Greetings!

This is going to be a somewhat lengthy post, as I have a couple of questions / suggestions to run through.  I am really hoping to get some feedback from the Dev-guru's on some of these (if not all).
I'll do some nice headlining so anyone can skip to any sections if you don't want to sludge through it all.

My Experience and Praise

Before I start, as you might notice this is my first post.  I have only recently joined the GalCivII "Empire" (2 weeks), and have since only lost 4 days of sleep, 90% productivity at work thinking about strategies and reading GalCivII posts... and if it wasn't for the photo on my desk I think I would have forgotten what my wife looks like
I guess what I'm trying to say is, THANKS for a BRILLIANT Game! I have long since had the agonizing pleasure of being completely enveloped by a game

Coming to the point(s) of this post... during my hours of play I have found some enhancements & extras I would like to Mod. Now this is remarkable in its own right, because I never WANT to mod a game, victory to you again!

Is the Following Possible?

Herewith some ideas, please let me know if it is at all possible.  And if it is only possible in DEV, whether it might be suitable ideas for you to have a look at and perhaps include in a future patch ?

Diplomatic Modding

Is it possible to mod the diplomatic screen ?  Meaning, can we alter the options available, make sub-communication paths dependant on technology requirements etc?  I am aware that almost all my ideas down below must have some impact on the gameplay-AI mechanics. The reason I enquire about this is:

• I would like to add a new technology tree (branched from 'War Rooms' perhaps) where if you have researched the appropriate techs certain diplomatic options become available to you. (if the race has those technologies as well).These would be under "War Strategies", that will enable you to:
  
  - Request a blockade of certain planet(s) (all known planets listed, select the required)
       a Blockade will destroy any orbited ships, but won't invade the system.
  - Focus attack on planet (and surrounding area)
       will allow alien fleets to focus attack on a specific planet (even invasion) and
  - Harass Trade routes
       attack a trade route, if attacker ship is large+ size get cash for what was scavanged.
       Again, list only known trade routes
  - Return Fire Only
       Won't attack a ship even if he is at war with a race, only return fire
  - Defend
       Can assign a structure/planet/ship to defend
  - Allied Airspace
       when allied, our ships can travel near their star systems/bases and vice versa. Apart from
       allowing me to actually MOVE the ships given to me by allied nations (and not just having to sell
       the stranded craft), It will have a nice feel to it as one can imagine that allied races' warriors
       dock at starships and share war stories over a glass of Grongull-ale.
  - Build Starbase [Type] in sector [Location]
       This should be self-explanatory
  
  I thought of having a "United Planets" type voting system for this, where military strength come into the equation and the result will include the time the request will stay in affect, and also how focussed they are on it (amount of ships sent to defend, etc.)
  
  
• Sorting Tech List
  I have noticed that if the aliens say have LASER V, and I have LASER III, it shows in my list as tradable (if they don't have it), yet the aliens won't really value it because they have IV allready.
  That made me want to create a diplomatic UI mod where I can add some options and change the way the Dip-UI works.
  
  - Old Techs Tab : Shows techs available for trade, yet the other has a more powerful in that line.
  - Best Techs Tab : Shows leading techs over the other race
  - All Techs Tab : As is shown now.
  
  - Changing the Dip-UI :  For mostly all dip-trades, you select what you want and then click 'Send'.
       Imagine my supprise when I spoke to the (most powerful) Yor, and clicked on 'Declare War' and
       INSTANTLY declared war on my then-protector!!  (I play a very diplomatic game, as you can
       see... somebody wages war against me, and I turn everyone else on that one.  Well.. surprise
       on me when this happend! lol)

User Interface Extras

There is some functionality I would like to be able to bring into play here.

• Assign patrol routes to ships
  Patrol routes could be easily setup if a rally point was able to "send to" another rally point.
  Doing so with your "auto-attack" enabled  will be effective defense line.  With "auto-retreat" enabled should be a nice recon path.
  
  
• Setup a series of waypoints for ships to follow
  Even being able to set 5 waypoints for any ship/fleet would be great. Especially in case you want to move AROUND a hostile planet to reach a location, instead of straight through the middel of their 3 planet star system.
  
  
• Instead of having the "Anomolies popup", to just have it as a text on the right which dissapears after -say- 10 seconds or so.  I don't like the popup, but would like to know what was received (at a glance ofcourse )
  
  
• In-Game Wiki Info.  I was hoping to create a wiki which would be a screen dragable/hovering on the UI (Planet or space, and will have it look like internal ship screen, so that you think it's part of the flagship or whot-not.  Heck, we are in the space age ).  This I would use to read up on any item of interest.  Click Ship>Weapons>Beam MK II, and it will show you a picture of the icon, along with any pre-requisite technologies needed to enable the weapon, and also give a detailed description of it (as seen in say, the shipyard).
  For me, this will keep me from having to jump out to windows, browse on the galvic wikis' and then jump back to continue play.  Seemless info at my fingertips which will allow me to (in the majority) plan my tech tree to a specific result.
  
  [Now I know this is a daunting task, and if it is possible I envisage some months of dev for myself on this one, making sure to have everything added]
  
• Shipyard Interface
  I'll probably still get the hang of it still. If I've missed it please let me know, else, is it possible to add shortcuts to the shipyard builder?  E.G.
  - Backspace = remove item
  - Ctrl+C = keep settings for this type of item. (I find selecting an 'extra', then placing it and changing it only keeps the settings if you click on the extra in the list again, not just adding another in the screen.
  - Ctrl+MouseScroll = resize item
  - Ctrl+arrow keys = flip, rotate item (numpad = flip, rotate and diagonal)
  

Patch Suggestions

I'm not sure if this has been noticed, or recorded, or worked on (or even if they are bugs)... here are some minor items of interest I have encountered that could perhaps be 'fixed' in a  patch. 

• Shipyard - when clicking on an item at the top, the ship "chromes" but the part is not highlighted unless you click on the part on the ship view itself.
• Diplomatic UI - need to click "send" before declaring war or surrendering
• Space UI - On the fleet view, seeing 2 or 3 fleets, clicking on the fleet will highlight/un-highlight the fleet, but the fleet you clicked on (highlight or not) won't have its details in the view unless you unhighlight and highlight it again.  This sometimes happen. [and thats the best I can describe it at the moment, will make exact notes if you want (and i remember )]

Final Words

Well, thats "it" from my side for now   Note that the mod questions mentioned above are all ideas I though I would like to mod for the game if at all possible.  If any of those are possible please let me know which tools I'll need (if any). I'm not talking about the Tech Tree etc, thats well-known by now. But the more intricate parts (Dip-UI, UI, AI).  If it's not possible... any chances of having some of the changes in a future patch ?

Thanks again for the wonderful game! 

Oh yes.. I completely forgot... Is there a future multiplayer patch on it's way?  I know theres a great debate on finding players to play such a huge and time-consuming game, but this game is EXACTLY what me and a friend would like to spend our time together in, so if there is a multiplayer mod or addon or patch on the way, I would most definately appreciate it.
If not, this is still the most consuming game I have played since... well... Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind!!


Thanks, and Goodbye (for now)

Yoken