One of the issues I worked on is that ETA wasn't being displayed. So I took time to implement it, and here's a screenshot of it in action:
Let me explain each of the picture. Top left is the star being out of range for the colony ship which does not have extended fuel tanks. Top right shows a scout already en-route, with 3 turns left to arrive. Bottom right shows you being able to change destination, but since it's already en-route to the first star, it will have to continue there, then it'll go directly to next destination. Hence two ETAs being displayed. However, since it won't stop at the first star (it will simply continue to next star without stopping there for a full turn), it won't explore the star.
This latter is very useful in cases when you have ships retreating, and you want them to reroute to another star when they're already en-route, this allows you to make orders without forgetting about the fleet.
Hyperspace communications will of course simply change the route to be direct to the new destination.
I've been thinking about something for my project and figured I could ask you since it's kind of related to your current work. How are you planning to make fuel cell progression?
ReplyDeleteLinear like in MoO 1 (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ulimited) or kind of exponential like in MoO 2 (4, 6, 9, 12, unlimited). I know you are aiming for recapturing the feel of original Master of Orion but except space monsters (that map generator tends to place near starting systems) there is not much difference in the main map (galaxy) between MoO 1 and 2. Have Microprose learned something from MoO 1 and changed tech progression accordingly?
I think part of that comes from how MoO 2 did research differently. Instead of researching 6 fields at once, you only research one field at a time. If you were to research 4, 5, 6, 7, etc, it'd be tedious. So they compressed them into big jumps. Same with improved robotic controls 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. You now have automated factory, and I think 2 other factory technologies.
DeleteAnother part is how research points are generated. The planet's production was simplified to 3 fields (farm, production, and research). There's a lot less research points required. For example, level 50 tech in MoO 1 would cost 75000 if you're playing on Average difficulty and have no bonus for that field (consider that you also research 5 other fields at the same time!). MoO 2 on the other hand, last tech before hyper-advanced tech is 15,000, and that's with all planets pooling their research on one field.
I don't think the galaxy map is a factor here, but rather, how the output from each planet are greatly reduced (instead of stacked ships, you have individual ships, less research, less people, etc), and the revamped research system.
As for Beyond Beyaan, my goal is to match MoO 1, not MoO 2. This means matching the MoO 1's technologies.