Also make some way to easily cycle through all of your units and planets

Give the minor races the ability to settle nearby planets.

Thanks!

Occassionally having a permanent wormhole generated on the map that connects one side of the galaxy to the other would spice up strategy quite a bit. 

Also, nebulaes that hide ships from sensors or have other weird effects.

These may be too big outside of an expansion pack though.

Can you tell me how please? I just tried clicking on an uncolonized, quality 4 planet, and I can't find anywhere that lets me rename it. I've found where I can rename even alien colonized worlds but not uncolonized ones.

*Streamline starbases and reduce starbase cheese*

Right now starbases are the source of several major problems:

1) It requires a lot of micromanagement to upgrade them.

2) Military starbases and combat-related starbase upgrades are pretty useless except for sometimes in the early game.

3) They can be an incedible source of human advantage over the AI because the AI doesn't build many starbases (and they're easy for humans to take out), whereas human players can stuff 4 econ starbases per sector, throw influence starbases deep into enemy territory, etc., etc.


I can think of several changes to remedy this, some major and some minor.

1) Simply change the rules so that STARBASE BONUSES DO NOT STACK.

For example, if your planet just happens to be within range of nine econ starbases with a certain +4% production module, it only gets that bonus once rather than nine times. (Alternatively, if different starbases offer a bonus to the same thing, simply take the highest bonus rather than considering which individual modules were responsible for it).

This one change would de-cheese starbases stupendously.


2) Change starbase weapons and defenses so that they're dependent on your *general* military technology, and treated a little more like a ship.

Treat a starbase weapons or defense module as having a certain amount of space to allocate to weapons of a given tech level, with the weapon types used being those for a huge ship. So when you research Phasor, all of a sudden you have a new Phasor upgrade for your starbase's beam attack type.

A starbase would have space for a certain number of weapons modules and defense modules. For each of them you could *choose* beam vs. mass driver vs. missile or armor vs. shield vs. point defense. Increases in your miniaturization tech will eventually give you the ability to add additional combat modules per starbase.

Basically, the idea is that a starbase should always be able to defend itself at least as well as a very high end ship using your tech. Consider it a kind of "super-hull", one hull type better than any other you've got. So if your warships are crushingly superior to those of the enemy, so are your starbases.


3) Add any possible conveniences to reduce constructor micromanagement.

A key problem is that it takes so MANY constructors to translate X units of planetary production into a fully upgraded starbase. One obvious solution is to allow the use of upgraded constructors which take longer to build, but can construct multiple improvements. At minimum, a constructor with an "advanced constructor module" that builds two improvements and costs maybe 210 BC (so that total ship cost is 2x that of a normal constructor). A player could add multiple modules, and then get upgrades at 25% off, but the penalty would be they'd HAVE to use 'em or lose 'em at one starbase since all the modules are on the same constructor.

A more ambitious idea would be to eliminate the direct dependence on planetary production. Allow the player to BUY starbase upgrades through the starbase itself. Racial military production bonus would be applied as a discount to the purchase price. This would DRASTICALLY reduce micromanagement for anyone who keeps good cash flow. It might also give the *AI* an easier time getting good starbases, since it just has to pay to upgrade them instead of getting a steady stream of constructors through a potentially dangerous area.

Some kind of empire-wide "starbase status" screen would also be pretty useful, to give an indication of which starbase actually has what.


4) More use for military starbases.

Right now, there isn't a heck of a lot of use for military starbases. The way their bonuses are applied, they're great for small ships but not so great for large ships. Since large ships are generally superior in the game, that makes them a specialized defensive tool but not very good for offense and fairly useless in the late game.

From the perspective of making the AI fight better, the military starbase probably works best if it's used to force the player into frontal combat rather than the evasive tactics that humans are better at. It's too easy to head straight for the AI's best worlds and seize them. Starbases should help defend the best worlds... and taking them out should be unrealistic unless the starbase is taken out *first*.

One idea is that starbases could help defend worlds in their area of influence against invasion by providing a soldiering bonus. Their presence hampers the logistics of the invading fleet, etc.

They could also support interdiction modules - reduce the speed of invading warships (perhaps not quite as potent as the Yor ability, or that sort of nerfs the Yor ability).

Well, don't know if it has been mentionned before in this thread (too long to read), but here I go again:

Problems to be solved
---------------------
1- Please, when tech trading is on, find a way to hide the available technologies of the other races. Because you just have to open the dialog window to know what techs the other civ has, and which they don't have ! And this of course even if you don't have any spies.

2- Same problem with the planets and the fleet they have. When you want to know how many planets they have, what is there task force, just open that dialog !

