So, I just completed a rather harrowing gigantic game. Before I started this game, I decided that I would take notes while I was playing, and try to think of things that could be improved in the game, or just note things that kind of annoy me while playing it.

Many of these complaints would have been mentioned were I involved in a beta version of TA, but since Stardock has decided not to do a beta this time, I offer the following instead.

Add the standard disclaimer that I love GalCiv2, love Stardock, and would probably marry the game, if it were legal to do so.

That out of the way, here are my notes:

1) Planet/Ship List --> When searching for planets, there should be an option for the player to filter by range, and another filter for environmental technology needed to colonize. Searching through a huge list of radioactive planets on the other side of the galaxy is less than useful. The model used in MOO2 was pretty useful, IIRC.

2) Ships defending planets --> Unless using an Orbital Fleet Manager, defensive ships are basically taking turns lining up to be killed by the invading forces; there is no logical reason why they should do this that I can see. The OFM is okay, I guess, but the space required to build it on makes it less appealing, much less the fact that it's unique. So, only one planet in the empire has clued in to the idea of a coordinated defense? I suggest, as an alternative, that the OFM be removed from the game, and instead, make *all* planets' defense forces defend as a fleet. This will change invasion tactics drastically, granted, but not for the worse IMHO.

3) Morale of capital too low --> The home planet of each empire should be given an increased morale bonus. This will make the initial colonization phase less harrowing, and stop players being forced to build morale buildings on the home planet, where space is needed for more important projects.

4) Technology Rate --> On the Setup Screen, the "Technology Rate" always defaults back to Normal, whereas other picks remain from the previous game. This is annoying if one wants to start a new game with the same settings as before. Is there any reason for this?

5) Default Domestic settings --> Why does it start at 67% production? A way for a player to save starting settings from game to game would be nice.

6) Racial colours --> Should be random with each game. I should not be able to see that I am sitting beside the Drengin. Red could be Altarian one game, Torian the next, etc. I realize that this would be a difficult change to make, as the colours are tied in to each race's interface and ship design, etc. Still, another area where MOO2 had something that GalCiv could borrow from.

7) Starting ships --> A random mix of ships might be fun, rather than the default miner, colony ship, survey ship. I would not be averse to, for example, a scout and constructor as well as a colony ship. Even a transport (for the more efficient method of colonizing!) The player should always get one colony ship, though, I think. You could also tie this in to each race. For example, the Korath could start with a single spore ship, and the Korx could start with a freighter. This simple change would make for some interesting strategical choices.

8) Resources --> There should be a way to easily find them on a map once you have discovered them. Modify the Planet/Ship search function, perhaps.

9) Influence Points in Diplomacy/Trade screen --> Do these points even do anything? I often give them away to races as I meet them as a way to say "Hey, I'm your friend. Take this useless thingamajig as a token of my friendship until I decide to destroy you".

10) Custom Race Inequality --> It is my understanding that custom races are not as powerful as the default races, in terms of points assigned to them. This, to me, seems to be unbalancing. All races, custom or no, should be as close to possible as every other race. I don't understand why the game was designed this way, in fact.

11) Custom race attributes --> Additionally, if all of us are choosing Morale and Economics for our custom races, that presents a problem; the choices should be more balanced in my opinion. Making, for example, Soldiering or Creativity less expensive would make them more appealing when a player designs a race. Alternatively, the cost of Morale and Economics could be raised to make them less appealing.

12) Selecting ships --> When clicking on a stack of ships/fleets, the bottom one becomes selected, rather than he top one. This is non-intuitive and kind of annoying.

13) Rallypoints --> There should be a way to delete rallypoints (is there a way?) A way to send all ships of a certain class to a rallypoint would be useful. The option to send *all* ships period is less than useful.

14) Upgrading ships --> Upgrading all ships of a certain class is useful... if you are rolling in BC's. Upgrading all ships of a certain fleet would be much more manageable, and more useful than the current clickfest one goes through when updating some but not all ships. Additionally, once a ship has been told to upgrade, some kind of notification should be present, like a little "U" in the corner.

Well, if you got this far, thanks for reading. Especially if you work at Stardock, heh.