Ideas for 1.3

from GalCiv2 Forums
To begin I would like to say this game is great!! But, I have some ideas for new additions of the game.

First, some way to "take over" star bases with special troopps. This way the star base would not have to be destroyed and rebuilt by the conquering race if they wanted the benefit of the star base. They could just send in a special unit to take over the star base. Of course, through would have to be some defense roll.....may be something similiar to the ground invasion now in the game.

Second, a "special forces" unit that would ignore any enemy ships in orbit and be able to destroy one enemy installation on a planet, like a star port. Of course, there should be only one unit per race and the chance of sucess for this attacks should be very low (20%).

Third, give the flag ship of the each race double the hit points for each ship hull size. Also, enable allow the flag ship to be upgraded all the way to a huge hull size. So, this would enable a flagship to upgrade the flagship all the way to huge hull sizes and have twice the hit points of a similiar hull size. This would encourage players to use flagships in key points on the map and not disregard them after the have huge hull sizes.

Finally, when a ship attacks a ship on a trade route they should "steal" all the money on that trade route for their race. This would enable civilizatiosn to raid shipping lanes for profits that would not only take money away from the enemy civilization but, also put money in their particular civilization. May be even have a ship that specializes in this type of activity that can be used to raid shipping even when a civilizations is not at war with another civilization.
6,904 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Against my expectations, Those ideas sound pretty good!

Stealing all the cash from a trade route sounds a little harsh at first, But it could work out to be like diverting the goods to you..

The idea of Space Marines also sounds rather good, Starbases by their very nature have a large population and the mining bases and millitary would definatly have self defence as a high interest, But I cannot see people being very happy about Starbases having an official population tally.

I like the idea though.

I also agree that Flagships are useless after a year, Flagships are supposed to be the core of a fleet - Not a quickly redundant throwaway.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I definitely think starbases need to become more useful besides just mining or sitting there for some area of effect bonus. I got some more ideas on this below, but when I see an enemy civ with a starbase sitting there I'll typically ignore it till my fleet has nothing else to destroy. If starbases had more uses then they'd be definitely be worth taking over. Personally I don't see the need for special troops to do it, maybe a tech to research called Starbase Invasion and possibly a feature such as ship population that I'll touch on later.

But why stop at just taking over starbases? Why not extend the idea to taking over enemy vessels as welll? It'd be great when your fleet wanders upon those single ships, take them over, repair them, then beat them with their own ships! Or maybe make a new ship class that can repair old ships out of the debris of battle (assuming you have the techs required to rebuild them). At the every worst you get some free ships and you can then throw them away and get some cash or have some extra fire power.

I really like the idea about Flagshps! I find mine wandering around the map until it can't find anything else and then you find a bunch of flagships sitting around in different corners of the map. Maybe some reduced upgrade cost/upgrade time would also be nice. Or another idea is being able to change which ship is the flagship. Maybe a flagship upgrade after a tech is researched?

While I understand this isn't exactly a space sim, putting some small touches in like planets that rotate around their sun and are differing radii from the sun would - it'd be a great thing that people could really appreciate. Throw that in combined with the idea of different races requiring different planet conditions: you'd see maybe the terrans inhabitting only planets 3~5 parsecs from the sun, while that'd leave open for other races to maybe come in and inhabit the planets closer to their sun or further away! Planets that you may not be able to colonize right away would suddenly have strategic value. Then after doing enough research maybe you can get techs that like "Planetary Re-Alignment" or "Colony Domes" so you can inhabit all the rest of the planet in your solar system.

Adding on to the idea of rotating planets, I'd really like to see starbases rotating around a desired celestial body a user desired radius away. This would enable the usefulness of a starbase defending an area of space, any enemy ships passing in the radius would be attacked by the starbase until they leave.

And lastly.... (sorry about the length, been storing the ideas up).... I'd really like to see some kind of ship population implemented, assuming the first idea was being used as you're taking over starbases or enemy ships, your ship population would dwindle and your ships would have a need for coming back in to port to get restocked on fresh bodies. It's really a minor point now that I think about it. But that's one of the things that I think makes this game great is all the small little things that put in as extra details.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'd like to see the upgrading of ships made more simple.

I like the new improvement on the 1.11 version where you don't lose the extras, but I hate having to replace all the other bits everytime I upgrade. Why not have something where you can click a button to update engines to the latest tech you have or weopans. Then you can play around with the detail once you have done that.

Thats my biggest bugbear and it would improve the game massively
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Upgrading can be bit tedious, if even the best possible tech available would on the top of the list, it would make it easier. I have yet seen a pattern , how the game sorts the techs in ship yard screen. Maybe Iam just blind
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I like the above ideas and have a few more to add to the list.

1) In MOO II, I liked the idea of space monsters being a random element along with the Antarans that jump in anytime forcing you to keep on your toes. What about the idea of bringing the Dread Lords in with a frigate or something as a random element that just jumps in and attacks the nearest controlled planet?

2) We can design Ships in the Ship-Builder, but how would it be to create a Starbase the same way and allowing you to choose what modules you want to put on. Like having a mixture of weapons and placing modules (Influence, Economic, Research...etc) and defenses. And expand the research for them, so in the early days, you can only build small bases, but as research progresses you can build bigger stations.

3) Like No.2, the idea of allowing you to build Orbital satellites around your colonies instead of relying on the Special Project. You can build the satellites but at a cost of maybe a tile or having high maintenance. So when a ship decides to attack your colony with a satellite, combat with the satellite is determined first before the Ship-Ship combat.

