The planetary environment aspect could make races neutral or hostile to each other, based on competetive or complimentary needs. Until research changes all that...Nice.

For me it is the environment categorization of planets and asteroids that sound the most interesting.

Hey Stardock friends! DA sounds great; I've really been enjoying GalCiv2, so I'm looking forward to what all DA has to offer. I know it's probably too late to add much new stuff, but I think these would be really awesome additions:

1. Ship Admirals/Colony Governors - with personalities and bonuses, ala MOO2.

2. More advanced techs - Instead of maxing out at Star Trek/Star Wars level technology, what if we could get all the way to B5 Vorlon technology? Have stuff like bio-ships, ascension, etc.

3. Stargates for ships would be cool, too.

Keep up the good work!

Am I the only one who wants Fuel Cell Techs? To go with the planetary enviroments?

You can only go so far on the map with Fuel Cells, you can only Colonise certain worlds until you get the Tech?

To be honest DA doesn't seem to add a lot.

Probably the planet environment thing will affect game play most. Don't know enough about asteriods to hazard a guess on how they will affect the game. The spying thing sounds like what's in Moo2/3 where you drop spies to attack and defend with specifc tasks. I suspect unless spying is beefed up and becomes more effective, it won't be a very significant part of the game (like most 4x games).

The other stuff like dynamic setup of AI/difficulty level, Epic generator affect the setup the game and help enhance replayability a bit, but otherwise you are pretty much going to play DA 99% like how you play GalcivII anyway.

-Death-star like ship class. This would be too cool, come on. Who doesn't miss that DESTROY PLANET button?

-Ability to enslave/exterminate different races' population--> or at least some way of simulating partisan activity in newly conquered planets! MoO nostalgia, mostly.

-Space hazards (as an option, like minor races). Space hydras, black holes, supernovas, you name it.

-Ability to capture(err...assimilate ) enemy ships in combat.

-Unique racial building graphics

I noticed a few posters would like to see more "galactic events":

Voidcon: I'm a big fan of GalCiv2, think its the best 4X since the first Master of Orion. Littlebit to addictive perhaps. What I miss however in the current build of GalCiv2 is the sensation that outer space is dangerous. And then I don't mean dangerous in the civilized way (Drengins, Dreadlords, etc), but random -russian roulette- style dangerous. I miss random events like plagues decimating planet populations, spaceworms destroying entire planets, crystal entities turning your citizens into zombies, stars going supernova, neutron stars sterilizing entire star systems, dark matter showers ripping through your fleets. Hell, throw in the Guardian of Orion for what I care. Include this stuff and you've got another customer for Dark Avatar

dlapine 2) I like the idea that "Space is Dangerous" Space Pirates, asteroid or gaseous regions, More Galactic events. It really helps long term playability to introduce some minor random events, things the player has little control over, except in the response.

I can add a few: black holes (slowly growing and devouring); permanent worm holes; a single Dread Lord cruiser escaping from 'the pocket universe'; nebula clouds causing strange stuff; a plague of robotic bugs that replicate themselves, destroying planets in the process (yes I'm a Stargate fan...). And I definately like the "spaceworms" suggestion that Voidcon made. It's good to know that there is more than just vacuum between the stars.

Another suggestion I'd like to make: introduce a "flagship" unique to each race. I know civs get a flagship at the beginning of each game, but it's more of a scout ship than a real "pride of the [fill in civ name]'s navy". Each civ should be able to create one ship, and one only, that has the ability to "evolve" during the course of the game, when more technology gets available. It should have some unique features, so that it is more than just a sum of the best tech available though, otherwise it's just a free growing ship. I think this would help to get the player (even) more involved in the game. I hope this suggestion gets picked up. I really believe it would add more fun to this already great game .

