STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

I'd like to see the tooltips fixed so that they appear when you first put the mouse over the object. As it is now, you put the mouse over the object, THEN you have to move the mouse a second time a small distance while keeping it over the object.

Diagonal scrolling would be nice too.

Making the "lights" you add on to ships actually emit their own light would be cool as heck. Probably too much, though...

I'd like a "launch all" button for planets, usually if I'm trying to scramble a fleet from orbit I launch one, it then switches to that ship, so I have to click on the planet again, and launch one at a time. Nothing big, just would be nice.

Also, would it be possible to (when clicked on) ahave a ship give you a radius field of how far they can move (sort of how when you click on a starbase it gives you a radius hioghlight of it's effect, same idea)? Again, not major, but would be nice.

a label tagged besides ships who you are at war with when your not at icon level zoom. I like the pretty pictures you guys did at the lower zoom levels but find i have to zoom out to find enemy ships. Espcially the small buggers.

can the arrow keys control the map view instead of the movement of the ships?

i'm also having problems with the fact that once you've selected a movement for a ship, your autoselecting the next ship instead of just leaving the map viewed to the point that i just clicked. not that big of an issue, but every couple turns i seem to move a ship and then proceed to move the next ship to where i moved the previous ship due to the fact that i think i'm still controling the first. (could this @least be an option?)
great game, much fun, no sleep since release, THANK GOD IT'S FINALLY THE WEEKEND!

Feud: i found that if you togel the Map Grid view ON you can see exactly how far each ship can go if you know the # of moves a ship has left. not as cool as a circle showing range, but will still help w/ the movements...

I liked how in GC1, how you could randomize the intelligence of the AI.

Maybe a random event of a Dread Lord ship coming out at some point in the game (VERY RARE), but this thing is just be able to crush any fleet taht gets into its path, requiring a united nation ot stop it from destroying everything. ok, maybe not for this patch

In the ship designer I'd like a "random extras" button that would randomly choose place a number of extras on the hardpoints of your ship.

I don't know how hard this would be to implement, but I'd love to easily and quickly get some cool and funky ship designs via randomness

Is there any way to get the mini-map, once zoomed in, to move with the main map so both keep the same central point of focus? I get the mini-map to re-center to the main map focus by a quick zoom out, zoom in two-step. If it followed automatically, that would be great!

There is some odd behavior with stacks of ships.
When you click a stack the first ship is selected. Let's say we want to manipulate a ship deeper in the group.
The combination of selecting and picking a ship are combined causing some confusion.

So if you want to give orders to one ship and you click it you may have to click the first ship in the stack to unselect it and it seems like the currently selected ship has changed. The information on the right will represent the ship you unselected rather then the one you last selected. Most RTS games require holding down a button to multi select ships and this may be somthing most users have as a mental model for selecting units in a group selection.

We need to be able to upgrade fleets or rather have a shortcut key and button to upgrade individual ships when you pick them in the stack or fleet, I find my self moving the ship to empty space so i can click the upgrade button. If they are in a fleet i have to disband the fleet and then move it into empty space going through the odd selection process i talked about above.

When you use a box to select units in many different tiles and then you select another object the graphics representing the selections remain. Seems like a UI bug.

#2 Pt2 > Sounds like a great idea and would be a good addition..

#7 Been thinking along those lines myself. I love building ships but having a random button would be great as you could get a random ship and add/remove a few things to suit..

Mr Frogboy PLEASE

Because I find minor races a great part of the game, it would be nice if I could adjust their capabilities the same way we can adjust the level of the other majors. I don't want them as "smart" or as "gifted" as the majors, but they shouldn't be pure cannon fodder, either. They make great foils, but I'd like them to have a bit more strength and adaptability at times.

1. Make L and R arrow move to next planet or shipyard on the appropriate screens.

2. There are some issues I am having with selecting stacked ships and fleets. No matter how close I pay attention to the selected item in the context window, I press a key and something else moves. That might not be a quick fix though, and it could just be user error.

3. Add a [Launch All non-transport/colony ships] to the Orbit section of the Context Menu. Either that, or make it so that if I have 10 ships stacked there, and I double-click one, it does not launch the ship and then deselect the Planet Orbit pool - more often than not, I just reselect the planet and launch all the other ships there, then sort them out later since it does not impair their movement allowance.

Tooltip: Maximum population a planet is able to hold on colony management screen when you hover the planet picture.

Tweak: (or bugfix) Tier 2 types of weapons and armor can be built even if you don't have Battle Stations mk I which unlocks the Tier 1. If there's an order to these things then you shouldn't be able to build the +10 def or attack ones if you can't put the +5 ones on. In the beta it was build it as you research it.

Tweak: UI window for "Do you want to upgrade this starbase?" Yes or No. Initial window says starbase name.

can the arrow keys control the map view instead of the movement of the ships?

I second this particular request. It doesn't even have to be in the options menu, some kind of INI tweak would be fine.

Hi everyone!!!

I am still shouting my corner here!! 3 things i'd like to see:
1. Being able to rotate through the horizontal plane on the tactical map. (put an option on the interface menu)
2. Diagonal scrolling on tactical map and only scroll when the edge of the screen is touched
3. VAPOR TRAILS!!!! (see previous posts) oh oh oh My idea, my idea!!!!!!!

