I definitely think starbases need to become more useful besides just mining or sitting there for some area of effect bonus. I got some more ideas on this below, but when I see an enemy civ with a starbase sitting there I'll typically ignore it till my fleet has nothing else to destroy. If starbases had more uses then they'd be definitely be worth taking over. Personally I don't see the need for special troops to do it, maybe a tech to research called Starbase Invasion and possibly a feature such as ship population that I'll touch on later.

But why stop at just taking over starbases? Why not extend the idea to taking over enemy vessels as welll? It'd be great when your fleet wanders upon those single ships, take them over, repair them, then beat them with their own ships! Or maybe make a new ship class that can repair old ships out of the debris of battle (assuming you have the techs required to rebuild them). At the every worst you get some free ships and you can then throw them away and get some cash or have some extra fire power.

I really like the idea about Flagshps! I find mine wandering around the map until it can't find anything else and then you find a bunch of flagships sitting around in different corners of the map. Maybe some reduced upgrade cost/upgrade time would also be nice. Or another idea is being able to change which ship is the flagship. Maybe a flagship upgrade after a tech is researched?

While I understand this isn't exactly a space sim, putting some small touches in like planets that rotate around their sun and are differing radii from the sun would - it'd be a great thing that people could really appreciate. Throw that in combined with the idea of different races requiring different planet conditions: you'd see maybe the terrans inhabitting only planets 3~5 parsecs from the sun, while that'd leave open for other races to maybe come in and inhabit the planets closer to their sun or further away! Planets that you may not be able to colonize right away would suddenly have strategic value. Then after doing enough research maybe you can get techs that like "Planetary Re-Alignment" or "Colony Domes" so you can inhabit all the rest of the planet in your solar system.

Adding on to the idea of rotating planets, I'd really like to see starbases rotating around a desired celestial body a user desired radius away. This would enable the usefulness of a starbase defending an area of space, any enemy ships passing in the radius would be attacked by the starbase until they leave.

And lastly.... (sorry about the length, been storing the ideas up).... I'd really like to see some kind of ship population implemented, assuming the first idea was being used as you're taking over starbases or enemy ships, your ship population would dwindle and your ships would have a need for coming back in to port to get restocked on fresh bodies. It's really a minor point now that I think about it. But that's one of the things that I think makes this game great is all the small little things that put in as extra details.

Upgrading can be bit tedious, if even the best possible tech available would on the top of the list, it would make it easier. I have yet seen a pattern , how the game sorts the techs in ship yard screen. Maybe Iam just blind

One more idea:

Make planetary defenses useful by granting the defensive bonus to all planets controlled by a civilization once you research it in the tech tree. This would allow players to avoid making the onesided decision of either building something "useful" on a planet or building a defensive structure.

While I understand this isn't exactly a space sim, putting some small touches in like planets that rotate around their sun and are differing radii from the sun would - it'd be a great thing that people could really appreciate.

Problem is (for me atleast) that the current star system set up is not a realistic reproduction of how a star system works. For starters the scale is WAY off, those little parsec boxes are light year distances, while solar systems are typically measured in light days or months. So one system would fit in one single little parsec square, and the planets would be so small that planetary revolutions and radii wouldn't be visible.

To have them rotate in their current positions amounts to no more than eye-candy and is of little value otherwise.

I agree that the Flagship needs to have a more valuable role in the game. Not sold on the idea of starbase invasion, I would need to spend some time thinking about how to defend SBs (Starbase Trooper modules?)

What I would like to see is an additional map view level (maybe in an expansion? or GC3?). Where today we have the Galaxy map I would shrink the planetary systems down to where they occupy only one parsec. When your ships enter a parsec with a planetary system, the window changes (much like todays combat viewer), and we get a new gridded view of the solar system with much the same characteristics of the Main galaxy view. ships maneuver using sublight engines (a new tech tree to go faster in sub-light), because FTL speeds would carry you out/past the system.
Combat in this new view would be the same as it is in the current Galactic view, but this setup would allow planetary/orbital defenses/mines/etc. (another new tech tree), built in much the same way as starbases, but significantly cheaper and weaker, the point being to aid the defensive ships while not being full blown starbases.
Today, ships in orbit around a system are just tokens in a box. With this new view, ships in orbit would be *in orbit*, and also able to defend other planets in the system. Realistic Planetary movement mechanics can be added here too and it would look better here. Although, I would think it would be best if it were turn-based as well. ie. a planet can only move so far in a week. Some changes would need to be made to thte galactic map as well, like systems with mutliple civs controlling planets, multiple symbols would be required. Could get messy trying to figure out which planets aren't producing improvements and ships.

Sorry to hijak this thread, but I just got on a roll.

Cheers,
Reaver

To have them rotate in their current positions amounts to no more than eye-candy and is of little value otherwise.

I should have clarified that the rotation would only be visible each turn, so you'd take your turn - then planets shift accordingly.

What I would like to see is an additional map view level (maybe in an expansion? or GC3?). Where today we have the Galaxy map I would shrink the planetary systems down to where they occupy only one parsec. When your ships enter a parsec with a planetary system, the window changes (much like todays combat viewer), and we get a new gridded view of the solar system with much the same characteristics of the Main galaxy view. ships maneuver using sublight engines (a new tech tree to go faster in sub-light), because FTL speeds would carry you out/past the system.

I really think this would be a great component to add and much better way of implementing some of the previously mentioned ideas. Definitely be great for the tactical advantages of developing a star system or taking one over.

One thing that comes to mind when seeing this idea is that the sensor technology branch could really be evolved from doing this and some depth added to it. I often find myself researching sensors out of boredom and the fact it's cheap late in the game. But instead if your civ never researched sensors maybe you'd just be stuck on sensors based on light, you'd be blinded by planets in the way, so you'd have a need for moving around them to see.

Some changes would need to be made to thte galactic map as well, like systems with mutliple civs controlling planets, multiple symbols would be required. Could get messy trying to figure out which planets aren't producing improvements and ships.

I wouldn't imagine it'd be that hard, either have a permanent list of planets, owners, and symbols on top/beside the star system, or have the same thing as a mouse over option.

-Tas