Very interesting ideas If it becomes too easy to exploit this, maybe just having a list of things you could chose from, or voted on, would be cool. Would make it easier too because the AI side would not need much tinkering or reprogramming for this to happen.

Hey, this could even be two levels always. First, we all vote what topic we are voting on this year, then comes the actual vote. How about that?

More frequent UP meets would help also.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but here's a few things I'd like to see:

1. Ability to highlight multiple ships for actions. For example, I had a ton of old ships I wanted to decommission and I couldn't find a way to do it en masse. If I could highlight 10 or 20 and hit the 'delete' key to get rid of them, that'd be great.

2. Ability to set all planets building something to build something else. For example, i'd like to be able to say, "Have all of my planets making battleships switch to dreadnaughts immediately" or "switch to dreadnaughts after they finish the current battleship." I'd also like to be able to do operations on a per-ship-type basis. "Decomission all of my corvettes." "Send all corvettes to Sol", etc.

3. Hover-tips with keyboard shortcuts. I'd like to be able to click on a ship and mouse-hover over the icons to see a keyboard shortcut to do the same thing so I don't have to guess/memorize.

4. A way to 'wake up' all ships. I move ships into position and set them on guard to hold them still and not have to cycle through them all. Once I'm ready, I want to wake them all up, but I can't find an automatic way to do it.

5. Better waypoint control. When I tell a constructor to go join a terror star, it goes to where the terror star was when I issued the instruction. It ought to go to where the terror star is NOW and follow it until it catches up.

6. Not enough keyboard control. Sometimes i'd like to cycle through my systems and see what they're all doing. I'd like to be able to hit the arrows, but I have to click the on-screen arrows to do it. That's annoying.

7. Show system names on-screen in the galactic mini-map when you're zoomed in enough.

8. Show unexplored area in galactic mini-map so I know where to send my ships looking for resources.

9. Way to tell what systems are making on-screen in mini-map, similar to Civ 3.

10. Ability to scroll mini-map without mouse (i.e., with keyboard keys.

11. Some way to tell how much time is left on individual leases in economics pane.

12. Ability to trace trade routes on mini-map.

13. Autobalance button to set taxation and spending to specific balance/morale goals. I.E., say, "keep morale at least at 80%, and then max out taxes and spending." So if a 34% tax rate gives you 80% morale, set to 34%, and then set spending amount to balance your budget. Also, ability to say, "maintain budget balance of XYZ and morale of ABC." So if I want 75% morale and a 200BC surplus each month, it'll hit those settings for me. Possibly add governer to adjust taxes and spending to maintain those levels and warn when things are getting hairy (i.e. tax rate is so low to maintain morale that we have to go below 20% spending to keep that 200 BC surplus). More ability to fine-tune these controls would be great.

14. Lock buttons for the social/military/research spending allocation.

15. Break-down of tribute income, duration of tribute deal by AI.

16. Ability to queue up military projects via a governer.

17. If a planet is building NOTHING in its military queue, its allocation of military spending should go towards social projects, and vice-versa. This lets people have a 'war-time spending' program where key planets cease social spendign for increased military productivity, and peace-time wheny ou dont' want to bloat your military too much.

18. Better organization of tech tree. Not enough techs are visible at once, hard to see which "little techs" are neglected at a glance.

19. Better visual representation of what's going on during space battles, better information presentation on relative power and status of ships. Don't like clicking on enemy ships to see what kind they are. Show on main display.

20. Show waypoints on moving ships. If a ship is heading for a planet show (En route: Sol) under the 'autopilot'. If not heading for planet, show (en rotue: near Sol) or the sector coordinates or something.

21. Better visual representation of ships in orbit in a system. Shield alone isn't enough, want to know how many, relative strength.

22. Automatic search for/explore anomolies.

I've got tons more but it's probably too late

More star base options -

Research Center (increase research on nearby planets, or provide a fixed amount of research of their own)

Shipyards - star bases capable of manufacturing their own ships

This one is in the expansion already.

