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Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6!

Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6!

We're at your command

https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=357&aid=146627

We're extremely pleased to hear how much people seem to like the expansion pack (Dark Avatar) to Galactic Civilizations II. We're also glad that reviews have been so positive (average review score is about 4.75 stars out of 5).  But we're not finished yet! Tell us how we can make the game better for you.

For those of you who are new to buying Stardock software, the product you purchase is just the beginning of what you get. Stardock updates it software based on customer feedback.

In the case of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar we are lookoing for suggestions and feature requests that players would like to see in a free update.

Mind you, these can't be massive new features (i.e. "Multiplayer" or "Fleet combat") but rather little things that you think would make the game more enjoyable for you and others. Tweaks, new options, new features, improvements, etc.

Let us know what you'd like us to do. We are at your disposal!

241,053 views 437 replies
Reply #251 Top
Get rid of core ships for the player, except the important ones


Aye, at least do this so we can use the names (i.e. Battlecruiser) on our own ships, lol.

Also, can you put a toggle in the menu so we can stop the Planet, Research and Domestic windows opening as soon as the game starts/loads? Or at the very least, make sure the Domestic Window opens first. An option to automatically set the spending to 100% each game would be good too.
Reply #252 Top
Having the option to track (have the camera follow between turns) foreign warships and transports when they are in your territory would be very helpful on larger maps, and maybe even have something in the turn summary when enemy warships enter your territory?

A "treaty of honor" where both parties agree to declare war before they attack each other would be an interesting diplomatic addition. Declaring war under these conditions would remove all ships from the opposing empire's borders. The code for this is already in one of the events, but when used as a voluntary diplomatic treaty, this could have the additional effect of improving relations between the two empires.
Reply #253 Top
Please consider looking at the tech trading in general.

My concerns are made here.....

https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=357&aid=147035
Reply #254 Top
Could we have the ability to build fighter-carrier capital ships? One could add a "fighter bay" ship component to your ship, which would enable you to take a tiny or small craft with the fleet, without paying a logistics cost.

A minor feature perhaps, but one I think would be interesting.
Reply #255 Top
Having the option to track (have the camera follow between turns) foreign warships and transports when they are in your territory would be very helpful on larger maps



there is the option in the option menu to see all ships move
Reply #256 Top
Could we have the ability to build fighter-carrier capital ships? One could add a "fighter bay" ship component to your ship, which would enable you to take a tiny or small craft with the fleet, without paying a logistics cost.


And no additionnal engines would be required on the fighters (because they move with the carrier), leaving space for attack/defense.

Nice idea.

EDIT: oh, and why not make this new ship component available for starbases? In both cases (starbases and Carrier), the opponents wouldn't be allowed to see how many fighters are inboard.
Reply #257 Top
Here’s my pretty huge list of things I’d LOVE to see in 1.6 or a new expansion. All these are not necessarily my ideas as I have read a lot (over 100) of the replies on the 1.6 threads and I implemented some here.

Race-specific techs. For custom races, we could choose which one we want from the ones the existing races have. (They would be sort of super abilities that would have to be researched).

One super ship per race. Either specific for each race (maybe linked to the race-specific techs?) or to be able to make a ship the "Flagship" and he would get a +300% attack for each category or something. Or Heroes that could go from one ship to another and change the speed, range, attack, defense or sensors or other things of the ship that contains it (they could be found in anomalies (a half-destroyed spaceship or an escape pod)). They could also be assassinated by spies if said spies are left alone for too long. Heroes could also affect planets.

A way to spy your allies/friends without stopping one their planet's building. Maybe this could be the return of the espionage slider (and the spies slider would be renamed to sabotage).

A “Take the homeworld” victory condition. To win you could conquer the homeworld of that civilization. Of course, when this condition is on you can’t change your homeworld. This would make big conflict zones near civilizations’ homeworlds and also make military starbases more important.

A miniaturization, starting world quality and logistics ability to put your racial points in.

