I'm just making a list of a few things I would like to see fixed/added, along with some stuff for the community.
My first suggestion is making a Suggestions/Bug Fixes forum.
My second is that until we have that, people post suggestions on this thread, just to clean up the forums a little bit.
Dedicated server stuff:
1. AI fixes in multiplayer. If only AI players are left in the game, the game needs to be a draw, and go back to the formation screen. This would fix multiple issues we've had with dedicated servers being unavailible. All this requires is a check each time someone leaves the game, or surrenders to make sure that someone other than AI is left.
2. A "rockthevote" option. This is to prevent a two or three players from monoplizing a dedicated server while another 4-7 have to wait for a half hour in observor mode.
3. Specific settings on a dedicated server, or restrictions in settings, that the players can't alter. the biggest thing that comes to mind is restrictions on game lenght and turn lenght. Both need a maximum set by the server that the players can't go over. (the chosen values would depend on the server)
4. A ten second wait period between the time a setting is changed and the start of the game. This is to prevent a player from changing a setting without other player's approval. Today someone changed the turn time to 5 seconds and hit start game before we could do anything. Under that setting you have time for two actions, and since the map was milky way medium, the game took forever. (everyone eventually quit)
Game options:
1. I know we've discussed it, but heres my suggestion for an alliance system. Have three different versions. Both of these options would have to work with a diplomacy/stats screen.
a. First is team games. These are a seperate game mode, started at the game creation screen, and cannot be changed mid game. Players can see their teammates ships and movements. I'll discuss what to do if teammates contro lthe same planet in a minute.
b. Second is an ingame alliance. This is started during a game, and allows you to see the allies ships and actions. For all intents and purposes, it is the same as a team game, but you can break out of it through a diplomacy screen.
c. Third is a cease fire. With this you cannot see allies ships or movements. In normal games this would be the most common alliance system.
Now for how to handle ships being sent to the same planet by allies. Under team or allied agreements, you can "attack" and allied planet, and when the ships reach the planet, they remain in orbit, and do not fight. The ship and number appears next to the planet, and you do not gain any benefit from being there, other than positioning. If the alliance is broken, the ships fight normall. If two allies attack hte same planet, the one with the most ships takes control. They maintain control until they remove all ships from the planet. If a planet with two (or more) allies ships in orbit is attacked, the number of ships on the allies side is combined, and casulties are divided between them.
For ceasefires. Once a ceasefire is declared, any ships enroute to a planet controlled by the other player turn around, and head back to their starting location. Under a ceasefire, you may send ships to a planet controled by the other player, but the ships heading to their planet will appear. This is to allow them to vacate a planet and give it to you. (a stragety that a few of us have found very useful) or have time to cancel the ceasefire. When the ships reach their planet, they have the choice to abandon planet, or cancel the ceasfire.
The other major difference, is that a ceasfire is a contract between only two players. Alliance and teams can be any number of players. Once all players outside on an alliance/ceasefire are killed, the alliance automatically breaks apart (in the case of teams, the team jointly wins the game).
2. Chat changes. An alliance system requires an additional chate channel. Perhaps a /team or something before the sentence would work. Whispering is also important.
3. Someone mentioned cheat codes/ easter eggs.
4. Another mixed thread -
http://www.inventivedingo.com/forums/index.php?topic=78.0 - note that I strongly disagree with his complaint about rally points. They're great as is, though a % option would be nice.
Community stuff:
1. Perhaps we could work on some map packs for eventual release as part of the dedicated server functionality.
2. We could also organize some sort of tournament competition at some point.
Thanks for reading my mess of stuff, any comments? I will be updating this to clarify some of the alliance stuff.
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