This is the first time I've ever posted in a forum. I'd like to start by saying that GalCiv2 is a highly addictive game with a lot of great features and it's extremely obvious a lot of effort went into it. That said there are also some important things I think could be improved in the game itself without being forced to mod it. Ship customization is one of the key selling factors of this game. At first fumbling my way through I was overjoyed with my options to improve my ships cosmetic appearance. After a while of playing though I noticed something crucial was missing in customizing your ships, there was no ability to design your own hull. Thankfully this was remedied with the "Kryos Hull System Mod" by creating a blank hard point for each class of ship and copying all hull designs as objects. Personally I think this should be a standard feature of the game.
The next thing I noticed that I still find a serious disappointment is even with all of miniaturization researched, you still can't get many weapons and components on your ships. Reading through the forum I realize I'm not the only one with this issue. I know the standard answer to this has been you should specialize your ships to counter the AI. I say they are both right and wrong. On the smaller hulls such as tiny and small which are your fighters they should be limited in range, speed, attack, and defense. Medium hulls which would be your cruisers and destroyers should be specialized to fit your needs much as they are in the real world as well as popular SciFi. Cargo hulls should also be specialized and not loaded down with weapons and defenses since their primary purpose is to transport things. Now where I see things differently is with the large hull (your battleships) and the huge hull (your dreadnoughts). Battleships and Dreadnoughts should be well armed and defended. They are massive Capital Ships that should have the ability to quickly get to the enemy even at the furthest reach of your space and engage without consideration of the enemies abilities. A Dreadnought should be able to give even a fleet of medium and smaller sized hulls a fight for their lives. I think large and especially huge hulls should have more space for components, also the component sizing for ships needs some adjustment. While I agree life support, defenses (armor, shields, and point defense), and engines should take up more space on larger hulls (after all there is more mass to to support, defend, and move) I think weapons and sensors should always be the same size regardless of the hull. This would add realism to the game and also allow the large and huge hulls to have more weapons and be the the multi-platform attack vessels they should be.
One last thing I'd like to see maybe in a mod if not in the mainstream version would be some tech and ship components from the game Stars! To add some of the popular SciFi elements to the game. Things like Cloaking Devices (to hide from sensors), Anti-Matter Generators (for increased range), Tachyon Detectors (to find cloaked ships), and Energy/Flux Capacitors (for increased beam weapon damage). The Cloak Tech Tree could be something like: Stealth (gives the ship special armor that is resistant to sensors), EM Control (gives the ship a device that eliminates electronic emissions), Reduced Engine Emissions (a device the eliminates engine signatures and noise), Light Bending (a device that bends light making an object impossible to see), Total Cloak (a shield that combines all the previous techs into a single device), and Phase Cloak ( a cloaking device that puts the ship slightly out of sync with space time making it impossible to detect until it attacks).
Of coarse you would have to have Anti-Cloak/Stealth Tech Tree to all the Cloak Techs. For example Radar (to detect hulls, cannot find Stealth Armored ships), EM Detector (to detect electronic emissions), Emissions Detector (to find engine emissions), Tachyon Detector (to find Cloak Shielded ships), Multi-Phasic Sensors (to detect Phase Cloaked ships).
The requirement of multiple detectors to find cloaked ships will make it difficult for a normal ship to detect a types of cloaked ships, therefore creating the need to include sensor ship in your fleets to avoid falling prey to cloaked ships.
Well that's all I had to say. I'm interested in hearing thoughts or suggestions for my ideas. If anyone is able to tell me how to mod my own game so I cam implement my own ideas that would be greatly appreciated.
