More AI improvements would be nice. Like how the AI handles building up their planets is not very efficent. If there was somehow a code or whatever that would help them to create more specialized planets that would be great. As it is now it really holds them back as it hurts their economy as well as ship production. I know I could probably adjust their difficulty level and give them a boost to their economy, but such an advantage only is mostly helpful in the early stages of the game and when everything pans out their poor building strategy still holds them back.

I just finished one game where I was playing the Altarians (aligned to good) and the strongest other civ was the Korath. The Korath had a military rating of 195 and mine was 190 or so. Basically what happened was we went to war and the first 10 turns of the war it was an epic stalemate. On the graph both of our military power was dropping at the same rate. Even though my weapon systems and defense were the counters for their ship designs we were fairly evenly matched, for example I attack with 8 large hulls against whatever types of fleets they muster together I could assume I'd lose at least 6 ships, and sometimes not even winning the engagement. However my point is, after those 10 turns their manufacturing could not keep up with mine due to the poor building strategy they used on their planets. It was no longer the epic war where one turn I was sure I had the upper hand then only to go to the next turn to realize that the Korath had the upper hand and so on, which honestly was really exciting and I wish I had more games like that.

Better AI military strategies would be nice as well. If the AI were to defend with roaming fleets instead of primarly orbital defense that would increase their overall combat effectivness I'd say. It is kinda lame when the AI loses a large chunk of its active military and it goes into turtle mode or something and just puts ships in orbital defense and just waits to get destroyed and the planet conquered. If they could instead organize to primarly go after fleets with troop transports in them when they go into turtle mode it would make things much more interesting.

As it is now the AIs I've gone up against don't properly utilize enough troop transports. It would be nice to see them use them more and put in troop transport fleets for higher chances to effectively conquer a star system.

Lastly, more diplomacy stuff would be nice!

What I would most like to see in the game are borders that actually matter.

The only argument I've seen against this is that "its space - its hard to enforce".

That's not the point. Its more like the space under your influence is officially recognised as being under your control, and other races just agree not to violate it (unless at war, or with a right of passage treaty).

The same thing happens on Earth. Very few borders are watched 24/7 and have walls/fences. Look at what happened in Ecuador recently. The FARC terrorists can very easily leave Columbia along the borders in the mountains and jungles.

This gives the idea of stealth modules more weight. You can make ships that can sneak past borders, but if detected by sentry starbases with special detectors, it could cause an diplomatic incident.

The second thing I would like to see tweaked is ship range. On medium maps and below, even the most basic ships can make it almost the whole way across the galaxy. Where's the fun in that? Range should be much shorter, requiring nearby colonies, new tech, or refuelling starbases if you're going to expand very far.

Right now what I really want is the ability to save a ship design for a particular game, but that hull design (as in all the non-functional parts) for all my other games.

Basically, if I make a design I like, I can use it in another game without having to research all the same technology, it just won't have the same abilities.

Isn't that what happene if you save it as a template?

Or jut save the ship with all of the functional components gone, under a different name.

An ingame planetary improvement editor to change the appearance of your improvements just like you design ships.

I would like to see "Hotseats" added to the game, where you would play a round, and then a buddy would sit down and take his turn. To be able to do that and take on AI's would be very, very cool. I read that Civ 4 had this feature. I would love to see it in GalCiv 2. One other thing: Enhanced combat AI. I hate the fact that all the AI transports come single file, or in pairs guarded by an obsolete ship>

Here's my list:

1) Improved United Planets!!! It's stupid when all races vote for different options in multiple choice votes, and you end up with something that a minority wanted. Maybe allow a few revotes, and for each vote eliminate the choice(s) that had the least support.

Realistically, political groups will work together on how to overcome a common opponent on an issue... it might be hard to reflect this type of backroom dealing with the AI, but I'm sure we could think of some way to make votes more realistic.

How many times have you voted on a multi-choice vote, and then after the vote, realized that had you voted slightly differently (i.e. talked to the races who mostly agreed with you), you would have ended up with a better outcome?

Also, who chooses which issues come up for a vote? Let the player have some say in which vote occurs, if possible.

