I don't know how easy it would be to change, but I would really like another level slower for tech research. Call it primitive, and make it as least twice as slow as very slow research is now. Really let the galaxy play out with only low level techs, and make it take many many years even with large research bonuses to max anything out.

Please fix the too stingy tech trading system as a result of the nerf patch.

Yeah, I like the idea of having a slower tech rate as well. I almost exclusively play on the slowest tech rate possible, because I don't like the idea of a tech only taking a few weeks to research and getting all the way to dread lords level of technology in just a few years.

Also, at slower techs, don't have to worry about my ships getting obsolete in the bigger maps.

The most important improvements to me are the ones that reduce micromanagement and fix bugs.


1) fix the trader bug that causes the screen to flash around when using the privateer. (best fix is the ai shouldn't attack ships it can't kill)


2) Fix popup screens that are at the beginning of a turn that interrupt each other so you can't deal with one before the next one changes the screen.


3) I want the ability to see the map screen when I am going through the turn screens. I don't recognize planets by name nearly as well as by position, also starbases don't have names, so I have no idea which one it is asking me to upgrade.


4) Allow multiple constructor modules for one ship. Move the ship to the starbase and consume the constructor modules one at a time.


5) I like many of the spy suggestions. I find the current spy system very restricting.


6) Fix the alignment balance problem. Neutral and evil are fixed now, you need to fix good.


7) Universal off switch for the governors on all planets.


8) Be able to pause social improvements on a planet without having to delete the whole queue.


9) Better yet. A screen dedicated to governor options that allows you to tell the governors what you want them to do automatically and what you want them to hold off on. So go to this screen and say upgrade all factories now, but only when I am ready. I would like to have sophisticated options for governing planets without having to go to every one and do this or that. I like the suggestions of being able to create governor plans and assigning a plan to each planet. Then, when I make a change to the global plan it affects all planets the plan has been assigned. I would like to be able to assign plans in the screen that already exists in the game that lists all the planets in a big table. (I don't know it's name) This would allow me to have half my planets in the "production 1" plan and the other half in the "production 2" plan and upgrade the factories in "production 1" and after that mostly finishes, tell it to upgrade the factories in "production 2" so I don't bankrupt myself when I research factories. And hey, as long as I'm dreaming, allow scripts. for example:


if population<18b and approval==100 upgrade farms;
if approval<75 build entertainment(best avail)


(yeah, I'm really dreaming )


10) When a ship is launched from orbit, it should come out selected. (Not sure if this is due to my selections in the options screen. I hate it when after I move a ship the computer moves to the other side of the map to select a ship that it considers the "next" one, so I disabled several settings that looked like they could affect that.)


11) When putting tiles on planets, auto select only tiles that don't have bonuses on them first. It is frustrating to be putting a string of factories or banks on by double clicking, and it select an inappropriate bonus, and I have to switch gears ... again and again.

New save game directory under Vista please. It is cluttering My Documents with the unnecessary folder of My Saved Games, this is annoying. C:\Users\{user}\Saved Games\ would be appropriate, as it's already there by default.

I wouldn't mind seeing the odd permanent wormhole in the game. I think it might add some interesting strategies.

I really really don't want you to make the tech trading easier. I like a good challenge. If you do make tech trading easier can you please set a difficulty level for us who like a good challenge. In fact I think the Tech Trading is set too easy. I've had planets give me the tech to colonize their planets when I was close to their enemies. So I think having killer deals will ruin my game experience. In fact I think what really makes this game is the complex and difficult AI. What led me to pick it up was all of the internet game reviewers (Game Spy, Gamespot, Strategy Imformer, etc) said they loved it, because the AI was so difficult.
There have been a lot of people calling to make this game easier in ways (Tech Trading, AI changes, ETC.), and there are a lot of people who would argue thats what makes the game.

IF YOU MAKE A TRADE EMBARGO AN ALLY HAS TO MAKE A TRADE EMBARGO TOO

WYNDSTARS IDEAS

OPTIONS OF ENSLAVING, ANNHILIATING, AND OTHER POLICIES FOR A CONQUERED WORLD (That would add so many different strategies)

An option to have the AI play all races for N rounds (selectable) at the start of a new universe. Sort of a random set it up and go make a sandwich accelerated start that works for all races instead of just human.

