Slitherine

A lot of people are requesting a sticky thread to post suggestions in, where perhaps Black Lab Games can pick a few good ideas from.

It can be left up as a sticky. (Mods please)

Jupiter: Improve it a little, maybe with 4 battlestar artillery on the front of the alligator head, now that the Jupiter Mk2 has 8. Or finally have its 8 battlestar artillery on the bottom instead of 6. I really liked the model and it's a shame they don't try to improve as they did with the Mk2.

Minerva: 4 battlestar artillery on the front of the alligator head. Maybe improve his armor a bit or reduce its size in case of not improving the armor, it is too big to be a "Compact Assault Battlestar"

Orion: 8 Light Turrets instead of 6.

Jupiter Mk2: Reduce cost to 2450 instead of 2500. Why? in order to finally have the 4 battlestar in the same fleet in the campaign. Artemis, Minerva, Jupiter and Jupiter Mk2

I’d like to see a sandbox mode with all ships available on the original Cyrannus map

Doesn't really matter since they are not supporting it anymore.

I would like:

A button to remove ghost silhouettes to view the battlespace better.

A way to follow a unit with close camera in the action phase.

I would like screen scrolling to go fast, when pressing an arrow key at the same time as having the cursor at the edge of the screen.

I would like scrolling that works better on the Save Game screen.

I would like Mines to be more useful in general.

Add CTRL click for selecting capitals and squadrons.

A formation lock button. So ships maintain positioning and spacing.

A way to turn a ship's engine off. So you can stop a ship. I hate how ships always have to be moving forwards at all times. If you stopped your ship then your weapons would be more accurate but your ship would also be easier to hit. Maybe it could take some effort to get your ship moving again, not instant. So you couldn't just stop and go. You could also take out the engines on an enemy ship.

I would like speed controls for the action phase.

There should be a friendly fire indicator.

I would like an option for persistent damage for Cylon capital ships. Doesn't seem fair to me that it only affects Colonial capital ships.

I would really like the Flak field to not just magically appear, but be created by the guns on the Battlestar ships. Currently, when you create a Flak field it just appears out of nowhere like fireworks. The guns on the Battlestar don't actually shoot to create the Flak field which is really disappointing for a fan of the show. I think the Flak field should be created by default by the PDC's on whichever side you choose. And you could also tell the main topside guns to fire into the Flak field or engage enemy ships.

Also, I think you should be able to create a Flak field on both sides at once. I think they did in the show. Though I'm not sure.

I would really like the increased fleet sizes to be available in all the campaigns. At the very least as an option, with the warning that the game is not balanced for it. But honestly someone at Black Lab/Slitherine should find the time to officially rebalance the campaigns with it. If modding was supported I'm sure the community would do it too.

A campaign based on the Second Cylon War would be amazing.

I think I would like a way to make the enemy target other ships. Currently the AI seems to only target a single one of your ships which really annoys me. It makes it really hard to keep your weaker ships alive. Maybe an AI setting?

I would like to be view the firing arc of every weapon on my ships. Considering that the weapon placement matters and each weapon has a limited firing arc, it's very annoying that this information isn't shown. You should be able to cycle through every weapon group to see their field of fire (range and XYZ axis).

All of the ship information that is shown in this guide should be available in the game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1260056071

Im just going to cover the stuff that is already possible in game:..

Riekopo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 8:52 am A way to follow a unit with close camera in the action phase.

Already in game. Press f when a ship is selected to focus the camera on that ship. The focus will persist into the combat phase.

A formation lock button. So ships maintain positioning and spacing.

You can do this already, by using multi select move. By selecting multiple ships and then assigning a move order, the ships will attempt to move in formation. It can go wrong based on ship speeds, distance to travel and the vessel that is to act as formation guide.

I would really like the Flak field to not just magically appear, but be created by the guns on the Battlestar ships. Currently, when you create a Flak field it just appears out of nowhere like fireworks. The guns on the Battlestar don't actually shoot to create the Flak field which is really disappointing for a fan of the show. I think the Flak field should be created by default by the PDC's on whichever side you choose. And you could also tell the main topside guns to fire into the Flak field or engage enemy ships.

