First of all thanks for doing such a great job apllying all sorts of users suggestions

1. Please make a notification when an AI is going to war with another AI (something like "warhorns" in CIV if you know what i mean)

2. Please make AI mount at least 2 drives on every ship (or sth like that). I would really love to see AI prioritize speed more. Especially on higher levels. It's ridiculous that they always install extacly ONE drive, best currently available. (except maybe for transport/colony/constructor ships which tend to be just a little faster)
In current situation it is possible for me to beat AI even on genius difficulty without much problem, they just constantly get outmanouvered. Besides it takes them forever from declaring a war to actually getting some warships into my territory. Wouldn't it be fun when AI declares a war on you and in the same turn attacks some key starbases planets?
Maybe then maintaining a standing army would make more sense ( now you do just fine if you start building ships the moment you are declared on)

I didn't take the time to read all the suggestions, but the few I did were quite good. I don't know if this has been suggested yet, if so I second it, but I would love to see keyboard controls for camera rotation rather than just having to use the middle mouse button. So ideally, particularly for the shipyard, you could control the camera with one hand and place the parts using the mouse. Or on the main screen rotate the view with the keyboard and direct your ships/fleets with mouse. I just think that could be more efficient, rather than having to use just the mouse for so much (plus it might help slow down the ol' carpal tunnel syndrome).

On the colony screen, if you change what the ship is building, and you select "back to planet", the production doesn't change. It does change if you select "done".

You should be able to change ship production and rally point from the main colony screen without having to go to the shipbuilding screen. You should also be able do this from the governor screen.

On the colony governor screen, you should add a 2nd screen where you list # available tiles, and tile usage per project. Influence should appear on the colony governor screen.

A planet with a capital should have a special icon added next to the planet's name on all screens where the planet's name occurs.

On the planet and ship list screen (F1), you should have the scrollbar work where clicking in the scrollbar window moves by one screenful, rather than jumping to that location, just like normal windows scrollbars work. In several places, the behavior of the scrollbar should be fixed (but in several places is it, ironically, correct).

When I get the "alien president assassinated -- you're at war now" event, if I'm militarily dominating the AI, I shouldn't be able to immediately trade for peace and concessions. In GalCiv1, the AI would stubbornly refuse peace for a few turns in such a situation.

On the shipyard screen, there should be a checkbox to show/hide obsolete ships and show/hide ships that you don't have the tech for yet.

On the shipyard screen, you should be able to save/remember which ships obsolete other ships. Actually, you should be able to view a graph of dependencies for which ships obsolete each other, and this should be remembered from one game to the next.

On the tech tree screen, it is too hard to navigate backwards in the tree for techs that are connected by a diagonal line. You should be able to just click on the line to go back to the previous tech in that case.

Since starbases now affect all planets in a fixed distance, rather than everything in the same sector, the starbase "area of affect" should be highlighted when you build the starbase or select the starbase.

If this has been asked before, I apologize.

1) I'd like to be able to rename Stars as well as planets, starbases, etc.

2) Some way of showing inherent bonuses in the ship designer... like total beam rating. Explanation I design a ship with an offense of 10 in beams, no defences, and lets say an impulse drive mk III, medium hull. With me so far? Ok, good. Now when you build one... you have other things factor in like movement.. certain techs give +10 to speed which results in an extra movement point. This is not the real movement in the designer. Same for weapons it doesn't show that my empire has a 30% bonus (so its really 13 in beams ) or further increased by mining certain resources.. It (ship designer screen ) could show the -correct- totals for your empire/race under current conditions.


3) Regards to starbases.. The initial popup window asking if you want to build on the starbase yes or no ?? That window should show the correct picture (resource, influence, military, or economy ) as well as saying the name of the starbase. You have to say yes or no before you really know...
Well that's whats I've noted worth sayin something about. Anyways, love you guys and gals. Stardock rules.

Standard apology for not reading all 11 pages if this has been mentioned before...

How about a command that forces autopilots to finnish thier routes? (Other than the end turn button)

I havent been able to find a way to play with multiple custom races.