^ Seems a bit artificial though. I think something like an attack and defense bonus to each of the flagship's numbers, but a temporary approval penalty if it is destroyed

as for the deathstar, imho a large ship component would be more appropriate than a different class

anyway, this is supposed to be about features that are in, not one's that we want to be in

True. About one of those features, the environment categorization of planets one: I really like it, but why not a full blown terraforming feature? As in: making a zero level planet habitable? Would it affect game balance too much?

most wanted feature? heh you have included ALOT, of what I suggested, I guess you have looked into space empires games the expansion looks great, I can't wait my friend gets back from vacation so I can pre-order it (I don't have a credit card, he loans me his one to do it)
anyway speaking of features, I'd like to see more planetary utilization. advanced terraforming to arrive to use up to 90% of the squares of the planet, of course each square should be terraformed singularily to be made advailable, with increasing cost each single square beyond the first, so it won't be an option too much used apart by large empires to make their capital a huge planet. also I'd like the texture of the planet change the most it is used, remember the star wars planet where the republic council is? it is clearly shown the whole planet has no more oceans but just an immense city everywhere. that would be cool

then I'd like improvements that enanches the adjacent squares something like, 'manifacturing power plant' a huge power plant that occupies a square that gives 50% bonus to the 8 adjacent squares where it is.

finally the ringworld and the dyson sphere it would be cool to be made, only in systems without planets, and requiring something like 8 space stations to build them fully equipped for the stellar creation (new stuff) to create it. so it would be a pretty costly and leighty archievement. in return we could get a high density world (all squares usable) of breathable air quality and with a very friendly enviroment (since it's artificially made).

well that's all thanks for listening!

the black hole idea is cool, the growing/expanding thing is pretty much not useful, but still they can add ALOT of interesting features creating dead regions of space where nobody can pass tru. they can be 1 square big, 9 square big, or eve up to a whole sector. this will give some problems with AI pathing but if programmed well it should be very interesting, natural barriers in space, a black hole generator could be cool too!

I voted for the custom opponents, although I would have voted for the diplomacy, if I had seen it (assuming it was there) Speaking of diplomacy, there is one thing I would really like to see in. I think its a simple thing (but what do I know?) I would like it if, when you ally with someone, you are not automatically raised to the highest relationship level. Your relation still change as if you were not allied, and if relations drop too low, you have to renegotiate the alliance, or, if it goes really low, it could fall apart entirely. To add to this, you can change the alliance victory so that you have to hold the alliance for so many turns. This change would stop a lot a abuse against your ally; crushing them into oblivion with influence bases, for example. I do not know how hard it would be to implement. Most likely harder than I think, because you need to get the AI to accept it. But if you could, it would be a great addition.

Cant seem to vote either but my must have feature would have player controlable combats as its the one thing I realy dont like about Gal CIV and will get me buying SE V when it comes out

Simon

Why no multiplayer!!!

Cant seem to vote either but my must have feature would have player controlable combats

Why no multiplayer!!!

Both of these features are either too much work for an expansion (tactical combat requires ridiculous amounts of AI work to make it even barely competent versus a human), or simply too low in demand to justify the costs (there have been multiple polls with multiplayer in it, and people overwhelmingly want other features more... even as a standalone expansion adding only multiplayer for $20, 2/3 of people would not buy it).

I remember the poll about a standalone expansion adding only multiplayer.
People do'nt want to pay only for multiplayer, but with all the other features of Dark Avatar, there is no problem, i think! Maybe the poll was badly worded.
The AI is pretty good, but can't replace the fun of a LAN or internet game. :/

The only feature i want is a retail release.

People do'nt want to pay only for multiplayer, but with all the other features of Dark Avatar, there is no problem, i think! Maybe the poll was badly worded.

The poll asked about a standalone multiplayer expansion because short of GC3, that's the only way it's going to happen. The budget and manpower are just not there to do that *in addition* to everything else planned for DA, or really anything else at all on an expansion budget in general.

something i would like to see .

Interaction with other races :
examples

- why is influence base xxx here ?
(remove it or we will remove it for you)
- remove your fleet xxx away from my planet xxx
(remove it or we will remove it for you)
- ability to declare war
- ability to threaten other civ's
(give me tech xxx or give me base xxx or risk war)
- ability to start a war between other races
( attack a civ with fleets or ship that look like other civ's could backfire though )
- distrubuting false information about other races

As a MoO1 fan I wait for the addition of spies the most. I like spying.

