The tech tree for starbases using needs tweaking. Specifically, the primary issue arises because starbase support for starfleet battles mostly makes sense as an alternative to running up the tech tree on weapons for starships. By this, I mean that military starbase support for ships with minor weapons gives strategic advantages and can be used effectively, whereas starbase support for advanced ships has little effect (even a +12 ship combat advantage has little meaning with ships that have 100+ for firepower and/or defense). Currently, the tech tree for Korath (is it the same with the other races, too?) requires advancing completely through advanced defenses on starbases before you can research even the lowest military starbase support techs. Advanced starbase support is intensive in research, and so this puts military starbase support availability too far into the game to be strategically useful. Also, for the Korath, it seems anti-cultural for them to focus so much resources on defenses before they can research even the most basic ship combat support.

LOL - You and me both brother.

I have posted this request before, in a different thread, and I also know others have asked for the same thing, but SD to this date has said No to it. But now that this is officially the last expansion for this game, and the only real on-going dev will be bug fixes and tweaks, perhaps SD would reconsider their position.

In some GC2 videos on youtube, specifically Brad discussing the AI development, there are clips showing the game running in an automated mode, with no interactions from the player, no pressing End Turn over and over again. This interests me a great deal, because the touted enhancements in TA's configuration and game settings and this proposed auto mode, it'd be interesting to see how scenarios play out by themselves. An empire management sumulation. I know, I know... this isn't everybody's cup of tea, but personally I'd find it interesting. Plus as a learning tool it woul dbe invaluable.

There is another reason it'd be advantagous... For mod or scenario developers, it'd be an ideal way to test out their mods and/or scenarios.

If this wouldn't interest you, I understand. No sense in posting a message calling me an idiot or anything else for requesting it, but persoanlly I'd be appreciative if SD at least considered it...

The planetary improvement screen is getting really crowded, especially if you engage in tech trading. The problem here has become worse with paralell techs that go toward the same thing. I can have slave pits, collectives, and standard factories on the same screen. I love the ability to collect techs, but it is becomming a bit overwhealming.
Now, I would like suggest an alternate way to manage planetary improvement techs. I would like the ability to right click an improvement and move it to another list. This would allow a great deal more customization for player style.
I can take all of the techs that I don't use often and move them out of my way. Not only would this help for paralell techs, but would also be use for galactic achievements and one per civ achievements, and even some techs with a one per planet restriction.
I can't tell you how much of the micro management this would save in my games, because I love big games with LOTS of planets.
What does everyone else think?

Scincerely,

[email protected]

PS This could also work very well for the ship design screen. I have often wished in games that I could build an older design(why build a warp powered constructor to improve a base two squares away?) By that time those older designs have long since removed to remove clutter. Moving obsolete designs reather than deleting them would allow me more flexability.

This isn't my idea, but I just had to post it here before it got buried amongst the posts in the thread it was in:

One more word on the re-worked tech trees for starbases: 1) Mining starbases are now limited for most races to give a maximum of +14 bonus. 2) The new tech trees require researching the most advanced defenses for starbases before even allowing research of the most basic military support from a military starbase. This is absurb, and does effectively remove the use of military starbases (play test this! - I guarantee, you will never build another military starbase again!). Why even have military starbases now? Are you kidding me? Please separate starbase defenses in the same manner you have separated terror stars (just like you did with all the previous incarnations of this game - believe me, you did this for a reason!).

Four requests:
First: When you have an unowned planet replace the [VIEW] button with a [COLONIZE] button. When this button was pushed it would automatically order the nearest space craft with a colonizing ability, that currently didn't have orders, to this planet. Have an option in the menu on whether it would consider colonizers that were currently orbiting a planet on those it could pull from.

Second: When you are looking at a starbase (either in the intelligence report or main screen) have a button that orders the nearest idle constructor to to come to this starbase. Again have an option in the menu on whether or not orbiting constructors are considered.

Third: When looking at a constructor (most likely in the intelligence report) have a button that brings up a screen (similar to set rally point). This screen shows in a list (similar to the colony management screen) each starbase followed by - distance from constructor (sortable) - type of space station (mining, influence, economy, military, terror star) (sortable) - how many modules can still be built at this station (divided into three numbers sensor/battle*/utility**) (sortable by each number). After you select a space station you click a send button and the constructor is now on it's way to its new destination.

