Thanks for soliciting our ideas Stardock. Your dedication to improving this game is another example of how you guys rock and the other guys suck.

There are a lot of great ideas on this thread. I want to expand on a couple of them:

-- Planetary Bonus Tiles: I love the diversity of planets and wish there was more diversity in the tiles as well. For example, why not have economic tiles that boost tourism if you build a unqiue building on it or income if you build an economic building on it? Given the new food disto centers, I have a lot more use for a +300% morale boost tile than a +300% food boost tile (does anyone use those?). What about a ship building bonus title for starports?

-- Custom Races: I've read several threads about this and admit that I really don't understand the explanation for why Custom Races need to be disadvantaged vis-a-vis the exisiting Races in the game. How does that not create balancing/metaverse issues? As an avid player of Custom Races, please allow them to use the full allocation of bonus points. Adding negative racial picks, IMHO, would also add some real diversity to the game. I second the request for more logo and race art. Also, what about an option to set the homeworld system of a Custom Race, e.g., a slider that sets PQ for the homeworld and a minor planet in the system ala 15 and 0, 14 and 1, 13 and 2, 12 and 3, 11 and 4, etc.

-- Absorption of Minor Races: Instead of having to destroy my buddies the Snathi to prevent the evil Yor from using their planet as a launching pad for their invasion of my empire, can an option be added to the diplomacy screen whereby a minor can be peacefully absorbed if relations are well into the "ally" range?

-- Anomalies: Totally love the idea of these respawning throughout the course of the game.

Thanks,
Cumberberg

I love the idea of race "flaws". That would really add flavour to the game. For more points, a race could have a flaw, like they are unable to use medium hulls, or their life support capabilities are drastically reduced. great idea!

I would like to see the higher tech engines become less expensive, more like in DL than DA. They seem awful high priced in comparison. Thanks.


eric

I would like it if the Torians had a soldiering flaw, but they reproduce like roaches. The torians should have some type of farm/morale bonus, because once you hit the pop cap, that reproducer ability doesn't do jack...unlesss it's your transport capital of your empire, which case the super breeder would be lethal. Shove out the transports and the planet is fully pop caped a couple of turns later.

Ok, here goes:

1. Starbases. These could be made alot more useful if they could participate in combat. So my suggestion is that if combat occurs inside the sphere of influence of a starbase then the strongest starbase, the one with most military rating, will participate in such combat. This includes planets.

2. Ground combat. Seperate soldiers from civilians. Planets will have a percentage of their populations as soldiers garrisoning a planet, protecting it from attack. That way ground combat would be seperated from the civilian population and alot of things could be done to enhance it. Like arming the garrison with weapons with varying costs and during attack being able to set the aggressivness of your soldiers. Also soldiers would be able to gain experience now since they wont be mingled with the population.

Also the gfx the for ground combat badly needs some improvment.

3. Better combat views. Like for example being able to select and focus on one ship and then be able to turn freely around it. Like in homeworld.

4. Heroes, like in Master of Orion/Magic. But this is probably too big for a patch.

5. Space monsters. Would be nice if from time to time space monsters like crystal beings or the remnants of an ancient race would show up and start attacking you. Or even better, try to sell/trade you unique technologies.

6. Cloaking. Ships with these modules would be alot harder to detect on main map and would always get first strike in battles. Ofcourse it would take alot of space/money so it wouldnt be without cost.

7. Morale penalty for when invading an enemy planet with greater chance of rebellion. Seems strange that they would just accept their conquerors just like that.

Another idea, if you didn't genocide every race, you could use that races bonuses; for soldiering at least. Lets say the torians conquer the drengin and the arceans. They could load up the transports up with all three races. The use of this would be having heavy, medium, and light races that are good at soldiering. The heavier ones have a low birth rate to counteract their ghastly soldiering ability(like the dreadlords) and the mediums and light are self explanitory.



