Suggestions for CCGM (please post them here)

[dram 14]

Hello everyone, since we're starting to see many suggestions being added to the forums, it might be a good idea to keep them in a single thread.

So, please post your suggestions here, but I kindly ask you do not discuss them here, to keep things clean. Simply a post detailing as shortly as possible what you would like improved/added. Also, make sure you do not post a suggestion that has been made before.

Thanks everyone.

[Thygrrr 1]

Mod Loader

Please put something into the game's native code after the patch%02d.pak loading code so we can package and distribute mods. Because mods can break a lot of things, maybe don't make it happen automatically; instead maybe make a command line switch that allows us to dynamically specify at least one additional directory for the filesystems (e.g. carrier.exe -mod mymod.pak or carrier.exe -mod mydirectory)

Carrier vs Carrier Multi Player

This is the single biggest feature that the game needs. Ideally, this is a strategy game with multiple islands and two or more carriers, but a 1v1 carrier duel on a single island would also be a great start.

More Strategy Game Options

Allow for smaller archipelagos, more / less captured vs. neutral islands, island distance settings, a seed value for the random number generator (so you can restart the same archipelago later), etc.

Research / Tech in Strategy Game

Give the research centers a purpose in classic mode.

Long Range Communications

Allow us to project a fraction of our force to remote islands, e.g. to defend them or scout them with a single Manta. Let enemy Carrier Mantas pay us a visit this way, too.

Fuel vs. Ammo production

Use not only fuel packs, but ammo packs (e.g. "nano sludge") that your carrier uses to create ammo for the various weapons; instead of the two redundant fuel commodities you can produce in the game.

Manual Time Warp

Toggle button, useable anywhere, anytime. Choose the acceleration (5x, 10x, ...) Maybe only if all units are docked if the simulation has problems otherwise.

Actual Combat vs. Enemy Carrier

So far all engagements with the enemy have been drive by shootings. Make the enemy carrier stay and fight (or intercept and try to sink you, or bully you into aborting your assault on an island).

Edited October 10, 2012 by Thygrrr

[maddogx 13]

COOP Multiplayer

Allow several people to play in coop, each able to take control of Walruses, Mantas and carrier turrets. Only one player (the commander) should be able to control the carrier by default, though perhaps he could be able to delegate it to other players.

Walrus group AI

Grouped Walruses should try and work together, move in formation etc.

[solrac42 11]

Please can we have a better scout drone, one that is dockable, has manual height adjustment, and has a fully movable camera, including a vertical axis for the camera, also a better picture quality, and lastly more storage capacity for the drones, 5 should be enough.

Edited October 28, 2012 by solrac42

[Thygrrr 1]

Improve Strategic Zoom Behavior

Add many more zoom levels (at least 3x as many as now, evenly distributed across all map modes), and don't make it jump as much when you zoom from tactical to strategic mode. Ideally, a single mouse wheel click should only zoom a little bit, so you can zoom in smoothly. Also, make it so in tactical mode you can zoom out so far that the carrier's telemetry circle fits entirely into the screen (with some room to wiggle at the edges)

---------- Post added at 10:21 ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 ----------

Weather Affecting Telemetry Range

Make bad weather conditions affect telemetry range (rain: ~70%, storm: ~50% radius).

Control Tower Damage Affecting Telemetry Range or Quality

Carrier Control tower damage seems to have no apparent effect?

Proper Construction Queue

Make it so the queue allows us to order things like 1 Manta, 2 Fuel, 2 Gatling, 1 Manta, 1 Fuel. Make the individual entries in the queue work as follows: Left Click = +1, Right Click = -1 for that entry.

Larger View Distance

On clear days (they are rare enough), reduce the haze so we can see further across the current island and the open seas as well.

---------- Post added at 10:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 ----------

Choose Unit Stance in Tactical & Direct Control Mode

Instead of using the Radial Menu (that seems to pick the wrong units all the time anyway!), make it so in either mode, I can select (and see!) the current stance for each unit. Add more stances. Make the units less stupid / suicidal in the aggressive stance. Give us a "hold position" stance where the unit will never move on its own, no matter what happens, and a hold fire position.

