Great game.

[plasmafox]

I really like it! It has a simplified 4E sort of gameplay. I especially thought it was clever how you incorporated planetary differences and ship differences with the same mechanic- it's also very realistic to assume replicators would need to be able to adapt their structure and abilities to the place they're deployed and the minerals and resources present. It also keeps it from being just a numbers game in the start which adds a lot.

Anyway I heard about your game on 4chan /v/, you probably got alot of hits today. Played it and I think its great. It's a bit annoying the way you have to control one rock at a time, and there's a very low limit on how many seeds a planet can make at once and how many you can send to a planet. It's also irksome when you've already got 500 on route to a planet and when you try to send more it just ignores the command- and then you expect those ships to be there and they aren't- especially in late-game when you need to be zoomed all the way out most of the time and can't see everything. It bothers me that often times enemy seeds will pass near or even through a cloud of my seeds, and as long as the foes aren't moving to the target my seeds are around, mine won't engage theirs.

I also did encounter a bug where my seeds wouldn't colonize the last asteroid after it had been stolen and then the enemies were all destroyed but my seeds just swarmed around the hole. They were all "busy" and i think maybe clipping each other, they wouldn't come back from the planet and even with 500 of 'em couldn't find the seed-hole. Unfortunately, I forgot to make a screenshot. The cursor tracking on the asteroid dialog needs some work too- very often when you go to click "plant" it cancels the menu instead. I can, however confirm that the game runs flawlessly on Vista.

In my opinion, the game could benefit from a difficulty option that increases enemy production speed to make it harder- I don't think it needs a lower difficulty setting. Also an adjustable number of enemy factions would make for more intense gameplay for people who want it. Also, the AI doesn't seem to be able to plant additional trees now, that should be added. Maybe add a menu with some backstory to the game, and links about the concepts behind it. Maybe add a control to trickle ships from one planet to another, like the gather point option in many RTS games. An auto-plant toggle on the asteroid menu would be great for the later stage of the game where you control a couple dozen rocks.

Well, anyway, thanks for the great game, and I hope I've given you an idea you can use in the next version. Looking forward to seeing it!

[Pergolator]

I really have to agree with everybody, a great game. I just love the 'pure' atmosphere and simplicity. Although at this point (four games or so) pretty straightforward to finalize. All niceness aside, plant max number of trees from the beginning to outer planets, use inner planets just as seedling storage (no point in planting trees there as there are always over 32 seedlings) and milk outer planets to inner planets as much as you can. After a few moments you have a nice army on inner planets  and voila, game is pretty straightforward from that point. If there will be any enemy efforts, it's easy to make a rehabilitating action as a massive storage of seedlings is always max three planets away. Works a bit like usa thinks it's foreign policy should, I guess.

My point is that when you find an efficient method, game turns out to be a bit repetitive (milk, milk, milk, milk, kill, plant all trees, milk, milk, milk, kill, plant all trees..). If you add any automation, for example seedling trickling to another planet and automatic tree planting, there is not really much to be done (after initial struggle on establishing a seedling farm) other than select your remote victim and shoot.

[Rollins B.]

...game turns out to be a bit repetitive (milk, milk, milk, milk, kill, plant all trees, milk, milk, milk, kill, plant all trees..)...

I agree, but you can always up the level.

--Edit
ALWAYS remember to back up your .xml before messing with it!

Code: [Select]

<category name="structures">
    <int name="cost" value="20" min="0" max="10" />
in settings.xml, change the value number under structures. I find it a little harder when it takes 20 seedlings to plant one tree.

Code: [Select]

<category name="game">
    <int name="EnemyFactionsMin" value="6" min="0" max="6" />
    <int name="EnemyFactionsMax" value="12" min="0" max="12" />
    <int name="beltradius" value="10000" min="0" max="10000" />
    <int name="beltwidth" value="6000" min="0" max="6000" />
    <int name="asteroids" value="70" min="0" max="70" />
    <int name="MinAsteroidSeparation" value="1200" min="0" max="1100" />
    <int name="StartingSeedlings" value="30" min="0" max="30" />
    <int name="StartingSeedlingsPlayer" value="10" min="0" max="15" />
    <int name="MaxAsteroidNeighbourDist" value="2800" min="0" max="2500" />
Changing the value numbers as shown increases the amount of starting factions, as well as asteroids. It also starts you off with less seedlings, while the other teams get more. If you experiment enough, you can make some pretty crazy games.