Like the Bentusi from the Homeworld games!

sheesh, you guys have your work cut out for you just sifting through all this! still, a very cool thing to do. as always, you have my respect and admiration.

one more idea. i really like the new jewelry comps that display your race logo. if it'd be possible, i'd love a piece that'd display this individual ships' names. not the ship class, the individual unit's name. i rename my bigger and more expensive ships, and if it's not too much work, it'd be rad to see those names printed across their hulls.

I know these are mnor annoyances but...

Rename the Super Dominator trait to Colonial Militia, because thats all those corvettes really represent.

Rename Galactic Privateer to Galactic Convoys, since it is all about keeping convoys safe. A true privateer wonder would reduce your enemy's trade and give you a cut of that reduction as privateers are actually licensed 'pirates'

On Custom Races:
It seems to me that they should start out with extra ability points and no inherent abilities (not even the Logistics +6%). Their total ability points should be close to the sum of the averages of the ability points of other races and the equivalent, in ability points, of other races' inherent abilities. Initial technology should be done similarly: they get points approximately equivalent to the average of the values of other races' starting technologies. In addition, if a race doesn't choose a super ability in a game with them active, maybe they should get extra points in abilities, technology, or both (since super abilities can affect either or both of those areas).

Minor Dialogue Oddity:
A couple games ago, as the Iconian Refuge, I recall the Yor telling me that 'Iconia is very far from Iconia so we might be willing to let you have it but only if you pay through the nose.' This is false; the three-dimensional space distance formula or just common sense will show that Iconia has a distance of zero from Iconia.

Homeworlds:
Moving on from the last idea, maybe civilizations should value their homeworlds more. I can't see the Terran Alliance giving up Earth at any price. They should also have special dialogue in the trading screen for it; if you're trying to trade for Earth from the Terran Alliance, they could say something like 'Earth is our home. We will never trade it at any price.' However, their new homeworlds (if the original is taken) shouldn't be especially valued. Perhaps there could still be a valuation of the original homeworld; if the Drengin took Earth, for example, I think the Terrans would really want it back. In addition, what if civilizations valued other worlds for plot-related reasons? For instance, the Iconians would want their original homeworld of Iconia back very much, and the Drath would highly value Altaria.

Initial Race Relations:
I also think there should be by-default bonuses or penalties between some races. The Yor almost wiped out the Iconians; the Iconians should start off 'Hostile' instead of 'Neutral'. The Altarians and Drath shouldn't really be great friends either (unless something else I don't know of happened in the Altarian Prophecy campaign). Likewise, the similar appearance of the Terrans and Altarians should give them a relation bonus. I know we'll say we aren't biased that way, but I don't quite believe that.

Same thing I've wanted since the beginning. (And the only reason I've owned the game for 6 months and still can't play)
A BETTER TUTORIAL! The videos... those are irritating and dry. In-game tutorial is the way to go. I'll beg if I have to.

I think I would play much more often with an epic story generator implemented.. This is a truly unique twist to an almost perfect game! Pretty pretty puh-leeease implement it!

I've noticed that when I move ships, I'll move one ship and then another unmoved ship will automatically be selected. That's good. But then sometimes I'll move one ship, then go mess around on a planet...then I have no idea what other ships I haven't moved this turn. So how about a button that's "Select Next Unmoved Ship"?

kept cl



just stay clicked on the planet and push the space bar

How about that galactic wonder that says it increases influence 25% yet actually increases diplomacy? Just little annoying bugs and typos like that being adressed would give the game a more clean feel.

Clarification for spying and the user interface

First of all, the whole spying concept is to gain information on another CIV. So at the begining of the game, we shoudn't know absolutely nothing about the CIV. The diplomacy and the management (stats and graphs) screen is ruining this concept. Because in the diplomacy screen, right off the start, you already know about the total treasury, influence points, planets, technology, starbases, ships etc... The same with the stats and graphs screen ( military, influence, population, economy, technology etc... ). This information is already there regardless of which espionage level you've reached ?! So the information gathering on another CIV is a total mess and it's scattered all over the game interface and it's annoying. That's why I suggest, having to go in one area of the game to view all the information gathered on the CIVS and when the appropriate espionage level is reached, only then you can start trading what you know about the CIV. For example ...