Stealth module for ships and a detection module to find them (which would be in the “sensors” technology and that would make them more worthwhile to research). The stealth modules would take a lot of space and would have to be researched for each size (meaning that there would be “stealth” that would give you the module for tiny hulls, “advanced stealth” for small hulls and so on…). Hidden ships would move more slowly and starbases’ sensors would detect them (making these worthwhile to research as well).

More space terrain such as: nebulas that slow down ships and/or diminish their sensor range, black holes that are simply impassable squares, permanent wormholes that would make bridges through space and conflict zones to control them, space poison zones that would hurt ships. They’d make ship speed more important because I usually build a huge army and then go there no matter how long it takes. We would also have to ask ourselves “do I go through the poison or do I circle it and risk having my planet invaded? How much terrain is on the map could be chosen from rare to abundant when setting up a new game.

Star gates. They’re in DL’s intro so we know everyone has the technologies for it. It would be a late tech which would allow you to make a star gate building (and it would take long to build) and it could either connect to any other star gate you possess or it would be linked to only one of them.

No diplomacy hint. The text wouldn’t be red or green or if it was green it wouldn’t be a sure deal. Relations with other races could change like that as well (they’d get upset after a few tries and cease the communication). We could also ask : what would you give me for “…”? Moreover, to be able to turn on and off the “diplomatic relations (“warm - wary”) slider and to have to guess from their speech or to have the slider be a result of your meetings (so you know exactly how bad your last conversation was…)

Restricted view on techs. You could only see part of a given race’s techs which would depend on spying. The agents that would be looking for techs would be harder to find before they can be nullified. Seeing how many replies talk about tech trading, the implemented suggestions should be in a dropdown menu in place of the “no tech trade” button.

Queuing. For techs and ship building (also the ability to repeat a queue like in Supreme Commander).

Movement for starbases in some way. Either for military starbases only or all of them and either through a ship that could push it around or through a module.

A repair bay and repair robot module for starbases. The first one would repair ships that “dock” starbases and the second one would repair the starbase itself. It could make way to some pretty cool space bases where your ship congregate. Starbases should also have their HP boosted with every module built.

Space mines. Not mines as in asteroid mines. Mines as in exploding mines. They’d be ships that would stay in place and damage ships that get to close (the range could change with the number of modules or techs). They could even go stealth (at the cost of reducing their explosion range maybe? It would also make stealth VERY important).

To be able to create a game with one or more technologies already researched for everyone. We’d have the tech tree and simply select which techs everyone starts with.

To be able to put spies on starports and starbases. On starports they would only slow the production however (maybe they could be stacked to reduce even more) and on starbases they would nullify a module (and after a certain number of turns the module would be destroyed).

The United Planets is too limited. A system to have someone (the one with the most IP?) choose the topic (which could have diplomatic relations repercussions) or choose “Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-Yearly, Yearly, Never” when creating the game. Choosing the topic would also make IPs more valuable in diplomacy and in general. Maybe there could be an event or mega-event that makes the UP vote two or more laws.

Negative racial traits like -10% research to gain an extra 2 ability points. A no-super-ability that gives you twice as much racial points could be cool as well. An extra-starting-techs racial ability that would allow you to put more points for your starting techs would create some interesting choices (it could also help make custom races more balanced with preset races). Right now custom races are too weak right now (maybe 20/25 points instead of 15)

To be able to change the color of a race even if they’re chosen randomly, already created, or even for the preset races because it can be hard to distinguish the korx from the yor, the and the .

A galactic wonder that reduces the maintenance cost of ships.

Border control through techs, diplomacy or initial settings. To limit certain races from entering your influence; it could be done through an event, a mega-event or a United Planets vote.

To be able to choose settings for races even if we choose “random races”. I often want to put random races but I realize that if I do I won’t be able to choose their dvanced settings like personalities and so on. Random shouldn’t “wait” for it to be in-game. There should be a randomize button that scrambles settings and THEN we could change some settings.

