I think it would be great to put all of those inhabitable planets to use. Maybe some kind of mining on them? If anyone here has played the old Windows 3.x classic Stars, you'll know what I'm talking about.

If this feature is not implemented, it would be nice if there was an option to turn off viewing inhabitable planets. They often make for a lot of confusion and clutter, especially when playing on a large map.

hotseat(i wanna play whit my friends!!!!, multiplayer in any other way would be stupid)

more diplomacy, take some of the things who already have been sugested.

chance to colonize gas gigants would be nice, like bespin in star wars.

one or two mini campaigns.

better planetary invasion. it dosnt take a week to capture a planet!!
it takes months!!!

It's time to think about the next expansion; other than all the bug issues that needs to be resolved at or before the expansion if there thinking about maiking one, we must think of improvements.

Allow more control over espionage

- When no espionage spending is needed, the AI sais from time to time we might get a breakthrough and steal technology. Well at this point, didn't we earn the right to target which tech to steal? In other words, we get the option to choose and target which tech to steal. I would imagine that some techs would take longer to steal than others depending on the value compare to yours. Also, we should get another option to steal a ship. For example, by putting your spies on factories, we should be able to steal the ship that's being built from that CIV. The same with putting your spies on research facilities, we should be able to steal the tech that's being researched from that CIV. Anyways, these are some ideas, but it's harder than you think since you must first reach advanced level of espionage on that particular CIV and you can probably forget to be able to reach an advanced level on all the players anyways. I was never able to reach advance level for more than 1 CIV unless maybe if you played on the biggest map with alot of resources.

Influence starbases should be eliminated

- Influence starbases are mainly there to built it near other planets so that you can convert their government into yours. Can't your spies do this?? For example, after reaching advanced level of espionage, you can place your agents on approval and inflence buildings. Depending on how many agents you place, it would require less time for revolt and conversion.

* Note.. you should be able to spy on planets that have been discovered only, not the one's that are across the galaxy.

User interface for spying

- Every screen that exits to find out about another race should have to go in the spying report screen. Where every information you gather from another race can be viewed here. Because currently, you can go from the diplomacy screen to view some info and also the management screen and there scattered everywhere. Basically, in the begining of the game, you should have no "stats and graphs" in the management screen?? Because the stats and graghs is currently giving me more hints than what my spies are gathering as information or intelligence level (low, medium, expert, advance etc...)

Example (put all the information gathered on a race in the following screen and no other screen in an organized fashion)...

Spying report

Choose the race (Altarian for example)

Low espionage level ( enables society )

- Race name and description
- Total population
- Number of colonies and classes of planets and names
- Approval for each colony and the total approval
- Total influence compared to yours (show it with actual numbers and bar level)
- Opinion on you and the relationship level ( hostile, wary, neutral etc...)
- Their ethical alignment (leaning good, neutral, evil)
- Any social production bonuses ( % )
- Number of influence starbases and modules (you can now click on the starbase)

Medium espionage level ( enables economy )

- Total treasury money compared to yours
- Total income for each colony
- Economic status (this is a detail global version of their economy just like you see it in your own economic tab ... for example, tourism income, military expence etc... have all the total income of the empire in one column and the total expenses of the empire on the other... and compare it to yours with actual numbers and bars)
- Number of trade routes with any other civs (names and number of routes from each)
- Any economic bonuses ( example, economic ability 80% etc... )
- Number of economic starbases and modules ( you can now click on the starbase )

Expert espionage level ( enables technology )

- List all the technologies like a mini-tree version and which tech currently researched and the time, if a certain tech enables a building list it too. for example...

so far...

1. Galactic warfare - space militarization - research laser -
laser beam I - laser beam II

2. Hyperdrive - new propulsion techniques

3. Xeno industrial theory ( enhance factory )

* Now researching laser beam III (15 weeks left)

- Any techonology bonuses ( example, tech ability 50 % etc... )

Advance espionage level ( enables military )

- Total number of each type of ships ( colony, contructor, tiny attack ships, medium attack ships etc...
- Total number of each type of ships being built and on which of their planets
- Give the intelligence report on the races strongest attack ships and their weakest

strongest large class = ( 9/0/3 attk )( 10/0/0 def )
Fleet of 3 ships = ( 27/0/9 attk )( 30/0/0 def )

Weakest medium class = ( 3/0/0 attk )( 2/0/0 def )
Fleet of 5 ships = ( 15/0/0 attk) ( 10/0/0 def )

- Any military production bonuses
- Number of military starbases and modules ( you can now click on the starbase )

* At Advance level of espionage, you can now click on the planets to see everything and also, you can now click on enemy ships where before you coudn't in order to see their stats.