~SDC~

I would like a method available to DETER a race from attacking another one. In specific Im talking about detering an ally from attacking your good trading buddy the (insert minor race here). Right now you can bribe a race to start or stop a war with another but not to NOT START a war with a particular race. Were I run into this problem most often is I will be allied with say the Altarians, trading heavily with them and say the Alexians, and then the Altarians will declare war on the Alexians and so most I. Thereby immediately elminating a sizable chunk of my economy base (the trade), whether we destroy them or not.

Therefore, I propose a diplomatic option to "raise the standing of a race to another". Basically, you bribe them to look at the Alexians in a better and less miltaristic light. The effects could last for a certain amount of time and maybe need to be done several times to prevent a war. This would be equivalent to "Dear Altarians, now that we are best buds and all, I would like you to view my other good buddy the Alexians in a better light!" I envision this option only possible with a race that you have a relationship with of either "close" or "ally". Meaning that you have to be good friends first. Its like giving a good reference about the Alexians to the Altarians in hopes that they dont paste your other trading partner.

What do you guys think?

Diplomatic couter-proposals, open ended offers and auctions. IE:

1. We will not give you 800BC for 500yr for medical theory, but we will give you ______ for _____yrs (or this ship, or that tech. Or, If you throw in propulsion theroy with it you have deal)

2. I would like to offer you medical theory, what would you be willing to give for it?

3. (new turn notice) the Terrans have placed medical theory (ship,planet,ect.) up for sale, highest offer gets the tech (ship,planet,ect.). Could be expanded to include offers of money too.

Higher diplo skills get better returns
Availability might lower returns (only one empire don't have it VS no one having it)

Could also place income up for trade. IE terrans have offered 50BC for 24 months in exchange for the best offer (would have to oppty to decline if not worth it). But that might be a bit harder to program in.

Option that would allowing blocking the Turn if we gonna go bust (below -500bc). I guess its no big deal but we hate it when it happens :VOMIT:

Similar to the "block Turn if there are ship movements left" option.
[Message Edited]

I'd like to see a few more bizaar features that would work up the game like:

*An advanced ship (not godly just can create trouble with some unique techs) that passes through the sector able to negociate like a minor race it would seek out anomolies and would inflame desputes by stradling borders (has it offered to defend as it passes). It'd also favour minor races and interfeare with any agressive act like an invasion)

*the ability to capture one off mega starbases controlled by pirates or left abandoned these could become a trade waypoint (part of a route so not costing one but with monetay value according to use and proximity to worlds)

*some inhospitable planets being significant for reaserch paths justifying the creation of an orbiting reaserch platform.

* a sertain tech heralding the discovery of a cloaked world with a minor race that has a respectable fleet. They will starts to spread out of paranioa if two races know of thier existance. Usually appearing on an old or resently shirfted border destableising the region.

*minor race, League, and succession governments petitioning for vacant slots in the UP.

Would like to see the support cost on the ship pop-up tab.

It would be nice to have more options to control the basic shape of the galaxy.. for instance, ring shaped or spiral galaxies.

I really want to have the ability to create my own ships a la MOO. It is of decreasing fun when I see that all the ships are the same.

~SDC~

CONFIGURABLE SHIPS!!! I'm so tired of the same ships all the time. Let me design my own a la MOO

~SDC~

Too lazy to look through everything to see if this has been mentioned already so......

One thing that I think is glaringly missing from the shiplist is a higher level defense oriented ship. We get defenders, then battle axes, then......nada. They're should be a least 1 or 2 more defense oriented ships to later research. Say one for the dread-ranger era and one for the avatar-overlord era. At excalibur, rely on planetary defense upgrades more. Something like that

my 2 cents

This has probably been mentioned before, but how about the ability to load/save governor queues. My queue is mostly the same in every game and it'd be nice to not have to wait until I had the tech to fill it in. If I havn't researched a tech yet, skip it and move to the next item in the queue.

