Before I get started, I'd like to congratulate the Stardock team on revivifying a slipping genre in gaming! I was absolutely right not to get GalCiv II until *after* I finished my master's thesis - it's doing a fantastic job of eating my life! So, if you haven't done so already, please give yourselves a hand, because I know I have applauded three times already.

Perhaps the best thing about this game, though, is the fact that it *still* has so much potential for improvement and fine-tuning, and because of that it does my heart good to see the dev team still hard at work, cranking out update after update. To this end, I would like to share some ideas and suggestions I've come up with while playing (I know that 1.2 is nigh, so I'm not suggesting they try to fit them in now, but here's hoping for the future!) Please take the following suggestions for what they are, and not rabid demands.

1.) Orbital Fleet Combat -- This is starting to annoy me. Specifically, the fact that I need to have built a certain planetary improvement before my orbiting ships can counter an enemy attack as a fleet is starting to annoy me. I've been on both sides of this equation a good bit lately, and I have to say that the "nickel & dime approach" to picking off defending ships from a planet seems somewhat... well, "nickel & dimey." (I've rationalized that the reason orbiting ships can't initially mount a coordinated counterattack is that they must be spread evenly over the planet to monitor encroachment from all sides, but that just doesn't hold water when "sensors" can detect fleets turns before they arrive.) I would like to see Orbital Fleets be the default when it comes to defending against invasions - if I park 6 ships in orbit, I don't want them to engage the enemy one at a time. Likewise, I'm tired of spending all my move-points taking pot shots at individual ships. The Orbital Fleet Manager improvement, in my opinion, should be kept, but it should confer some sort of bonus to defending ships rather than simply allow for coordinated defense.

2.) Target Prioritizing in Space Combat -- I never thought I'd say this, but I'm *glad* there's no "Tactical Combat" ala MOO. I like the way things are being handled, with one glaring exception, which I will illuminate with a battle I fought last night. Picture, if you will, two Drengin frigates, armed to the teeth with Mass Drivers (14 & 16, respectively) escorted by four heavy fighters also weighed down with cannons (8, 8, 7 & 6) None of these ships have defenses, and none of them have remarkable hitpoints. My Iconian force consists of 7 heavy fighters, with 4 beam attack and 10 (I love Kavinium) armor. Now a human will readily see that four of the enemy AI ships really don't pose *much* of a threat to the armored fighters, but those two frigates are kind of scary. But once combat begins, the targetting AI concentrates all my fire on the two 8 M.D. heavy fighters, as they had the highest attack with the least HP. The frigates wound up junking two of my super-expensive heavy fighters before they were taken out and the scrub fighters mopped up. *Conclusion* -- a human would have concentrated fire on the *most threatening* ships in this situation. Therefore, I would like to see the option of selecting *how* the computer will prioritize targets, much the same way as one has the option of how to conduct an invasion of a planet. For the sake of simplicity, I can only see three options: a.) attack ships with highest attack first, b.) default target selection, and c.) attack ships with highest defense first.

3.) Linking Starbases to Stars -- How many of you have watched unescorted troop ships invade your planets while the military starbase, bristling with weapons, sits idly *one stinking parsec away* from the planet being stormed? I know I've seen it too many times already. I'm not sure how this sort of "Improvement" would work, but I would like to see the invading force required to take out the nearby starbase before "letting the dogs out." (I know the chances for this are slim, but it might open the door to a new tech/improvement.)

4.) Ability to Select Starting Alignment -- I loved this feature in GalCiv. Why can't we have it in GalCiv 2? Granted, I like being able to set up starting *relations* with races, but maybe I'd like to play against GC: AP's version of the Drath, or make the Korx less vile (at the race setup screen, and not in the game directory.)

5.) More Espionage -- Maybe I've just had bad luck, but apart from getting the dirt on a civilization, the current espionage model feels somewhat light. I've only ever stolen two or three techs in a game, and there doesn't seem to be any "destabilization" of enemy governments going on (which the manual alluded to as an option for espionage.) Once again, I'm not sure how to improve this, but I would like to see some active hijinks from my intelligence network, ala terrorism, dissemination of propaganda, etc. Plus, I don't like having a "terminal" level of espionage -- I think it should require constant funding to remain up to date and effective.

There are other issues I'd like to see addressed as well -- the "corvette bug" has nailed me eighteen times, for instance, and I'd like it (and other glitches) squashed. Plus, I too would like to see some of the statistics for certain ship components re-examined and tweaked to better fit within the tech tree (yes, I mean the subspace blaster, for one.) But I have to say that I had higher than high hopes for this game, and by and large they were exceeded! Thanks again, Stardock!

P.S. If anyone else has thoughts or suggestions along similar lines, I'd like to know!

Thanks for your time, and congratulations on much well-deserved acclaim!
KiY