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STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

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This is a sticky thread for people to request very simple tweaks -- things that could be put in and tested in less than an hour that you think would make the game more fun.

So suggestions like "We want a full blown encyclopedia" or "Can we have tactical combat?" should NOT go here.  These are things that should be very easy to do.

The goal is to come up with a list of little things we can do to put into a Thursday update so that people who had to wait to get the game at retail will be able to have something to look forward to to make it worth the wait.

 

378,045 views 894 replies
Reply #752 Top
-Option to NOT popup the research screen on load/startup.

-Option to change all popup news items (galactive achievements, trade route opens, anomalies, etc.) cue up as the icons on the right a la ship/building completions instead of popping up automatically (and possibly annoyingly).
Reply #753 Top
While in Diplomacy screen, it'd be nice to be able to to select the amount of bribe beeing transferred in hundreds(or even thousands), since you got a lot of cash, you are using the mousewheel to an extreme to adjust money
Reply #754 Top
Just got the game, and absolutely loving it

What I'd like to see is a slightly more descriptive save/load game interface. I've got my own naming system going, but it would be nice if something as simple as saving the time of the save and being able to sort by that time would be great. Just about every other tweak I was interested in from the demo has been covered in the 1.1 betas
Reply #755 Top
1. Ability to start a game with no tech, no ships and no planetary improvements for all races (old epic style game).
2. Disable ships with no engines from moving 1 - these can make great defensive star system platforms
3. This is a modder request => Allow us to mod the planet specials so that we can setup 'special' planets or we simply make sure everyone starts out the same.

Thanks for a great game and all the hard work.
Reply #756 Top

This is an 11 page thread so forgive me if these have already been asked for:

1. In the civilization management window where you are presented with the entire list of planets, what they're building etc, please have an indicator of some kind that displays what the planet's current Production Focus is. Hate having to go through a ton of planets to check to make sure they're all set to Social when I get a new planetary upgrade etc. This way I can tell at a glance what planets I need to change Focus on.

2. Same screen - if I drill down from the civ management window to a specific planet, then return to the civ management window, have it -remember- what planet I had just selected by keeping it highlighted and scrolling the planet list to that planet (if needed) Would make managing large empires a lot easier.

3. With the AI tweak that discourages military tech trading (which I like) I have one request: If an AI comes to me with their hat in their hand begging me to go to war and save them... they better be willing to horse trade some military techs at that point! If you want me to fight you better be willing to gimme something to fight with!

4. Make the espionage report a bit less confusing by changing the way it lists the techs the AI has. All we really need to know is the highest tech from each category, with perhaps an option to display the full list of known techs.

5. I may have missed it (Playing the downloaded version of the game, no hardcopy docs until my box arrives in the mail and I don't see it mentioned in the PDF) but let me rename planets after they've been colonized.
Reply #757 Top
I haven't read much of the thread so forgive me if this was already mentioned.

I would like the ability to continue to build buildings that cheaper, but less space efficient. In some situations, the new buildings are almost a downgrade, because they are so expensive.

I would also like to echo the previous poster's suggestion to have an easy way to observe, and manage, your colonies focus.
Reply #758 Top
I really like when the green planet icons come up to show me when a planet has finished producing social projects. Would it be possible to have the map focus switch to that planet's location when you click on that icon?

Also, when I am building up my empire I may notice that, for example, my funds are getting low. Would it be possible to have a button that moves all projects of one type to the top of the list? This might be useful galaxy wide or just for the currently viewed planet.

One thing I mentioned in bug reports that I will mention again here. When I am looking at planets (from the list at the beginning of a turn) I sometimes get a message that another planet has defected to my side. This occures when I am looking at the list of gompleted projects. I then hit the 'Go To' button and see my planet. When I click on a tile to change it I suddenly get sent to the planet that just defected. The name is still for the planet I went to from the list but the tiles are not. However, if I click on those tiles the box that tells me what is there does not agree with the tile, so I don't dare change anything. Thus, unless I remember the name of the planet that defected, I have no easy way to get to it now. When I exit out it does still bring me back to the list and I can go to my original planet again and do what I originally wanted to do.
Reply #759 Top
my ideas:

- ability to destroy planets instead of conquer them

- easier way to develop starbases; introduce a new box in the starbase menu where i can give the order to build a new module without sending a constructor

- new starbase modules to increase the moral

- let the ships flying faster after i invented a new drive

- ability to integrate more ships in a fleet

Thank you Stardock for this great game!!!
Reply #760 Top
Am I the only one? I sure miss the strategy screen from the old Gal Civ. I could really see which ships were dispatched where (and zoom in if I had a doubt). I could spot available resources quickly. The side screen is ok but at huge or gigantic universes it just doesn't provide the detail I crave. Also the inability to see influence zones immediately at 200% is irksome. I usually zoom in to 300% then back out to 200% to get the colored influence zones on the map to properly register.

