modifying and/or switching ion storms
I experience a massive impact of stronger ion storms (> Level 3) on game play. Level 4 and 5 storms a capable to destroy even mid sized battleships and paralize your economy for a longer period.
This could (and does in many cases!) lead to a complete tactical desaster.
For my understanding a random event in a strategy game should never be strong enough to outflanc the players skills and efforts in that amount.
So my suggestion is either to give the game a possibility to switch them off or to modify them (e.g. storms can only grow till level x or size y).
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Raw commented
I want to vote for this one, but the more general modification that *ALL* host config options should be modifiable by the game creator would also cover configurable elimination of ion storms and is the option I vote for instead. I do not like ion storms because it turns a game of skill and strategy into a game of random chance. Who would play chess if you had to roll dice each turn to see if a tsunami washed your castles into the sea or if a fire breathing dragon ate your knight?
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CSY commented
Because of how (relatively) short Nu games have been lately, Ion Storms that would be a nuisance back in the old days of Planets 3 (where games can sometimes last over 200 turns), suddenly become a game-breaker when the games sometimes don't even last 60 turns.
30-50 turns is one thing in a 200+ turn game, but the very same 30-50 turns has proven to kill a player's ability to play in these Nu games, because their adverse effects can last the REST of the game for the player(s) in question.