Spying report

Choose the race ( Altarian for example )

Low espionage level ( enables society )

- Race name and description
- Total population
- Number of colonies and classes of planets and names
- Approval for each colony and the total approval
- Total influence compared to yours ( show it with actual numbers and a bar level )
- Opinion on you and the relationship level ( hostile, wary, neutral etc...)
- Their ethical alignment ( leaning good, neutral, evil )
- Any social production bonuses ( % )
- Number of influence starbases and modules ( you can now click on the starbase but cannot see any military modules on it only influence modules )
- Number of Colony ships ( no military equipment\modules visible )
- Number of constructors ( no military equipment\modules visible )
- You can now start trading with what you know about the CIV so far. For example, so far you know their influence rating and their planets and any influence starbases, constructors and colony ships ( if there are any weapons or any military equipment\modules on them you cannot see ).

Medium espionage level ( enables economy )

- Total treasury money compared to yours
- Total income for each colony
- Economic status (this is a detail global version of their economy just like you see it in your own economic tab ... for example, tourism income, military expence etc... have all the total income of the empire in one column and the total expenses of the empire on the other... and compare it to yours with actual numbers and bars)
- Number of trade routes with any other civs ( names and number of routes from each )
- Any economic bonuses ( example, economic ability 80% etc... )
- Number of economic starbases and modules ( you can now click on the starbase without seeing any military modules )
- Number of freighters ( no military equipment\modules visible )
- Number of miners ( no military equipment\modules visible )
- You can now start trading with what you know about the CIV so far. For example, you can ask for money since you know their total treasury, you can trade their economic starbases, freighters and miners ( no military equipments on those ships visible yet )

Expert espionage level ( enables technology )

- List all the technologies like a mini-tree version and which tech currently researched and the time, if a certain tech enables a building list it too. for example...

so far...

1. Galactic warfare - space militarization - research laser -
laser beam I - laser beam II

2. Hyperdrive - new propulsion techniques

3. Xeno industrial theory ( enhance factory )

* Now researching laser beam III (15 weeks left)

- Any techonology bonuses compared to yours( example, tech ability 50 % etc... )
- You can now start trading with what you know about the CIV so far. Trade any technology that they have.

Advance espionage level ( enables military )

- Total number of attack ships ( colony ( military equipment ), contructor ( military equipment ) transports ( military equipment ), tiny attack ships, medium attack ships etc...
- Total number of each type of ships being built and on which of their planets
- Give the intelligence report on the races strongest attack ships and their weakest

strongest large class = ( 9/0/3 attk )( 10/0/0 def )
Fleet of 3 ships = ( 27/0/9 attk )( 30/0/0 def )

Weakest medium class = ( 3/0/0 attk )( 2/0/0 def )
Fleet of 5 ships = ( 15/0/0 attk) ( 10/0/0 def )

- Any military production bonuses compared to yours
- Number of military starbases and modules ( you can now click on the starbase )
- You can now trade everything in the game.

* At Advance level of espionage, you can now click on the planets and all starbases including every modules installed to see everything and also, you can now click on enemy ships and see everything installed on it.

Hello;

1 - More mega events/ rebalance. Also, allow for some rudimentary enabling/disabling of specific events that modders can fool with. Lastly, some of the events don't seem that mega. Normal events, like the PQ explosion are more mega than the unlimited range, for example.

2 - Fix diplomacy. Currently, while difficult, the AI doesn't seem too rational. I can understand if an AI values a tech in its eyes and wants a leg and an arm for it, but for more legit deals, it doesn't seem to make sense.