I can play a custom race, but cant seem to play vs a custom race unless I pick a standard race.

My suggestion... allow multiple races to be saved and used in games.

Here's one: put the level of a given unit in paranthesis or something next to it when you're in the diplomacy screen, so you know which ones you can safely give away and which ones you want to hold on to without manually renaming the units yourself.

Two things, really, and I'm not so sure about the first.

Would it be at all possible to give us the option to create ships without being in an actual game (campaign or skirmish)? What I mean is could we create templates for ships - hulls and jewelry - without actually needing to have engines or weapons put on them beforehand? It'd make it quite a bit quicker for me to create new ships with entirely different technology than I used for the same design before. ^^'

Also; Could you make it so we can change tax rates per planet, or per system, if we wanted? I understand if this is a bit too technical for most, but every once and a while I get a "problem planet" that cripples my approval rating and I can't effectively make them happy (regardless of how many entertainment structures I use) due to overpopulation. I don't like starving them, either. Lowering my tax rate makes them all love me, of course, but it also means I'm losing efficiency on numerous other planets and that thought just irks me.

Small thing - if I hover over a freighter on a run, it would be nice to see a tooltip appear telling me how much I paid for the freighter, and how much it has earnt in trade profit so I can see if it has been worth it's costs.

It would be nice if you can all ships' sensor range and movement range can be displayed in graphical detail. For example, a ring (or a square actually ..) with the ship's team color indicating how far the ship can travel. For a bonus result, use ripple effect.

This will allow players to see at a glance how far their ship can move and how far the enemy ship can move. Very helpful when deciding how to maneuver ships against the opponents.

Excellent game - Am loving it on my 4th day of playing. Alot of excellent feedback which I didnt scan all of - so if this is a repeat I am sorry. Black holes are an important resource for scouting and colonization - once found can they be made a red light on the map for easy ID? I have one in my current game but by the time i figured a strategy of how to use it I lost it.

A couple of things I'd like to see in any update or improvement.

1. An AI that actually defends its colonies intend of being a retard and flying away from their planets.

Example;

Playing campaign game, Torians colonised a planet near the DLs, a few turns later a few Torian ships park in orbit to guard it. A few turns after that an unescorted Transport flew to within one SQ of the planet, the Torian ships leave to attack a SB that was ten SQ away AFTER spotting the transport. Turn later the planet fell, in my opinion this is just plain dumb.

2. End to colony rushing, I have seen enough of this thanks, PLEASE Stardock impliment an option to add a logisitics option to colonies it would slow colonisation by basing it on tech level and not on buying power. This was addressed in another thread and a brilliant solution was thought up. I really can't be arsed anymore with the initial colony rushing it fux up my games.

3. Alliances, ooooooooooohhh man this one has got me pissed just a bit, if you are friends with someone and see one of their undefended colonises about to be invade you should by all means be able to enter the planets orbit to protect it. I have seen the AI allies of mine make a LOT of mistakes and it pee's me off to not be able to do jack all about it.

Example;

See first post.

4. Allied fleets, I'd like to see something similar to the MOO3 engine on this one, I'd like to have a joint Terran or Alien fleet on side fighting against the enemy assuming they are allied.

5. More diplomacy options, at the moment the AI don't feel like a empire to me, they feel like lifeless characters that I have to kill. I want they to be more lively interact with the player more, and a more evolved diplomacy system to reflect this. I'd like to see the AI compliment me on my defense of one of their colonies, or even just contact me just to make a friendly or threaten statement. It would be great to have the Altarians contact me and ask about whether or not I believed in the Altarian Prophecy and have that affect our relationship. Or even see the Yor contact the Iconians to display regret on almost wiping them out after an alignment shift. Things like this would be really impressive.

6. Spying, at the moment I know it is in the planned expansion, but a little counter-spying and disinformation wouldn't go a miss.

Just a few ideas I had.

Thanks.

J

A couple of things I'd like to see in any update or improvement.