New way to interact with invaded planets. After having conquered a world (and doing so should also be changed to killing only soldiers, not civilians), you would have a few choices as to how to treat captured citizens that could depend on your civ’s alignment. For example: kill of all prisoners to boost that planet’s loyalty (if evil), enslave prisoners for extra production but risk of revolt (could be reduced with an evil-only building, if evil), leave them choose whether to join you or not (it would depend of on influence, neutral), keep them in prison to boost morale? (neutral), offer them integration plans that would cost you money but increase the number of people that stay on that planet (good), offer transportation to the closest planet to lower that planets loyalty(have a message to indicate which planet it is, some would stay, good). There could be other choices.

Multiple governors that build improvements in a user-defined order just like in GalCiv 1. It’d be a 1-click solution to starting worlds in huge maps.

Seeing how ship design was successful, implement starbase design with starbase only jewelry. They don’t always look right with your ship style.

Scrolling with the arrow keys without having to press shift and at the same speed as when you move your mouse to the border of the screen since no one moves ships with them.

Maybe have some improvements not take a tile in the colony screen. I know I never build some of them because tiles are simply too valuable. Once built these buildings could show up in a list when you click on the initial colony tile. Otherwise, they could appear on squares that are not green, orange or yellow tiles.

Space missiles. These are ships that inflict the damage of the “weapons” you put on it only once. Maybe they would get a bonus attack and speed for being missiles.

Update the tutorial movies. I know a lot of players don’t want this because they already know how to play the game but when I first played it I was REALLY at a loss as of what to do. The manual could also use an update. Maybe the birth of a “Tutorial scenario” (it would show up on you first game and have a specific map) could solve this problem.

In-game notepad. Maybe several of them, as in one per planet or something. They could have a “set reminder in X weeks” option as well.

A “Fleet-command” module for huge-hulled ships. When in fleet with other ships, those ships would get an attack bonus. This could also be another ability of the civ’s “Flagship” Maybe also have huge hulls be slower so we get the feeling of maneuvering a battleship class behemoth (and slow the fleet that accompanies it). Smaller ships could also have a chance to “dodge” huge hulls’ attacks.

Good choices in the random 3-way “morale choices” shouldn’t be bad but only different from the bad choices. Also lots of people think being good simply sucks and that an evil-only building is the only way to win in suicidal.

One starbase class per sector or maybe simply one economy starbase per solar system or sector should be the limit.

Reappearing anomalies to make the Galactic Guide Book useful. There could also not be tons of them at the beginning of the game and have them popup everywhere progressively to make sensors and scouts more important.

A button to move the selected ship to its destination and another one to move all ships to their destinations (the old spacebar hotkey).

A new governor that “sends ship type X to this waypoint”

Different sorting methods in the shipyard and the sorting would be the same on every planet’s starport. The methods would be Cost, Maintenance, Size, Beam attack, Missile attack, Mass Drivers attack, Beam… defense, Range, Sensor range, Modules…. Among others things.

If you get weak in one area such as diplomacy or morale or influence or military production, the party that has those as bonuses gains more votes in the party elections (if that’s not already the case).

Some sort of upgrade for ground combat. Maybe even a ground vehicle design screen?

A new, factory type starbase. It would be able to build faster and faster as you add modules. Maybe its distance to your planets could be limited or it could not be and that would boost the importance of scouts.

A setting to have a race be an “aquatic race” for example that can colonize aquatic worlds from the start but not regular (maybe they should then be called “oxygen”) worlds. That would make less conflict for the initial colony rush. It would also make races more special in a purely cosmetic way.

Wow…. 2,004 words and 9,359 characters…
Reply #258 Top
Forgot two. I'd like to be able to see visually how far a ship can get in one turn. In my case, it helps defense. Several times, I set up a guard fleet, see an enamy fleet approach, attempt to move to them to engage, and end up comming up a bit short. Next turn, they just slip right past me. If I could see how far I could go, this wouldn't happen.

On starbases, it would be handy to see what modules are available to be built, not just how many are available.
Reply #259 Top
The game is already pretty cool, but here's my absolute wish list:

- The ability to decide on UP proposals ahead of time.