Have you actually installed the latest patch to your game? The difference between the default game and the patched version is like night and day. The fact that an AI is giving you a colonization tech makes me think you haven't patched. They never, ever, part with their colonization techs anymore.

There are a lot of good ideas about sensors here, but one problem I haven't seen mentioned: Why on earth does ship sensor range stack? In real life, it's not like putting a whole bunch of short-range radars in one place somehow turns them into a single thing with enormous range!

I only just realized that sensors actually work this way in the game, and if I understand it correctly, you could just cram as many sensors of whatever tech level on a cargo ship hull to get much, much greater range than any of your planets could. It's both unrealistic and doesn't fit with other techs in the game.

I second the following suggestions:








Hmm.. one thing that might be good would be to have a bunch of minor races automatically take up the colonies the major races don't have
I strongly agree with this one.. the mad rush at the beginning is almost always the deciding factor of the game



Actually, it would probably be better if the constructors don't "disappear" after upgrading/building



This would be good for dealing with the necessary and repetitive colony rush



This must be an inspired from the death star...



Good idea.. also, maybe an option to show an in-game CLOCK --with some sort of popup/sounding alarm that could be set-- would be useful to those of us who play without looking at the time and those that don't want to ALT+TAB



I think this is #1 on the most wanted list after reading the posts....



Strongly agree.



I'm surprised this wasn't in the game when I first played it.. it's a basic feature in RTS games

Yep. Should be a one-per-ship item, and so should life support. It would make researching these techs more valuable.

I’ve played the Krynn and Altarans in DA and, although the races have very nice stats, I have found their Super Abilities to be not all that useful. Alternatively – I haven’t seen and used their advantages to their full abiltiy, which is always possible. But based on my experience I think Super Organizer and Super Spy need to be enhanced a bit.

For the Krynn, the first spy is nice, but the anti espionage building is only useful for the morale bump. It doesn’t kill current spies on the planet and after it is built the AI will simply place their spies elsewhere. What I suggest to improve Super Spy is that there be a small chance that enemy spies that are on Krynn planets will be killed each turn. It shouldn’t be huge, and in fact immunity to spies would be too powerful. Also, I’ve very rarely stolen any tech, even after long periods with Advanced infiltration and the Krynn 50% espionage bonus. Perhaps this could be modified, too.

Altarians – I like the race, but the Super Organizer doesn’t seem to do much. The applications are limited (good races, races powerful enough to stand up to Bad Guys), and it doesn’t seem much different from an alliance. Moreover, any race with a decent diplomatic skill might do what the Super Organizer does – rally allies to a cause. What I suggest is that the Altarians have their Super Organizer manifest in a few other ways that are useful. For instance, when war is declared on them they would:
• Get a speed increase so they can do more with less due to ‘better organization’
• Get a small logistics improvement (say, +1) when someone declares war on them due to better ‘organization’

The abilities would go back to normal when peace is made. If these benefits are cumulative then it could really add up. I’d suggest no bonus if the Altarians declare war.

Hydro

actually, you're perfectly wrong. some of the most powerful radio telescope arrays are just that: arrays, composed of dozens of much smaller radio antennae. the most powerful optical telescops also work similarly: multiple hexagonal mirrors arranged in such as way as to make them act as a single larger mirror. the advantage of multiple smaller reflectors is that they can be adjusted and fine-tuned independantly, providng a much clearer picture.

but those are passive sensors. an active sensor, such as radar, would need a more powerful transmission (radio wave emitter) as well as more powerful/numerous receivers. but bottom line: it's a game, and it's kept simple for specific reasons.

Suggestions for v.1.6:

1. More powerful propulsion techniques, I would like the ability to outfit ships with components that creates portals/wormholes allowing for almost instant transportation to any desired location in the galaxy. This should of course be very hi-level techs and very difficult to research, but it’s still something I would like to see in the game.

2. Organic hulls, with maybe a higher amount of hit points and repair-rate than normal comparable hulls. Again this should be hi-level techs and difficult to research.