1. An AI that actually defends its colonies intend of being a retard and flying away from their planets.

Example;

Playing campaign game, Torians colonised a planet near the DLs, a few turns later a few Torian ships park in orbit to guard it. A few turns after that an unescorted Transport flew to within one SQ of the planet, the Torian ships leave to attack a SB that was ten SQ away AFTER spotting the transport. Turn later the planet fell, in my opinion this is just plain dumb.

2. End to colony rushing, I have seen enough of this thanks, PLEASE Stardock impliment an option to add a logisitics option to colonies it would slow colonisation by basing it on tech level and not on buying power. This was addressed in another thread and a brilliant solution was thought up. I really can't be arsed anymore with the initial colony rushing it fux up my games.

3. Alliances, ooooooooooohhh man this one has got me pissed just a bit, if you are friends with someone and see one of their undefended colonises about to be invade you should by all means be able to enter the planets orbit to protect it. I have seen the AI allies of mine make a LOT of mistakes and it pee's me off to not be able to do jack all about it.

Example;

See first post.

4. Allied fleets, I'd like to see something similar to the MOO3 engine on this one, I'd like to have a joint Terran or Alien fleet on side fighting against the enemy assuming they are allied.

5. More diplomacy options, at the moment the AI don't feel like a empire to me, they feel like lifeless characters that I have to kill. I want they to be more lively interact with the player more, and a more evolved diplomacy system to reflect this. I'd like to see the AI compliment me on my defense of one of their colonies, or even just contact me just to make a friendly or threaten statement. It would be great to have the Altarians contact me and ask about whether or not I believed in the Altarian Prophecy and have that affect our relationship. Or even see the Yor contact the Iconians to display regret on almost wiping them out after an alignment shift. Things like this would be really impressive.

6. Spying, at the moment I know it is in the planned expansion, but a little counter-spying and disinformation wouldn't go a miss.

Just a few ideas I had.

Thanks.

J

A couple of things I'd like to see in any update or improvement.

1. An AI that actually defends its colonies intend of being a retard and flying away from their planets.

Example;

Playing campaign game, Torians colonised a planet near the DLs, a few turns later a few Torian ships park in orbit to guard it. A few turns after that an unescorted Transport flew to within one SQ of the planet, the Torian ships leave to attack a SB that was ten SQ away AFTER spotting the transport. Turn later the planet fell, in my opinion this is just plain dumb.

2. End to colony rushing, I have seen enough of this thanks, PLEASE Stardock impliment an option to add a logisitics option to colonies it would slow colonisation by basing it on tech level and not on buying power. This was addressed in another thread and a brilliant solution was thought up. I really can't be arsed anymore with the initial colony rushing it fux up my games.

3. Alliances, ooooooooooohhh man this one has got me pissed just a bit, if you are friends with someone and see one of their undefended colonises about to be invade you should by all means be able to enter the planets orbit to protect it. I have seen the AI allies of mine make a LOT of mistakes and it pee's me off to not be able to do jack all about it.

Example;

See first post.

4. Allied fleets, I'd like to see something similar to the MOO3 engine on this one, I'd like to have a joint Terran or Alien fleet on side fighting against the enemy assuming they are allied.

5. More diplomacy options, at the moment the AI don't feel like a empire to me, they feel like lifeless characters that I have to kill. I want they to be more lively interact with the player more, and a more evolved diplomacy system to reflect this. I'd like to see the AI compliment me on my defense of one of their colonies, or even just contact me just to make a friendly or threaten statement. It would be great to have the Altarians contact me and ask about whether or not I believed in the Altarian Prophecy and have that affect our relationship. Or even see the Yor contact the Iconians to display regret on almost wiping them out after an alignment shift. Things like this would be really impressive.

6. Spying, at the moment I know it is in the planned expansion, but a little counter-spying and disinformation wouldn't go a miss.

Just a few ideas I had.

Thanks.

J

1) When you are trading techs (or whatever) and you want to pay or request just enough money to make the deal pass, the amount to pay/demand that will just be acceptable should be automatically suggested.
2) The population rise or fall in the previous week should be shown on a planet's main view.
3) You should be able to see what a new kind of building will do by clicking on the name when you are looking at the tech screen and trying to decide which tech to follow.

