What top five items would we like to see in the sequel?

Solar orbiting planets

Having your planets moving around would not only be confusing, but a massive pain since you'd have to constantly be updating your ships' targets to chase down the right planet...

Minefields (like Stars!).

Can you imagine actually having minefiels spanning hundreds of square lightyears of space? Strange that someone asking for more "realism" in the map's layout wants something so unrealistic.

Fuel effects and fuel carriers (Stars! again did this brilliantly)

That's what ship range is, albeit far more abstracted (the more life support/supplies you have, the further you can go from the nearest resupply base).

Supply line effects that can be cut by the enemy.

This is already there, just not terribly practical in most cases (as opposed to simply destroying the enemy ships). If an enemy is using a particular starbase or planet to get his forces in range of yours, taking out that base will force his crews into stasis while they travel back to suppliable range.

Having your planets moving around would not only be confusing, but a massive pain since you'd have to constantly be updating your ships' targets to chase down the right planet...

Well the ships target could update automatically as it would be just turn based movement. I agree that would be rather difficult to sort out but it wuld be nice to see semi-realistic solar systems. Generally I think theres a lot of astronomical aspects that arent shown in the game that could really make it interesting - like a supernova destroying your fleet or a black hole requing a detour etc.

Can you imagine actually having minefields spanning hundreds of square lightyears of space? Strange that someone asking for more "realism" in the map's layout wants something so unrealistic

Well 'realistic' is relative in this game is it not? I mean having ships travelling between stars isnt very realistic actually. If we ever get that advanced enough to start warfare in space you can guarantee they will find a way to apply minefields.

That's what ship range is, albeit far more abstracted (the more life support/supplies you have, the further you can go from the nearest resupply base).

Yes I know but it would be nice to have supplies utilised in warfare the way they are in real life. Abstract is ok but is it all that much fun having all these things going on in the background for you? Maybe Im better suited to less abstract gameplay. I like something to do when Im playing games!!

This is already there, just not terribly practical in most cases (as opposed to simply destroying the enemy ships). If an enemy is using a particular starbase or planet to get his forces in range of yours, taking out that base will force his crews into stasis while they travel back to suppliable range.

Again a less abstract method would be more fun.

I would like real borders, kind alike a hybrid between civ 4 and galciv2.. where you have an influence border that can be crossed, and an actual border that you would protect and control who is within it.

supply lines and borders are more of a 2space issue than a 3space one. granted, the game plays in 2space, but is hypothetically 3space. there are no roads to interdict to cut supply lines. you would have to use a great deal of resources to try to cut a space supply line. you would pretty much have to resort to blockades of planets. same with borders. all they have to do to break your border is travel a bit on the z-axis and you border may as well not exist. so again, claims on regions of space are impractical. that said, i am fine with the abstracted logistics of support modules and radius around logistical depots(planets and starbases). it gives enough of the feel while not violating the realistic. now if this were a groundside game, i would definatly want borders and supplylines implemented somehow

i think a little more fleshed out ground combat would be interesting, instead of loading a transport and hoping for the best, for instance the ability to select what sorts of units will invade.

that and differnt coalitions of planets. so instead of everyone being in the united planets, evil races would have one group, neutrals another, and good their own.

border = 3-dimnesional sphere around systems...that should not be entered.... they need to incorporate the 3d spacing of Ascendancy where combat also incorporates distance

We're talking about a sequel here right? In that case lets broaden our horizons a bit.
Why should Galciv3 take place on a 2D "board" like galciv2? How about a three dimensional galaxy, perhaps with some scale? The starmaps from the Freespace games come to mind (not because Galciv3 has to have anything like it, it just comes to mind).
I'm not a big fan of battles in the dead of space, I prefer more "realistic" (I think) battles in star systems or close to major resources. Compared to a planet, even the greatest vessel is insignificant. Compared to a system (which is insignificant compared to a galaxy) even a big planet is insignificant. So far nothing constructed by man is even halfway out of our solar system (if you think it ends somewhere around Pluto you are sadly mistaken), it will take even our fastest probes more than ten thousand years, and after that the scenery gets rather dull anyhow (nothing, nothing and nothing). So lets skip dead space and focus on beatiful, rich, "realistic" and above all cool star systems!

1-Normal ships, perhaps of a certain size like medium, could bomb/laser/nuke planets from orbit. No more having to conquer every enemy planet, just glass the planet and move on. Bombing should have 1 or 2 tech tree branches, 1 for more destructive effects, and one for more "clean" types that only kills population (and possibly factories and stuff) but doesnt lower planet quality. Win the fleet battle around the planet, the option to bomb is given.

2-Superweapon that can destroy a planet. This should be top of a tech branch, and hard to fit on anything except really big ships. Win the fleet combat around the planet, then the option to use superweapon is given.

