Ok. I have been thinking about this for a bit, and the reactions I got. Let's do this in a Q&A format.
Q: Do you feel entitled to tell Dioxine and company how they should develop their mod?
A: No. Why would I? It's what they want to do.
Q: So, why are you bitching about it?
A: I'm not. I'm a project manager / software developer myself, and I love feedback. Especially from people who used my product a lot and tell me why they did and didn't like things. So I give feedback myself.
Q: But, it's a superb mod! Why would anyone want to change something about it?
A: So, how many people play it, for how long, and if they stop playing it, why? Did you finish it, or are you just occasionally starting it to get your fix? How many times did you upgrade it during your current playthrough?
Q: It doesn't matter how many others play it how often! The Team and us love it to bits! It's perfect!
A: So, there is nothing more to add or change to make it even better?
Q: The base game is far too short! And all games are more or less the same. I want a much longer game and I want more of everything!
A: Welcome to X-Piratez. You'll love it.
Q: I really want to like X-Piratez, but I don't know how to start. It's overwhelming. I don't know what to do.
A: Just keep trying. After a while you'll get it. But it's quite different from the base game (a quickstart guide that highlights those differences might help). It is really long, and it will take you hundreds of hours before you even know what the important bits are.
Q: I love X-Piratez, I start it up multiple times each month to play a few battles, but then I forgot what I was trying to do. Can I safely upgrade to the last version? And what should I research? How long is it going to take to finish?
A: There is a thread on upgrading, all the other things you have to figure out for yourself. If you don't play it frequently, I strongly suggest you keep notes.
Q: I have been playing it multiple times each week for years. It is too short. I love the tactical battles in this game. They're perfect. Although a bit unpredictable and with lots of repetition.
A: You would probably like a "custom battle" option, where you can specify what enemies there are and the level of the equipment available.
Q: I have been playing this for quite a while, but it is too long and there is so little improvement. You have to collect and research a hundred things between upgrades. And there's, like, a hundred weapons that do like 30-40 damage. Which one should I choose?
A: I might make a mod for that. But don't hold your breath.
Q: Well, I like it. Although I prefer actually playing it, ie: doing battles, to all the boring housekeeping you do in the base. And I love upgrading my equipment!
A: So, you might like UI improvements, like the scroll bar staying put, that pressing X in any sell/buy/transfer screen should select/deselect all, not having to sell vehicles by hand when you press the "Sell" button at manufacturing and specifying how new prisoners should be processed. And an "undo last action, I misclicked" key during battles.
Q: Well, I like it. Although I prefer actually playing it, ie: building the bases, making money, researching, shooting down enemies and managing my teams. I use debug mode for boring battles.
A: So, you might like UI improvements, like seeing when the VooDoo training will be finished, automatically turning on martial training if available, a button that shows you the bootypedia entry instead of the research tree one, a hyperlink that does the same for components in the manufacturing menu, the amount of items you already have when producing things. And an "auto-battle" option, with high-speed movement.
Q: Although I love the battles, they're not very hard. Yes, the enemy has superior equipment, but they're pretty dumb. Except for their numbers and the really dangerous ones, like Exalts and Mercenaries, or the ones with mini-nukes, of course. But they all just hang around and take potshots if they spot an enemy. They don't actually do all that much.
A: Yes. A smart, non-cheating AI would be great. Because, the hard difficulty isn't all that hard. It mostly increases the amount of enemies. Which results in more improvements for your soldiers, more loot and more things to research. It makes it easier in the long run. It would be much better if you could tune the AI to make it easier or harder. In easy mode, they all go outside, walk around and the civilians want to surrender. On hard, they form groups, stay out of sight, hunt you down and destroy you.