3 - Fix espionage. Simplest solution - Dring back the DL espionage in addition to the Agent system. 2 sliders - one for gathing info (DL style), one for the agents (DA style)

4 - Starbase constructor management. Probably a "Starbase" screen that would let players que the orders that starbases construct.

This. Invasion needs a little more detail in my opinion. I also think that planets you conquer should take an approval hit for the first year after you've conquered them.

Maybe only 20% - 40% of the population on any given planet can be used as troops/defense forces, so that way it isn't genocide, there's still a good chunk of the population left over for the conquerer. Once that 20-40% is gone though, the rest can't be taken to fight until the population is built back up. No landing multiple transports on the same planet and taking everyone away.

Also, the Epic Generator would be a really great addition too ...

Thanks for asking for our input. It is a great game overall, and the following suggestions are meant to maximize enjoyment of playing the game, rather than to be taken as a negative assessment of the existing game. Well except for this first one.

* Please Please Please fix the save game bug that does not allow the loading of certain saved games, esopecially autosaves, at a certain point. I have yet to finish a new gaem started in 1.5 because of this.


1) An active perimeter defense option for militar starbases that would allow them to attack any enemy ship that came within range (this wold necessitate that the enemy ship be able to defends itself and fire back from up to 8 squares away for fairness in this case which might be difficult to impliment). Perhaps a specific set of upgraded long range attack modules that would do the same thingbut at a much lower damage rate, the AI doesnt get to fire back and is subject to one round of low damage per turn spent in the starbases' radius.

2) Trading weight revalued. You've heard all the arguments for this in other posts so I wont go into detail, suffice to say currently the AI values certain techs far to highly (iewont trade one colonization tech in exchange for 3 in return) under 1.5X but planets and treaties are valued far too low (ie 2 class 13 planets gets an AI offer of 267bc) for realisim.

2b) AI planet valuation should take into account proximity to Empire. I have seen the AI, on occasion, not sell, at any price, a mid PQ world on my doorstep, about to be won over with influence, that was SEVERAL sectors away from its next nearest planet.

3) Not every AI planet should have a starport, some AI worlds class 3 have the colony center, a starport and a farm... which I suppose is indicative of a larger AI building priority assessment problem where it doesnt tailor planet's build cues to the individual circumstances of each planet.

4) Allow AI players to colonize class one planets

5) Have planet class reflect the END value of all terraformed squares, not the current value. It is hard to plan strategy for empire building ifI have to wait untill all my planets are upgrades fully before I see which ones are goign to be PQ 8 and which ones are going to be PQ 18.

6) Allow users to delete core templates and have such deletions only apply to what is visible on their ship template/build screens (so the corresponding AI player still has those templates to choose from but the player does have to obsolete all those designs everytime a new tech is researched)

7) Improved AI ship component utilization. Mostly for speed/sensors. The AI does not tend to maximize the potential of engines and sensors, to the point of not even researching the technology. It is common to see late game AI ships with a speed of 7 and the standard sensor range, while I, having researching most of the miniaturization techs, which they also don't make a high priority, are able to have twice/3x the speed and double sensor range with the same attack/defense values.

8) Borders should be invioable, if a peace treaty exists between species, except for trading freighters.

8b) Don't make peace treaty automatic upon first contact. A peace treaty should be somethign you ahve to research/earn, rather than automatic. Statuts after first contact would be neither at war nor at peace. Exchanging peace treaties would improve relations but bar you from entering their space to explore anomalies/get resources, etc.

8c) Your borders, area of influence, should start off much smaller than they currently do, one sector, max. They should grow with time. If we JUST got hyperdive, and haven't explored ANYthing, how can my area of influence extend to a place I haven't even been yet.

9) Galaxy map/explored area should be tradeable.

10) A map editor, preferably accessable in game, should be implimented post haste. I am a big fan of self-customization, and feel such a tool is invaluable for longevity of game enjoyment.

11) Institute a selectable 'repair' command for ship with the toggle on the ship info screen next to guard, sentry, and the like.