3. Instead of “Deeper Knowledge”, “Galactic Understanding”, etc. I would like to see “Evolutionary Advancement” techs on the way to “Technological Victory”. It just makes more sense if your denizens evolve in steps rather than achieving instant ascension. These “Evolutionary Advancement” techs could also give you bonuses in various fields like production, research or soldiering.

4. A better balance between ethical alignments, since the earliest versions of the game the “evil” alignment has simply been to powerful compared to the “neutral” and “good” alignments. So here are two suggestions for beefing up the later two: If you play “good” I think you should get access to some sort of advanced influence improvement, kind of like the “neutrality learning centres” or “propaganda centres”, but with a greater influence boost than “cultural exchange centres”. Also I think that the “neutral” discount for purchasing ships is simply too small to be worthwhile, it needs to be made bigger, that way “neutral” civilizations will be able to adapt their ship designs quicker to that of their enemies, thus giving them a strategical advantage against the “superior weapons” techs of “evil” civilizations and the “superior defences” techs of “good” civilizations.

Well I think that’s all for now, maybe I’ll be back with more suggestions at a later date.

Yours sincerely, Nn’theraq’pss

Nationalities would be a good idea. And ditching the 10 ship limit of orbit.

Some of the following ideas are repeats or re-statements of me or other posters, many are new but I just keep getting ideas!

I re-iterate that the Constructor tango needs to be fixed somehow. Most big games quickly become a game of 'tell the constructor where to go' and that's really no fun, but I STILL like to have starbases, I just wish maybe I could build it with a single constructor, then just click on it and pay money or resources or channel planetary or astroid production to it to update it.

Maybe Starbases should be like planets, with tiles based on Starbase size, where you build 'improvements' like battle stations or whatnot, and generate resources or money or whatever. But also defend with starship stats. SOMETHING to remove the tedium of the Constructor tango.

Okay, that said, new ideas:

Recurring anomalies, permanent wormholes, and areas of interest that don't dissapear once discovered.

Newly creating small fleets of pirates or 'space barbarians' who attack or extort you (using the diplomacy screen) without needing a galactic event. Maybe you can pay them to go away, pay them more to attack your enemies, use diplomacy to convince them to go attack the drengin. Maybe they attack trade routes, or steal from treasuries.

Piratable and blockadable trade routes/planets. You should be able to blockade someone as an alternative to attack, just to piss them off.

How about space monsters, A-La moo? It'd be sortof cool to feel like you're in a dynamic evolving universe.

Planetary unrest/civil wars that you have to fight with yourself?

Some reason to have military techs even if you not at war with other civs.

Maybe the terraforming techs can actually make PQ 0 planets inhabitable. (Which is honestly what Terraforming technically IS in Sci-Fi) Rather than just making existing planets better? If not huge, you could at least turn PQ 0 into a PQ 6, covered with factories and churning out ships. (The Volcanic Foundries of Mars.)

More random events related to alignment that actually MEAN something. Some of the events I get have really silly outcomes. Omg! I lose 145 BC! I have several thousand. In a choice between gaining 145 Bc and losing 250 Bc, it almost doesn't matter to me. Lasting reprecussions would be cool. Also, I'm tired of being good just because evil doesn't give me enough reward in the situation. If being evil earns me 145 BC for 50 million people I don't want to do it, JUST because those same people give me more in taxes per turn.

Can we disable some races even if we want to get random opponents? The other day I took my custom tweaked human race into a game, had the same homeworld, was referred to as human in the dialogues...and lo and behold, I met the Terrans. WTF? I AM The Terrans! I'd like to be able to disable some races but still get a random selection of the ones not disabled.

Yeah, I know I post alot of suggestions here, some repeat, most are new!

And sometimes the amounts are, like, 10 Bc! I was actually thinking at first that it might mean "10 Bc PER TURN, FOREVER" or something - else why would the game bother?

I've spent the time to read through this post.

I play DA quite frequently, so I'm no newb.


But I think that 99% of what I've read is completely horrible!!!!