2) Naturally occurring PERMANENT wormholes (maybe artificial ones?)
(optional, allow user to enable/disable)

3) Farscape style wormholes - fixed at one end, MOVING at the other end (What's that? You thought you had your front line secure?) I'm not sure if they could get AI to deal with this well though.
(optional, allow user to enable/disable)

4) Nebulas (electric storms that can damage ships?) and black holes that prevent passage into an area, and/or slow down movement. Something to add some barriers in space so there can be a little more battlefield-like strategy...
(optional, allow user to enable/disable)

5) Improved map editor that gives us more options for generating a map. (The same options that the game gives us!!! Or even more options.)
OR
6) A utility that rips a starmap out of a saved game so you can load it into the map editor or replay it.

And... AI upgrades for each of the above as needed! (of course)

I strongly agree -- and if you need another argument as to the "realism" of the idea, ummmmmmmmmm....ever watch Star Trek?

Besides it could probably be made OPTIONAL. I like options. Options are good!

The map editor can't zoom out far enough to see the whole map on the largest sizes. It is a bit awkward getting a feel for where things are in relation to the whole map. It would be nice if this could be addressed, simply by zooming out farther perhaps? Or an additional pop-up map like we have near the minimap indicated by the the little triangle when playing the game?

Truly Random Opponents - I would like to play a blind random game. Blind navigation is one thing, but the Drengin are the Drengin whenever I encounter them. Let me encounter races that I have never heard of and need to interact with in order to find out whether I should be allying with them or destroying them.

I very much agree with this too. We could have something similar to Civ4 where you need open borders to enter someone's territory, unless you use special stealth or unmarked units, similar to Civ's privateers.




Id love to see this as well. Wormholes would make for great strategy, causing areas to be defended and fleets to take shorcuts inside another races territory.
It would work well with the closed borders idea too.

Nebulae and black holes, as well as quasars, red giants, and other space oddities would add variation to the maps, and potentially come up with a use for science vessels to explore them for research points.

Anyway just my two pence

An way to automate a ship route for my ships that aren't freighters. like sending a couple three fighters along a set route so they patrol.

Mark

you know that bug where the evil people dont expand? just hoard colony ships? yea i would like that fixed.

Most important things to me are as follows.
If the following were added to the current state of the game I might actually find myself in trouble.

* Current generation graphics for whatever year the newest GCIII game will be released. (have to say that because graphics are important to me)
* Well now that I own Sins.OASE. I really like the way the map looks a minor detail.

* Have some say in battle tactics in a battle event on both space and ground fighting. (Im just asking for some basic commands so that you can flank - attack priority targets ect. It can be slow and methodical since the battles would probably take time anyways but can make a close fight or even a slight underdog have a chance at winning by using good tactics)

* I really liked Planetary weapons from the game Imp. Gal. 2. (Use and upgrade plantary weapons to be used to target some of the bigger ships from the planet. I just think that like any strategy game if you are going to take out a planet the invader has to earn it like a "big boss battle". Doesnt have to be a huge affair but it should take time.)

* I currently like the way the game research tree is dont change it only upgrade it to the next game. (As of ToA 1.96)

* Im sure due to technological limitations or because of the very nature of the game structure being a Turned Based 4X game this is probably going to fall on deaf ears but I would like to see either an option of this type of game or a full implementation of a real time version of this game as it applied to Imp. Gal. 2 or X-com UFO until you reach your battles. I just enjoy the flow of those games pertaining to research, building, trading, ect.

* In light of Spore being close to release the one thing that I thought would be pretty cool is starting the game off as a minor race having not even percieve space colonization, and having to conquer your own planet before moving to space, even having some primitive techs meaning Industrial Revolution era WWII or foward ect. Just an idea but very epic for game time of course.
Part 2 of the Spore ideas, making it easier than it already is (thanks Stardock for giving us the ability to make minor and Primary Races) but just making it easier to Mod. But not so generic that like Spore its no CGI eyecandy.

* When applied to ships the tiny and small should only be used close to planets, Hangers such as in Sins and from bigger ships / starbases only, rather than searching the great universe in a one manned ship just doesnt make sense even for a SciFi game where none of this is real anyways.

