Options and Features Requests

Well, you are given the choice of supporting your ally or not when they are attacked.
So, technically it is you that declares war on the enemy attacking your ally, in response to their declaring war on your ally.

Seems fair enough to me.

The "Fleet on Launch" option would be a real nice addition. A 'shift' 'control' key type of selection would be nice as well, instead of having to double-click each and every ship to launch them. Selecting multiple ships and then clicking a "Launch as Fleet" (or "Launch All as Fleet" if no ships are selected) button would be much more elegant.

I forgot one.
4) Spacing option in sandbox: I'd like an option to set how far apart the various races are allowed to start in randomly-generated games, and possibly how equitably the planets and resources are distributed. It would still be random, but there would be limits, not this silly "your good civ starts in a corner with one system and three evil civs in your corner of the galaxy, all of them with massive resources" stuff that we have to Ctrl-N out of several times per new game.

The options for spacing between civs could be Random (current), Compact (civs start incredibly close together, say one or two sectors apart max and even less for the 3x3 and 2x2 sector galaxies), Tight Cluster, Loose Cluster, Spread Out, or Maximum Spacing. The clusters would probably have to start near the centers for fairness, and you could also make a setting for number of clusters, such that one could put three (random) civs close to each other but at a distance from the other three civs.

Distribution options, which would set a minimum number of planets and resources within starting (basic) colonizer range of each homeworld, could go by the established Rare-Occaisonal-Uncommon-Common-Abundant-Random slider. Ideally there would be one option for planets and one for resources, of course.

Edit: Moosetek, your suggestion is that I anger my allies every time an enemy civ declares war? I don't think that's reasonable either.

You can go straight to 2D icon view. Just hit one of the numbers on the keyboard, they represent different views (strategic is 4?)

If you wanted your game to be perfect and exactly even, then spacing options would be nice. I prefer it the way it is, it adds to the fun. If we were to send scouts ships out in reality, I don't think you would find a bunch of habitable planets all lined up waiting for you to colonize.

Maybe you could send your constructors individually? There's no need to group them into a fleet, just select them all and send them to the starbase. It won't help much, it's still a lot of clicking, but it might save some time.

1) "Fleet on Launch" option: If turned on, this would group ships into fleets as you hit the "Luanch" button when a planet is selected. This would save a lot of clicking.*

you can already do this with the goveners and waypoints.

Well, you are given the choice of supporting your ally or not when they are attacked. So, technically it is you that declares war on the enemy attacking your ally, in response to their declaring war on your ally.

Agreed, but one would think that the A.I. attacking your ally would take into account your military strength! I mean, when my rating is ~250, my ally's rating is 90, and the enemy's rating is 135, you'd think they'd realize that I'd wipe the floor with them.

you can already do this with the goveners and waypoints.

If you don't know how... The little icon on the menu bar for creating waypoints is on the far left near the top, or you can use the hotkey "t", I think. When creating the waypoint, set it as a "Fleet" waypoint and ships that meet there will band together. The downside is that it's only easily do able for ships that are freshly made, not existing ships. Once you create the waypoint(s), just set the colony waypoint for each colony that's building ships to be the specific one where you want those ships created to go to. It takes a little bit to setup, and takes even more time for ships that are already built, but once implemented, it is easy to use.

The downside is that it's only easily do able for ships that are freshly made, not existing ships.

that's not exactly true either. in the ship waypoint governor, you can select "none" and a waypoint. this isn't perfect, because it grabs all ships that aren't in orbit or all ready moving to a waypoint (including those on auto survey or guard). but if you've got 20 constructors on their way to a starbase that, as it turns out, only needs 3, it can save you a lot of UI time (but it takes a turn for the new orders to kick in, unfortunately).

My Rally Points don't work properly. I think it's a RAM issue, though, so I'm not saying we need something to compensate for it. There are just times when it's really inconvenient to have to set and move a dozen or more Rally Points every month, especially if you're naming them. And, on that note, I'd like...

5) I want the entire field deleted when typing in the names of rally points or ships, but NOT when I'm typing in the names of planets, which would be exactly backwards of how it works now. I've never saved any part of "Rally Point 218Q354," "Drath Fleet 502cat9294," or "New Ship," and I'm tired of having to re-type ten-letter planet names that I can't remeber how to spell for even a few seconds just because I want to rename "Jotunheim IV" as "M Jotunheim IV" or "Jotunheim Prime." (Jotunheim isn't the worst I've seen, it's all that came to mind though. It's still annoying.)


As for spacing, I'm not suggesting that the options make it exactly even, just that limits be set based on what you specify. In a game with just you and another civ, for example, setting "Loose Cluster, Common Habitable Planets in Range" in a 5x5 galaxy would put you at least 2 sectors from your opponent with at least 3 usable planets in range (each), but you and your opponent could still be just about anywhere on the map with a completely random spread of planets outside your immediate area (or more than 3 in it).

I would be using such a feature in an extreme example right now: 4 civs at far corners of a Gigantic galaxy with stars and worlds on Uncommon, except 5 planets each guaranteed near their starting locations. Middle of map, and starting position of each race (within one sector of the edge of the galaxy), would be completely random.