*Battle modules are those that require the battle station to be built, adding attack defense, etc.
**Utility modules are the modules that are buildable depending on the type (so mining modules on the mining starbase, influence increasing modules on the influence starbases, etc.)

Four: In the colonies management screen add a column that gives the rally point of the colonies.

Wanted: global setting to turn off auto-upgrade of farms. I'd like to be able to research (or steal) the advanced farming techs to get the pop growth bonuses with having to go through a hundred planetary governor screens to disable auto-upgrades -- especially when I do want most things to auto-upgrade.

I would love for there to be a way to decommission any type of building on a planet. I know i'm not the only person who has accidentally built a wonder that I didn't want, or put down a refinery that drained my economy in the red. Possibly the most annoying thing is when I captured a planet and the AI had put a political capitol on top of an entertainment bonus and I had no way to move it. Anything should be demolishable with a big enough bulldozer.

Why wouldn't you want a Political Capital there? It gives twice as much of an approval bonus as it does influence

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong place. So here we go again.

First up, a bug report:

I was playing as the Altarians the other day in an immense galaxy. I got the report that the Dominion of Korx had just completed the Beyond Enlightenment technology, and they were about to win the game.

Now, being in the endgame, with the largest population, highest overall tech level, and largest economy, I cranked up my massive empire of 87 colonies into technology mode. This lead to me actually completing the Technology Victory first.

I got the message that the technology was complete, and....nothing. Normal game continued. I checked the "victory" section of the UI and found that I was indeed at 100% technology victory. So...I clicked the turn button, and got the "you lose" screen, and the Korx won.

Seems that the technology victory may be bugged. I think it might have to do with if someone is researching the Tech Victory, another person cannot win, if it's being researched by someone else. Just a thought.

In my game, though I noticed a number of things that were frustrating when trying to manage a large empire of 87 colonies, so I have a few suggestions:

1. The ability to select multiple colonies in the Colony Management List. Having to do things one colony at a time is very tedious. Sometimes, I want to be able to set my top ten producing colonies to build assault cruisers.

2. The ability to select a row in the colony screen and be able to set them all to the same thing. For example, say I want to have all my colonies maximize their research in order to complete the Plague Cure Tech.

3. In the management UI for the individual colonies, in the "build order" list there needs to be a "move to top" and "move to bottom" arrow. So when I conquer an enemy colony, and there's 5 things that are a great idea to build, I'd like them to have an Advanced factory, I can build one on a new tile, and click "move to top" and be done with it.

4. In the same screen, could we have a max population slider? So when your farm technology jumps, and you have a farm on a golden tile for food, you can control the amount of population? Having a colony go from 18 billion to 38 or something is often unintended. And rarely can you support enough happiness buildings to make it work. This may be a game balancing issue. I've had to destroy farms because the planet could support too many people.

5. Speaking of tiles, how come there is no economy tile? Like a building that double the effect of an economy building? Say a massive discovered mine of Unobtanium-186? Are there 300% happiness tiles? Or 700% influence tiles? I'd personally like to see an increased variety of those tiles, I think they really add to the game, making different planets coveted and tempting targets adds something to the game.

6. Also on the subject of sliders, could we get a slider in the game setup screen that allows you to control the variety of bonus tiles in the game? So if you want to play in a game where the bonus tiles are more common, you can?

Also, I'd like to let you guys at Stardock know how much I'm enjoying the game. You guys are doing a great job, please keep up the good work.

Thanks
Ishantil

I've had issues with the turn button disappearing forceing me to restart from my last save. Also When starting a war with another race, if you attack using a Terror Star and you have spys on a planet in that system, the game crashes.

I've thought about the game a bit and found the following the enhancements might make the game even better (at least, to me):

1) Space combat:

As it is now, most players (and all the AI I've encountered) just puts weapons on ships and ignores defenses. With good reason once you look at the math behind the system. The higher the attack value compared to the HP of the hull, the less useful defenses are because the one shot-one kill event is more and more likely to occur.