Add a notification for when someone declares war on you; I've had other civs demand things from me, and I reject. 10 turns later, I find out that I'm at war!


Also, when you set a ship to move on autopilot, a reading somewhere of how many weeks it will take to get there would be nice.

Being able to see the descriptions of techs all throughout the tech tree at all times would be splendid

A GNN update the turn after you buy a building would be cool too - since you don't get the ship until the following turn, I believe that you get the update for ships, but not for social projects.

Perhaps an alert when you're at war and an enemy race's ships enters your civ's visual sight - a la 'GNN Update: Enemy invades our turf!'

A display in the tech tree that shows how much techs cost in beakers, so that we can better gauge trade values.

Disable the "End Turn" button when you are in the shipyard or planet view screen - too many times I have accidentally hit end turn instead of done!

In the economy window, have a display that shows actual spending towards military, social and research categories; currently it only shows expenses and total spending - you have to do the math to figure out the amounts from the %.

Like someone mentioned above, the ability to view ship details/upgrade/etc on individual ships either in a fleet or in a stack.

Those are the small things I thought up off the top of my head - I'm loving the game so far, but I have to say that my biggest issue with the game is annoyances with the UI; hopefully these will clear up some of those issues!

Thanks for listening!

Is there any way to get the mini-map, once zoomed in, to move with the main map so both keep the same central point of focus? I get the mini-map to re-center to the main map focus by a quick zoom out, zoom in two-step. If it followed automatically, that would be great!

Yes! That annoys me immensely, especially on a gigantic map.

Another point, which I have been told cannot work because of game balance, but I would like to have ships available when offering/seeking peace with other races in times of war. If we can trade in times of peace because ships have value, why not have them as value in times of war for the sake of peace?

Same thing with having constructors on the trade list even in times of peace. The AI might be extremely hesitant to make such trades, but they should be available.

Also, when an AI surrenders, we get all their planets, so why not their ships, their money, and their influence?

4. Also, even though I understand the link to planetary defense, it seems completely illogical that ships in orbit around a planet cannot retain fleet groupings. This makes them less effective when defending a planet than when in deep space. This one really rubs me the wrong way.

5. need a [split fleet] button. Either I missed something, or either I can only merge existing fleets or I have to land them in orbit to get them to separate.

6. I was noticing in forums that starbase bonuses were stacking? I remember very early on (Beta 1) that the discussion was going in the direction that overlapping bonuses would not stack. I haven't had time to notice yet which is the actual case. But if it's a debate between players who want them to stack and not, how about an Options button to toggle the effect between stacking bonuses and non-stacking?

Enjoying it so far! Thanks for all the hard work!

UI: I'd like the tooltips (well, the mouse-overs that appear for Influence and Approval) cleand up a bit. They are difficult to read sometimes.

Bug Fix: Whenever I select an AI starship, the interface that appears in the viewing area looks like mine (complete with blue color scheme). Furthermore, it has the "Upgrade" button, just disabled. If that's not a bug, then a tweak would be nice which gave a different viewing area when clicking on enemy ships.

Bug Fix: Make it clear what Influence starbases are doing. I do not see their effect on any planet where there is an influence starbase close by and this is REALLY hurting my ability to know if they are even working. That's a big one, far more so than any "tweak."

1) Ban trading for technologies when a race lacks their prerequisites. It breaks the tree and is illogical. For example, giving hunter-gatherers in Borneo VLSI silicon fabrication technology should not let them build Itaniums, and subsequently develop optical computers.

2) Ideally (long term) replace tech trading with 'blueprint trading' that cuts down research time, rather than giving a tech. In the short term, banning a race from trading any technology they were given for some number of turns (until they 'understand' it) would relieve players from the non-choice of trading to ALL computers on the same time, or trading to none at all, since trading to only one means the rest get it without compensating you. The real world doesn't work that way... there is percolation, but it takes years from tech given to an ally to make its way to an enemy (and be used effectively).

When I get message that a new structure has been completed on a planet I can click on the "Go to" button to view the completed project and start a new one.
When I click on the "Done" button, the old Dialog is still there. More then once I re-clicked it and then realized that I was back to the previous planet.
It would be nice to either remove the dialog after the "Go to" button is clicked, or update the list to have the last planet visited removed when the "Done" button is clicked and you're back to the accomplishment list (this would be required if more then one event has occurred on the last Turn.

How about the ability to rename Stars, and so that it automaticly renames all the planets around them accordingly? It shouldn't be that hard do(though I have no knowledge of such things). It sounds like just a minor tweak that could ease up the naming process of planets significantly...

Tooltips for the colony screen:

- military, social, and tech production in the top windows (showing how much is being spent on them and how bonuses get applied to give the resultant production numbers)

- tax revenue (showing bonus being applied to some base tax rate on population)

I understand that these may be somewhat difficult to provide quickly, but knowing why a value is what it is is the number one important thing for a strategy game. It's how you see if your decisions are working or not.

Yeah, some good suggestions here.
'Launch All'-button on planets and scrolling via arrow keys are the things I've been longing for, too, so: Yes please!
Plus, somehow make more transparent what's going on with customization of the default races - right now, I'm quite confused about which abilities suddenly vanish when I change something and which don't.
Plus, make some auto-reset or reset-button to set the races back to default so we don't have to delete files manualy to get the original races back...