List of missing EFS1.4 features

[joulupunikki]

(last update: 5.aug.2017)

Notes

• list of EFS.EXE 1.4 features missing from the latest development version (see #74 for a list of extra/differing features)
• features that have been marked strikethrough are done, features that have have been marked strikethrough are partially done
• implementation importance levels are H(igh), M(edium), U(ndecided), L(ow) (currently based on 2 community votes)
• list probably is not complete (I hadn't worried much about keyboard shortcuts until they were explicitly mentioned)

Functional Features

High Importance

• Orders: Build Road, Raze City, Sentry, Wait (2H)
• Diplomacy options "ask/give": alliance, map, tech, war pact, declare war on another, future favor (2H)
• Diplomacy options "or else": neutralize alliance, declare war, excommunicate, unleash the plague, make you regret it (2H)
• Combat: unspotted agility bonus, assassin special targeting (1H,1M)
• Bombard: city damage, shield effect (1H,1M)
• Keyboard shortcuts: sentry, wait, build city, Build Road (1H,1M)
• Unit Iterator: make the unmoved units list semantics more like standard EFS.EXE

Medium importance

• The Plague (1H,1U)
• Diplomacy with League, Church, Vau (1H,1L)
• Computer Opponent AI: symbiots, rebels, ministeries, guard, vau, league, church, houses (note that this is closely related to Diplomacy) (1M,1U)

Undecided importance

• PlanetMiniMap: during Landing and Bombardment: navigate PlanetMap, access grand planet map (2U)
• Archives: Group Finder, City info (2U)
• UnitInfoWindow: rest of unit details, unit resource costs, city image, all city details, Disband, Unload All (2U)
• Combat: tech bonuses (Symbiot, Vau, Terrain), experience, assault/feint
• Unit Building: auto buy missing resources

Low importance

• (Alien) Ruins and Monasteries (1U,1L)
• HouseWindow power graph and other statistics displays (1U,1L)
• Random Galaxy generator (1U,1L)
• Traits (1U,1L)
• Relics (1U,1L)

Esthetic Features

Low importance

• CombatWindow: faction banners (1U,1L)
• PlanetMap rivers connected, static ocean shores, tile soft edges (1U,1L)
• UnitInfoWindow: unit picture/animation, faction banners (1U,1L)

Voted (on/by): "kborek.cz" by "Eightball Maniac" "github.com" "MoeheinS"

Completed features:

• Grand Galactic Map
• Grand Planet Map
• CombatWindow: faction names
• Loyalty: effects of tax/pay rate, effect on production, rebellions
• Diplomacy with Houses
• Diplomacy options "ask/give":ministry, votes, firebirds, peace (2H)
• SpaceMap planet names faction colored
• SpaceMap planet rotation (1U,1L)

[joulupunikki]

Suggested on "kborek.cz" by "Eightball Maniac"

Looking at that feature list and checking out the latest release, I have the following recommendations for mechanics that should get a higher priority, in no particular order:

Orders: Build Road, Sentry. Roads are key to shifting your defense forces around if transport is too risky, while Sentry is helpful for filtering garrison forces from those that get frequent orders.

Diplomacy. It's important for both multi and single play, though less useful for the latter until the AI can fully use it as well.

These aren't critical, but of some importance:

Combat: unspotted agility bonus, assassin special targeting. Some units are reliant on these features to be of any use.

Bombard: city damage. Destroying cities can be useful, particularly Symbiot hives.

Keyboard shortcuts. I'm so used to pressing B to build cities and R to build roads that using the menu is a bit awkward.

I suggest these be of lower priority than the rest:

Random Galaxy generator. The default and mod galaxy maps are sufficient until other mechanics are done.

Esthetics. Everything in that list is less important than the Functional list.

[MoeheinS]

Keyboard shortcuts are very handy! Personally I used B, R and S all the time. Diplomacy options for AI factions (and the implementation of the AI) is in my opinion less important than player-to-player Diplomacy options; the AI factions are generally more of a nuisance than a gameplay benefit, excepting the Church. I don't think much would be lost if (until close to v1.0) all the AI factions acted like the Vau (ie. do absolutely nothing and not even have a turn phase).

In standard EOFS only the League (restocking) and Church (inquisitors) had any real gameplay contribution, but both of these tended to bug out frequently (not to mention the extremely abusable Inquisitor AI). "Fixing" these behaviors could be more work than expected and distract from more important things, so might I suggest low priority? Likewise, Traits (which are both completely optional/non-vital and should be easy to implement) as well as Ruins/Monastaries and Relics should perhaps be considered low priority? For traits, because many players consider them unbalancing/play without, but also because some of them just flat out don't do anything/what they should. Ruins/Monastaries/Relics because they add RNG gambling to what should be a "mostly" tactical game.

The Plague (spreading), combat (including the pretty important assassin targeting priority) and the bombing of cities should perhaps be high priority. Sure, getting enough bombers to destroy a city within a reasonable timeframe is tricky, but destroying a palace to cripple taxflow is a valid strategy.

As for House powerGraphs and statistics; I always considered these to be extremely meta-gamey and immersion breaking. From this completely unbiased and non-opinionated view I'd suggest that this be made low priority ;)

As always, keep up the fantastic work! 0.50.0 was a great release!

PS Re: Loyalty. I don't know if you are aware that going into a Church in vanilla allowed you to change that planets Sect? By default all Churches followed the default Sect; IIRC changing enough Churches to a new Sect would allow enough "points" to accrue, causing the new Patriarch (after the current one dies) to be of a different Sect. NONE of this had any actual gameplay effect IIRC. But changing a planet's Sect DID cause all units on that planet to lose 5 loyalty, each time you changed it (and you could do it as often as you wanted in a turn); a quick way to bomb your loyalty and cause mass rebellions. Perhaps a feature to temporarily disable, if you even plan on trying to fix it?

[joulupunikki]

@MoeheinS updated list. Too busy to talk, website at https://joulupunikki.github.io/Phoenix/ was updated 2015-12-06. See http://joulupunikki.github.io/Phoenix/#Versions for whats likely gonna be released next.