* I like the map sizes and anomolies and random generation of maps and events just more and make them more graphical and along with the Mods I had mentioned make it easier to make/Mod these things as well. But the problem with mods is that there has to be a way to make the game the way the player idividualizes the game to his/herself and still be able to post metaverse scores. Thats what most of us do anyways so how do you make that part easier. Kind of a good selling point too.

* I guess I cant stress enough that I like Random events I just want more of them to cause more chaos/interesting things into the mix.

* Just extra icing on the cake and not relevant but even if the game was not to be a partially real time game as mentioned above I think it would be cool to either make planet building 3D or Iso 2.5D when you view and interact with each planet and even see your population even if it is generic but specific to your race.

* Would be very nice to have a multiplayer but I think the only way it would be worth playing multi is with the real time approach.

These are things that came to mind to I could participate on this thread obvisoulsy I wrote this without actually putting much thought or drafting and there are a lot of other details from other posters that sound really good.

Later
Aaron

Most of this has probably already been mentioned, if so then take it as an 'I second that motion'

Also, as I hear there won't be another expansion, I suppose these would be suggestions for GalCiv3...

 

1.) Two or three new races done in the same way as the Krynn (ship styles, logos, etc)

2.) Three or four new political parties

3.) One or two new 'Generic' tech-trees possibilities could be 'Generic warrior race' or 'Generic diplomatic race' or tech trees for races that will eventually align with good, evil or neutral.  This would be good for opponent creation for the less mod literate player.

4.) More ship jewels and hull designs for all races plus perhaps one or two 'reserve' styles for customization purposes

5.) More complexity in the UP - more motions and perhaps a leader could be elected once in a while, say every four meetings, who could propose motions while in office - similar to MOO (but not as a way to win)

6.) Ability to close (and re-open) ones borders (selectivley via diplomacy) to everthing except trade ships, or failing that, making colonization - in particular - in another empire's territory an act of war.

7.) Protectorate option in diplomacy - similar to alliance except that protectorate pays some kind of tribute (money/research/influence/whatever) to protector who automatically declares war on those attacking the protectorate (as if they themselves were attacked)

8.) RE point 6 - make colonization more logical on the part of the AI

9.) Better combat - space empires IV style would be fine for me, seeing as this is not RTS but some kind of say in the combat side of things.  This would be good for planets too but ship combat is more important.

10a.) Make starbases generally tougher, more HP with some form of wepaonry as standard so that individual ships can't take them out so easily.

10b.) Starship construction modules on starbases perhaps requiring a construction specific starbase with modules that  decrease build time (balanced so that planets are still quicker and cheaper)

11.) (Maybe better for a patch) Eyes of the Galaxy wonder should give planets 'eyes' too.  It doesn't.

12.) Terraforming ship module, (similar to mining module) with three tech levels that allow you to make use of class zero planets and improve lower class planets.  Terraform Tech 1 - Brings planets to Level 4, Tech 2 - Level 7, Tech 3 - Level 10, for example. This should be a slow process and expensive technology.

13.) Ability to board ships during aforementioned improved tactical combat (boarding party/ship security modules?) and later possiblity of reverse engineering for captured/diplomatically acquired ships.

14.) More government types, some with senate elections, some without using the various political parties as a basis for bonuses 'Star Theocracy' or other.

As it stands, I never change from Star Federation once there which makes the government aspect of the game an underdeveloped facet, considering its potential.

15.) 3 or 4 policy options for each type of government with benefits and penalties.  'Free Press' +10 morale, -10 'something else', for example.

 

As I said above, these will pobably have to go in as suggestions for GCIII but if any of them could make it into a patch, I'd be one very satisfied customer (not that I'm not already - great game!  )

maybe on the stories you could have different objectives, and depending which ones you beat will change the story later on

also maybe you could have the ability to have an orbiting starbase around a planet (such as the international space station with weapons and research) which will allow your planets more that just ship protection, that can be destroyed easily and leaving your planet wide open for attack. also i'm in for the more tactical fighting mentioned by Redsonia. Maybe you could tell your ships what to do at the biginning of the battle and have the ability to change your order during the battle. then if ur crew is big enough you could send a team over to the ship maybe by transporter or small craft inside the ship. ALSO i think it would be cool to have captains and admirals on your space ship.

lol i dont moind, though i will admit after about like destroying all of them the tension comes off and the game losses it coolness

For a sequel, the following reqests.