B

Just using a terror star would instantly make your morality 0. You are not just killing those evil Drengin but the planet itself. Also, there should be a death star like animation to this(which could be skipped if you like). Perhaps a tech could be invented to have a type of ship that has a small chance of destroying a terror star if it attacks.

UP Events where you can kick someone out if their alignment is too low. Chain this to an event 2-5 years down the line to allow player to buy his way back in.

Have an event where it picks a random evil player and votes whether the universe has had enough of this player for its evil deeds(IE Iraq). If the vote passes, all neutral and good races declare war.

Have certain invasion techniques change your alignment. Screwing with nature will do that(any PQ changing tactic).

Rather than choosing the UP topic for vote, have all characters notified 4 turns in advance so you can lobby in the diplomacy screen. Use espionage or bribery to find out how the AI will vote. You could ask them and they could lie. They can ask you and you can promise to vote for what they want in exchange for some concession. Then if you don't vote the way they
wanted, they could declare war on you.

Destabilation money can sometime cause events to happen. Ship defects, building is destroyed, ship location is revealed, map is revealed(if larger map and you don't have the range to see it all yet).

B

Some way to either invite or demand that an opponent surrenders to you....

Alex


~SDC~

Well I'm not going to read through 20 pages to see if this was added already so I will just post it anyway.

For events, instead of having 1) good 2)neutral 3)evil switch it up a bit. Make it random, make the good choices have some payback too sometimes.

Also since I am new and probably just stupid, when you are building new things for your planet, is there anyway to see where it is in the galaxy? Cause later on you have so many planets and blah blah, don't know where things are etc etc, need to build influence improvements but dont know if your building on the right planet...

Bring up the planet list by clicking on the appropriate button at the bottom. I think its the second one. This will bring up a list of the planets and what they are building in a panel on the right. You can sort this list based on production, population, etc using the option list at the top of the panel. Also at the top of the panel is an option for normal and "tactical" views. If you select "tactical" view it will change the main screen to a zoomed out map with the currently selected planet enlarged. This way, you can select any planet in the list and immediately see where its located. An invaluable feature for large maps.

hope this helps

Kamikaze ships.

How about NPC's that ACTUALLY behave according to their alignment! If the Torians are supposedly Good, why the hell are they such freakin' bastards!?!?!?

LOL LOL LOL
A Star named after me!!!
LOL LOL LOL

IS there going to be an X-Pack? I recall they said it would be out by August. What's the news on that?

It's coming. It's taking a bit longer than expected. But I think it's due out in the next few weeks.

Everything I had ever read said September or just late summer. Could be wrong though as it's been awhile since I read that stuff.

~SDC~

Haven't visited this thread since page 3 so maybe this will duplicate other suggestions:

- Automatic population balancing between same-system stars (ie if there's 2 planets with morale 50 and morale 100 respectively people would tend to emigrate from the 50 and move to the less over-crowded 100)

- In the build queue, highlight or dull out any galactic achievements which are already being built at another Terran planet (trivial enhancement which saves player from duplicate build orders mistakes for GA's that can only be built once). Note: this should only be a visual hint, not actually forbidding the duplicate build order

- A list option to sort the planets by cost of social project and by cost of military project (ie fast find of planets building GA's or Dreadnoughts)

- In the military swap menu, highlight ship types that are actually being built

- When making a ship type obsolete, popup a warning if that ship type is being built (ie a reminder to use the military swap)

- Link the ship type found in anomalies to the game year (ie no scouts found in the end game)

- Finally the one I'm most keen on: if a planet fails an influence roll, it get's a skull icon... please put an expiry date on it! If the planet doesn't fail another save for say 2 years then remove the icon. It's misleading to have skull icons all over the place from early game influence that is no longer relevant.


Thanks for all the great work you've put in to enhance the game already. I was very pleased to see that the obsolete function made it