Your ideas for the next update!

Would it be possible to update the game to run better on older/weaker graphics cards? Or atleast to increase game performance by a decent amount for said cards like the Intel Integrated Graphics card? Just wondering because the frame rate can be pretty bad sometimes, even when first loading up a game. Other then that I can't really think of anything update worthy ... the game is absolutely amazing on every level.

Hm, just thought of something. How about more trade and influence options, rather than military. Or a more "down-to-earth" way to get to your citizens. For example, being able to actually check out a job market within your labor force... and hiring people with abilities that can enhance different areas of your civilization. Like hiring "John Smith" who is 28 and is an excellent navigator who gives a bonus to your ship sensors. Or "Mike Whatever" who is a a skilled engineer and manager and can add a morale and production bonus to the factory he is stationed at. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, heh... point I'm trying to make is, could the game be updated to allow people who like to chill and manage the social aspects of the empire be given more options (there are plenty already, but I mean more in-depth options). Or atleast can more domestically orientated players and not conquerers be given more rewards or bonuses for not being so militaristic. I don't know.. the game is incredible already, but I still feel the cultural and influence aspects could be more in-depth and rewarding.

Thanks so much for asking. Sure, I have a few suggestions. Heck, if you even did one of these it would make my day.

1) Implement the mysterious "repair" module that exists for starbases. Whether it repairs ships, starbases, or both, I'd love to see how that could effect the use of starbases in overall strategy.

2) Make the AI value higher and/or work harder at getting treaties sent to them. Those are free bonuses for your empire, and I have never once seen an AI get more than two (one of each) sent to them. Personally, I try to get 5 or 6 sent my way by mid game... why turn down free bonuses? The AI should also be trying to get that many.

3) Remove the +300% food tiles (a sure way to tank your approval if you ever use them) or slightly change the morale curve on populations over 19 billion. As it is, under the current morale rules it is usually a detriment to try and use them for their intended purpose, so I ignore them. They are a trap for the inexperienced, however.

4) Make the galactic resort apply an approval bonus to your whole empire. Same with the secret police center. Change either the description or effect of the mind control center, so that it either SAYS that it doubles your income in the description, or change the effect so that you actually do autoflip revolting planets.

5) Change the good alignment bonus so that the increased diplomacy applies empire wide, not just to other good nations. Everyone wants to buddy up to them! (And we need a reason to go good in competitive games.)

6) Allow evil aligned AIs to break alliances with anyone (including player) whenever they feel like it. Evil alignment races will continue to evaluate allies as conquest potentials, uneffected by alliances. This is the way evil players play, after all...

7) Change and/or fix the way non-matching defense is reduced by weapons fire, so that off type weapons do more damage to defensive ships. But other than that, please leave the new values for the defense modules the same per the 1.5x update.

8) Perhaps slightly increase the value of trade routes. The bc/turn really seems to have dropped off. Trade routes are still useful as a diplomatic tool, but it would be nice if they effected the overall economy more (especially on larger maps).

9) Add logistics bonuses and miniturization bonuses as catagories you can spend racial points on.

10) Increase the number of points custom races get (to 20/25). Let them spend racial points to get more points to spend on starting tech (so over the initial 200). Currently, you can make games easier by setting to play against all custom races, because they just don't cut it. Custom races already can't double up on bonuses (so can't get a +83% military production bonus like the Thalans can for instance), and they have less points overall than the stock races in total bonuses.

11) Change starbases to huge hulls to increase their hp. Allow constructers to repair a starbases hp rather than upgrade it if they are damaged.

12) ... and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeee. Hey, you asked

And again, thanks for asking. You all do an incredible job!

Demographics.

Instaed of the "everyone is wiped out in planetary invasions", thre are seperate policies for conquest for each race

Annhiliation- Simple enough. Evil Only.

Slavery- conquered population porvides bonus production. there is a chance of revolt. Evil only.

exploitation- Conquered population provides bonus tax income. There is a chance of revolt. Neutral and evil.

non-policy- No effect. for neutrals who don't want to bother with revolt risk.

Equal rights- conquered population gradually merges into conqueror's. Bonus influence. Good only.

The revolt risk could be mitigated through the presence of new "police ships" or eliminated with a new "opression palace" improvement.

Anything that makes repetitive tasks more automated is good. It'd also be nice to be able to set a planetary production 'queue' (ex: build 2 constructors, then 2 defenders, then shutdown) or at least have the ability to change multiple planets shipyard queues in the civ manager screen.. Gotta admit this is on my top 5 games of all time.. I'm addicted

Oh dear, I thought of a few more:

- Lower the cost curve on spies, so it is cheaper to build the first 50. If you are spending a lot more on espionage, you should have a lot more spies, not two or three more.