3- Same problem with the "Place Agent" spy screen. You just started your galactic exploration. You haven't researched "Life support" tech and "Propulsion" techs. You can't go very far fast enough, but you have discovered at least one planet. You open the "Place Agent" screen on that planet and you use the Left/Right arrows to see all the planets of that race.

Improvements suggestions
------------------------
1- Spying. I find it not real that you can place a spy anywhere in the galaxy without having a transportation delay. It can take 20 weeks for you fastest ship to get in range of the targeted planet, but your spy can make it in less than 1 week. Probably because you don't know where he is. I suggest the implementation of a system that allows you to position your spies correctly. Why not add a "current location" column for spies (in the spy screen) ? You could place your agents on your planets. When moving, the spies could become unavailable for a certain amount of time, depending on how far he has to move. He could move at the maximum speed allowed by the Propulsion technologies you would have reserched. Same thing when targeting a building to sabotage. It would take time for him to go there and to come back if you unassign him (would return to your nearest planet). I think it would be more real like this.

2- Pilot Training. By researching a new (or some new) technologies, you would be able to use a 0 quality planet as a starfighter pilot training base. You could build a base on that planet (only thing possible, because of 0 quality) and send your fighters there for training (placed in orbit like on regular planets). They could get xp slowly but surely (more slowly than real battles maybe?). That would be great for the creation of hero squadrons. Because my fighters in all the game I played rarely see more than 1-2 battles. Maybe it is me but anyway, that's not the point. Of course, that base could be destroyed by opponents, but immune to influence.

I'd like a couple things:

1) I'd like to set up a game without human players viewable in God mode (map completely visible, all races ships/planets/starbases/etc. viewable as if it were the player's race).

2) A megaevent which allows some chosen race (even the player) to choose from a list of options. The player would obviously then pick the one that benefits them the most.

3) Remove all terrain bonuses for farms since using them is usually a mistake. Seems silly to offer something as a bonus that actually is detrimental.

4) Mercenaries. Provide an option for a race who chooses to to hire military units from a minor race to serve as their military. Then they can have ships when they want them but don't pay maintenance when they don't want/need them.

5) Revamped planetary combat system. The space combat system is full of options and strategies. The ground system not so much. I would like to see strategy become more of a factor when conducting ground combat.

Another... it should be fine (if there is not yet, i'm newbye ), a tech that make possible to colonize the 0 quality planets and to improve the others.

I would really like to get BRAD's wish-list with his reasons. It would probably give some insight as to decide alot better what I would like or not... For example, his views on multiplayer have changed totally my own views (I considered AIs as temporary player-replacers - it's quite right that we don't even seriously interact in most online gaming). Other views could be less sweeping but there's no question it'd have an impact.

Ok sure... most buyers don't vote here so maybe it would bias the result for the overall player range, but with care or a pre/post-Brad views...

(Besides, this is true for Brad but given the teamwork, valid for others.)


As for myself, the two parts I find wanting are spying and "social engineering". I know that the latter is just not for a patch though, so maybe just a "feel" of it by random events? Same for spying, a better feel of how it's like would be nice

It would be nice if espionage could be even more subversive. Right now all you can do is neutralize a planetary improvement, but there's room for more. How about sabotage missions to destroy an improvement or orbiting warship (could help in invasions). Also, if you're the sort who likes to fight proxy wars, spies could be used for missions to reduce 2 races diplomatic relations.

As it is, you can't get a race with good relations with another to attack. e.g. my last game, I was attacked by the Dregin. Although I have good relations with the Altarians, I can't ask them for help (bribe them) to attack the Drengin because their relations are good with the Dregin also. It would be interesting if spies could be used to impact the diplomatic relations between races. e.g. I want to get the Altarians to go to war with the Drengin, maybe spies could be used to "frame" the Dregin for the sabotage (or destruction) of an Altarian planetary improvement or an assasination attempt on the Altarian leader.

I think the addition of espionage is a great thing for DA and has so much potential to add a lot to gameplay. Thanks again Stardock for making such a great game and asking the fans for ways to make it even better!

Something that would be neat to see is a feature which lets you watch the AIs play each other. Sure, its fun playing against them, but once in a while I wish that I could just sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch the AI beat the crap out of itself. Is that at all possible?

I have mention sometimes things I would like to see.
Here the last discussion about survey ships and more.WWW Link

And of course a map editor and an external ship editor.
Some fix regarding wide screen monitors will help too.. I work at 1920x1200 so sometimes I see some graphics stretched..

This is a great idea!