3-Tech tree actually has in game descriptions of everything it does. No needing to use a seperate, out of game thing to look up stuff.

4-Orbital defenses. Orbiting space station(s), guns platforms, shields, fleet coordinators, maybe even mine fields. I want more defensive options for defending my planets. I want my fleets in orbit to defend it without having to take of special spaces on my planet for fleet manager improvement. I want to improve the stuff in orbit of my planet, where there is a lot more space.

5-Weapons are really different. I'm sure right now the reasons most of the weapons are pretty similar is for game balance. But its boring. I want to see weapon systems that are much more different from the other major types. Missiles should have a large punch but slower rate of fire, and maybe they have a hard time hitting fast moving ships. Beam weapons can hit anything at any speed, and do good damage, but take up more power (or space, or whatever). Mass drivers would also have its own unique feel. And while we are at it, how about some more unique type weapons. I'm thinking gyro destabilizer from MoO2. More weapon mods and special effects would be nice too instead of just more miniturized versions, or ones that do a single more point of damage. Oh yeah, give is carriers with fighters, and a bunch of different fighters to research. And a supply ship that increases the range of OTHER ships in the same fleet.

carrier craft would be a welcome addition, i'm tired of the game slowing to a crawl during a huge offensive due to 10 fleets of fighters on screen. either that or the ability to garrison tiny class ships (for example) in captial class vessels or on starbases, reducing the pain of having a starbase wasted because you had no ships in sector.

even simpler: how about air superiority having more of an effect on planetary invasions? i don't have those fighters parked in orbit for my health. i like vorlock's idea about more assault options.

also how about a tech tree for your landing forces? just something like upgrading equiptment or even separating the number of troops from the population of the planet...not everyone living on a planet can fight invaders

I would like real borders

I would like it to be implemented as a policy change: If you attack any ship that is within your influence borders, it does not mean war.

I'm actually one of those who did not buy GalCiv2, but am interested to see what the Expansion Pack has to offer.

GalCiv2 definitely need something more "structure" for player strategy:


eg: Players can lay mine fields (to prevent those cheesy Warp 10 invaders simply side-stepping the snail paced AI defenders). This to me is an exploit, not strategy--an indicator of better thought out game design is needed.


eg: Each ship type with different ship component slots that fit into the theme/function of the ship. ie: Transport with components that allow more Cargo pods, or extra fuel tank, or limited slots for weapons (rather than an unarmed transport). Ditto for Battleships: ship components geared towards Trargeting Computers, or more armor/shields, or more maneuovering thrusters for tactical advantage. But of course, the trick to ship's component slot design is to limit what players can do (to fit the function of the ship), but at the same time gives players several major options.

One case in point is morphing a transport into a respectable attack ship while orbiting another player's planet--then attack. This sounds like yet another cheesy exploit especially on AI--an indicator of better thought out game design is needed.

eg: Each ship type with different ship component slots that fit into the theme/function of the ship. ie: Transport with components that allow more Cargo pods, or extra fuel tank, or limited slots for weapons (rather than an unarmed transport). Ditto for Battleships: ship components geared towards Trargeting Computers, or more armor/shields, or more maneuovering thrusters for tactical advantage. But of course, the trick to ship's component slot design is to limit what players can do (to fit the function of the ship), but at the same time gives players several major options. One case in point is morphing a transport into a respectable attack ship while orbiting another player's planet--then attack. This sounds like yet another cheesy exploit especially on AI--an indicator of better thought out game design is needed.

Yes I really dont like the way you can update your ships 'on the fly'. There must be a rule added that they have to be within a certain distance of a starport or something similar to be upgraded.

The other comment above about non-transgression borders is a good idea as well - you should be able to set the nature of your borders ie no entry, transporters only, scouts only, warships allowed from allies to enable extending their range etc. Similiarly the effect of having allies etc should be looked at - are they then allowed to utilise your bases? Can you share their mined resources? etc

I would like to see more defensive play and fortifications in the game. Planeary bombabardment and invasions are potentially one of the most fun parts of this type of game and should be far more visual and user determinable than at present.

Nats

Yes I really dont like the way you can update your ships 'on the fly'. There must be a rule added that they have to be within a certain distance of a starport or something similar to be upgraded.

Call me crazy, but I thought the time it took to upgrade a ship depended somewhat on how far it was from a friendly planet/starbase. I remember playing a game recently where upgrading a ship out in the middle of nowhere would have taken 5 turns. After flying it back near a starbase, the upgrade only took 1. Maybe something else was affecting it, I don't know.

The one main thing I would like to see if it's possible is GalCiv become a Real-Time game like Empire Earth. Or have an option in the options menu to have it play as a turnbased game like it is now or as a real-time game.

I also would like some more defences for planets orbital weapon platforms weapons on the planet that fire on enemy ships when they attack.

Permanent blackholes that drag anything in from a 2-3 sq radios permanent wormholes.