Suggested change: change the way defenses work.

Instead of using a matching system, let defenses work autonomously from the type of attack. Instead, they should boost the ship. This could be used so that certain types of defenses favour certain types of hulls.

Example:

- Shields: work as defenses used to. They recharge after each salvo/round/whatever you want. They work to full effect no matter the type of attack (beam, mass, missile).

- ECM: works as a dodge. Each time a weapon is fired, it tests to see whether it hits or not. If it hits, the other defenses are applied to calculate damage, otherwise, damage is ignored. This will help keep defenses useful for little hulls where the old-school defenses would have little use. This type of defense should favour smaller hulls.

- Armour: boosts HP. Plain and simple. By boosting HP, old-school defenses (such as those proposed shields) become more useful as the attack/HP ratio improves.


2) Starbases:

Fleshing out starbases is a time-consuming hobby. One way to make management easier is to make constructors works as miners. When new modules are researched, constructors fan out and improve the starbases themselves. No longer do you need to be build fifty-odd ships to complete a starbase. In exchange for this, improving should take time and possible also money.


3) Influence starbases:

Influence starbases act as embassies and forums (fora?). The way they work now, you build a couple (or dozen) of those in your neighbour's influence sphere and try to flip planets. Obviously, this is pretty much a passive declaration of war and lack of a sufficient military machine will see your latest washed jeans model answered with a plasma bolt.

I think they might become more interesting if they not only boosted your influence in its range but also allowed that influence to spread out. When a colony grows and matures, its sphere of influence expands, centered on the planet itself much like a well or a source. What if influence bases could boost those wells so that colonies have a greater reach? Or what if those bases could act as 'wells' themselves, with their power being the influence present boosted by their modules?


4) Influence

Mostly, influence is a source of tourism and a reason to be disliked. In fact, unless you have an impressive military, it may do you in. In my humble (and not very expert) opinion, influence could use a bonus or so. Perhaps planets in someone else's influence sphere would take a morale hit, or the nation as a whole might take a morale hit when facing the loss of their only source of I-Pods.


5) Politics

Now, people just drop taxes the week before the elections to get re-elected. Then taxes are raised again until the next elections. While this is pretty close to what happens in real life perhaps we could make the level of taxes a more engaging choice.

By making the election result a mean of morale during the last year, these kinds of exploits would be removed.

Also, I'd like to see the rewards be more flexible depending on the degree of freedom in you political system. The bonus you get shouldn't be determined at the beginning of the game such as Federalist: +20% economy. Instead I'd rather see the bonus depend on the election results so, Federalist: economy 1% * every ten percent over 50. That bonus could be improved by having a more advanced political system.


6) Allies

Not only should allies strife to enter the same wars, they should also strife to make the same peace treaties. Whenever an alliance is in war and one of them wants out, they should offer a peace treaty that includes peace with the other members of the alliance.

I've been dragged into wars I could handle as part of the alliance but when my partner made peace, I was suddenly facing an overpowering enemy who suddenly didn't want peace anymore because the odds got a lot better. It'd be nice if the ally would consult its friends first see who wants to keep fighting and who doesn't and then negotiate a peace treaty for all those who want out.

°°°

Well, that's all I could think of for the moment. It's likely many suggestions won't be very much liked but I just wanted them spilled out. If you read this right to the very end, I salute you.

Two requests for TA...

1. Is it possible to have a time clock synced to the time on your PC displayed on the Main menu of TA?
2. Is it possible to have a switch so that you can drop into Windows temporarily and then back into the game?

Thanks in advance

You can do this already, just alt+tab or use the Windows key. I can also do it with the QuickFlip function on my mouse

I am sorry if I repeat anything that has been said in earlier post. I haven't read that many of them. These suggestions are all based on Single player, I don't really play this game multiplayer.

1.) You know when you first encounter a race they contact you and say their shpeal. I was wondering if when making a custom race it would be possable to edit what your custom race would say when encountering the player.