Stances for Carrier

Carrier and its turrets should have their own stance that can be selected.

Tactical Attack Orders for Carrier

Allow for long distance shelling with the carrier by clicking on a target on the tactical screen.

More Pitch / Yaw / Roll freedom for Mantas

They are ok to fly with a game pad, but with a mouse or joystick, you want to be able to turn tighter or fly a barrel roll / loop / split-s etc. You definitely want to be able to go into a vertical dive or climb. It's also a pain to properly circle-strafe a target because the AoA is limited so much (you can't really aim down, which is weird for a ground attack VTOL). Also, the Manta should automatically slow down if the throttle is released, and if it's reversed, it should change speed as quickly as physically possible.

I'd suggest two additional keys / an additional axis for roll (the current yaw/roll ratio for the mouse feels good).

Edited October 10, 2012 by Thygrrr

[disorder 1]

From another post I made, but I will put them here too. Can remove the other one if you want.

Base radar - Being able to see action on islands that are being attacked that have a built in radar (why only the carrier gets it?)

Proper lights - Real lights that actually light up stuff and aren't just conical sprites.

Proper mud handling - Vehicles with chains/tracks. (kind of like a half-track)

Slower carrier acceleration and turning. It feels like a speedboat right now and should be more like the Homeworld mothership; Slow and plodding.

Target priority - Guns that attack targets they are only supposed to. Example: Shell Deck Guns trying to attack Mantas?

Solar power collector - Carrier upgrade that replaces deck gun or another section with a slow energy recharge during clear days. (not overcast or night)

Get rid of instant rebuild - It gives a disadvantage if you are weak and an enemy takes it and it immediately changes to strong type. Instead have everything rebuilt slowly (I thought it was supposed to anyway)

[yuma 1]

Change control for pc option for enable/disable xbox controller and total acces for config all key of keyboard and mouse

suggestion of Thygrrr are very interesting

Add all the surface of the planete to the game (create continent,faction ) for solo and multiplayer , create new weapon for defend island

[Gnrl_Grad 1]

Controlling Turret (Dis)Orientation - currently when assuming control of a turret the orientation changes dramatically and sometimes points up into the sky etc. it is very disorientating and annoying. rg. If the ai is firing your main cannon at a hill on the left then when you assume control it should still be pointing at the same hill on the left.

Main Carrier Turret Movement - As well as the carriers moving slower the main turret should turn and pitch slower too, to emphasize it's a heavy powerful weapon and not a light weight pea-shooter.

Main Carrier Turret + Scout Drone - If a scout drone is in the air then add a PiP when using the main carrier gun so it can be used to aid long range targeting. This will make scout drones even more useful.

Free Look in external view - rotate view around center of vehicle instead of behind it so we can see the vehicle at all times when using free look.

Enemy Carrier Engines - Reduce damage taken to enemy carrier engines so it takes longer to slow it down and bring it to a complete stop.

Enemy Carrier Fuel - When mid-battle with player don't slow or stop enemy carrier due to no fuel. If he stops mid battle because his fuel runs out that is just a lame victory. He should only slow/stop because his engines have taken a lot of damage from player or because he want's to stop and fight!

[joote 1]

Enemy Carrier rebuilds on destruction - If the enemy carrier is destroyed, but xx amount of islands still not owned by player, then the enemy carrier starts to rebuild.

Remote Cameras - Ability to build and place remote cameras on owned islands, so as you can view said islands until camera is destroyed.

Classic Mode - Option to start strategy game in classic mode. Start game with bare minimum number of islands owned by you and the enemy.

