Played 3 hours of Alliance versus 5 other Empire races before I minidumped. I had all the other players as Empire since that faction seems to be rock solid stable. This way, being the only non Empire, I could be ~100% sure any minidumps would be something I personally did.
GLITCH REPORTS:
1. What I think caused the minidump was when I tried to use the MC40 Cruiser's Ion Canon (first time I tried to use it). It was almost dead and I tried to get one shot off with the Ion Canon and the game minidumped. OR it could have something to do with the MC40 being destroyed while I had the target icon for the Ion Canon up and was trying to target an enemy ship.
2. The Imperator's 'Demo Bots' ability doesn't actually show up when you sink ability points into it. It also wastes the points you put towards it.
3. The Alliance Military Tech Research section 'Substance' was 'squished' against the section above. I couldn't research anything lower than the Nova Canon in that whole window.
4. The Alliance Civilian Tech Research section 'Materialism' had the top buttons 'squished' against the 'Perception' window. I couldnt' research Fortification, Tactical extra slots, the reddish orange ring thing, Hardened cities or planetary shield upgrades.
BALANCE REPORTS:
1. Seems that I generally don't use frigates or most cruisers (just not as cost effective as Cap Ships)....of course, against a human that likely would quickly change.
2. Fighters do far too well against frigates/cruisers/caps/platforms. They really should only be useful against fighters, bombers (ESPECIALLY), trade/resource ships, constructors and colonizing frigates.
3. Bombers might need a +5% bonus against medium/heavy/very heavy armor targets. Maybe also slow them down a bit compared to fighters.
4. I still don't like how ships can regen antimatter during combat. This tends to heavily favor the defender. Besides, how do the supply ships deliver AM while the shields are raised? No Star Trek Teleporters allowed here!
MISC THOUGHTS:
1. Eternal Dragon mentioned that shields and hulls on SSDs don't regen. I think they do, it just feels a lot longer than other ships because of the massive values involved.
2. I am fine with bases being bigger than the ships. That is generally how it is in the StarWars Universe anyway.
3. I really don't like how the cap ships end up with ability points that can't be used. It is really distracting once you get huge fleets and you are trying to upgrade the caps.
I would imagine that you are planing on tweaking the abilities to have multiple levels = we'll have a use for all our points.
7. It might be a good idea to have Max Shield Recharge give a 500% shield recharge bonus and last 2 minutes (no way to interupt). This would simulate manually rerouting all power systems into the shield generators. However, the penalties of using this ability should reduce engine/weapon/ability power to ZERO (no need for the extra damage penalty).
Would make for some interesting decisions for when to use it. It would also be unfortunate if somebody chooses to use this ability just before the enemy shows up = they can't fire back or move for 2 minutes.
QUESTIONS:
1. Do the different fighters and bombers have different values in terms of speed/manuverability? I know they do in terms of hull strenght and weapons (you can see that simply by hovering the cursor over the units).
2. Any chance on seeing a Sovereign or Eclipse type Dreadnaught for the Empire (or pirates lol)?
3. As it is, is there a chance for weapon fire to miss against any ships besides strikecraft? I was just wondering about the value of the Targetting Uplink ability.
4. The Alpha Strike ability shows as having a 0% PENALTY to weapons cooldown rate....is this what it is supposed to be?
5. The Saturation Fire ability shows as having a 50% PENALTY to weapon cooldown rate AND a 75% BONUS to speed and a 25% BONUS to acceleration....this can't be right, can it???
6. Ion Bolt shows as actually giving the following BONUSES to targets hit:
-0.8 per sec Antimatter recharge BONUS
-150% Ability Cooldown rate BONUS
-75% Shield Restore Rate BONUS
-75% Max Speed BONUS
-75% Acceleration BONUS
Is this how it is meant to be?