12) ALL improvements should destructable, including superprojects and galactic achivements, and subsequently able to be rebuilt elsewhere.

12b) Certain improvement effects should be altered. Ie, the glactic resort should apply either A) empire-wide, or be much higher bonus for the planet. Harmony crystals, ultra spices, frictionless clothing, and VR modules should increase in cost, and benefit from first available to last. Ie Harmony crystals should cost (for illustration purposes) 100 and give a 10% boost to morale (as they are the first available morale tradegood) while VR modules should cost 1000 can give a 40% boost to morale (as they are the last available morale trade good).

13) Graphics should be scaled in the 'Stats and Graphs' section of the Civilization Manager to allow for a viewing of all the stats at once, rather than going back and forth with the slider to view military, then technology, for each race compared to you.

14) If allied with AI A and at war with AI B, should be able to ask AI A to send ships to specific sector, or attack specific planet of AI B.

15) Economic Tile Bonus, as suggested by others, seems only fitting as there are concurrent bonus tiles for every other improvemetn type.

16) Multiple 'special' module ship placement. Thus a constructor (with 2-3 construcotr modules) would be good for 2 or three improvements, or a miner (with 2 mining modules) would be be doubly efficient, or a trader (with 2 trading modules)doubly profitable.

17) Have computer conduct all automoves to destination at same time, rather than individually one by one. In mid-late game I have 10-20 starports churning out ships to rally points every turn, and it takes forever for the computer to cycle through each move before my 'turn' is over.

18) Planet invasion,, if successful, should not kill 100% of the enemy's population of that planet (maybe 60-80%). Not only is every citizen of a planet not a soldier, but at a certain point of combat losses nearly every enemy surrenders.


19) Great idea, copied from previous post:
Maybe make PQ 0 planets something more than just space takers (I don't say that they should all serve a purpose and yes some should just be there to take up space but I believe there could be some use to them, possibly blow them up to reveal a resource or investigate certain planets to uncover bonuses)

20) Great idea, copied from previous post:
Instead of the UP deciding on their problems at random or letting some more influential civ choose for them there should instead be a sort of raffle that lets the winning civ choose from certain categories (so it helps to have influence but it won't guarantee you anything)

21) A MUST HAVE, copied from previous post:
An option to distribute races evenly across the galaxy (or, like star distribution, a bunch of settings: exact symmetrical distribution, loose distribution, random distribution).

22) The Jagged Knife event should only take planets with less than a certain approval rating, and then perhaps only a percentage thereof.

Improve colonization ship interface:
1. Be able to see where you are already sending colony ships (on either map or on the planet listing)
2. Be able to list of currently colonizable planet, ignoring those you don't have the ability to colonize (maybe I just haven't been able to figure this out)

Similarly improve constructor interface. It would be nice to have a base list as a third tab to the ship and planet list.

link political parties to % breakdown of spend - move outside the spend = morale problems, loss of election, new party, with new spend % ie the politics changes to the way you are playing (no penalties in losing the election, just the penalty of having to play with the new spend criteria)

examining spreadsheet increases vs build increases - what i mean is that if you research the life support techs you get an increase in range without having to build life support on any of your ships. on another note, how *can* a ship leave orbit with *no* life support or engine. just enacting this simple rule, would make orbital ships have more firepower, all things being equal, than an interstellar ship. a new strategy. another idea would be to make sensors fair more potent - you can't see unless you build them - on planets they can detect special tiles, or tiles that can terraform.

make the asteroid mines the economic starbases, and merge the trade and influence and military starbases with a view to limiting starbase numbers, but introducing multi-racial starbases (yep, whoever owns the most modules on a starbase is the current owner and reaps the rewards, controls who can join the starbase) and introduce starbase logistics that increases the module limit with research. babylon 5?

make ethics more interesting - have everyone on undeclared/neutral ethics until xeno declares it. have more *tempting* random events that shape your ethics before xeno ethics is researched, so that your choices do have an affect. Have relationships *change* once ethics is declared. shall i declare my ethics, shall i not....?