I would really like to see a way to do tactical space combat. This I think is the last major thing remaining for Gal Civ 2 to do. That and maybe a change in how weapons and defences work.

1) Ground-type units to defent/attack plantes. (Or at least just military type of population to do such things)

2) Reworked espionage. (more options)

How about changing the pathing. Instead of going diagonal and then straight to your target, how about a beeline there. This goes for both trade routes and ship movement. Even setting waypoints for both would be great. That way, you could route your freighters around hostile territory. I have been burned too many times by selecting a destination somewhere only to have my weaker ship move in an unexpected diagonal right next to the dread lord ship. Oh that is irritating. In other words, do away with the movement by squares and just use linear movement with waypoints.

Give a message whenever a scout set on auto discovers something, especially resources, but also habitable planets, anomalies, inhabited planets, enemy ships etc.

I'd pay good money for the continued lack of digital rights management. I like that Stardock made this move, and I really hope Stardock continues it.

I just bought Dark Avatar and am downloading it at the moment. I liked Dread Lords, but I'm not even sure if I'll have the time or inclination to play Dark Avatar. You can thank BioShock for this sale. BioShock nearly destroyed my DVD drive (the bad sectors caused it to repeatedly spin up and down, and it was making a grating noise after a while), and after spending several hours trying to install it, being asked for a serial key was the final straw for me. By the time I got it working, I was almost too sick and tired to play it.

When I noticed Dread Lords sitting in my programs listing today, I immediately logged on to give Stardock some money, for any reason. I didn't want to use the coupon that I have, because I want Stardock to make the maximum profit they can off this. I want to make sure people who do things right (good game and no DRM) stay in business. I may just be one customer, but I hope it helps. I've never been this angry at a piece of software before, nor have I ever purchased a game impulsively. I might regret this later, but I doubt it. Strangely, it feels... really good.

1. More espionage options, like tech stealing, destroyng buildings etc.

2. Being able to controll space battles! doesn't have to be be superadvanced.

3. Being able to controll planet invasion, some sort of low quality minigame for fun

4. Waaay bigger maps! like 10fold. (for those with super computers)

5. let minor races colonise like .. max 10planets.

6. and idea would be colonising starsystems instead of planets while implementing humongus maps gets those ugly "class 0" planets out the way too.

7. more mining!

8. option to have super super slow tech rating. i mean like 15 times as long or more, "epic games"

9. get the AI to use their brains and build better ships, disband their small ships and get som damn firepower! they always go fast for massiva scale building, but never build them. *sigh*

10. better score system for single player, with highscore list... not all of us bother to play on the metaverse.

11. massdriver, beam and missiles........ atleast 5 more! separate some of them.
something along the lines of: plasma weapons, e-m-p weapons (they pwn all), blackhole-tech weapons, timedistortion weapons, massdriver, missiles, laser, "absolut-cold" weapons... you name it!
The belonging defence tech could merge for some, like shields work for plasma and laser and absolutecold... just and idea.

12. permanent wormholes

13. infoscreen in planet that showsthe planets bonus, if u happend to pick one when colonising it.

..that's about it, now stop reading forum posts and get working!

Meaningful espionage - you can send a spy to a planet to stir up trouble. You can send a spy to a planet to get it to flip over to your side - you can send a spy to a fleet and get them to flip over to your side - Cant Remember who I copied this from but additional to their thoughts I would like spies to have the ability to blow improvements, ships and the like up. Also to split alliances with some dirty underhanded tricks by spies.

Thanks, maybe I'll pose a question in the Mods forums, see if anyone is interested in the idea, and start a framework if there's enough interest.

