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

z+x=planets and find=ships.

Give the minor races the ability to settle nearby planets.

Thanks!

Please make Dark Avatar work on Windows XP Professional x64 edition (i.e., make it work with 64 bits Operating Systems)

Is it possible to make it work to run on Linux as well?

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.

Hmm... Really great game, but a few tweaks would be nice:

1) Make your home star/planet stand out on the mini-map. Please. I often waste a lot of time hunting for mid to late-game it if I'm playing on a big enough galaxy and have settled enough area.

2) More options to help adjust the speed/length of a game. E.g., an "extremely fast" research option; a tweak to adjust how frequently the UP meets; a tweak to control how frequently mega-events are likely to occur.

3) Make the debug.err messages more meaningful to modders, and in particular somehow differentiate out "normal" messages that can't be errors related to a mod. (Unmodified DA currently generates a number of errors that look as if they could be mod related but with no mod running can't be, like "DEBUG ERROR: CustomShipStyleWnd: Unknown edit field ShipList_List_Entry type: CustomListEntry").

4) Documentation: A readme.mod.txt with a guide to converting DL mods to DA would be really, really nice. Maybe even some basic scripts to help a few routine tasks?

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.

Hmm ideas for future upgrades.

1) Make fleets move at the average speed of all the ships in it. (This would allow for say tiny fighters with all weapons and no engines to move faster when combined with a faster and larger ship like a medium warship designed with multiple engines for speed.)

2) Diplomacy option to ask an empire to remove all of its spies from your planets.

3) Limitd Fixed borders and techs to increase the range of ones border. Only transport class ships could cross it. (include diplomacy options to allow races to enter your boarders.)

4) make unique look for final weapons types, as it is now It can gt confusing if you only go by visuals.

5) Option to make anomolies respawn and limit games to starting without survey ships. (as it is now the UP event that limits exploration of anomolies within ones areas of influence is worthless unless it happens as the first vote.)

6a) Make invasions not auto colonize a planet. Instead you force the planets none military population under your control. This would do a number of things. One you could then send your own colony ships to said planet to seed your own races on the planet. Transports would then be able to take there troops after rest and refit to another enemy planet to attack it.

6b) Transports would carry trainned soldiers who suffer losses and gain experience like warships do. A high level transport's troops would gain extra advantages in ground combat. Also transport troops would heal, aka regain fighting strength over time like ships heal.

6c) Planets would have a new score added, defensive soldiers available. this number would be a percentage of the population of the planet and could be increased with upgrades like the planetary defense site.

7) New mega event that causes a minor race to change into a major race, aka it now expands and joins the UP.

8) Make a tow module that would allow ships to tow starbases to new positions. (starbase would not influence anything while being towed.

9) Allow defensive placement of spies on planets. To protect ones key buildings.

10) Fix trade, th event that has a minor race steal one of the majors technologies and wants to trade for planets is worthless since they often won't trade anything even when offered all of the planets I have.

11) Make minor races a bit more agressive. they spend to much time building constructors rather than warships for defense of there single planet.

12) Make races not try to build the best buildings when they gain a new planet. this normaly cause the planet to be usless to them since it takes forever to build the improved buildings if the planets has now infrastructure.

I will stop at that, I have alot more ideas but I think the majority of them would require a major overhaul or only appear in a Gal Civ III.

Angelon

*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).

Greetings,

I would like you to expand more the espionage to be more sophisticated and the asteroid mining. I don't feel the money a player spends in espionage is worth the gratification.

Thank you

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.

Food production
Support empire-wide food production (i.e. not local to just one planet) and govern maximum population size by planet quality, not food production on that planet. This would allow triple-food production squares to be used to support populations on other planets, and allow some planets to be specialised as food producers.


Rendezvous points
Allow rendezvous points to be placed directly on starbases, so that I can have a shipyard construct & launch constructors for a starbase without any direction from me other than choosing what upgrade a starbase will get. If I place a rendezvous point directly on a starbase, the point should be named after the starbase. Similarly, give rendezvous points a default name of the closest star system, which is more memorable than trying to remember the rendezvous point number. I can’t always think of a handy name myself!