Overhaul Zoom - Zoom needs more levels (leaps between zoom levels to great). Zoom on carrier to restrictive.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Joote

[Tontow 1]

Unit formations - expecially for mantas. IE: line abreast

Linked weapon systems (mantas only) - Fly the mantas in formation and link the fire control to the manta that you are flying - IE: Fly the mantas as if they are one unit.

(add toggle to) Enable picture in picture when controling carrier weapons or other units - This will make it easyer to spot for my long rage weapons.

Make mantas stop turning when I stop moving my mouse (Mouse acceleration and deceleration options) - It may not be as bad with armor MK2, but I find the drifting makes it very hard to aim unless I don't move my mosue and strife to line my target up. If it takes forever for the manta to get to top turning speed, then fine. But I would preferr it to stop its turn dead cold when I stop moveing my mouse.

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 ----------

Better info on what the enemy carrier is doing - Is it attacking the island? Did it retreat? Or was it just spotted passing close by?

[solrac42 11]

Automatic map scrolling would be better if it was made an option, when moving the mouse to the edge of the screen I do not want it to automatically scroll the screen, this can be irritating when you are in the middle of a battle and are trying to give your units waypoints.

Dragging the map with the middle mouse button and using the WASD keys is good.

Edited October 30, 2012 by solrac42

[Friendlywaters 1]

Kudos to the team for locking the other threads, I'll just copy-paste what I said and summarise better.

Improve the AI

The friendly AI needs to be a lot more proactive, so remove or shorten the delay between an order being given and unit responding. The AI of both friendly and enemy Walruses should prefer road travel. Enemy Island AI should be able to prioritise targets it wants to defend and targets it wants to attack based on the island defence rating. E.g. the higher the defence rating, the less "turtling" the island defenders do and the more likely they'll attempt to harass the carrier.

Walrus maneuverability increase

Increase the top speed of all Walrus varients, increase the maximum angle that the walrus can climb and allow the warus to turn on the spot. Compared to modern vehicles like the Stryker, the Walrus could do with a little "omph" to make handling much more confident. This would also help the AI pathfinding.

My thoughts on the Manta

As mentioned before it could handle better. And pitch needs to be independant of mouse position so one can move and aim down without nose-diving. Also being able to move horizontally easier would be nice.

Examine ammo and fuel amounts

Mantas are fine, carrier is fine for fuel. Walruses are hit/miss and too dependant on the carrier as island resources are sparce. Consider increasing the standard fuel Walruses carry to enable extended missions on the ground. Ammunition may need to be looked at as some weapons are over/under effective. Also, does every weapon need the same cooldown when overheated? In general, more is better especially in MP.

Repair, fuel and healing depots have area of effect zone

Driving up to a building to repair is time-consuming and cumbersome. Consider lowering the resource (fuel etc) that is given per second, but making the replenishment an automatic area of effect. And to counter potential problems of camping, if units are attacked or attacking in the aoe, the depot stops the replenishment effect, until 10 seconds after combat has stopped. All depots could still be interacted with from any angle and units would benefit from full effect. Make the aoe visible to the player.

HUD and audio/visual enhancements

Showing terrain on the mini-map would add context and aid navigation greatly. Bonus if it can be zoomed in-out with shortcut keys. A small "carrier" icon should be positioned on the map boundary for ease of naviagtion and vehicles should have mini-portraits (icons) with their number overlaid on them. Friendlies keep the blue and allies can have green icons. The vehicle HUD should indicate the health of ANY hostile unit that is locked on. This would help determine if damage is actually occuring and aid teammates focus fire on greatest threats. Also, the HUD needs to indicate WHEN the target is hit (I propose a red flash over or around the crosshairs). This would aid the carrier greatly as it has no obvious way to tell if any projectile it launches from the main gun connected at a significant range and also help with the AOE long range weapons as one could fire blind, spot a red flash on the cursor indicating "enemy hit" and assume correctly that something was indeed hit. An audio cue for "enemy destroyed" would be useful and popular in some multiplayer games. Co-op friendly units should have health bars over them for convenience and team healing scenarios.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Friendlywaters