These aren't meant to suggest that I'm in any way unhappy with GalCiv2.  The game is excellent.

 

1.  I'd like to see "Range" be a more meaningful attribute of ship design.

Currently, range seems to translate to: This is how far your ship can go.  You can go up to the limit, at which point some magical force will prevent you from going further.... engine troubles, crew mutinying because you wandered into the 'here there be tygers' part of your interstellar charts, the Q continuum throwing up a forcefield.  The game seems to support the idea that range is related to your available food, water and oxygen on-board, because you have to add more/better life support modules to go further.

I've sent out scout ships to the limits of their range though, and then forgotten about them for a couple of years.  They stay there, scanning the perimeter of my known space, crew loyal, with enough food/water/fuel/oxygen to stay out there for as long as I want them to.  If the ship could stay there unsupported for so long, why wasn't it capable of going a bit further past the set range limit?

Really, the outer limit of a ship's range would be how far it could go if it immediately turned around and headed back for the nearest starbase/friendly planet for resupply.  If it stayed in unfriendly space for any length of time, it would use up its stored supplies and the crew would die.

 

Possibilities for gameplay:

-A weak but well-stocked supply ship that travels with fleets to extend their effective range.  Shorter-range ships can effectively keep up with the fleet and travel beyond the limits of their own rangeby siphoning off the life-support of the supply ship.  If the fleet's supply vessel(s) are destroyed, any vessels that are beyond their own range are on a countdown to starvation.  If they want to survive, they have to head back towards the nearest starbase and hope to meet up with another supply ship coming from the other direction.

-Setting up supply lines... effectively mobile trade routes from planets/starbases to a fleet in order to keep it "fed".  Worrying about the possibility of supply lines being attacked, or plotting this strategy against an enemy.

-Debating whether to keep a ship at the limits of its range, or send it beyond the point of no return.  With no resupply, a scout ship could go even further and gather potentially valuable intel at the cost of the crew's life.

-Starved, dead ships can be captured by any race which find them and put to use.  Also potentially they can be disassembled and "mined" for technologies that were present on them but which the finder's civilization don't possess.

-"Scout drones" as a research goal on the tech tree.  These can be left behind by scout ships, and can also be destroyed.

 

2.  Ship damage can result in damage to functional components, including engines and weapons.  If tactical combat is going to be employed, ships or fleets can be ordered to concentrate their fire on specific parts of an enemy fleet's vessels.  I'm presuming that ballistic armor is across the ship's entire hull, and therefore probably can't be disabled.  Perhaps shield emitters or anti-missile nodes can be disabled by damage?

Gameplay potential:

-On the way to an enemy's planets, an entire fleet can be slowed down or weakened by a ship with a damaged warp engine.  Cut it loose or move more slowly.  Similarly, a relatively weak defense force can deliberately target an incoming fleet's engines or weapons, in an attempt to soften it up for the second wave which might not have been manufactured yet.

 

3.  Deeper diplomacy options. 

-Currently it's: ([action X] and/or [give me X])  [and in return I will]  ([action Y] and/or [give you Y])

-I'd like to see: ([action X against species A] and/or [give X to species A] and/or [disable, remove X]) ([and] [or] in return I will)  ([action Y against species b]  and/or  [give Y to species b])

Examples:

-"Remove your fleets from my space or I will declare war on you."

-"Disable Starbases 1, 2 and 8 or I will give warships 365, 584 and 878 to (your enemies) the Drengin."

-"Pay me 300 bc (recurring) and I will declare war on (all your enemies)."

-"Give the Torians your Fleet 71 and I will give Planet Y to the Krynn."

