a hanger for ships. this could hold about 5 fighters.

more types of starbases like research, colony star bases and a fuel satr base.

away to steal ship designs, techs, money and planet loyalty from the enemy.

planet space stations that can attack ships 4 parsecs away

separate ship editor where you could use all races ship designs and create your own basic hulls and accesories that is in the actual game.

a map maker in the main start up screen.

more ship styles like research ship and refueling ships

this would make the game better.

Everything I want in the new expansion pack has been said.. apart from these:

- Mini Campaign detailing the arrival of the Krynn.
- Mini Campaign detailing the arrival of the Thalans.
- Mini Campaign (not sure if this one is possible) to detail the events in the war between the Arnor/Dreadlords (whilst you play either Arnor or Dreadlords).
- Planets in more depth! Entertainment networks shouldn't just be the only building to improve morale! Make citizens demand armed spaceships for protection, more industrial buildings, etcetera. If you don't, then after x-turns, that planet will have increased chances of rebelling against your civilization.
- Habitable planets become unhabitable! From time to time, you get a UP event saying that |Name of planet| has become habitable. Why not make some habitable planets become uninhabitable from some sort of natural disaster? Like volcano eruptions. Maybe you can have x-turns to evacuate that population (good), let them stay and increase research (evil), or a bit of both (save x-percentage of colonists, whilst gin an x-percentage boost in research whilst it leads up the the event).
- Everyone is mentioning have the "get out of my area or die" choice. Why not add depth to that? when creating alliances, you can suggest "allow unarmed ships only", "trade ships only", "no star bases in territory", etcetera? The AI can also demand this. Even after alliances?

I have a solution to the tactical combat problem.

If you go with the current 'invasion' technique i.e. you click a form of attack then there is a prescedent in an online game i played a few times. They had a superbly simple setup where you design your ships (as do we) and then when you want to attack you get 4 (four) choices...

1. regular
2. board
3. scout base
4. board base

Now obviously these aren't relevant but I like the concept of the first two for ship to ship attack and I think the second two could be modified to fit ship / starbase attacks.

The idea I love most about it is the idea that you can comandeer the opposision ships but if you attempt to do it it will weaken your forces, presumably because they have to focus on sending troops into enemy ships and trying to comandeer them. At this point your 'soldeiring' skills come in to play i.e. ta kwan traing centres, couyrage etc etc.

anyway, it would be a fun element that shouldn't screw with the general gameplay to much. I also like the idea because as you get to the late stages of the game and you are winning (hopefully) the game becomes a bit dull as you just clear things up (mop up whats left of the enemy(s)). Well I have always thought that in a real combat situation (space or otherwise) a force that is exspenentially (sp?) weaker would resort to guerilla tactics. This would mean that they could train in geurilla tactics specifically to steal your ships which are far more capable. I know that once I build my best ship (Regel Empire Class) I am unstoppale. But if the AI ever got their hands on one of these ships (I donate them occasional for kicks) they can do some real damage back to me.

Warmest regards

VanCam

PS. big big big fan of the game.

PPS. Imagine the possibilities of enemy AI comandeering your starbases. and the action would work so well... step 1. attack as per normal step 2 choose board base step 3 watch usual video of attack step 4 9should the prior attack be succesful) choose how to attack / board the starbase... (a) crack troops (b) Psi troops (c) General Infantry (d) crazy mutant dogs that have been bred for combat etc etc

a way to customise ground troops and vehicles.

more anomalies.

satelites that float frough space.

weather on planets, like hurricanes and freak floods

moer complex and more simple ship jewlery.

lose asteroids floating frough space that can hit planets.

ice ages that freeze most of the planet.

more weapon types like crystal,bio, virul weapons

- More diplomacy--an or option, as in, "give me 100bc or I declare war." Also, telling players to move ships out of your territory etc,.

- War coordination with multiple allies and between computers -- "invade planet X, attack starbase 52." It'd be really interesting to see computer coordinating attacks, or to coordinate attacks with computers.

- More advanced military tactics by the computer, and military tactics depending on race. I'd like to see the Altarian Resistance use hit-and-run techniques with fast, high-tech fighters, while the Drengin steamroll you with a myriad amount of fighters backed up by capital ships.

- More scenarios: I'd like to see a super power scenario where two races start with multiple planets and a powerful military, and are permanently at war, while all the other races are caught in between and have to choose their alliegance. You could play one of the lesser races or one of the superpowers.

- Ship morale and morale that depends on war. If you're losing a war really badly, your morale should decrease.

