After 3 years of seemingly nothing, we are up and going again. Player input has determined priorities. What follows explains exactly what this will involve:

[1] New Players
This is the most important area and it's nice to be told to ignore everything else and get on with it. The whole entry to the site needs changing and there needs to be a much simpler feel to the start of the game. This may mean largely hiding the game to start with and only introducing it slowly when new players feel that they are part of things. The plan is to start coding things that help everyone first, then move to sorting missions out and finally to a different interface.

[2] Skills
We have most of the skill code done in a different version of phoenix I never quite managed to release. It's not much different to the current system we have but it will be a lot easier for us to add any skill and have multiple skills adding to one action in game. The primary change will be that there is no limit to how many skills an officer can have - the cost will be fixed. There will be no increased costs for these skills [after they are trained]. We will eventually have all your officers on the nexus.

[3] Character Story lines
This is incredibly fluffy. I know I want characters to have interactions but we have no idea how to make them sensible. We have a lot of ideas in this space but I think it's not going to be done third because there is a lot more thinking to be done before anything can be coded. We need to work out how to create a structure which will involve characters in larger arks in the game.

[4] Space Combat Balance
The issue is that a lot of weapons are pointless even when they require a lot of research to acquire. This is not about making every weapon in the game balanced but more about allowing the categories to make more sense. The aim is to tweak the existing values, with the assistance of players, so more weapons have a place in the game. The only likely mechanic change will be to split AF => AF + SF (Shield Factor) so the effect of weapons on shields can be different.

[5] x8 Ship Classes
The next stage will be to look at x8 normal hull ships and after that move on to additional ship classes for warships. Currently the carrier will be implemented by a x2 section and fighter bay pods. 250+ hulls warships need an added benefit, and I think the easiest way will be to add pods / 50 hulls over 200 (this will be in addition to additional warship classes).

[6]Agencies
Agents will move to be agencies and then they can be used to hold all the information for operations you want to run on a planet. This will mean that they can have list of officers (agents) associated with them. They should also have access to operations that they are running - on various starbases / planets. They should be allowed to 'take over' companies/organisations on infrastructure 3 and above worlds that allow them access to local current currency and stellars (but this option would require them to be paid).

[7]Legions
Converting ground combat to use 5000mu blocks of troops and reducing ground combat equipment to 1/25 size of current values, i.e. require 25 times the cost to produce - numbers in game altered appropriately. This is covered in brigades from 2019. The only major change would be converting to 1 troop type per race with 5 lvls of experience and making all the specialization be done at the level of the legion. How the troops are supplied in the legion will be be important, i.e. do they all have mk IV battle armour and weapons or are they natives with spears.

[8]Turn Downloader Improvements
This needs fixing, which will be done sooner rather than later and a few improvement. Later i will make a circa 1990 computer interface for the game through this downloader, and that will be done along with a full interface for the nexus.

[9]Other Areas of Development
System infrastructure - connected to planetary infrastructure and companies.

Details

• New Players
• Skills
• Character Story lines
• Ship Classes
• Agencies

Current things that are in the to do list before above works starts

• Affiliation funds
  
• Automate Session Deletion
  
• Automatic GPI
  
• Auto-route through stargates/wormholes.
  
• Blank Turns in Downloader
  
• Delete unowned turn archives
  
• Email Client - hags sometimes
  
• FoC Class mask
  
• Hits in Asteroid Fields
  
• Installing Freighter x8 pods
  
• Jump Ring on nexus
  
• Pickup item type officers
  
• Political list sorting - multiple tags and peripheries
  
• Speelings
  
• Squad Tus
  
• Squadron Error on zero tus
  
• Uninstall Order Text Reversed
  
• Wait for Tus in squad orders
  
• XML Officer
  

We have introduced [ known=item,num] [/known] to library posts of that remove entries that you have no knowledge of.

You know about Kinetic Missiles




We can then use this tag to share all the weapons stats as we consider them so we can get feedback in this sort of format

Weapon	Weapons Mus	Ammo Mus	Ammo/ Round	Attacks	AF	Accuracy	?	Effective Mus	Dmg / Shot	Dmg/Mus	Dmg Vs Ablative (same teir)/ Mu	Dmg Vs Armour(same teir)/ Mu	Dmg vs Platform/ Mu
Kinetic Missiles
Kinetic I	10.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	6.0		21.43	70.0	3.27	0.47	1.4	-8.4
Kinetic II	10.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.9	6.0		21.43	75.0	3.5	0.35	1.4	-7.0
Kinetic III	10.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.8	6.0		21.43	80.0	3.73	0.37	1.49	-5.6
Kinetic IV	10.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.75	6.0		21.43	85.0	3.97	0.29	1.52	-4.78

New Players
-More in your face notifications about important stuff as you go into different stages in the game.
-Seed players directly into affiliations - option to refuse + option to accept players [link to combat/trade filters etc]
-Allow better ships to be given to players
-Allow broadsword to do mission to be lost and get a proper warship
-Add options for recruit to not be able to see hidden systems items on nexus
-Add last login for players + when turns submitted
-Game History
-Make it much more clear that you get a special order to upgrade one base top a SB with extra equipment
-Allow registered starbases (or in CIV system) that are upgraded to be unkillable for X weeks (1-2 year)

Contact Civ traders
-Add special trades for new players
-Contact civilian traders needs to be more obvious to new players
-The trade deals in contact civ traders need to be looked at and made easier (for new players)
-Add mission with order
-Consider making contact traders do deals on own planet

Ship Classes
-Don't do Surveyor - maybe do scout but on increased stealth
-Add skill to reduce GPI tus

Others
-Option to remove prisoners with retire
-Officer skills on bases remove -ve effects like if not enough personel they fill in but you still have to pay for missing employees

Legions
They can:
-Fortify
-Have security bonus for being there
-Claim system for certain AFF - set in legion
-Be assigned to an army that is like a moving items group for pickups