[asadex 1]

Hi,

I try to give my suggestions:

1) introduce blueprints in the strategy game

2) introduce "island bonus" related at the nature of the island (for example a fuel plant could give a fuel bonus)

3) give the player the opportunity to take contol of the defences of an attacked island

4) more island personalization by a construction system ( you could base it on the module system)

5) infantry units as a warlus module, it can deploy a 5 man squad for hacking/infiltration operations

6) an AI, please

7) a mod support now

Thanks

[Tontow 1]

Remove the camera lock when zoomed in - ATM you view is locked to map sections, this is bad (and buggy) as the game is one giant map and not jut a small map

[Hornet108 10]

Heres what I think needs FIXING, not adding new features:

Unit AI Its been said, it will continue to be said, the pathfinding is horrible. Unplayable. Broken. Also, Manta's often cant attack because they get too close and cant point their weapons at the target. Have them move around alot more.

Island Defender AI Send the enemy out to attack me on the higher defence rated islands. Then, when I start to cap points, send the enemy to retake them. It will make the game much, much more dynamic, much much less repetitive and much much more fun. It will mean I will need to think twice before attacking hardcore defended islands, I might actually, you know, be in trouble.

Carrier AI - Like the island defender AI, make the enemy AI actually do something. Make me wonder what its up to, make it come to attack me, make me scared of it. Have it actually deploy its units. Have it abandon them if it thinks its in danger of dying and they aren't worth the risk of saving. Make it a challenge.

As you can see, there is a common theme to whats broken in this game. AI. Or the lack of the I part.

If the game is going to be fun, it needs to be a challenge. Sooner or later, you need to be able to loose. As it is, if I loose all my units, I can go and chase the enemy carrier around until they get replenished and I have no real serious loss. Its not actually possible to loose this game, its a question of how long it takes to win and if you feel like giving the game that much time. As it is, I don't. I have done all the capture the island scenarios, they were interesting, now they are not. If the enemy was proactive, it would make each island a mini RTS of its own, and add to the fact that the enemy carrier would be out and about, or possibly coming to defend its own islands, it would make the game 100x more engaging.

What would I add?

Difficulty levels - this might be in the game, I am at work and I don't know, but if the game is going to become a much more hostile place to live (if you follow my suggestions), then you need to add difficulty levels. All these need to do is add modifiers, one way or another, to friendly and enemy unit health and damage. Easy enough.

Manta Hook Command - the ability for me to order my mantas with hooks to pick up my walrus's. The useful of this would be over 9000.

If you do all of that, you will have a awesome title on your hands. As it is, you have a turd.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Hornet108

[gunso 10]

Just something to spice up the game in the future.

1. Island defense coastal batteries and sea units

- Time to get those carrier guns to use, good maneuver training until the fight with the enemy carriers. Those manta will finally get a decent torpedo training too.

2. Defending island manually

- Take control of island defense remotely after certain tech is researched/built. Add another concept of supply chain but using communication line that can be disrupted by destroying certain communication structure to deny remote defense of the island. Will add greatly to strategic value when MP is released later since players will be trying to disrupt not only supply but even remote defense capability of the other teams. Instead of capture the flag, teams will be defending/attacking the communication tower while the carrier is moving towards the AO for support. I dont mind if the AI enemy carrier cheat a bit and have 3 times more manta and walrus parts to compensate for going against human player for single player game.

3. Customize your island defenses

- Spend resources to manually add turrets and defenses structure to the island, will keep the player busy while waiting for fuel and etc. Will provide good challenge for MP sessions later.

4. Sabotage missions, if your manta and carrier are not up to the tasks

- Time to get that FPS section to use, anchor the carrier at the sea and send 1 small transport with assault crew to take out critical structure. If remote control defenses is available, players can take control of the turrets and droids on the island to defend it. Will gives nice variation to MP gameplay too which is coop based. Adding structure like shield/jamming structure that prevent aerial or long range barrage to force teams to revert to this type of assault. Players will need to send advance recon units to scout the island too before sending assault teams to find suitable landing site.