4) More Interactive combat. I understand this is on everyone's minds. But it would introduce a more strategic element to ship-building. I'm not sure on the limitations of the Engine and system, but here is my idea of how it could work. Lay down a grid which each ship occupies and move one by one in turn based combat (E.g. MOO II) But in ship-building this opens up more on what to think about. A better engine means a ship can move more squares. And have the defenses work in sections and have a number points allocated. Say a ship has shields, Before any damage gets through to main structure, they have to penetrate the shield on that side.

It just opens up to more strategic way of desigining your ships. Do you go with the small ships with good speed that can outflank the enemy, but can be easily destroyed? Or go with the big hulks that are slow and easy targets?

I know alot of the ideas are those from Master Of Orion II, but that is what made the game great.

Anyway enough from me for now. I'll add more when I think of them.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
One more idea:

Make planetary defenses useful by granting the defensive bonus to all planets controlled by a civilization once you research it in the tech tree. This would allow players to avoid making the onesided decision of either building something "useful" on a planet or building a defensive structure.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How about being able to buy or trade for bases?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
While I understand this isn't exactly a space sim, putting some small touches in like planets that rotate around their sun and are differing radii from the sun would - it'd be a great thing that people could really appreciate.


Problem is (for me atleast) that the current star system set up is not a realistic reproduction of how a star system works. For starters the scale is WAY off, those little parsec boxes are light year distances, while solar systems are typically measured in light days or months. So one system would fit in one single little parsec square, and the planets would be so small that planetary revolutions and radii wouldn't be visible.

To have them rotate in their current positions amounts to no more than eye-candy and is of little value otherwise.

I agree that the Flagship needs to have a more valuable role in the game. Not sold on the idea of starbase invasion, I would need to spend some time thinking about how to defend SBs (Starbase Trooper modules?)

What I would like to see is an additional map view level (maybe in an expansion? or GC3?). Where today we have the Galaxy map I would shrink the planetary systems down to where they occupy only one parsec. When your ships enter a parsec with a planetary system, the window changes (much like todays combat viewer), and we get a new gridded view of the solar system with much the same characteristics of the Main galaxy view. ships maneuver using sublight engines (a new tech tree to go faster in sub-light), because FTL speeds would carry you out/past the system.
Combat in this new view would be the same as it is in the current Galactic view, but this setup would allow planetary/orbital defenses/mines/etc. (another new tech tree), built in much the same way as starbases, but significantly cheaper and weaker, the point being to aid the defensive ships while not being full blown starbases.
Today, ships in orbit around a system are just tokens in a box. With this new view, ships in orbit would be *in orbit*, and also able to defend other planets in the system. Realistic Planetary movement mechanics can be added here too and it would look better here. Although, I would think it would be best if it were turn-based as well. ie. a planet can only move so far in a week. Some changes would need to be made to thte galactic map as well, like systems with mutliple civs controlling planets, multiple symbols would be required. Could get messy trying to figure out which planets aren't producing improvements and ships.

Sorry to hijak this thread, but I just got on a roll.

Cheers,
Reaver
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How about an upgrade for your starport that gives you defense against ships. Added bonus/penalty could be that if they overcome it the starport is destroyed so it needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

Devast
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
To have them rotate in their current positions amounts to no more than eye-candy and is of little value otherwise.


I should have clarified that the rotation would only be visible each turn, so you'd take your turn - then planets shift accordingly.

What I would like to see is an additional map view level (maybe in an expansion? or GC3?). Where today we have the Galaxy map I would shrink the planetary systems down to where they occupy only one parsec. When your ships enter a parsec with a planetary system, the window changes (much like todays combat viewer), and we get a new gridded view of the solar system with much the same characteristics of the Main galaxy view. ships maneuver using sublight engines (a new tech tree to go faster in sub-light), because FTL speeds would carry you out/past the system.


I really think this would be a great component to add and much better way of implementing some of the previously mentioned ideas. Definitely be great for the tactical advantages of developing a star system or taking one over.

One thing that comes to mind when seeing this idea is that the sensor technology branch could really be evolved from doing this and some depth added to it. I often find myself researching sensors out of boredom and the fact it's cheap late in the game. But instead if your civ never researched sensors maybe you'd just be stuck on sensors based on light, you'd be blinded by planets in the way, so you'd have a need for moving around them to see.

Some changes would need to be made to thte galactic map as well, like systems with mutliple civs controlling planets, multiple symbols would be required. Could get messy trying to figure out which planets aren't producing improvements and ships.


I wouldn't imagine it'd be that hard, either have a permanent list of planets, owners, and symbols on top/beside the star system, or have the same thing as a mouse over option.

-Tas
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just some thoughts on how to improve the V1.2 where both attacker and defender fire at the same time.

1. Sneak attack - for the first turn when a species is not at war with another race, any attacks by the agressor are treated under the old rules - attack damage (and destruction) is assessed before the defender can reply.
This simulates 2 concepts -1) transmission time - it takes time for communications to occur and an empire to realize it is now at war.

2) Weapon prep time - the attacker is coming in with weapons "hot" presumably most spacefaring races do not power their weapons until attacked, and thus it would take a round to respond. This could also be an advantage of an evil race (like they need anymore) but being inherently untrusting their weapons are always at the ready
When two species are already at war this first strike is negated because as soon as an enemy ship is detected "all power to weapons and shields"


Which leads me into the other technology...

I would love to see a cloaking technology stream, that would allow first strike capabilities, but could be countered by having powerful enough sensors installed on ships, or installed as a starbase module.