Better espionage reports
Improve intelligence screens to show the latest available intel on enemy ships & production capabilities. For example, if an enemy ship briefly pops into sensor range, I should be able to have a record of that and see what weapons they have installed, complete with how long ago the ship was seen and if the enemy has researched more advanced techs since the ship was sighted. If I’ve spied on a planet I’ll know the production capabilities of that planet, so I should be able to see how quickly the enemy can produce more of those ships (hypothetically, based on known info).

If espionage levels on an enemy go past a certain level I should receive reports of new ship classes being designed & built. I should also receive warnings of the AI’s intentions if my espionage levels are high enough – e.g. reports of fleets & troop transports massing near my borders. I should definitely know the location of the enemy’s undiscovered planets once I start spying on one.


PQ 0 planets
Have some PQ 0 planets be the homes of former galactic civilisations that experienced an ecological disaster. Building a research base on these planets (the planet screen would show a single square that would only allow a research building to be built) could uncover new super abilities, be the cause of mega events, or discover ready-built galactic achievements if left working there long enough. Reports of this activity should be available via espionage. If the planet is captured by somebody else the ability/achievement would switch to that race.

New constructor automation
For constructors, maybe have them relay modules between starbases and planets to allow them to upgrade a starbase continually – this would require a constructor and a starbase to work in tandem in upgrading a starbase.


Research
Some way to have no end to the research trees – e.g. always have another level of minituarisation or logistics or engines available (at escalating cost), rather than eliminating all research activity once the tree has been exhausted.

Thanks!
I appreciate that these changes are ones I want based on my style of playing GalCiv, so they’re probably not all of broad interest, but I do get tons of enjoyment out of the game and want to help improve it if I can!

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.

- Make economic report more complete. It's a bit harder to understand, especially for the newbie like me, why i'm spending more money than earning.
Ok, you see, for example that 80 bc is allocated for colony maintenance, but how? And how can i lower it?

- Moveable station is a good idea.. for example using some kind of ships: i.e. you need a special ship, or a special module to "beam" the station and move it.

- Blind diplomacy for higher levels: with the red-green colours is too easy to find now the cheapest price for obtain a tech from an alien. If it's blind you cannot guess it using the colours and if you make an inappropriate offer, you diplomacy should lower.

- resizeable windows in windowed mode.

- a "remember password" for metaverse login

- an alarm for the addicted like me: when you set it, at the time you want, the alarm drins, and in 5 minutes it saves the game and quit, and you cannot restart the program for two hours

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.

The option to turn off the new espionage system please. I appreciate you asking.

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

Actually, you can do this now. At least, if you are PLAYING a custom race...

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!

VERY much agree... on reviewing my debug.err files, it seems like a lot of my MRs are doing this.

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?

another thing.

in the diplomacy screen, being able to send pre-determined sentences to the other civs. Examples:
- "I don't like the fact that you just constructed a starbase in my territory"
- "Could you please move your fleet far from my worlds?"
- "One more step and I declare war to you"
- "I hope you are not the one spying on me..."
- "In the name of our friendship, please help us !!"
- "I suggest you consider the option of attacking x eventually"
- "Hey ally. I suggest you concentrate your industrial power to war. We are going to attack x soon."
- "Hey ally. If you have some spare ships, could you move some in defense range of my planet x. I may need help soon enough."
- etc...

Those pre-determined sentences would affect AI in a good or bad way (or not at all) for your civ. That option would correct the fact that the other civs can send you messages like "have a look at the x. they are getting strong and we shold help the civs at war with them" while you can't.

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..

a lot good suggestions here.

Please add the ability to tell a planets shipyard to work on ship upgrades instead of building ships or doing nothing. I dont mind if it takes rather long compared to the current upgrade of ships (loads of cash + 1-2 rounds usually), but if you upgrade a lot of big ships it simply costs too much. Why not make use of them shipyards for it?

This is a great idea!