5. AI units gains experienced and level up

- Faster response time, better aiming capability, longer detection range, better survival rate and etc. Makes you wanna rename that manta since it's your favorite one.

6. Command module for vehicles

- Units with command module will lead and direct the team firepower to concentrate on enemy targeted by it using laser or etc. I remember this from warzone 2100. So you will finally utilize those heat cannon that the AI walrus is lugging about even without direct line of sight.

will add more later after i got some coffee...

Edited October 11, 2012 by gunso

[Tontow 1]

Make the supply barque real (visable and killable) - If I manage to find the enemy supply barque, then I want to be able to hunt it down. I know it may be hard due to the speed of the barque, but at least it would be possable to kill it if i find and catch it. The supply barque should also have systems and hard points just like the carrier.

[TG_bigboss 10]

Blueprints or upgrades for supply barque - It would be nice to see the supply barque get upgrades for more storage and twin water jet turbines for more speed which equals to less time to resupply the carrier on long trips. I have no clue what times of engines the supply barque uses but i guess props and then upgrade to the water jet. Small change but still cool to have.

[solrac42 11]

Blueprints or upgrades for supply barque - It would be nice to see the supply barque get upgrades for more storage and twin water jet turbines for more speed which equals to less time to resupply the carrier on long trips. I have no clue what times of engines the supply barque uses but i guess props and then upgrade to the water jet. Small change but still cool to have.

http://www.wisconsincentral.net/Products/Products/MarinetteMarine_files/waterjet.jpg

I like this idea of upgrading the supply barque, but I would also like to SEE the supply barque in the 3D view rise to the surface and dock with the carrier and then take some time to offload the cargo, then to submerge again (just like it did in the original carrier command).

Another feature request is to be able to cancel the delivery of the supply barque, so can we have a cancel supply barque button please, this would be very useful especially if you have forgotten to put something on it and need it to return to the stockpile island urgently, (just like it did in the original carrier command).

Also make it possible for the enemy to track and destroy (capture) the supply barque, so a new one has to be produced in the production queue, make it possible for the enemy supply barque to be tracked on radar and disabled and hacked to steal its cargo or destroyed and slow down the enemy carriers supplies, (just like it didn't in the original carrier command).

Edited October 17, 2012 by solrac42

[Evmolpos 10]

Warlus Automated ganner option.

Give the option to set ganner in auto/manual mode during manual control of warlus, so we can focus on battle manuvering and be able to apply ride tactics etc. As I imagine, that is easy to implement since gunner AI already exists.

Ability for individual Tactics on Warluses, Mantas

Ability to set separate tactical stanse on any individual warlus, manta. Also add hold position, avoid engagement etc

I also like the ideas of animated, killable, upgradable submarine, and ability to control A/T and AAA guns, warluses and mantas of UEC islands attacked, Blue prints and usable RCs on strategy mode.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Sungsam

[instagoat 133]

-Blueprints in strategy: Randomly assign technology (depending on campaign settings at the start) and add new technology also randomized to neutral (preferred) and enemy islands on the map.

-Improve AI: General better use of tactics and strategy.

-Weapon dependent targeting reticules. Some sort of graduated sight to allow for easier aiming with ballistic weapons. Using them otherwise is too much hit and miss, otherwise.

New technologies: Radio receiver for barque (Allows cancelling of deliveries), improved engines for barque/carrier, improvements for carrier (Armour, Telemetry range (such as temporary, 2 - 5 minute boost), heavier warhead for hammerhead (so it actually does damage).

Change enemy carrier performance/strategy/tactics depending on his tech level.

Add reconaissance data to islands, revealing where certain technologies are stored up the chain of islands. Players can then learn what the Ai prioritizes, and what kind of technology they need to win, and plan their global strategy accordingly.