- Allow fleets to orbit planets if you have the orbital fleet manager. That is, let a fleet take up one of the 10 spaces, increasing the number of ships you can have defend a planet, and allowing you to set the defensive "teams" that are defending the skies.

How about a setting for the frequency and severity of the Mega Events? Another slider-type setting like the others used for setting up the universe.

Better Intelligence Reports. Maybe have some info popup on mouse over, or maybe just have selectable category layouts for ships/star bases with lots and lots of systems.

I'd also like to be able to enter in longer ship descriptions, but this is minor.

How about a key that will take screen shots and save them in a specific folder with a generic name "Screenshot[Date/Time]"?

How about a Subspace Blaster and Subspace Annilator for ships?

The ability to save a ship as a template ONLY, and an additional setting to always make that template available to the player regardless of the racial ship type selected at startup.

Oooooh, and a setting that would top off the weapons tech tree short of the 'super' weapons (i.e. doom ray/black hole weapons). It would even apply to the top tier defenses as well.

More options for custom AI opponents. For example, the Yor have a special miniturization bonus, but I can't add that to my own custom opponent. Also the ability to give custom AI's MORE abilities than would normally be allowed. I'd also like to see something in that little box that says "+ Strong Military; - Weak Morale" rather than "Unknown bonuses", or maybe we need the ability to assign those 'unknown' bonuses.

A diplomacy option that I can use that is the equivalent of "Your troopships are a bit too close to [OwnedPlanet], if you don't remove them it will be considered an act of war." type of thing. Also a UP item that would restrict troopships to being inside your influence sphere unless war is declared. I think it's cool to see some of the war-restricting business get passed in the UP because it changes the game dynamic, but it's random when it happens. Maybe there can be a standard docket of items that is voted on in the first few sessions or something, and among them several rules of warfare.

I'd like to see a major race spring up like minor races do, but only after some other major race has already bought it.

The minor races are doing better, but I seldom see them put up much of a fight when they're at war. I'm not sure if this is because their economy has crashed or what, but empower those minor races. If they're at war, they should put up a good fight, and try to capture planets. Seems they're a bit...dumbed down? if that would be the correct way to put it.

Well I think that's it for now.

That reminded me. I'd like to see planet templates that I can create and use as a single-click way to get a planet started. Or maybe a planetary gov. kind of like the city manager in Civ. A 'production' planet would focus on production-improving improvements, and only build other improvments if it was necessary, i.e. a morale improvment if morale gets too low. Some ability to start a certain improvment on multiple or all planets akin to the way the starship gov works now. "Upgrade all [Improvment] to [Improvment] on [AllPlanets/PlanetsOfClass[Class]/etc]". This would be esp. useful when the upgrade gov gets confused with Nutrality Learning Centers vs. Invention Matricies.

I'm so glad you asked

* Allow the cutom race config screen to go negative so we can build in both positive and negative modifiers right in the creat opponent screen. I know how to do it via editing, but I'm sure people would like to play with that function too. I'd propose a maximum of -3 allocated attribute points, which would give the race a corresponding 15 + 3 = 18 bonus points to work with.

* Cari said this wouldn't be too difficult to implement... but allow Music to be replaced in \\ My Docs\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar etc so we don't have to over-write music files or drop new ones into the game directory. Therefore the game would check for that folder and use those music files first. It would also make it easier for peopel making complete customraces, as they would have to direct those music files to be put anywhere outside the \\ My Docs \\ GC2DA directory...

* Tech trading is indeed a bit too difficult now post-patch. It was too easy pre-patch before. I'm sure there's a middle ground there that will be just perfect (maybe the averge between the two weighted towards being slightly more difficult).

* Allow non-data specific options to work with Metaverse. For example work like Logic Sequenece's.

* Metaverse - have the top 25 Empires on a 3d globe, instead of just the top 10 on a flat map. It's hopeless for smaller Empires to get listed in the "big time".

* A general issue... When I'm creating military - extremely war-related custom races, they are being pummeled in-game with statistical frequency. I think this is because it handicaps them early game compared to other races because they fall behind the curve early (research and social building) and can't catch back up... ever. Though all their stats may be in soldiering, attack, defense, HP's it generally doesn't do a lot for unless they're in a small map and go to war ASAP.

* Once a minor race is exterminated, that race name is no longer used later on.

The easier solution to that particular exploit is to make treaties bilateral. I really, really think that needs to be done, because otherwise they just become another ridiculous way to abuse the diplo model.

But, but, I like using extortion to make myself more powerful. Come on, real empires with large militaries do it...