Having been an avid Stars! player as well as Alpha Centauri, I have to agree, somewhat. I was looking around for an alternative to ACII and Stars!, esp. when the Stars! upgrade never happened. I found a review of GC in an issue of SciFi magazine last year - which was the first time I'd ever heard of GC. So, I bought it and was pleasantly surprised at how rich and diverse the game is. As a Father's Day/birthday present to myself, I bought the DA expansion pack. I love it, but I actually could wish for a multiplayer version.

I've read the analysis of why there is no multi-player and I respect those views, but given the depth and breadth of games like Civilization and AC, I think a separate multi-player pack might be in order. Given that, I probably would buy a new expansion, even if it didn't have the multi-player component. This game is truly addictive and I'm afraid to start playing unless I can set aside five or six hours straight. I've been known to "lose time" when I start a game and only get pulled out when my family starts yelling at me

Here's something I'd really like to see - letting people with the exact same Mods compete in the Metaverse with those Mods. So, if two or more people want to use, say the B5 mod to play in the metaverse, that should be okay since they're not going to have any particular advantage or disadvantage using the same mod.

Just a thought.

Mel

I never thought that I would by an expansion for this game, as it was so good already. But then I did (it was half price at a local store) and I havent regretted it.

Ideas for another expansion?

As a comprimise to the arguement about implimenting borders, what about this:

A new kind of starbase, or at least a new modual. This would allow you to link with another starbase within a certain distance, and create a wall between them. The only way to get through the wall would be to destroy one of the starbases.
This would add a whole new realm to strategy- putting up barriers between you and a particually hostile race; forming them where they wont get in the way of trade, and defending them from being destroyed.

I feel that space could use a little more varity, espicially where planets and suns are involved. Those class 0 planets just sit there, and suns arnt any better.

What about the posibility of destroying planets, given the right technology and some time, leaving nothing but asteroids remaining.

As another idea, how about Black holes? Suns that (either randomly or as a result of some player action) explode, destroying the system and creating a region of space that destroys any ship that stays there too long.

1) Wormholes
A: stable (10% to 20% of them)
B: ruptures in space (unusable) till be converted with a stargate technology...

2) A vessel that is a mass destruction weapon (like a nuclear missle) and of course with side effects if used, like ruptures in subspace that reduce ships speed to 1 for 50 or 100 years in the area of effect...

3) Increase maximal opponents to all official available races...

4) Real borders, with open or closed border treaties...

I'd like to see something between "war" and "peace" ... such as convoy raiding and starbase attacks that don't actually start a hot war. Perhaps ships and bases outside of a race's territorial boundaries could be attacked without the prereq of being at war. Of course your enemy may declare war on you, a risk you'd have to be willing to take.

NOT characters. Please don't go Warcraft 3 on us.

Bigger library of responses for the races; a greater diversity of insults etc.

More scenarios - at least 10 for each race.

Ship captain bribery: if a transport is about to unload on my capitol planet, why can't I buy off the generals? (Well, maybe not the Yor). For example, have the mininum price be a planet, and the transport heads over there and becomes a new minor race.

Two-way stable worm-holes. That you can build a starbase to protect. And you can rename the starbase "DeepSpace 9".

Teleportation technology.

Cloaking fields for attacking ships and defending plantets/bases. Make more sensor research to counter. Need more logistics to hold a fleet together if you are attacking a cloaked object.

An attack/defense/hitpoint advantage for having good engines and/or good life support (ie Star trek: divert all power to the deflectors!).

When a race is wiped out, the anomolies they discovered should reappear on the map.

Futures research trading - say, I can contract with the Dregnin to research X for me, or I can promise them Y research by Wednesday.

Leasing instead of trading: if I can buy a ship that way, why can't I buy Phasors that way?

Gravity effects to travel. If I order a ship from point A to point B, it should take the fastest route it knows (straight line if unexplored). But the fastest route should take advantage of sling-shoting off stars, planets, and starbases. That could be visually pleasing.

Starbases should have some effect on the speed of travel to/from and near it.

When you conquer a world, you should always get a moral choice (new management versus old management).

More moral choices, including some tied to where you are on the tech tree (multivariate - having this + that = this unusual situation).

Boarding modules for ship-to-ship combat. I don't just want to destroy your capital ship; I want to steal it.

Well, after reading through all these posts I will add my 2 cents in.

Things that I have seen that I would like to see implemented.