Also I really miss from the ship's screen that allowed me to quickly tell whether a ship was around the planet, was on auto pilot or whether it was sitting around awaiting instructions. I've tried figuring this out from the current screens but it doesn't seem to work for me.

From the colony management screen (which I really like and truly appreciate !!!! It would be nice to know which planets had a ship in orbit (an asterisk or ....) I would also like an easier way to find the planet in question (i.e. get the map to center on it.) Location is a very important factor in figuring out what it should be building.

When I influence a planet over to my side I wish it would be on GNN so I could go to it effectively. Right now it randomly pre-empts whatever planet I'm providing instructions to. I've learned to go back to the GNN notification to be sure I'm providing instructions to the real planet I thought I was instructing.

A GNN notification that the orbit is full accompanying a notification of a ship being built. Otherwise it quits making ships unless you notice..

Better notification that a starport is empty. I keep having to check the colony management screen to make sure the starports are building somethin.

Auto launch button on each starport. At very least a launch button on GNN.

Let me get to planet by double clicking on GNN rather than going to "go to".

Also it is hard to connect the various management screens to physical location. Many times physical location is the most important thing about a planet. Some way to center the screen on the planet in question would be lovely.

PS I also relish the moment you allow us to disable the "auto move to the next ship feature" it drives me wild, every game. .
Reply #762 Top
Civilization Manager - it would be nice if it reflected the focus of the planet. If I have a planet flagged to focus on Social, I would like to be see that flagged here as well. Maybe even a way to change focus from the Civ Manager as well.


I very much concur with this request
Reply #763 Top
- Space anomalies shoould sometimes appear during gameplay. After you initially cleaned up the map there is no point in having survey vessels......

- Fleet debris should sometimes result from a large space battle. More work for that survey vessel....


I concur with this thought. Right now the survey vessels become obsolet every quickly.
Reply #765 Top
5. I think this is by design, but every game I play, my user-made ship designs keep coming back. I realize a lot of players may like this because they don't have to re-design their ships every game, but I would like a button that would allow me to re-set my user designs. If I gather technologies in a different order (almost a given), I'm going to want to design ships with different components than the last time I played, so I'd like to be able to start that over.


I, too, would like an easy option to delete all custom ship designs.
Reply #766 Top
@Cephelo:
#5. In the Planet View screen there is a Details button bottom left. Go there and you will see the option you are looking for as Rename. It also gives you a quote from a citizen for what that planet is like.

@SnuffyZena:
Sorry its not an easy way to delete ship designs (you may already know this) but there are two files for every ship you design in the "My Documents/my games/gal civ2" (or wotever) folder and are named by what you called the ship design when you saved it. You can delete these to remove them from your game but be careful you do not need them in any savegames you may still be playing.

I actually delete this whole folder every new game I play since it resets so many things like the always getting 5 planets bug and customised race attributes. I also dont want any files in this location but this also removes any savegames.
Reply #767 Top
Option to disable surrendering.
Reply #768 Top
Display the in-game date of the save files in the save/load window.
Reply #769 Top
Option to speed up ship movement on the map.
Reply #770 Top
Display the hull size in the shipyard listing, and better yet the possibility to sort by hull size.
Reply #771 Top
It's now impossible to remove a ship component with other components attached to it, which is quite annoying. We should be able to remove a component and all attached components as well.
Reply #772 Top
A new button in the diplomatic window when entering numbers called "max" would be nice. This button should behave like this:
You open the dialog and want to get some money for your techs, you have to try sliding the bar until the text goes red, then lower the number and the text gets green. You always have to do this again. This would be easier by pressing "max" and automatically entering the "correct" number.
Reply #773 Top
A couple more things --

1. Space Fold tech as a drive option. Something you could put on a ship and teleport to anywhere within range. Have it at the very end of the propulsion tree or something.

2. Maybe have the squares around a planet constitute orbit? I hate having a ship on the other side of a planet and then the enemy slipping a troop ship past me because he came from the other side.
Reply #774 Top
A STOP button and/or hotkey that stops any ship movement immediately. Useful for stopping autopilots from doing stupid stuff.
Reply #775 Top
No matter how many times it has been discussed, I still can't get Sentry/Guard to work differently than one another. They both wake up the ship as soon as an enemy ship is in their line of site. I desperatly want a way to tell a ship to sit there forever unless I click on it no matter what happens ever for the rest of time.

I am sick of putting my sensor arrays back to sleep every single turn.