I'd fork out the cash much faster if I could see:

1) Trade Good Agreements: Whereby you must negotiate with a given race to open up trade, for a specific good which they are producing. Upon creating a trade contract, your freighter would need to travel to the planet where the trade-good building (Improvement) is actually located. Additionally, the planet receiving the trade good (your freighter's origin planet) would be awarded a bonus relevent to the good(s) in question. Furthermore, add a few trade-goods which are race-specific in their development, rather than just those based upon who can get that improvement built first.
I'd like this much better than the current trade setup, which just seems a bit....crude.

2) For god sakes, will someone please add a technology branch for ship cloaking technology? I can see a whole set of two branch for this one...

Main Technology:
Shoadow Theory-->Allows research for cloaking & Anti-cloaking tech branches

Brach 1: [These Techs would new new ship module availabilities]
Basic Signature Reduction-->Reduces a ship's visible range to within 10 Parsects
Signature Reduction-->Reduces a ship's visible range to within 8 Parsects
Adv. Signature Reduction-->Reduces a ship's visible range to within 5 Parsects
Extreme Signature Reduction-->Reduces a ship's visible range to within 5 Parsects
Ultimate Signature Reduction-->Covert undetectibility for (non-moving maybe?) ships

Branch 2: [These Techs would also create new ship module availabilities]
Detection Pulse Generator-->Detects cloaked ships up to 5 parsects away.
Anti-Cloacking Sensors-->A smaller sensor module with the same abilities
Adv. Anti-Cloaking Sensors-->Detects cloaked ships up to 7 parsects away.
[And maybe one or two more...You Get the idea.]


3) I'd like to see probes that can perform assorted functions. Here's a crude tech tree branch, but please note the actual stats are just examples, and not necessarily well-thought-out...
Basic Probe-->Sensors:3 Range:2.5 Speed:5 Immbobile once placed
Adv. Probe-->Sensors:4 Range:3.5 Speed:7 Can be relocated if desired
Perimeter Probe-->Sensors:10 Range:0.8 Speed: 3 Alerts you to enemy ships entering your borders
Anti-Cloaking Probe-->Sensors:5 Range:0.8 Speed: 3 Designed to monitor your borders
[And maybe one or two more...You Get the idea.]


There are a few other things I'm dying to see, but I'll post them seperately, and later.

Another thing I'd pay good money for in an expansion:

1) Orbital Weapon Platforms (capable of protecting a planet to some modest extent.
Here's my idea for the tech tree branches.

Main Tech: Orbital Defense Theory (Adds New Improvement - Orbital Defense Facility)

Branch 1: Basic, Standard, Advanced, and Heavy Orbital Defense Beams
Increasingly potent orbital beam weapon defense systems

Branch 2: Basic, Standard, Advanced, and Heavy Orbital Defense Launchers
Increasingly potent orbital Missile weapon (defense) systems

Branch 3: Basic, Standard, Advanced, and Heavy Orbital Defense Cannons
Increasingly potent orbital Mass Driver weapon (defense) systems

Secondary Tech: Orbital Defense System Shielding (Requires Orbital Def. Theory)

Branch 1: Basic, Standard, & Advanced Orbital Platform Bloom
Increasingly potent anti-Beam shielding for orbital platforms

Branch 2: Basic, Standard, & Advanced Orbital Platform Electro-Magnetic Field
Increasingly potent anti-Missile defense for orbital platforms

Branch 3: Basic, Standard, & Advanced Orbital Platform Armor
Increasingly potent anti-Mass Driver protection for orbital platforms

Orbital Platforms could be used in much the same way as an orbiting combat-capable
ship. Additionally, if the planet is also equipped with an Orbital Fleet Manager,
the platforms would (or could) be used in logistical combination with any orbiting combat-cpable ships.

Two catches though: 1) Each orbital platform would consume one of the 10 orbital slots, thereby reducing the number of ships which could be simultaneously orbiting the planet. Additionally, each orbital platform would have a minor maintenance fee (added to planetary maintenance cost) The more advanced the platform(s), the higher the maintenance fee a given platform would impose.

IMHO, neither the Orbital Defense Facility, nor the platforms themselves should come cheap in the way of initial construction cost.