1. Better UP/Diplomacy.
2. Space Monsters.
3. More tactical space combat/ground combat. If done well enough this could easily be enough for me to be willing to pay $30-50 for this alone.
4. Respawning anomolies/ anomolies that can only be explored with higher sensor levels.
5. More teraforming options (as you gain the abilitiy to colonise hostile enviroments, new tiles may become terraformable/available.)
6. Spying improvements (passive spying, more and varied spy missions.)
7. Editors: Ship, map and scenario editors, possibly stand alone programs.
8. A way to capture starbases (and possibly ships.)
9. Ethical delimmas that do not always favor evil.
10. Better cuing for planetary improvements/the ability to create a default cue for all planets (either an individual improvement list that can be edited as new improvements come along or better yet allow varibles like best factory.)
11. Cueing for shipyards (again varibles would be great.)
12. Ship repair and upgrading to be done at shipyards! (minor repairs only in space.)
13. More races.
14. More events and megaevents.
15. Continue ethical choices after an alignment is chosen with a cash penalty needed to go against you alignment. Especially if combined with #9 above.
16. Mutual destruction of ships of in combat.

Things I am ambivolent on.
1. Carriers: Carriers in Pax Imperia II were completely out of control. Having larger hulled ships carry tiny hulled ships is also a bad idea in my opinion. On the other hand a forth branch of the on both the weapons and defences tech trees with fighter and AAA technologies could work out well.
2. More ship jewelery: Might be nice especially with a ship editor, but I am one of those people who is not impressed by graphics. I usually play with the map zoomed way out so that all ships are replaced by generic icons.
3. Multiplayer: I have never played competitive multiplayer computer games and problbly never will. In my experience it has always come down to who knows the most loopholes and not who is the better player.
4. Stable wormholes: Good idea only if the AI can handle them.

New ideas:
1. A grand campaign sandbox mode. Have a number of sectors that played sequentially (or simultanoiusly for us maschocists or in blocks of 10 turns or so) that lead to an eventual goal. This would require a good number of storyline changes and a way for the sectors to interact, but I think this would be the next level of play that would easily justify a $50 price tag that I would pay.
2. Zones of control around core systems that are separate influence borders. All ships and bases must leave this zone unless allowed by treaty or alliance. Any ship or base that does not leave within a number of turns (2-5) will defect to the controlling power.

Scincerely,
Scintor

What i would like in GC is a more detailed game map, with more astronmical features, because at the moment the map is a bit bland, though the game rocks. And though you have the major features, Asteroids, planets, stars ect. Perhaps inclussion of
Moons- perhaps an additional habitation space
Novas, and supernova clouds- clouds left over from a nova or supernova as these things take millions of year(?) to disperse(could effect the working of ships or something).
Nebulas- really just the same a a nova cloud
Radiantion zones, or other space hazard zones
Space weather cylces
Perminate Black holes and wormholes- instant transport

Oh yeah i would like it if using spore ships had a diplomatic penatly for using 'biological weapons'. Because at the moment if their is a diplomatic penatly i can't notice it.

And or anything else you could thing of.

Though i know nothing of programing and have no idea if, and how much work would be requred to get this working. But old MOO2 had some of the features so it shouldn't be to hard for the GC team.

Major stuff:
1: map editor that can build custom races and place bonus resources.

2: Make the United Planets dynamic. crate an agenda construction window where players can craft and propose laws. This could add a whole new dimension to the value of influence and diplomacy! There could be back room politics were instead of just trading influence you could trade promises to back future proposals, and allies could merge influence to make joint proposals.

3: Expanded tech tree. It's too easy to get almost every thing. Make more distinct types of weapons, defenses, and hull types so that races are forced to specialize and become technologically distinct.
some ideas:
a)ship defense- cloaking devise path
b)ship component- computers that add bonus to weapon damage (accuracy) and counter measure effectiveness
c)space station type- jump gates
d)territory defense- space mines
e)hull types- ship carriers, unmaned KamiKazi fighters
f)ship defense- maneuver drives give an evasion defense (other drives could be just for warp travel)
g)nano-tech path- weapons and defense like nano viruses for planetary invasions and missiles that latch on to ships and take them apart (like the squids in the matrix)

4: Instead of one progression of government types, each better than the next, make different types of government and economy paths that are mutually exclusive. Allow players to change parties.

Balances and tweaks:
1: star base effects no longer stack and no advantage in mining two of the same bonus resource. This could just be a game option if it’s controversial.
2: allow players to decommission capitals and rebuild them on new planets.
3: building influence and military star bases in others territory is an act of war.

Ooh lots of great ideas mentioned so far. I'd have to say :
1) Tactical space/gound combat.
2) Heroes
3) A true 3d game map.
4) Unique artifacts/ items/ technologies that can be placed on a specicfic ship(or station) or planet tile, discovered by a)finding an anomaly or building a research lab on an artifact tile on a planet.
5) Ultra techs, Dyson spheres, wormholes, transcending sentience, Assimilation etc etc.

