POLL - What 8 things would you like to see next in Distant Worlds?

[Igard]

Omissions from the first poll :-

AI Improvements - This was by far the most popular choice among players in the first poll. It's been removed from this one as it's now a given that we all want to see the AI keep up with any new features and mechanics.

UI Improvements - This is a generic answer that allowed for too much ambiguity. We can assume that UI improvements will occur regularly as they have done in previous patches. Some of the new answers on this poll are related to specific changes/additions in user interface.

Mod support - This has been removed as it's unkown what form it will take. Again it's a general answer and thus, slightly ambiguous. I will do a poll in the future for specific mod support items.

We've now got a brand new poll. Sorry for those of you who didn't get a chance to vote on the old one. I felt it best to close that one before starting this as some of the material is the same.

You've now got 8 votes to select from a total of 30 answers. Please take your time to make your votes. I find that selecting all the ones I like and then going back over them and deselecting the ones I don't care as much for is the easiest way to decide.

If you have any questions about any specific answer, just ask. I tried to be as clear as possible, but I understand if anyone wants clarification.

Please make your selection based on what you want to see next. It's as simple as that. Don't get bogged down in asking yourself, 'Well this isn't easy to implement, so I don't think I should pick that'. Choose whatever you like, that way we can get a clear picture of what everyone wants.

Ok, thanks for reading the above.

Please select 8 answers

Click here to cast your 8 votes

[Data]

excelent work, Igard, getting on it now

[J HG T]

Too... much... stuff... I... want...
BTW. More exploration and more story exploration options should/could be the same. More exploration in general. Just my thoughts.

[cookie monster]

I went with

Navigation arrows for ships direction and ETA

Galactic news service (notify us when 2 races go to war, galactic events etc)

Bigger galaxy map (size not stars)

More tech-tree components/technologies (weapons, tractor beams etc)

More ship roles and images (carriers etc)

A custom map creator (to load instead of random generated)

Ship boarding and capturing

Personell crew/captains/admirals/spies (leaders/characters)

I think the game needs more depth.

At the moment it seems like a general trading game. Warfare's too abstracted.

Thanks for doing the poll.

[Data]

ok, feedback time. My choices went in:

Fleet formations
Exploration options
Personell crew/captains/admirals/spies
More diplomacy
Ship boarding and capturing
Strategic overlay (designate military objectives/paint targets/focus on fronts etc) - hoping this one gets all the votes [:D]
Navigation arrows for ships direction and ETA - a must have
Galactic news service (notify us when 2 races go to war, galactic events etc)

Obviously, not even 8 is enough but if your effort helps with even half the features I'll pm Elliot each day to put you on the credits list [&o]

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: J HG T

Too... much... stuff... I... want...
BTW. More exploration and more story exploration options should/could be the same. More exploration in general. Just my thoughts.

More exploration options was for when you find a planet, you can focus on that planet to find more resources. A game mechanic.

Story exploration events, is for when you get a 'we have found ... go to system .. in the .. sector'. A story element.

I'm not sure how I could change it to be more clear, but I'll try.

EDIT: I changed it to Exploration ship options. Since it's supposed to mean that your exploration ships will have the option to stay at a planet and survey it for longer to yield more resources and other goodies.

The player who had the idea (sorry forgot who you are) thought it was a good way to utilise exploration ships late in the game after all systems had been explored.

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: Igard

EDIT: I changed it to Exploration ship options. Since it's supposed to mean that your exploration ships will have the option to stay at a planet and survey it for longer to yield more resources and other goodies.

The player who had the idea (sorry forgot who you are) thought it was a good way to utilise exploration ships late in the game after all systems had been explored.

Understood. Sounds great to me.
Voted for both exploration options anyway. Early game exploration is one of my favourite parts of DW, so more of it never hurts.

[Bingeling]

I started out being quite picky as I had only 8, and ended with 5...

- Strategic overlay. I am not sure what this is, but any bigger picture view would be nice. The map can be messy once you are quite big. 10 fleets, 80 single frigates/escorts, a lots of long range scanners (with long ranges), a few deep cover spies. It gets messy

- Improved research mechanic. Bases are build and forget today. And the AI is not so good at building fast enough.

- Exploration ship options. They are stupid, and you want to tell them what to focus on. The thing here is that the AI needs to know what to do early as well...

- Galactic news service. Very much so! But don't make the bug where you get new involving empires you have not yet met...

- More tech tree components. Not so much specific new stuff, but I feel the trees may have good of some work to make picking stuff harder. The weapon tree is too simple to choose from for me.

- Bigger galaxy map. I want distances! More fuel issues, not less.