 

4.  Asynchronous multiplayer.  I think this is the "hotseat" play that many people are talking about.  With a turn-based strategy game, many of the complaints of dropped connections can be reduced.  Allow players to sign up, choose races, and set the order of play and the deadline for each player's turn.  Anytime a player doesn't submit his/her moves by the deadline, the game's AI takes over for that turn and executes moves with a high intelligence setting.  Players can drop out or in as they please, but if a player drops out entirely another new player can't take their place.

I'm pretty new. The only real things that I see need improving are the exact same things Master of Orion was missing. That being;

1. Control of your own ships in combat.
   
   • You could do this by using bigger maps in a simple RTS style of selecting units with drag and drop "go-to" type commands. 
   • I'd like to see MANY more ships in combat, reflecting the resources it would take to invade a whole planet/star system.
   • You could even deepen this RTS style by creating the ability to warp in/out of a system except near planet gravity wells, or artificially created wells at certain strategic points. This could make for some great strategic and tactical play.
2. Control of ground troops in combat
   • I have found it greatly annoying that all I can do is watch a gungan vs. trade federation style formation combat. The only determining factor being some numerical representation of odds.
   • I would like to see turn based planetary invasions spaning many turns, depending on the attack and defense forces, as well as any assistance from space.
   • Multi turn planetary invasions could lead to very unique turns in the invasion. For example, say the invaders secured orbit and landed a sizeable force on the planet before orbit was resecured by the defenders in turn 2. Now the attacker has lost advantage of orbital support and has become the attacked. Perhaps though, the invader was well prepared for this and placed their troops in an easily defended area of the planet and holds out for reinforcements. This tactic could effectively nullify production of that planet for several turns while its resources are spent defending itself.
   • I'd like to see several unit/division types spanning in the hundreds even in low tech and smaller invasions.
   • I'd like to see many unit devision types whos placement, composition (created like ships are), and ability to support other units is critical. That all units have weaknesses and key to victory will be shoring up those weaknesses with supporting units.
   • I'd like to see supply become a big issue for invaders if they lose orbital support. This may turn the more reckless invader to reckless tactics in order to cause as much damage or secure the planet as quickly as possible.

Mostly I'd like to see the combat itself become less automated and add a level of tactical genius to the game as well.

You could definetly sell this as a stand alone game, but with the intent to be a plugged into GC2s strategy format.

Asside from that, I'd merely suggest the following minor changes;

1. Show systems on the galactic map only. Showing planets on a galaxy map is silly looking.
2. Make system maps the tactical playground of the space combat.
   • Scouts would have to zip all over the system for probably quite a few turns to fully explore just one system, depending on tech.
   • Each system becomes its own tactical scenario, without regard to planets 3 spaces away belonging to another star. I've always found this silly and unrealistic.
   • You can add new tactical complexity by adding asteroids to hide things in/behind, make starbases easier by simply building one into an asteroid.
   • Mining moons and asteroids might make important strategicly valuable points on the map.
   • With the gravity wells mentioned above, both sides might be able to use some very unique hit and run tactics, or set traps/ambushes for enemies.
3. Each system would have to be defended differently depending on anomalies and natural formations in it.

Just some of my thoughts. Instead of building more of the same thing. Why not simply add whats missing?

Wow, the expansion pack is out and we're still talking about what should be in it.  Where's that post from Mumble about necromancing?    lol

Keep it up and I threaten to find the ole' orbital bombardment, tactical combat thread. Bwahahaha

Yeah, and one of the things he asked for is already in the game.

Show systems on the galactic map only. Showing planets on a galaxy map is silly looking.

Try clicking on the icons in the top row next to the minimap. Planets, stars, anomalies, and asteroids are all able to be toggled, and have been (except for asteroids, of course) since Dread Lords.

Other requests, again these are for GalCiv III if/when it ever happens.

 

5.  Cloaking, Cloaking Detection.  It'd be interesting to see a tech tree on Cloaking research, with 2 branches: cloaking/detection.  Yes, I know it's very Star Trek-y, but just like the first Star Trek episode to feature a cloaked ship, it would introduce the space equivalent of submarine warfare.  I think the ST universe could give us some useful guidelines as well, such as the inability to fire and still remain cloaked.  Ships could be reined in from becoming too powerful by making the cloaking devices expensive in terms of component space; not so much room left over for armor or weapons.