It is already the case that when flak is being projected, the PDCs on that side of the ship do not fire.

-button to remove ghost silhouettes
could be interesting, especially in very busy battles with lot of stuff going on

-A way to follow a unit with close camera in the action phase.
You already can: select a ship, then click on "end turn".

-I would like screen scrolling to go fast, when pressing an arrow key at the same time as having the cursor at the edge of the screen.
You can tune the camera pan speed in the camera options. But yeah currently no way to have both a "slow pan" and a "fast pan"

-I would like scrolling that works better on the Save Game screen.
Agree, performance is not optimal when there are lots of screenshots.

-I would like Mines to be more useful in general.
Disagree: mines are very useful. Debris mines are very good dissuasion weapon in multiplayer, and murder AI squadrons, virus mines, even nerfed, can be very powerful in mp, others mines are very situational. You have to build a fleet and a strategy to make an optimized use of them. In multiplayer they're very strong when forcing a ship to stop diving or climbing, or breaking ennemy fleet course and formation, giving you a great advantage in those situations.

-Add CTRL click for selecting capitals and squadrons.
Not sure I understand, you have the option to select capitals, or squadrons, or both in the top left corner.

-A formation lock button. So ships maintain positioning and spacing.
Could be nice, I suspect it could be a bit more difficult to implement than we think, but could be nice.

-A way to turn a ship's engine off.
Totally agree on this one.

-I would like speed controls for the action phase.
Well in multiplayer it would not really be possible (the simulation needs to run at the same speed for both players), for skirmish I guess it could be possible. But I don't really see the utility: you already can replay the simulation phase and change its speed.

-There should be a friendly fire indicator.
I don't know... It's also a part of the game to have a clever munitions usage :p

-I would like an option for persistent damage for Cylon capital ships
Since we generally destroy all Cylon ships in the missions, I don't see what it would change...

-I would really like the Flak field to not just magically appear, but be created by the guns on the Battlestar ships.
THIS. It triggers me, more than I would like to admit. Even if it's just visual bullets with no damage calculations coming from the PDCs to not kill performance even more, it would be very nice.

-Also, I think you should be able to create a Flak field on both sides at once.
Disagree. It's a case of gameplay > lore. in show, battlestars would even create flak at top, at rear, and probably anywhere around the ship. In game doing that would require to rebalance all the ships and missions, and to rethink all the way the battle dynamics work.

-I would really like the increased fleet sizes to be available in all the campaigns.
Why not. The campaign would be really easy, but I don't see any reason to not add it, as you said there could be some disclaimer.

-A campaign based on the Second Cylon War would be amazing.
We all would love this game to continue, but this is the end... Personnally I would have loved a Cylon campaign, but hey this is what it is, I'm glad we had this awesome game developped for several years!

-I think I would like a way to make the enemy target other ships.
We already had this discussion on discord, but I'll repeat: the AI is already pretty dumb, and this tactic of focus firing weak ships is actually a good tactic, even used by players in multiplayer games. It's one of the very few things the AI is doing right. If you want to keep your ships alive, be more careful: use squadrons to screen munitions, spot to not rush 3 Revenants with a Manticore, anticipate and begin to retreat before your armor is all gone, make good usage of offensive and defensive postures.

-I would like to be view the firing arc of every weapon on my ships.
Could be nice for beginners, but with some experience you very quickly learn where guns are. Not really needed imo.

All of the ship information that is shown in this guide should be available in the game.
Agree. Some of the information in this guide is very important, and should indeed be in game.



On top of that I would add that we really need some esier way to find opponents for multiplayer matches (some way to communicate, or to tell when we'll be available to play, or in game notifications when players are looking for an opponent (like an in game "matchmaking" role).

An, "I can do better!" Button for after auto-resolving a fight.