Overall, there is a lot of potential to make the campaign more interesting. In general, I think over time, it could be significantly improved: it´s a cool game right now, but there´s still headroom to be covered.

Keep it up devs! Good job so far, despite the hitches, nooks and crannies!

[bigshot 64]

COOP Multiplayer

Allow several people to play in coop, each able to take control of Walruses, Mantas and carrier turrets. Only one player (the commander) should be able to control the carrier by default, though perhaps he could be able to delegate it to other players.

+1 for COOP MP

[atroublestarter 3]

My suggestions here are based on my experiences compared to the old carrier command which I feel should be in this game:

(1) Mantas seem unable to land on the carrier when it is moving. This may be more realistic, but in the original game mantas could easily land on the carrier when it is in motion

(2) Manual carrier control is smooth and feels like a you are controlling something large and heavy. Automatic navigation has the carrier turning at full speed as soon as you give it a course. Engine sounds do not "spin up" from idle when using automatic navigation as well.

(3) When releasing mantas from the carrier, engine sounds go from "off" straight to high revs, there is no spin up sound (this wasn't in the original game either, but changing this would be an improvement to the sound of the game)

(4) I believe AI pathfinding is already being looked at, but hopefully it will include looking into other mantas bashing into me when attacking (and i'm stationary! the manta actually bashes into me when i'm not even moving!!) and walruses seeing friendly island walruses as a free path. I watched one of my walruses on auto navigation just repeatedly try to bash a friendly island walrus out of it's way!

(5) In the original game, there were free islands and in Gaea mission they are all taken. In the original carrier command you could place your command center building pod on the island and watch your entire island get constructed! I'm very dissapointed to not see this in the new game and would love to see this. This was also part of resource management in the original game because if you had too many things being built at high priority, there are very little resources for constructing the structures for your island.

(6) The carrier feels like it has a lot less involvement in island battles now than what it previously had. In the old game I could use cruise missiles to take out specific structures, and the laser turret allowed me to bombard the closest half of most islands. Now in gaea mission, I have a state of the art carrier with a zoom capability of about 2 - less than today's digital camera.... It just seems silly to me, and I would love to see the carrier being given the opportunity to bombard more targets on enemy islands

[Baff1 0]

Awesome game this one.

A couple of things missing I'd like to see.

One is triple screen/Eyefinity support. it's screwy. Disappearing stuff, I can't see what I am doing or where I am driving. Mountains/scenary/objects/buildings disappear and re-appear constantly and unplayably.

Because of this I've been playing the game on a friends computer instead of any of my own. But it's not ideal living in his house.

The other one I most missed wa sa programmable mouse button.

Everytime I try and zoom in, in the heat of combat I instinctively right click as every other PC game with a zoom has conditioned my reflexs to do, and... the command map comes up. Frustrating.

Long term I'd like to see some sort of a Co-opable game mode. This is a game I hope some of my friends will want to play with me.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Baff1

[Tontow 1]

Multiple Vid screens in map mode ATM you just have the one Vid screen to see what a unit is doing. Leaving the game as a 2d rts. Add the option to add more vid screen windows.

Resizable and movable vid windows Again, its not a 2d rts and, even on my big screen tv that takes up half a wall, the current mini vid window seems small.

Button to disable going full screen when you manual control a unit So I can keep a better eye on what the other units are doing.

A button to quick switch to the probe cameria If I'm going to us it to spot for arty., then I need to be able to switch so I can see where I'm hitting.

Manual control of the prob This should be a given...

Switch the hammerhead launch control to the probe Use the probe to designate the target.

All the mod stuff in http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?141138-MOD-Island-Mod "There's also a quick fix for the vehicles. In the original, if you give a vehicle a program and control it; when you change control to another vehicle, the original one resumes its program. This really annoyed me, so I've made it so it won't go back onto its program until you explicitly 'enable' it (via the 'e' key). " - I'm loving this part of the mod. I put a unit in place and I want it to stay there and not move when I leave it be.

Ability to cancle orders (not just pause)