Gameplay potential:

-Cloaked ships are given a +/- cloaking score compared to any ship of any other species.  If the other ship doesn't have a high enough cloaking-detection ability, it can't see the cloaked ship.  If the other ship has close, but not equal-to-or-greater detection ability, it will see radar echoes of where the ship was while it is moving.... not where it is currently.  Ex: A ship with a cloak value of 5 and a movement of 7 moves through the sensor range of a ship with cloak-detection value of 3.  The game calculates the difference between the two values and determines that the detecting ship can see X amount of "blips" from where the cloaked vessel's movement path.  The detecting ship may be able to tell from the blips what the other ship's attributes are, but not where it started moving and not where it ended.  The detecting ship also can't fire on the cloaked one, since it can only see movement echoes rather than where the ship is presently.  If the cloaked ship opens fire, it immediately becomes visible and remains so until its opponent is destroyed or it fully repairs, whichever comes last.  Cloaked ships are also visible when they have fewer than full HP.  Cloaked ships would remain undetectable if they remained still, so long as they have a greater cloaking rating than their opponent's detection rating.  Cloaking/detecting tech tree branches would be like the weapon/defense advances, with more advanced research yielding better and smaller techs.  Cloaking tech would always require much more component "room" than detection modules.

 

6.  Mines.  I'd like to be able to set out mines armed with laser, missile or ballistic weapons.  A mine's punch would be one-time but powerful, either destroying the mine itself or completely consuming its power supplies.  Mines could also be equipped with cloaking tech, making them potentially invisible to fleets that don't contain a ship with sufficient cloak detection.  A mine would have a set home location and a sensor range.  If an enemy ship/fleet passed through the sensor range, the mine would start moving towards it......slowly..... and detonate when it reaches the same co-ordinates as the enemy ship/fleet.  If the enemy passes through and out of sensor range, the mine would either remain stationary or return to its home location when it can no longer detect them.  Mines would have a very slow rate of movement but potentially a high sensor rate, and their "punch" would affect every ship in the fleet simultaneously. 

 

7.  (And this would be a big one) I'd love to see a meta-game in the CalCiv universe.  Something like GalCiv3, with standalone expansions that completely tranform one aspect of these interstellar wars.  So a product line something like:

-GalCiv 3, with more generalized ship combat and planetary invasion tactics.

-GalCiv Planetary Assault, a standalone expansion that gives the player a campaign of a single planet being invaded, with much more detailed ground-level tactics.

-GalCiv Deep Space Combat, which would focus on fleet engagements and give a single-player campaign that takes place in a single fleet.

-Galciv: Colonists.  There's got to be a good sub-game/expansion dealing with the hardships of colonists in a new world.

Each of the expansions would be essentially a game unto itself, but if a player owned the additional expansions, he/she could play a potentially very long game with an unprecedented level of detail.  When a planetary invasion or fleet battle begins, he/she could choose to let it play out with the simplified rules or load the expansion pack to take more direct control of the action.

 

8.  Turn length.  Turns should be much longer..... probably a month or year instead of a week.  Several things would have to be accounted for, including changing over (human) leaders as they age and die, and perhaps something do deal with the maintenance of ships over a certain age.  There's just no other reasonable way to explain population growth and the acquisition of new technologies, except for time.  This ties in with the request above, for range.  Most of the population growth factors are explained by fertility enhancements, so the population growth should be reasonably related to human reproductive abilities.

 

9.  Players who are attacked by other species and win should earn the admiration (or at least grudging respect) of other civilizations..... rather than earning the label of "agressor", which only increases the likelihood of yet more attacks.

What I would like to see, and it would be great if we could be able to do this. The chance to liberate a conquered race to bring an empire back into the game and a conquered race can rebel and rise up against you.

Also minor races could rise to power.

The chance to capture enemy ships.

Regenerating galaxies - example :- getting to the end of known space, and being able to keep on going to new found galaxies. In a nutshell never ending maps.