs folder.
Lieutenant
Here's some small usability things that have been bugging me:
In defenses, allow multiple ship repairs, building constructions and similar to queue - I don't want to have to leave the defenses screen and wait for every single step to be completed every time!
Constructing multiple smaller ships is cumbersome: [build ship] - select ship to build - name ship - wait for ship to be built - repeat. I'd like an option in the ship naming screen to add more ships of the same type.
Ship repair is not possible in the fleet overview (afaik)
When building new stuff, the last thing you've built is previewed on the right side of the screen, but not selected. You'll have to still pick it out of the list on the left side.
Small bug: Ships often think they're about to collide with something despite there not being any obstacle. I'll often have to use Ram to get them to go places.
I'd love more intuitive ship controls in battle. Here's a suggestion:
Clicking a ship selects it as usual.
Now, when hovering the cursor over empty and valid space, Move will be the default click action. When hovering over an enemy unit, "concentrate attack" will be selected instead.
Currently, it's a bit cumbersome to select Move every time.
Lieutenant
Oh yeah, another small bug:
When designing buildings, placing something below the lowest part of the building will cause it to raise the building up by the height of the newly added component.
Now, so far this is excellent, but: As long as the mouse is pressed, it'll instantly add another component where the last one was before, causing the building to shoot up into the air on a tower of new components! :D
Commodore
Lieutenant
Another small thing I noticed:
I designed a building to be built over an overhang; it had one bomb bay to drop fiery death on my enemies.
I could build it from the design screen to be hanging from the cliff, but this doesn't work (unsurprisingly) when building it normally.
Commodore
When all the bridges in a ship are taken out, the game says it has a crew of zero, even if it doesn't. Wouldn't it make more sense to display the crew number as "???" or "Headcount Unknown" or "Not Under Command"?
Like this:
Pointless, but sort of interesting.
Captain
@Slimy I like that, it would add to the whole blueprint idea. Maybe expanding on that idea would be little notes drawn on the blueprint paper like the formula M=SG/m where M=the maximum service ceiling, S=the mass of the Suspendium Crystal, G=the concentration of Suspendium on the ground and m=the mass of the ship. The notes could be anything not just mathematical formulas.
P.S. that formula means nothing and is just an example (though it does add something kinda cool to the lore). I don't even no if it makes senses Physics wise.
Lieutenant
Captain
-Set the pixels to be 14 centimetres in the length measurement thingy.
Lieutenant
Adding frontier outposts in the campaign. Adding a way to destroy trees. Adding a % of accuracy for when you have anything that buffs or debuffs it in the blueprints. Ultra-VLAMBEER mode??? (might be a bit too much) Getting "Shovel Knight" as a playable character >_> Adding a way to block the windows out the ship from appearing.
Commander
You already can delete trees, you use the delete terrain tool and delete from the top down.
Lieutenant
Uh, never tried from the top... Thanks!
Commander
Difficulty is also already implemented :)
Lieutenant
Oh. Well I'll try next time >_>
Commander, Engineering Corps
^ ozark actually had a really good one for saving the campaign maps.
I'm assuming the campaign map generator uses seeds and the seed would generate the same land-forms every time. Or if other people used the same seed.
So instead of simply saving the map layout or the seed locally. What could be cool, and sorta "world-build-y", instead of a random number to define the seed, you pick it from a list of set names.
So it can procedurally assemble the whole world name based off a couple random names; like "Zarkonnia", "Carltropolis", "Ozarklandia" etc. Essentially by having a limited set of actual names for the maps you would be able to actually define all the naturally occurring land-forms of the airships universe.
Given enough time, the game can sort of organically build lore up around these 'known' locations; i.e certain empires exist on the map everytime the seed is played.
Names could be submitted by the community or something, if making up like 200 names sounds tedious.
Lieutenant
I'm definitely up for Ozarklandia, but wouldn't it be simpler to simply be able to save and share the seed you used, or at least have a preview before you begin so that you can choose a different map?
That said, your option is pretty interesting (especially the lore stuff) but it sounds a bit too ambitious for me. Maybe a dedicated modder could do that.
Captain
I think that instead of having separate flipped versions for weapons modules there could be a button for it like R or middle mouse button to automatically flip the modules.
Air Admiral
I think the flipped modules should have their own category. I'm tired of having to hunt through the weapons menu.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Robot Spiders should either attack module rooms (if the current game systems allow crew to damage airship modules) or abandon ship and find a new enemy if all the crew are dead instead of idly twiddling their robotic thumbs(legs?).
Adding to the theme of dumb robotic contraptions, I like the idea of having the latter feature and making the spiders attack ANYONE once they are done with the first ship. This may make them more balanced in comparison to boarding troops since the spiders can kill pretty much everyone but if they do it non-discriminately way then normal troops will be a more appealing option.
(for lore purposes the spiders could exist between being in a 'docile mode' inside of the carrier until told to board something and turned into 'kill everything that moves mode')
Captain, Engineering Corps
Another thing, is that in Multiplayer, you can't flip things. I want to flip a building, yet it doesn't work.
Commander
Rockets and bombs would look much more convincing if their impacts had a nice smokey explosion to go with it, instead of just a meagre flash.
Captain, Engineering Corps
Also, there could be a copy and paste feature in multiplayer. This is extremely useful for swarm tactics, and makes 30 clicks into 5.
There could also be a feature to save a fleet to easily select it later. This would be extremely helpful and save a lot of time.
Commander
When creating a new multiplayer game, all mods should default to being disabled and have to be enabled by the player, defaulting to maximum compatibility with other players instead of minimum compatibility.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Walker legs magically vanish if their module is destroyed, we should have some walker leg debris!
Same for tracks, I'd be pretty entertaining if their joints flew off in every direction when destroyed.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
"Has no ammo stores!" warning should be checking if there is a need for ammunition, not if a weapon exists on a design (to avoid unnecessary ammo stores on suspendium cannon only vehicles)
Aerial Emperor
Suspendium cannons need ammo, actually.
Lieutenant
The ability to choose on which side you start a battle (left or right). Differentiating a ship's name and its model. It would be interesting to see two identical ships of the same model with different names.
Lieutenant
why not:
• med pack, as small as a fire extinguisher, but heal up to 3 guys.
• same but with repairs, 5 tools.
• medic post? one crew member will run around as a medic and heal his friends!
i got these ideas by looking at a guard post and thinking... don't ask why.
Lieutenant
another idea, landing skids!
to not break your ship in half each time you ground it! Could be used to drop infantry
check the infantry thread for more ideas.
Lieutenant
Another another idea :
in short?
LANDMINES
those will basically be a 1x1 defeated ship, that blows when destroyed.