Diplomacy: threats, asking nicelly, more relationship levels, non-aggression pacts, remember that you gave them stuff and returning the favor later, having you and the AI's to be able to call UP meetings as well as having semi-annual meetings

War: more invation tactics, star fighting tactics, them ofering you stuff for peace

Other: MORE RACES, smarter AI, having minor races just poping up on formerly uninhabitable planets

I would focus on providing many more "small" activities, rather than going for broke on a couple of headline "Biggies". The structure of the game is excellent now, but there long natural "pauses" at various stages of the game - differing for each level usually - where not a lot is happening (as such), more a pause as player/AI takes a breath to regroup or build up forces etc.

If many small activities were made available that had an effect on the game during these minimal activity periods - aiming for far too many for all to be used in one game (forcing genuine choice), enhancing the strategy side of the game - overall it would have the effect of making the game busier, more immersive.

They would not have to be complex, in fact if they were easy to achieve - but still had a substantial effect on the overall game - they could be slotted in minimising the game balancing problems.

Regards
Zy

Lots of nice ideas here. Kudos to everyone who thought it over and responded!

Here's my two cents' worth:

1) More varied space station modules / Artificial Planets - What about modules like "Hotel / Residency", "Gambling / Resort", "Food Production", "Factory / Manufacturing", and even the ability to add engines for propulsion? What about freighters being able to ship the produced items to different planets, whether the player's or the AI's, or possibly even dedicated starbase-planet shipping routes to enable increased stats for a planet? Maybe even planet-attack weapons "a la Death Star"? In the absence of artificial planets, having more varied modules would make for a nice additional strategic aspect, enabling players to overcome the limitations of only being able to colonize a couple planets with a few squares each because other races already have 30 higher techs than the player does at game start... Of course, such bases could also come under attack....

2) A map / scenario / campaign editor / creator of some type - GalCiv2 is an awesome game (haven't gotten to the Dread Lords expansion yet), but one thing missing from any version is some kind of editor which enables us, the end users, to create our own scenarios and campaigns. The original game comes with one campaign, and the Dread Lords expansion is a second one, but other than those, we've got nothing else except the random battle map scenario creator (which is nice, but I'd like some structure, too). Something like this would increase the replay-ability exponentially.

3) Advanced Terraforming - Sometimes maps have a number of unusable planets, and it would be nice to have the ability to develop terraforming to a higher level - namely, turning those planets into habitable planets. Also, being able to terraform unusable parts of currently inhabited planets into useful squares would be nice, i.e. You've enhanced all possible squares, and still only have 3 new lands - time to begin clearing and developing new areas....

4) Enhanced War Aspects - What about fighter transport ships which are capable of transporting fighter squadrons into other sectors (much like a "space aircraft carrier", thereby allowing the player to design fighters with more firepower / armor, but less range, for more devastating attacks? Also, what about the ability to demand surrender from a planet before invading, something like "This is your last chance because a troop carrier / invasion force is sitting just outside your planet, ready to invade"...

Anyway, those are a few ideas I had so far. Lemme know what you think.

Some tactical space/ground combats : real time with pauses. Or action pints.

More content (jewelery, terraformation...)

Some specific part of tech tree for each races, with specific weapons or abilities.

An IA advisor we can switch off. It will manage some domains of the empire : territories, economy, technology...

Some tactical space/ground combats : real time with pauses. Or action points.

More content (jewelery, terraformation...)

Some specific part of tech tree for each races, with specific weapons or abilities.

An AI advisor we can switch off. It will manage some domains of the empire : territories, economy, technology, spy system... We can change when we want what the AI did, but it can help to gain some time.

EDIT : Sorry, I had a connexion problem and I posted the same message twice.

I would love to have more diplomatic options. Alliances can be more than just a way to win the game or for help if you get attacked, or what happens most they get you into a war.

Maybe in the trade screen you can have a list of future techs" where you agree to research something next and you ask the AI to do the same and when you both have researched your assigned tech you automatically trade with eachother. For instance i'll pick phasors II and then on the AI (who is my ally) side of the screen i pick from a list of all techs he hasnt done yet, say terraforming. If it is acceptable it will be green just with all trading. When i hit send its done and when i finish my next tech, phasors II will automatically be my next project, same with my ally. in a few weeks we'll both be done and we trade. While you wait for the AI to finish, you can research as you normally do.

It would make having alliances more enticing since you can have a say in what they research and you can work towards a common goal. It would be even better if the AI could do the suggesting of what you should do.