I guess this would require some AI work, but as the AI is already programmed to vote a certain way on the proposals that are presented, this might not be that hard. Sure it'll be open to exploits, but what isn't?

How are the UP proposals decided now? Is it totally random, or is it influenced by the state of the game?

- More options on the diplomatic screen.

It is odd that the AI can says things to you: get rid of influence starbase x, give me money, beware of player X, move your transports, that you cannot say to the AI.
Again, this might take some AI programming, but some of the groundwork must already be there, because AI can already "say" these things to you. Would it be open to exploits? Probably. Would the fun factor outweigh the exploit factor? Most definitely!
Even having separate "demand as tribute" and "ask for nicely" options would be great, and again, the AI can do it to you, so why can't you do it to the AI?

I know that one of the issues with this is that the human can and will make demands and not follow through. Well, there's already an diplo penalty for breaking a treaty - why not just give a penalty if you demand tribute and then go to war anyway? Plus it'd be cool for evil AI's to do the same thing to the player - saying, "give me 1000bc or die" and then declaring war the next turn and saying, "ha ha, suckers."

- Separate ground troops from the general population.

I doubt this will happen, but it would really be cool. I know it would add a whole other level of AI complexity as the AI tries to decide how many troops to put on a planet, etc., but it would be fun!

Any one of these additions would totally make my day!
Reply #260 Top
Not a change to the game code but I would love to see Stardock run a GOTM (Game of the Month) like they do over at CivFanatics for Civilization !!!! (or partner with them and let them run it....)

This type of "service" really adds to the longevity etc.. of the game.

Maybe I'm truly missing something, but the Metaverse just doesn't seem to elicit the same sort of fun etc..
Reply #261 Top
another little improvement: please make a button to set rally point destination also if you select the shipyard directly from the map or from the list of planets.. now i've to double click on planet, then click on build ship and it's a little annoying.
Reply #262 Top
another little improvement: please make a button to set rally point destination also if you select the shipyard directly from the map or from the list of planets.. now i've to double click on planet, then click on build ship and it's a little annoying.



all of this is already implemented

in the upper left of the tool bar is a button that says waypoint when you move curser over it click that and put your waypoint where you want to

the shipyard button is the last button on the tool bar just before the mini map


if your talking about being able to tell a planet to build a ship then just click once on the planet and in the middle of the tool bar will be a complete discreption of the planet and at the right side of that section will be the shipyard and what it is building at the bottom of that section is a build button click on it and a list of ships will come up that you can choose from

Reply #263 Top
Some of these posts should start with "Dear Santa".
Reply #264 Top
A box and a manual...
Reply #265 Top
what i would really like to see and i know its minor, is separate save and load tabs instead of the save/load tab. quite a few time ive double clicked my game thinking it would save and instead it loads and ive lost everything ive done. VERY annoying. also maybe class 0 planets could have mining bases similar to asteroid fields? seems such a waste of perfectly good resources and any spacefaring civilization would have to mine the uninhabitable planets near it. just a thought
Reply #266 Top
I'd like to see an option under diplomacy to tell the AI to remove their ships from my controlled sectors. I realize it's been said that theoretically space has no borders, but what about at least giving the planets themselves an orbital border, ala starbase AE. If opposing forces or any outside forces come within its range then the option to tell them to take a hike so to speak becomes available under the diplomacy screen. The AI’s ability to amass a fleet of warships near one of my systems without my being able to ask them to leave other than to go to war with them makes no sense.

Also for 1.6, I’d like to see a standalone download that can easily be fetched from any other outside computer. This SDC without broadband at home just plain sucks for patches. Sorry, don’t know how else to put it.    It truly has discourage me from anything future with Stardock, unless of course I get a pay hike at work and can then afford high speed internet at home.

Thanks
Reply #267 Top
-Bigger maps
-I'd like Perm Wormholes as well
-Cap the amount of attacks a fleet can make, instead of being based on speed.


