I just created two planets, one finishing as fast as possible, the other making a whole 200

It's pretty much the same as the previous accretion mechanically, but the camera locks to the planet and a little window showing the current stats shows up. If you hover the mouse over an asteroid, the stat window will show what the stats will be after the asteroid hits.

I like the stat window, but I believe it needs some improvements. I believe that bars should also turn green or red to represent how the asteroid will affect the planet, but just the numbers. Also, I want the window to be movable. Finally, I think the window should only show up if you click the planet or an asteroid, not just hover mouse over it or get close, and that it shouldn't be dismissed unless you either get too far and click a close button.

The camera lock is also good, but I think you should be able to zoom in and out while still being locked if possible. Personally, I find the lock too close for when I get into the 180s and the reds start getting super fast.

The changes to the reds, making them only hit stats or progress, but not both, made being at 200 and waiting for the last whites more bearable.

Overall, looks good, just waiting for seeding and for you to pu the bonus asteroids in again, Jatt.

Good suggestions. Changing the bars is a bit messy, but definitely doable. Making it a proper window on-click is a no-brainer, dont know why I didn't do that to begin with.

Being able to change the lock distance is definitely coming, most likely via mouse scroll wheel and/or the +- buttons.

Bonus asteroids are already in, never disabled.

Well, i know the accretion mini-game's your cherished child, and i hate to say it, but i don't think i like it. i've clicked on 9 belts so far and just let the accretion run on it's own, and only 1 has successfully turned into a planet. i suggest making the asteroids hit in such a way (frequency, variety, and such) so that it naturally makes a fair to middlin' fine and decent planet on it's own, in about 1 to 2 minutes, for those of us who would rather just opt out of the accretion mini-game. it's cool for what it is, but options are good. perhaps one could choose to participate in the accretion game in order to get a better than ok planet, and to get just an ''ok'' planet, one could let it run on it's own, producing a planet fairly representing the ratio of resources in the respective belt.

I got my first experience with this game today, I wasn't around to enjoy the 'old' version. But nonetheless, I will share my views on it.

I have to say I really like the Accretion feature, I think it is original (atleast, I havent seen it before). And from the 15 minutes I was playing around with it I have to say it was all working fine.

And I don't think I agree with Celestium. I think it adds something unique to the game and makes it more interactive. Even if let's say Decent planets would form without interaction I guess serious players will always want to take the max out of their Accretion thus everyone who just let it run its course would have a (small) disadvantage over them. So that would seem kind of pointless to me, the feature is either there or it's not. If no one is going to use it because it offers no advantages then there is no point for it to be there.

I could be really wrong here, I don't know too much about the game and the actual features that are going to be in. But this just came into mind.

Also, my camera didn't automaticly lock to the planet. I had to look for it manually and would only lock when I brought the camera close enough to it. I don't know if this is the way it was ment, but I'm pointing it out anyway.

That is the way it is meant to be.



I understand what you are saying, but you must also understand that accretion will always be a part in G&I, one of it's unique features. As you noticed, you can't let an accretion just run on it's own, but you can minimally half-ass it by just clicking on the reds and it'll be finished in a minute or two.
Also, there will be a planet market that those whom do not like to create planets can buy them from.

i was also thinking that a cool feature added a little into the game, after you've accumulated some power, would be the ability to summon a specific kind of asteroid to collide with your planet, adding an amount of metal, gas, or life to it at the expense of ''power'', or whatever the in-game currency will be, and at the expense of a percentage of population and/or progress. For instance, let's say you've got a thriving industrial civilization on a planet, for 1200 power, and 50 percent of your population, you could summon an asteroid that would add 20% metal to your planet, but also knock them back to the stone age.

And, i wasn't suggesting to get rid of accretion all together, i was saying that maybe if it accreted on it's own, it would produce a planet only half as good as the possible max. say, if the max is 100% of element A, and 50% of element B and C, then accretion left to it's own devices would create a planet with 50% element A and 25% of B and C. this concept and the above mentioned game feature would, i think, balance each other out nicely and add to the effective coolness of the game. when making a game for masses of people to play, it's best to hedge your bets and cover your bases, people like options. i just think it would suck for people to sign on, only to be turned of by the accretion feature and not sign back on again. one thing i've learned by all my on-line gaming, is if you want to hook 'em, you make it start real easy.

I haven't played in quite some time, but if you click an asteroid doesn't that destroy it?

But it still has to be worthwhile handeling the process yourself. You don't max out your planets all the time and if it doesn't get you enough advantage people will just let it run on it's own most of the time.