Edit: But we could always change the name from treaties to tribute!

it would be nice if we can design our own starbases.

affects of spies being caught should affect diplomatic relationships.

more things for spy to do, like assisnating important leaders which controls the running of your civilization. this would translate to a temporary penalty. say if a scientists are assinated, then research in a particular tech branches take longer.

also, since researching different type of colonizations requirws so much time, there should be rewards to being able to colonize a particular type of world. say if it is an aquatic world, then there could be bonus in food production, and for radioactive world, bonus for military production and reuction of colony maintance because of able to convert radiation to energies.

by designing starbases, i mean designing the looks of starbases just like designing ships.

Hey, is this a double post, or something? Isn't there another post asking for our ideas for the next update, written by frogboy?

Do anything to mix up the early game so that it's not always a mad colony rush. There's plenty of threads around here, some really good ones, with suggestions. For instance:

https://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=105457&p=2#823099
I realize that is a GC2 thread, but most of those underlying problems still exist in DA.

How bout adding a Galaxy Setup toggle that would, say, halve all calculated ship range values. This would slow down the anomoly grab a bit as well, and put more emphasis on the almost debunk "Life Support" tech line.

This same toggle could also halve calculated planetary influence, to keep the "bubbles" somewhat smaller in the beginning.

How about allowing the effects of military starbases to assist ships defending a planet? I thought they did this already until I tried it...

Making the colony rush more fun would be cool (for people who use the game as a space empire simulator). It just makes more sense that an empire would be exploring for a long time before deciding to send settlers out to colonize new worlds. Perhaps worlds can be "claimed" by building an outpost first, and then colonized later. I thought Civ 4 was an improvement over Civ 3 in that respect. The settler spam phase of Civ 3 was annoying and repetitive.

Fix the issue with map clearing and whatever other issues have come about since the latest update.

Pretty please could we have separate sliders for spending to recruit spies (Economy page) and spending for intel on each rival empire (Foreign Policy page).

Placed spies could boost the base rate of passive intel gathering and reserve spies could slow intel collection (acting as domestic counterintelligence).

1) a slider to set difficulty level of tech trading in the setup screen

2) when you destroy a starbase you have some constructors back (very useful at higher level when every constructor is worth its weight in gold)

3) implement military starbases so the effect on the starbattles in their area of influence is worth the cost you need to build them. Add modules to give bonuses to soldiers during ground combats

4) implement the concept of homeland. Now the only advantage having a territory is in being isolationist with the limitation of movement. More, more... Aggression wars should be more difficult

5) this is not my idea, it's by Sotris, in this post here but i support it very much:



Anyway i would like to explore anomalies all along the game, in particular during peaceful periods, when you only produce your starfleet or constructors or devolop your empire.

6) also this idea it's not mine but i can't remember where i read it so the original poster will excuse me if i don't quote precisely:

minor races should become part of a federation (good) or vassals (evil). It would be an alternative to conquest and a way to protect themselves giving special advantages to their referent race. Also it would be nice to protect minor races (good) for a good reason or to use them (evil) as meat for enemy races.

richard

Espionage!!

This system could be much more fleshed out, and without too much difficulty. Based on comments so far, most people seem to build enough just to defend themselves. There have been many requests for more "passive" capabilities of spies. Perhaps the option to gather information and raise your intelligence on other races (chance of stealing techs?) instead of sabotaging their buildings. Also the ability to cause civil unrest is requested a bit. This could come at the price of souring relations if the spy is caught, which should theoretically take some skill and maybe counter espionage tech to do successfully.

At any rate, opinions on spies seem to be that either they are a worthless expenditure in the game, or they are completely crippling to the opponent if used at the right time. i think most of us would like to see a middle ground here and get more mileage from our spies without outright attacking the other race.

i'd like to see a weapon that destroys planets and creates asteroeds for you to mine

I rather like Wyndstar's ideas.

However, the vast majority of what I see here scares me. Please don't change the game based upon a few requests! I'd rather, if there were time for this, that the devs go to the threads over the past few weeks and see what's being discussed more broadly.

Again, I hate most of these ideas!

how about making minor races into major races when they hit a certain level,also i'd like to see more options for custom races

I have recently purchased GC2 (no Dark Avatar for now) and i've always been used to the arrow keys for map scrolling instead of other clunky options such as edge scrolling or "grabbing the map" scrolling. I tried scrolling around with said keys but i noticed that the arrow keys are used to move ships around the metaverse.

The way i see it, moving ships manually is kinda inneficient. If you want to get your ship to a certain point in the map, you click and expect the game to calculate the fastest route possible. Moving the ship manually is not really efficient.

So why not have a check box option that allows the arrow keys to scroll the map, and a slider for key scroll speed as well?