Also, you may be able to click a box that will forbid one or both parties from retrading a tech. it would mean that it will cost more but then you can feel ok with giving an ally, or a minor, or anyone, a tech and the wont give it to an enemy.

The UP should elect a leader, the leader will get to choose from a list of topics for the next vote. Also, as part of the all new diplomacy model, after you decide on a topic you can see how yor ALLIES will vote on it and you can use the trade screen to help chance their minds. This would only work for allies.



Another place where additions to diplomacy could be initiated is that since this is a turn based game, it really assumes that everyone's actions happen at the same time, so if a battle is about to take place maybe it can wait until everyone as taken their turn. This could mean that an icon will show where a battle is about to take place (a lightning bolt?) and you can join as a third party to a fight to help an ally. or you can have a 3-way brawl. As long as your ships were close enough during their turn. this will also mean that you'll see all of the action at one time when everyone has taken their turn.

So i see so sort of icon and i know that a fight between and enemy and an ally is pending. So i send my feelt there too and a screen showing who is present comes up and i can click who im attacking. If one is an ally then its automatic that im helping them. my shipd will thejn be added to theirs for that battle. Maybe other Ai's will join too but i doubt there would be that many in the vicinity.

I have no idea if this is even possible but i guess the mechanics would be like a temporary increase in logistics and a temporary change of ownership (as if you traded ships with the AI) of the ships. when the fight is over ownership goes back. So the program will have to do some behind the scenes work.




This next idea kinda deals with diplomacy:
A new protection treaty i guess you could call it. Where someone pays you every turn (amount is negotiated in the trade screen) to protect them. That is you will fight who ever starts a war with them. Or you can pay an AI money to fight for you if you are attcaked. It would mostly work as a way to avoid getting attacked. You protector's military rating will be added to yours, that the AI will have to consider before starting a war.

WHY? First this can keep some of the weaker races in the game. Especially the minors. If the Krynn are getting paid to protect one, they won't be so easy to just wipe away when you or an AI feels like having their planet.

second it can be a good way to make more tribute income. or enabling you to concentrate on research and pay some one to fight for you. this is more than just trading cash for a declaration of war. This would be a good use of the Korx who are otherswise no so useful.

Yes, it does look very similar to an alliance, but a weak civ can never form an alliance. Some other differences are:
-With an alliance you can still choose to back out if your ally is attacked.
-This treaty is a one-way street.
-When paying a civ to go to war, its immediate and definite. This is a just-in-case thing.
-In order to even get an alliance you have to be on close terms with the civ. In this case you can even have a civ that practically hates you accept an offer to protect you if the money is right. the stronger your military or the greater the difference in militaries the more you can charge. And its paid weekly until one side decides to end to business relationship. I think some players might like to get rich off their strong military.

I was really thinking of this because of what happens to the minors all the time. This way they can last, and if you are getting money from them you may be able to tolerate their existance longer. But i still think it can work for the majors too.

The rules can be something like:

- you can not start a war with someone you are protecting. you must first cancel the treaty, and then wait a turn. You will not be able to start the war, a screen will tell you that you have to wait a week.

- you have no choice but to fight. a question will not even be asked, but a screen will tell you that due to someone attacking them you are now at war with the other race, and that race is at war with you.

- you can have multiple protectors.

- some other rules will have to be developed for when a loop gets created. can't have you going to war against yourself now.

Just a few thoughts on some "would be nice" changes

On the new races ideas, someone was talking about more individualistic races. One way I can think of to help would be specific tech tree research bonuses, like the Dregin getting a bonus to any research done on say Beam techs, or the Terrans on the Diplomacy tree. Along with this you could split up planet colinizing types the same way. Terrans get normal and aquatic from the start, another race might get heavy g, etc. This would be futher improved if you had to research the colinization type BEFORE you could invade. The more I think about it, the more things come to mind. You could have races that excel in space combat, but only when using small or tiny ships, or only when using missle tech.

I would like the ability to turn tech trade off for specific trees, meaning something like I could turn all trees off EXCEPT say Diplomacy, which would allow me to gift or trade alliances to races Close to me.

I would like some changes to the number of hit points a starbase has as well as it's available weaponry, in the late game they are WAY underpowered.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

A little suggestion : ability to customize the apparence of the race leader at the begining (and eventually the report robot).
Could be a nice touch for custom races.

Pretty much ANYTHING EXCEPT MULTIPLAYER. Its would be such a massive feature, and I wouldn't use it. It would render any expansion a waste of money. I'd prefer them to cram the pack with new single player features, ship parts, and new flags/leaderheads.