- Conquer/colonise. How about empire policies on migrants? I settle on korabbia, with 20m population max, and the population is swapped all the time. I want only Dhayut here, dammit! How about forcing migration. "All Kiadians are expelled from the empire". The dark blues may not be too happy about that...

- More diplomacy. I want to make all kinds of nifty ultimatums. And more.

No, I did not forget about firing arcs, leaders, ground combat, ship boarding, I very much went past them.

[Igard]

Strategic Overlay - The idea behind this new concept (AFAIK anyway) from fabio80mi, is that you can select which fleets will focus on a front or a defensive area like a  patrol area or a warzone. This is very useful if you use a lot of automated fleets, but still want an element of control. Other features would include painting targets to signal your desire to have them removed by any means necessary or to assign any military zones to be taken control of like debris fields/resource/resort locations etc. That's my understanding of it. There's more that could be added, but it's mainly if you want to have AI controlled fleets, but you're telling them what to focus on.

Good point about the galactic news service, Bing. I don't know if it would really be that bad to hear, 'Breaking news, The Kiadian Republic is now at war with, An unknown evil/nasty/notorious/dubious/satisfactory/respected empire somewhere from sector B9'. I think that'd be cool.

[Bingeling]

It would not be so wrong to notice them being at war. But if you know them and you trade with them, your freighters should discover new empires soon enough. As long as they have an offensive effort.

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Good point about the galactic news service, Bing. I don't know if it would really be that bad to hear, 'Breaking news, The Kiadian Republic is now at war with, An unknown evil/nasty/notorious/dubious/satisfactory/respected empire somewhere from sector B9'. I think that'd be cool.

We concur.

[mg62]

Galactic news service is a very good idea.  I routinely check the diplomacy screen just to see who is at war and when other factions change their stance to each other. 

[Igard]

Here's what I went for :-

Galactic news service - We need to know what's going on in the galaxy. Right now I feel a bit dis connected. As long as this is done tastefully and not an in-your-face news buletin, It'll work for all races you can think of.

Conquer/Colonise options - I reserve the right of a dictator to treat any enemies or sub-species how I choose.[:D]

Personell crew/captains/admirals/spies - This would add a bucket load of depth to the game.

More diplomacy - I'd like to play as a beacon of all that's good in the universe. I'd like to offer membership into my proud and honourable nation. And then tax the hell outta 'em!!

Ship boarding and capturing - As a Romulan, it's my duty to capture enemy hulls and take them back to Romulus as war trophies.

Empire borders - I'm a proponent of this debatable idea. As long as it's done properly, it would make for a less confusing empire building experience.

More tech-tree components/technologies - I mainly want a Star Trek style beam weapon. There are lots of other cool techs too though.

Exploration ship options - This would allow us to not only continue exploring after we've discovered every star, but it would also allow us to contain our empires and focus on what little territory we have, if we deem it too dangerous to venture out too quickly.

[WoodMan]

Posted my votes, had to remove the enhanced trade to make room for the more diplomacy though [:(]

Great list, didn't vote for firing arcs or formations as 8 more important things to me, but I think both those thigns would be nice touches, just not as important as other things on there.

[Data]

Well, he have 30 items so we could have like 8 main votes, 8 secondary ones, 8 tertiary ones and 6 spare ones......just to make sure we cover the essentials [:D]

[Bingeling]

We could also need a separate poll with "check the features you think would ruin the game". No limit on the number chosen...

[Igard]

It's a bit early yet, but here are the results so far with 161 votes. Hmm.. that's 20.125 people unless my maths are wrong. If you've somehow made a mistake and missed out on your full 8 votes, you can easily get more votes by either deleting your cookies, downloading another internet browser (I recommend Firfox) or using another computer. But don't use this to get extra votes! Your cheating your fellow Distant Worlders if your doing this. [:-]

Ok, so, it's a bit early yet, but here're the results so far. Personell off to a nice early lead. Galactin news and diplomacy very popular. Tech components are lagging behind in 4th place despite coming in 2nd in the first poll!

And what's this, no love for the Kaltor farms?[:'(]

[Bingeling]

One thing about tutorials.

This poll is mostly among veterans, so now wonder if that is low. The ones that may need them are the ones that left due to not understanding the game. If such people exist.

[Igard]

There will be more votes for, but if 1 out of 20 players wants better tutorials, then yes, it doesn't look good.

I suspect those who left will consider returning at some point, since they paid good money for the game.

This poll will be up for a very long time, so we'll see how it goes.

Maybe this thread could even be stickied? Sorry to add to the stickies, but it's more relevant than many of the current threads.[&:]

[tjhkkr]

Thanks, Igard, as usual...