Modding:

-Ability to mod camera angles in combat viewer
-Expand ship componet modding. Ie: Let us add defense and weapons values to an engine. Or what I'd like adding two weapon damage types to the same weapon. This would open up some nice interesting mod ideas.
-Give the AI some more ability to use "speed" type modules on starbases. Right now if you add in starbase mods that affect speed, espically ultra highspeed ones the AI ignores them.

Look forward to the patch, no matter what form it takes. Thanks.
Reply #268 Top
My ideas:

1) Spies: I don't think this feature is implemented very well at all. Spies are VERY expensive and they get killed off very quickly. It's hardly worth building spies.

Another problem is that spies are barely necessary because the game gives you LOTS of information about opponents even when you have no spies on their worlds. I can figure out what techs they have by looking at the trade window. I can tell if they like me by looking at the foreign relations window. I can even see the starships orbiting their planets and look at their stats. So why do I need spies?

And what do spies do? Temporarily disable ONE improvement. That's not a very powerful activity unless you happen to find a very important building. But of course, your spy will die after one or two turns so what's the point?

Why do enemy civs see your spies? Spies are supposed to be secretive, but in this game spies are out in the open for everyone to see. No wonder they get killed off so easily. Enemy civs should not see your spies unless they're putting in an effort to find them.

I have NEVER had one enemy use a spy against me, so is the AI even using spies?

2) Starbases: Starbases are sitting ducks. You can't detail a fleet to defend them and the defenses you can buy for them are completely inadequate to beat off a determined attack. And starbases are very expensive so you're really paying a lot for something that is impossible to defend.

3) I played as Terran and altered it slightly. Then I noticed that Terrans were an opponent I could choose so I did. So there were two Earths and that was just annoying. Minor problem but annoying.

4) AI civs have no clue how to build up their planets. Whenever I take over an enemy planet, I have to knock out all their improvements and start over. The AI does not understand that FACTORIES are important and doesn't build enough of them.

5) I'd like to see ground battles improved. The ground battles are primitive and really this is the weakest part of the game. And I don't like the fact that I have to commmit genocide against the entire population of a world in order to conquer it. Shouldn't there be civillians who don't fight? I don't like being Adolph Hitler every time I conquer a new world. I'd rather be a benevolent conqueror, like Alexander the Great.

6) Tech trading is too easy. I know exactly what the best deal I can get because the text turns green as I slide the money bar. That's just not realistic. Lack of information about the other guy's bottom line is a big part of negotiation. The AI just gives this information away.

7) Trade routes don't make enough money!

8) Tourism doesn't make enough money!

9) UP is nice feature, but I'd like the option of making my own proposals.

10) The opposing party factions are much too complacent. All I have to do is keep my popularity above 50% and I win every election. These parties should be undermining me every step of the way. When there's a war, they should denounce me in the media. When there's high taxes, they should denounce me in the media. When I don't build enough entertainment improvements they should denounce me in the media.

11) And in the previous suggestion I said there should be a media. The media should make my job harder by questioning everything I do. They should go to warzones and publish negative stories about civillian casualties I'm causing. They should go to low quality planets and denounce horrible conditions I'm creating there. They should give a microphone to all my political enemies. They should leak stories about what my spies are up to.

12) Without political opponents and a hostile media, being Emperor is far too easy. In fact, there should be a chance that I get deposed which would end the game!

Reply #269 Top
More:

13) Asteroids: I don't really see the point of asteroids the way they're implemented in Dark Avatar. We already had Resource Nodes, and I always assumed those were asteroids, but now it turns out they're something else. So what are they? Magical sources of energy? There is no rational sci-fi explanation for what the Resource Nodes are now that we know they're not asteroids.

And what is the point of asteroids? They add some resources to the nearest planet, but unless that planet is in the same system, you're screwed. An asteroid that sends material across space to another system sends only a tiny percentage of its potential, maybe 1 out of 5 resource points. So where does the other 4 go? Is it stolen? Are ore miners so corrupt that they will steal most of what they mine if they have travel to deliver it? In my opinions, asteroids should send ALL their resources to your planet and it should be delivered by ore freighters (like the one in the first Alien movie). Maybe the crew should get a cut of the profits, but 80%??? That's exorbitant!