To the devs: Please read the major threads in this forum to find what people actually want done. Random ideas are interesting (I will grant that), but if the game were to tilt towards most of these directions, it would be a detriment. No disrespect meant to anyone, but the people who play the game the most often aren't giving their ideas in this thread. They're posting in other threads.

I read through most of this like CornHuskerMac. I also dislike most of these ideas.

I would like to vote for Wyndstar's ideas in his/her first reply. They seem pretty popular here anyway. Another vote couldn't hurt though, right? Most of the rest of these ideas would rebalance the entire game, into something worse than it is now.

I thought it might be good to have a star go nova as a mega event. All the planets around the star could be destroyed and as the shock wave spreads out further the damage could lesson exponentially. This event would have to be totally random and could produce some interesting scenarios.

This game is incredible, and as you might have guessed i really like the random events

Do you realise that you've just contradicted yourself, sort of? He is perfectly wrong, but active sensors need more powerful transmitters (higher tech level of sorts, since you can't have a bigger sensor array at the same tech level)...
The "it's a game, KISS" justification also doesn't apply, since what was suggested wouldn't hurt or complicate the game. On the contrary, it's only logical and intuitive. That *that* is against the game's philosophy, that's another issue.
As for the passive sensors, it's you who is wrong. Multiple mirrors are still *one* telescope, an array of antennae is still *one* array, one that can sweep a larger chunk of space, but not necessarily "look" further into space.
But I guess you know all this   

How about when a tech complets and instead of having to mover your crsr over to the middle to ok it you put the ok button over by the tech button on the right? That would save a lot of time. Also instead of having to jump back in the tech screen why not make it where you can click on a more improved tech that will take longer and it will stay there until it gets up to it instead of making you ok each little step?

Hi, I love this game and I have a suggestion to make it better.

Ok, I have read that the main map is "too empty" and I agree with that up to a point. But, my idea to improve the game does not necessarily help this commonly made comment.

It does, however, address the main map.

I think that it is too cluttered with ships. If they are just laying around waiting, or on sentry or whatever, there has to be a better position for them. SO this is my idea.

The sectors need to be reworked. There needs to be an additional map screen that focuses on the sectors. Why? Well, you would be able to place ships on sector patrol and they would disappear from the main screen. They would be invisible on the normal map... that is, until an enemy ship or neutral ship entered their sector. See, the ships would be patrolling the sector.

You could put ships that you didn t need on the front line or wherever into these patrol sectors where they would be off the main screen, out of the way, but they would still be around, waiting and "patrolling" the sector (or sectors)that you allocated them to patrol.

If something entered the zone, and their sensors picked it up, then a popup would alert the player that the ship had discovered something unusual.

A new submenu that is a modified galactic map would show you which sectors had patrol ships and would allow the player to add or remove ships as well as change their orders or sector (s) to patrol. Also, these ships could possibly defend trade routes as a part of their order.

Ok, my other idea is to allow ships to orbit space stations. Why not? They are huge fortifications and could certainly be better defended with ships. At least the military one deserves this option.

So what do you think?

I think it sounds like a good idea. I would really like to protect certain sectors and starbases, and the coventional means don't seem to cut it. If I put a ship with a Starbase, the Starbase, if attacked, always gets killed and the ship underneath can't help defend. That's pretty lame.

I'd also like to be able to use one superbig ship like my Galactic Ranger or my Supercarriers in Late game that took 60 turns to finish and are ridiculously powerful to patrol home space, you know, two planets and an asteroid field and starbases. I suppose I could do it manually but it's a bit of a pain.

The patrol would be cool, too, if there was cloaking. Suddenly survey ships would be useful after you find all the anomalies.

Imagine This: You set a Survey Ship (Or a fighter ship with a survey module.) To patrol a sector. If an enemy has a cloaked ship a popup tells you that it has detected something. Normal ships wouldn't be able to see it. Starbases could also have anti-cloak modules but they should take alot of space, and be expensive.

In the end, Cloaking Technology would be an expensive investment but fits some sneakier playstyles.

I'd like to see more branching tech-trees like that, just like the Colonization Techs change your gameplay strategy. It is all cool.