Look, I don't want to fight every battle, and save-scumming is annoying, time consuming, can feel like cheating, and doesn't fit into doing an Iron-man game.

However, I don't want to fight a battle with 100% chance of winning and 4% chance of taking losses... But when I auto-resolve and lose a ship, that steams me... because, I know if I play it out, the real chances of me taking a loss is probably much, much lower than 4%. I've got my strategies and tactics that I doubt the game is accounting for in it's calculations, but also are boring for me with such odds.

One could argue taking a loss when it's 4%, just is what it is, or that it makes things more exciting... great, you play that way if you want to.

I however, know, believe at the very least: I can do better!

Instead of me saving before every auto-resolve (which takes time) and then, if there's a loss (which isn't often) I reload and fight the battle myself (if I'm being 'honest' or auto resolve it again if I'm not in the mood to fight it and just feel cheated by the loss...) I think it'd be nice if games like Deadlock (and others out there) that have Auto-Resolve & Tactical battles, would give us players the button of, "I can do better" after an auto-resolve.

The auto-resolve does it's calculation, it tells us the results: The losses, the damage taken, even how much it will cost to repair the ships. If we're fine with those results as players, we can just move on; but if we're not find with the results, we can hit the, "I can do better!" button, and then fight the battle out ourselves.... Now, a tedious, and boring battle, is a little bit more challenging (especially if we're playing Iron-man, one way or another)... Our goal becomes to do-better than the auto-resolve... We are trying to get a better outcome than the auto-resolve, and... if we don't feel like cheating, if we screw up and take higher loses, we can say, "I guess I didn't do better," and move on... or reload like the save-summers many of us are.

I'd also like a mode where the campaign makes me pay for ammo usage, especially ordinance and viper losses.

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And I wish the sellouts wouldn't vanish when I'm situating where I want Vipers to 'Defend at Location' or move to a location. I'm often trying to move vipers into what I believe the path of missiles will be, and if I can't see where the ships are going, it's more difficult.

Sasuga wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:35 pm I'd also like a mode where the campaign makes me pay for ammo usage, especially ordinance and viper losses.

You already do. Restocking costs for vipers and missiles are applied at the start of the next battle.
Only when employing daidalos in that fleet it is free.
The losses are just very small.

I'm a simple man, Throw me the Mk III, stealth viper and some of the other Blood and Chrome battlestars and I'm good!

I would love to see the addition of skirmish enemy fleet randomizer.
Having to build your oponnent fleet takes from the immersion and there is no surpise from your enemy. You are also unconsciously building your fleet to be superiour since you know what your AI opponent will be bringing.

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned already, but give the colonials the ability to also reinforce during battles. Not all, or in every situation, and with certain limitations. Being able to jump 5 more battlestars in every battle would pretty much remove almost all of the challenge.If this was taking place during the 2004 series, obviously there are no reinforcements but given this takes place during the first Cylon war when colonial fleet was at its strongest, having reinforcements jump in would be plausible.

So maybe have a 10 turn timer before they could jump in, or only after a certain number of ships in your fleet have been destroyed

Trawn91 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 06, 2020 10:29 pm I would love to see the addition of skirmish enemy fleet randomizer.

This would have been a nice addition.

Too bad it's over now.

Mercury is underwhelming. I don't like the turret placements of the Mercury. In the show it packs a punch from the broadsides and the front side, but in the game its weapons are too focused on the front and its weak on the broadside. As for fighters, it should be better than Jupiter not the same ( since there are 4 flight decks it should carry more than 2 squadrons ). And its flak field is also smaller than Jupiter. This is why Mercury is a bit of a disappointment for me. I think it needs changed.

It's strange to me that in a game where vertical positioning is so important to your turret range, the firing range arc is only displayed horizontally.

Please add a vertical arc to the firing range of guns. Or if possible, represent firing ranges as a full 3d cone. That would be best.

Also PLEASE add an option to highlight turrets on Cylon ship models in the codex.

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