There is one tweak I’d love to see made to the interface.

Please remove the little “lighting flare” to the upper area of the mini-map. I assume it’s there to give “depth” to the interface, but it’s obscuring my ability to see information under it – ship range in particular.

Thanks for soliciting the input.

Terrific game!

Wow, there's a lot of reading here, and many, many great ideas. Many of my comments are seconds of others' ideas, but I'd like to bring them up, as well as some of my own:

+ A previous/next button on the main display, with a pull-down menu for ships, suns, spacestations, etc. that would allow me to highlight the previous or next item on the big screen without having to dive into sub-screens or re-zoom the big screen.

+ Arrow keys move the main map, and have diagonal movement.

+ A "What will you give me for this item?" option in the trade screen, as in Civ.

+ Random opponents button in the sandbox game.

+ Ability to rename stars, starbases, etc.

+ Sound cues for events like war, peace, and button clicks.

+ Ability to mass-delete ship designs from previous games.

+ Show the value of tech being traded, so that rookie players like myself don't end up trading Ultimate Weapon Tech I for a Pile Of Dry Sticks I. Civ IV does this.

+ Clarify the minimap to get rid of the "glare" at the top.

+ Make upgrading your ships easier, to allow for the removal and replacement of parts.

+ An "Undo Last" button on the ship creator screen, or even better, progressive Undo's, as in Photoshop.

Thanks for hearing me out!

Being able to select individual ships within a fleet and use their features e.g. upgrading/destroying would be nice. I hate using movement points just to separate ships from a fleet to tweak them. Also, it would be really nice if we could attack a planet with multiple fleets, like if you have 4 transports but only 10-13 logistics points per fleet.

When you're in the shipyard, make a change, and hit Back to Planet, make it keep the change in ship ordering rather than requiring you to hit Done. I hate having to hit Done, then re-find the planet to do other work with the planet.

Easy:

1. PROBLEM: Hard to find the tiny blue dot showing ship destination in 3D tactical view; although ship route is shown in mini-map, it's hard to tell which tiny dot is the currently selected ship...
SOLUTION: Draw ship route on the 3D tactical view with the destination in big blue circle; and in mini-map, draw a thick blue circle around the currently selected ship/object (kind of a "You are here!" arrow will do as well)

2. PROBLEM: In Planet view, the "Influence Point" shows "#ip (ratio)" and popup tooltip shows how the #ip is derived. However, the meaning of the ratio is ambiguous!
SOLUTION: Would be Better if the tooltip help for the ratio actually tells us exactly what it means, especially whether a bigger number is better or lower? Is it the influence that planet is having on neighouring enemies, or the other way around??? Presumably it's a number from 0.0 to 1.0? or 0.0 to 100%???

3. When someone else completes building a Trade Good/Galactic Achievement, which I also happen to be building, an extra GNN message should popup to remind me that it has automatically been canceled and show me to the planet so we can build something else.

4. PROBLEM: Ambiguous starbase icons in 3D tactical view, unable to tell what resource type it is. (have to zoom in a lot to see, which is troublesome).
SOLUTION: Make starbase icon glow green if is econmic enhancement starbase, and so forth (i.e. add colored glow according to its resource type color or some simple visual indication of the type), so it's easy to tell if there is a threatening enemy Influence starbase!

Hi, this is my first post. Galciv 2 is the game I've been waiting for since the massive disappointment that was MOO3. The only thing I really find to object to is that often times you can't tell whether you've "really" deselected a ship/fleet. Then you go to give orders to another ship/fleet and the previously-selected ship/fleet ALSO gets that order.

This really gets me steamed up sometimes when I lose out on a potentially important number of movement points because I just ordered ships to, often, do exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to do.

The way to work around it that I've found is:
click on the unit, give it the order, then once it's arrived, click on it twice slowly. then click OFF of it, to deselect it. Then click your new unit and proceed.