People already said about pirates and using class 0 planets. I second that. Well, it's not that game needs those things, but I think they would fit in perfectly. Pirates or rebel armies could be "generated" by some planets with low approval ratings.

Oh, and could you please fix space anomalies? They are the only substantial flaw the game has, IMO.

Simply put... I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS EXPANSION!   

Interesting...

Note: Before I go on, i'd like to mention an interesting thing I discovered while playing the game. Starngely, when I selected an enemy planet and was inspecting it. I, for no reason at all, clicked the funny button next to the I button which comes after the name of the planet. When I clicked it though, a box came up asking what I wanted to rename the planet. I discovered that this allowed me to effectively rename any planet I wanted. Not just mine, but my allies, my enemies, all of them. This is funny because I called my enemies planet: I'am'n'ediot.
Is this a hidden easter egg, or just a bug?

On the subject of what I like done in the expansion:

If I could think of anything that could stand improving I would have to go with the battles as the highest.
In the space battles the ships moved around in drifting ways that didn't even resond to each other. It would be amazing if the ships flew mre like they were fighting each other (Ie: circling and/or charging the other ship) and if the ships guns would fire straight instead of often shooting in the oposite direction to which they're pointing. Also the exploding ships could use some touching up.

The ground battles were more like a bonus than anything else in GC2. But even so I would love them to look better in the upgrade. Espicially the way the tanks jiggle from side to side, the strange square shape of the huge tank, and the wird bouncing animation of the tower when it dies.

Finally, I'd like multiplayer options, (Who doesn't?) for internet and LAN. Plus maybe a few extra options for diplomacy. (Example: You can't ask someone to leave an alliance with someone else, and you can't tell them to ally with someone else.)
Plus any other extras you can throw in would be great.

Hulls that you can design however you like and then save in the hulls list rather than the ships list which can become crowded. Also, allow ship names to be reused.

I didn't vote at all.

While the asteroid fields are interesting and could lead to strategical depth (if small spacecrafts could pass through them but bigger would get damaged) I still think there should be enhancements to other points that hinder gameplay at the moment.
Of course it does take a whole while to travel from one edge of a giant map to another and I do enjoy playing on a giant map with the least possible amount of stars and planets, but I'd like to see even bigger maps with even fewer stars and technologies that make this space manageable. In other words: Teleport-technologies. A constructor could f.e. build a "Stargate" or whatever you want to call it that allows ships to travel from one allied gate to another. Enemies that approach your system would target these gates and effectively stop you from bringing reinforcements for a whole while, or destroy trading via this route for a while. This leads to a cascade of strategy elements like using military starbases for defense or leaving a fleet to defend your gates, or making false attacks on Planet A so that the enemy moves a fleet from Planet B to Planet A, only to destroy the now defenseless gate near Planet B and invade planet B.

Also, what GalCiv2 already fails at at this stage is that fighters become rather useless on big maps. They can't possibly travel such distances on their own. But their is no way to help them, so there's no way to use them (for anything other than defense). Thus a technology that could make a big ship hold a small amount of fighters would help here, because the big carrier can carry them for big distances at high speed and can assist with some heavy weapon power that is needed against other capital ships. Starbases could also use this, as you are likely to defend something with a starbase (like, an economy base) where you might want to send fighters to defend it (because enemies don't always care for your military base but destroy the economy base, taking slight damage from support-modules, and then move on, leaving your miltary base alone and useless).

And another small one: I can't believe that building a star base takes just one turn. Within a few turns I can pull up a military base in the vicinity of the enemy and this goes so fast that a small fighter couldn't even reach the base before it is prepared to fight off a complete fleet.

These are the three improvements I think I want the most. I don't think any of these fit the poll options, so no, I don't want any of those features.

Vain

I like the idea of slowing starbase construction. A limit of 1 or 2 modules per turn might be interesting.