I've read the whole thread, and while I appear to be missing some "edited" comments, I think I'd rather just stay out of the drama anyway. That said, there's some interesting things going on in spite of the problems, so there were a couple of things I'd like to comment on.
wolfboyft wrote:12. ZOLTAN SHIELDS WOULDN'T RECHARGE EVERY JUMP
No, they'd recharge in battle!
But then they wouldn't be Zoltan shields. They'd be some other magical super-shield of invulnerability. Something that powerful required a massive power source, or needs to be charged up by a power surge like the one your ship experiences during the FTL jump (coincidentally, it's plausible that the Pre-Igniter would also make use of a similar technology - store some of the expended energy from your FTL jump to quick-charge weapons as you arrive at your destination).
15. FUTURE SHIPS WILL HAVE CABINS, SO WHY DON'T OURS?
Yep! Actually, not player ships, they're for battle, not civilians. Still...
This and several other complaints are addressed simply:
HOW DO YOU KNOW? There are a lot of "unused" rooms on most ships - just because that room isn't a combat-critical part of the ship, doesn't mean someone doesn't sleep there, or it isn't the kitchen/dining area/indoor soccer room. It would be impractical and silly to design meaning behind every room on board and explain what they all do, because that would necessitate the ability for players to rearrange non-critical systems as we see fit, or for those rooms to be repainted with different background graphics as you gain and/or lose crew members.
24. WHY DO WEAPONS NOT CHARGE WHEN THE ENEMY CLOAKS!?
It makes no sense!
If weapons charged while the enemy was cloaked, there would be almost zero practical benefit to cloaking with how the game mechanics work. Maybe the cloaking device emits some form of energy or particle that disrupts weapon charging but doesn't interrupt power to other systems. It could be plausibly explained, but it's really a gameplay mechanic first. Think of charge time as the time required to acquire a clean lock with the targeting systems instead of an actual "power up" type charge.
26. WHY DO YOUR WEAPONS DE-CHARGE WHEN YOU JUMP?
Its very daft! However, if that was fixed, what would you do about the problem: clearly, enemy ships do so, events do so, so you are supposed to have your weapons de-powered when you are not fighting - BUT! Then that means that your weapons won't be fully charged when you jump, because they have been de-powered. Unless... weapon charge is kept inside the... nah, weapon charging is moving the power bars into the weapon, see? OR! ENEMY SHIPS AND EVENTS DO KEEP THEIR WEAPONS CHARGED ALL THE TIME?
1. Gameplay mechanics - this would make high-damage slow charging weapons OP, and if you use my above rationalisation, the Pre-Igniter could be seen as a sort of long-range targeting system that allows you to initiate targeting well before a ship is in range. This would, of course, be either an alternative to the previous Pre-Igniter theory I suggested when talking about the FTL drives. It could be incorporated, with the FTL power surge being used to temporarily boost scanner range in order to acquire the necessary targeting information.
27. MISSILES PIERCING ALL SHIELDS IS OP, MAKE THEM PIERCE ONLY 5.
The shield piercing rating of missiles is 5. Crystal weapons have a shield piercing rating of 1, allowing them to ignore one layer of shields and hit the second. Missiles, Bombs and the Artillery Beam all have shield piercing of 5. If a target ship had 5 layers of shields (more than any ship in the game has), they would ignore them all. If it had 6, they would impact on the final layer of shields.
33. LEVEL 4 SENSORS
They let you sense like level 1 in nebula.
34. LEVEL 5 SENSORS
They let you sense like level 2 in nebula.
35. LEVEL 6 SENSORS
They let you sense like level 3 in nebula.
I'd rather have a "Hardened Sensors" Augment that allows you to operate your sensors at reduced capacity (level 2 sensors act as level 1, level 3 acts as level 2) in a Nebula.
41. I VENTED OF OXYGEN, BUT NOW...
If one has vented the rooms of the boarders of oxygen, then one should be able to close back the doors AND click 'do not regenerate oxygen in these rooms:' to make sure that they still suffocate, but ma doors are closed.
Turn off power to the oxygen supply, and that airless room will remain airless. If you've kept the important parts of your ship filled with air, you can move freely between them. If you need to seal someone in an airless room while moving through somewhere else with low air, open a few doors to rooms that still have air, and the oxygen levels will equalise gradually, allowing you to move into and through the formerly-airless spaces after a short delay EVEN WITH THE OXYGEN TURNED OFF.
And this leads me to what I really HAD to comment on...
42. AIRLOCKS ARE CURRENTLY DAFT
Why do airlocks have 2 (sometimes more!) exit doors on them? I use 1x1 squares with an inside door and an outside door, however 1x2 rooms is fine, but more than 1 exit door is mad. Truly mad. So is the fact that other ships don't even have entrance doors, let alone airlocks.
Opening one airlock door OR both on the outside of the ship instantly vents all air from the room. What you obviously DON'T know is that opening rooms BEYOND the airlock to connect with them vents air faster if there are more open airlocks linked to the room you want to clear. The air flows out of the ship MUCH faster with both airlock doors open than it does with only one. In the Adjudicator (Zoltan Cruiser Layout A), there's a room with FOUR doors opening to space. If I open that room up to space, and also open the line of four 2x2 rooms below it, I can vent clear them of oxygen almost immediately. If I only open one of the doors to vent atmosphere, it takes a LOT longer to start suffocating my intended victims.
43. GENDERS FOR ALIENS
They do have genders. We're just humans, and therefore innately racist enough not to be able to see the difference. A lot of caucasians have trouble identifying one Asian person from the next. In Lord of the Rings, they mention that Dwarven women have beards and a lot of non-Dwarves can't tell the difference between a male and female of the species. Why assume it would be any easier when dealing with an alien race?
47. Pause after each jump!
If you're good, you can do this anyway. If you're not good, but the game is in fullscreen, you can kind of cheat to make this happen. Alt-tab out, and when you come back to the game, use the hotkey (1, 2, 3, whatever) and it doesn't unpause the game as you're coming into the sector. Might be a bug, but I found it useful.
Also, what's cheaty about a missile?