It's not a really big bother (usually) but I'm about to try and "indoctrinate" my brother-in-law with Galciv 2 and he already thinks it's way too complicated for him! This often-recurring bug would make things a LOT worse, trust me!

One other thing that is a very small change but BIG improvement is to stop making sliders "snap back" to their default location when you select something in a list. One example I know of for sure is in planetary management. Say you're building your technological capital planet and you want to build a TON of xeno labs on it. Well, xeno labs starts with an X obviously - so you must double click on it, scroll down again, double click, etc. Sort of irritating.

One final small irritation is that alien civs seem to be very reluctant to trade their influence points - for anything. I mean, hell, I could offer black hole gun tech to a stone-age civilization in exchange for their 10,000 culture points and I really doubt they'd accept it, know what I mean? The problem is only made worse by the fact that the slider is so sensitive.

OK, OK, LAST THING! Could there be a couple of additional up/down arrows added to diplomacy screens when you're asking/offering for money/influence? For instance, you click the first set of arrows, it increases/decreases by 1, the next set does it by 10s, the next by 100s, and finally one more for 1000s.

I think that's all (for now). Thanks for such a great game. I can't remember the last time that there were less than 10 changes - and small ones at that - that I wanted done to a game. And with a track record like yours, maybe I'll actually be listened to!!

Thanks again!

There should be a starbase module that increases its area of effect.

When you create a starbase, it should tell you what planets will be included in its area of effect. The area of effect is currently hard to notice when you are zoomed in.

At the colony screen, when you flip through planets using previous/next buttons, there should be an option to sort by name or PQ rather than the current order, which seems arbitrary.

When you double click on a social project and it automatically goes to the next tile, it should *NEVER* go to a "soil enhancement" tile unless that's the only thing left for the planet to build.

On the colony screen, with "available social projects", there should be a "write smaller" option so that all available projects will fit in the window without forcing the user to scroll down. (And then make the queue display larger.)

If a minor race claims a resource, it won't show up as an option for me to trade for it on the trade screen. Minor races shouldn't claim resources (or they should be willing to trade them if they get them). Apparently, minor races don't offer to trade ships.

There is a keyboard shortcut for zooming in/out on the minimap (+/-), but there is no shortcut for zooming in/out on the main map. There should be a keyboard shortcut for zooming out the main map to pre-detemined levels. A control for zooming out the main map should be present on the main screen.

If you choose "quit", when you restart GalCiv 2, the "continue game" option should be properly highlighted.

On the shipyard screen, the weapons choices should be automatically sorted with the most desirable weapons on top.

There should be an "edit" option on the shipyard screen.

When I demolished my shipyard, my colony kept building ships, but I wasn't charged for the production! (I think that if you demolish a shipyard, it finishes whatever you were building?)

Why would anyone ever build a "secret police center"? An extreme stadium is better?

The shipyard screen should still display the number of now-obselete ships you've kept around.

The colony governor screen should also display % complete for social and military projects.

If you have multiple ships set to "auto explore" or "auto survey", they shouldn't all head to the same square.

Food should be displayed on the colony governor screen, and colonies at their max population should be highlighted.

If your populuation goes over 1000B, the display gets messed up.

In GalCiv 1, there was an option to show the location of a ship or planet in the diplomacy screen.

One thing that I have noticed other people mention on the forums: They make alliances with races that they don't like, want to hurt, hinder ,and defeat, just to prevent said race from attacking them until they're ready to start their own dirty ploy against said race. That being said, whenever someone contacts me and asks for help against my evil ally whom I hate, the dialogue is always favorable about them. In addition, it seems that espionage against allies is lessened. As in, the spies make them make peace with other races, and help them in secret ways. Would it be possible to allow you to set if your espionage was benificial or detrimental, perhaps? I hate allying with a major race just to avoid being crushed, spending all my efforts into undermining them, then finding out my spies just helped them make peace when I was hoping for the extra drain on their economy war would cause. Perhaps some more options for such things, or more options to help people who are allied with races they don't like secretly undermine said races. Aid la resistance!