For UP, have events feed in from the game, say from 'unethical behaviours' eg Destruction of a colony, or, use of weapons of mass destruction in invasion (in fact, planetary invasion strats should have some ethical branding). The UP could then say something like, The Altarian Resistance's destruction of Planet Skowbow 2 has led to demands for economic sanctions - what shall we cut their trade routes down too? etc etc

have universal food, so that 300% tiles can be useful, and an agricultural planet can feed the empire - gives an empire new strengths/weaknesses

get new anomolies happening off battles as previously discussed, so that scavenger cultures can pick up techs etc. or indeed random events such as exploding comet/planet

generally make races more distinct? seperate tech lines? random tech lines?

for people like me with crappy computers and a lack of ship design micromanagement skills, have the choice to collapse the weapon/defence branches down to the basic model only (ie laser, plasma etc), so that ship design is less cluttered. that way i can also hit the Make CPU Use More Grunt For AI without getting the AI bogged down in ship redesign for every iteration of weapon. makes hull size and miniaturization more important.

perhaps have superior hull design, reinforced hull design tech etc make the hulls stronger in HP prior to armor cladding? researching new metals can add to this? perhaps you could dispense with armor altogether? i know, i iz getting too radical

i'm sure there's more.......



evil

Be able to center view on rally points or some sort of map bookmark system.

Be able to rename uncolonized planets.

Show on the unowned planet list if it's colonizable or not with an icon.

Show the actual research report come up when you gain a tech through trading.

Make the ship upgrade list alphabetical.

Be able to minimize the end of turn report. For example, if I lose a couple battles in a turn I'd like to be able to center on the battle, minimize the window, then make adjustments like buy another ship on the planet under attack without having to make a note of it. Or make it so that you can center on it later with those cards that show up on the right side of the screen.

Allow to change the treasury amount in the lower left corner to display income as well as total. I base my taxes partially on income and would like to be able to see at a glance if I need to tweak or not.

Keep up the good work.

merge galactic resources with non-expanding minor races, so that an exclusive alliance with this race gives you the galactic wide %bonus. this makes this exclusive alliance a tradeable commodity/flashpoint for war. also if a major race invades and destroys the minor race, the galactic resource is lost. shall i gain a planet or gain a resource?

I'd like to see an "Intergalactic Fleet Manager." Think of it as a galactic wonder that allows you to keep fleets over planets just like the Orbital Fleet Manager does, only this one is applied to ALL of your planets after being built.

BTW, sorry if this idea got suggested earlier... thing is, four pages of responses is a lot to read through, so I had to skim some answers!

Add the ability to select a bunch of planets (by location or product) and choose the group point. Constructors go here, warships in the Tora system hold off the drengin, warships from earth goto stop the thalans.ECT. Its realy had to route fleets in general.

Non-Party merchants, privateers. and space stations (lev 0 planets?) .
. Merchants goto a new planet each round
. Stations provide tax to the owner of the space influance
. Privateers (kill pirates)
(maybe non-party worlds become pirate worlds in war or non-influance areas?)

Make Millitary starbases differant. They take too long to get up. cost way too much. and are outdated too offten. Maybe make DEF upgrade with technology. Maybe if they can move(deconstruct, reconstruct). Maybe if they attached to astroids and become super production factorys for small/tiny ships.

Wormhole Station / Resource. Find the resource. Build it. and now you can jump to its matching set.

space terrain with sensor fog, + Damage (type) bonus or slow/fast movement bonus

The ability to "suggest" who takes damage in fleet battles (well its the defender ship with +80 armor).
Space terrain... nebulas w+Damage and sensor fog,

I think of them as non-military Drengin getting the lust for battle and going to war in whatever scrap heaps they can find. Perhaps they should be called "Drengin Beserkers", lol