2.) Now I am a huge fan of space carriors. I know I could make a large type ship in a fleet with a bunch of tiny ships, but would it be at all possable to have an animation were the tiny ships come out of a designated Large, Huge or Terror star size ship?

3.) Making the random ethical events not so random. For example: If I'm a robot race I'd rather not have to choose if its ethical or not to prevent our soldiers blood from being food, or the desintagration choice because frankly were robots we don't feel pain so we don't undestand why thats a choice. If you know what I mean.

4.) Would it be possable to add more organic looking ship parts to choose from when creating custom ships.

5.) I would like to see more options when creating custom races, such as what type of planet your home world, I'd spend points to beable to start on a toxic world and beable to colonize other toxic worlds but have to research living on earth type planets. Being able to make an intire research tree for a custom race would make me so happy. Perhaps also a home world editor, being able to set the orbital look such as what color it looks like from space, if it has rings around it be it made out of rocks or metal and if it has a moon or 2.

6.) I've set the number of minor races to One and about the middle of the game there were litteraly 7 minor races in total around the galaxy. One or two extra would have worked, I'm just not a fan of alot of them. I would like to see them eventualy go from minor race to an actual full blown race that can join the U.P. after it owns more then one planet.

7.) Perhaps being able to change the name of entire solar systems by changing the name of the Star in that system.

I think I got most of my ideas out, I can always add more when I think of them.

After the Council votes on a bill, you get to see that pie chart of how the populations match up.

How about some graphic to show how close the vote was? Or perhaps who voted which way, such as brightening some of the colors in the pie chart for "yes" votes?

Purely asthetic and unnecessary eye-candy of course...

Ideas for TA:
I have been playing this great game for a while and would like to see the following please:
1. United Planets: Ability to vote for a series of agendas (you pick the topic) for instance voting to head up UP. If you win then other races pay you for the length of term. Ability for diplomatic victory - allow Races to vote - alliances could be handy here. It has to be unanimous (mispelt) and your number of votes do not count. 2. Ability to ask races to stop spying / remove spaceships from your space 3. Would it be possible to create Commanders / Governors for your ships / planets these people would bring advantages and disadvantages for your planets and fleets - this is almost done with the random events - so surely this is possible. These individuals offer their services to you for a period or to the highest bidder. For instance as part of UP these characters offer their services and races can bid against each other. 4. Pirate attacks on planets - have yet to see it 5. Ability for minor races to become major races - some of these guys kick serious arse! 6. Noticed that Zenith improvement / planetary defence cannon / cathedral of valour are not in current version, are these coming back? Thats all for now - do have more

You can, at least in a mod. Check out the FlavorText.xml file and the "DialogTag" lines from RaceConfig.xml or your *.customracexml file for that race.

A couple items I would like to see in TA.

-- An additional slider in the 'Galaxy Setup' phase of game creation that would allow you to adjust the average quality of worlds. I find myself thinking how interesting it could be to play in a larger galaxy where there are very few high quality planets, or a smaller galaxy where there are very few higher quality planets.

-- An additional slider in the 'Galaxy Setup' phase of game creation that would allow you to adjust the amount of uninhabitable worlds (radioactive/toxic/etc) that occur in the galaxy.

-- I'd like to be able to choose what topic is brought up for a vote in the United Planets from time to time.

-- I'd like to know how my allies are planning on voting on an issue in the United Planets before I vote. Allies would have a better chance of passing legeslation this way. Also, if an issue comes up that was important to my ally, I could vote the same way as them to support that ally.

Can you make the lights in the ship design blink on and off. I love the animate feature.

Not sure if it's been mentioned before...

But a game option to stop races from building starbases in territory owned by another. Anything to stop the starbase spam across the map would be fantastic.


And yes I know there's a UP event to charge for starbases in another races territory, but that never stops the AI from doing it anyway.

most people call it war.

Upgrades to the civ capital and initial colonies would be nice. Just about every other thing in the game is upgradeable, usually several times over - one of the many great things about the game. However from the very first turn to the very last one those buildings are exactly the same while everything else around them improves. Nothing major, say a three tier tech boosting the industry, research, and morale a little each time would add a nice extra developement option.

Or for the initial colonies, upgrades that decrease the maintenance.