And there's no way to defend asteroids, so they're sitting ducks in any war. And they're fickle as women, quickly changing sides when an enemy sets up a planet or an influence base nearby.

And what about all those useless "0" value planets. Why can't we mine for resources on those planets? Are they totally bereft of valuable resources? Dark Avatar could have left out asteroids and let us mine the "0" value planets instead.
Reply #270 Top
And what is the point of asteroids? They add some resources to the nearest planet, but unless that planet is in the same system, you're screwed. An asteroid that sends material across space to another system sends only a tiny percentage of its potential, maybe 1 out of 5 resource points. So where does the other 4 go?

They go towards the maintenance of the ships which send the resources to the planet. See, when the planets are near, you can just shove the asteroids into a new orbit. But when they're far, you have to stick 'em onto ships and send them. This takes money (crews, fuel, etc). Money=resources...
Reply #271 Top
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Reply #272 Top
Bug fixes for everyting mentioned!!!!

And....

Please go through all the ship parts and hulls and make sure that they are symmetrical with the hardpoints. I know that alone will be a huge fix, but it will make me very happy.
Reply #273 Top
In place of Terror Stars (no let's not start that again)

Give all the races an invasion tech similar to the spore ships.

Nano destroyers, make it huge to be placed on a large a better hull and instead of using a spore ship invasion effect this just drops planet quality say 90% and destroys every improvement.
Reply #274 Top
The ideas that I had would create a much more strategic game, not saying that GalCivs 2 is already a fine, very perfectly made space strategy game.

1) I always liked the idea of a "cloaking" branch of the tech tree. Cloaking devices could hide ships on the galactic map and could provide some kind of hit and miss factor in combat. It would also give the "Sensors" brach of the tech tree some weight in combat. Of course "Sensors" and "Cloaking" would be counters of each other, like lasers and shields.

2) I also have dreamed of there being like a "carrier" module that larger ships could hold. This would allow them to carry, repair, and possible even build tiny or small class ships.

3) I kind of also liked the idea of sub-system targeting. Ships with a higher "Sensor" rating could have a higher chance to strike and disable a stat effecting module, such as engine or weapon port. Of course, this means that sub-systems would have to have their own hit point value, but it is just a wild idea.
Reply #275 Top
Its a very loooong thread and i have just read the first page but what i would like to see is:

1:Espionage improvements:Partially bring back the old espionage model.I know many people like the new agent model but think with realism in mind: Why should i sabotage improvements?This can be used against hostile races (Or races that i intend of being hostile with) but if i want to better know what my Allies are up to?Do i have to hinder their progress by sabotaging their improvements just to get the statistics?.For the realism part, once you nullify an agent you should be able to know which race sent him, with an automate penalty in relations.Also when you are stealing Technologies you should have to place an agent on a research center and then the agent should NOT sabotage but should work undercover, after some turns you should have a (random???) technology stolen.(This rate could be improved if the Tile that the research center was built has a research bonus, also when you do this the only time you get a notification of a technology stolen report is when the technology was stolen and where -Planet not tile-)
So in total i suggest for the espionage part:
Bring back the espionage spending per race:It should be easier than the agent model to get the statistics, you should sabotage improvements when you have a certain amount of knowledge about the race also some improvements would require even better knowledge.Ex:A factory would take a saboteur on a medium level but a factory on top of a Precursor mine would take an advanced level.
Technology stealing should be done by agents placed on research centers (not sabotaging it) the better the research center the better the rate of stealing (again applying the rules of espionage level) the race that had the technology stolen from it should only know when and where (planet not tile) the technology was stolen).I know this sounds like micromanagent but i think the espionage model would be improved (if not perfected by it)
Mp3 Player:Remember the Mp3 player back in Gal Civ 1???? I loved it...Hell i still even play gal civ 1 just for that
EDIT:I have some more ideas i will edit this post when i think them through.Also get more smilies for the Forum )