One more thing... I'd like to trade with.... myself

During Diplomacy/Trading, I would love to see the cost/value of the techs I might be trading (in both my column and the Alien's column). That way I have some way to see relative values without having to open up the tech tree pdf and hunt for each tech. Perhaps the number can be put in parenthesis after each name.

Another change: As a way to limit the micromanagement, I would like a way to turn off the planet pop-ups whenever something is finished building. Once I let my Gov. take over production, I -know- what is being built. I don't NEED to click okay every turn. When I only have 5 planets, this is fine. . . but when I'm juggling 50 then it gets real tedious.

Don't think this has been mentioned before.....how about bad picks on the racial abilities screen that give you points to spend elsewhere ? Maybe sacrifice sensors for speed ? This could be difficult to game balance, though. And is basically a Moo2 ripoff...

Since fleets don't give any bonuses that I can tell, could when a fleet attack, only use one movement point for the attacking ship and not each ship in the stack. And require for attacking with a fleet just that a ship with attack has movement points or something along those lines. It would make cleaning out a planet's defenses a lot easier interface wise later on in the game.

Simple request. Put Bobo somewhere in the game. Some obscure tech reference, or some alien ship name, or something. We need Bobo in there.

And also, shouldn't the upkeep for some older ships decrease over time, maybe at certain techs like Dreadnaught? This way, those Frigates and Battle Cruisers can be useful late game, with some other adjustments. I mean, it makes practical sense . . . doesn't it cost less in upkeep for a smaller ship today than it did 50 years ago, thanks to new technology?

* Have main screen auto-center whenever 'displaying'/following ships (alien/Autopilot) after every MOVE.

Currently, once alien ships get into the 4 to 6 move range, it is difficult to impossible to tell what they are attacking if you don't hold down 'C' key while AI resolves it's turn.

* Being able to create custom ship name lists, which would be used by the game.

* Ships being assigned the number = to their build counter.

* Being able to specify initials to be used for ship type.

Combined, this could yield (example):

SCT-1 Lewis
SCT-2 Clark
BA-1 Battle Axe
BA-2 Mother-In-Law
DRD-1 Dreadnaught
DRD-2 Invicible

Minor, but fun for a few of us. Would really help when it comes to trade/sell/gift ships to AI.

* Boolean switch at game setup to enable minor races to colonize systems outside their sector.

This would let customers that desire more major races, HAVE more major races in their games.

* Starbase module that allow human players and AI to add to the hit points of a base (+50 or +100 HP per module). This is just extra MASS/Hull plating with some redundancy features. Could be a limited deal (only one of these per certain techs), or repeatable until the player is happy. Developers choice for what is better balanced.

* Starbase module that allows human players and AI to add to the base *defense* of the the module. (+3 or whatever it is according to the ship/starbase game stats) This is just another hull/more defensive weapons added to the starbase. For maintenence balance, this could add 50% cost to the SB. This addition would be to the normal defense value, meaning it would gain modifiers for normal defense enhancing techs.

* Game Setup option to set anomaly regeneration rate, per game.

I haven't seen a new anomoly occur in a medium galaxy in very many games. I haven't seen a new anomoly occur in a large galaxy except twice since the anomoly rate/bug was changed.

* New +Sensor range techs.

Some simple range increases, rather then big effect that Eyes of the Universe and Hyper Sensors generate. Located in the earlier game/tech tree. In many of my games, the Hyper techs are never reached. Victory has already been achieved.

These could be useful in 'dressing up' some of those techs that have no real benefit other then as a stepping post to other techs. Although they would fit in well with some of the +10 Weapons tech that babble about better energy focusing/processing/sensing.

As the Mods get Stardock Certified you need to have a sort on the Library for that.

I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet, BUT...
I have seen in previous games a wonderful way to modify the AI responses which would work easily for this game. Instead of just setting the AI to levels as is done now, separate the aspects of the AI.

According to info, the higher levels of AI cheat economically, but also use better 'thinking' routines.

My idea is to separate them. I would like to input for the AI a number(from 50% to 200%) for its economic advantages/weaknesses, and separately pick an intelligence level for which routines are use or not. It would be fun to play against the 'best'AI but give him an economic disadvantage to watch the scheming but not get my but kicked too early.

From what I have read on this forum, this should actually be easy. The routines are in place. Just the races start screen would have to be changed graphically.

Chris.

My other request is the map maker. I would love the ability to make maps with starting locations and set planets as wished. This is one of the advantages of space empires IV, I don't see why this BETTER game cannot also do this.

PS if this is in the works, WHEN is it to be released?

Chris.

I don't have time to read through every single suggestion, so I'm sorry if some of these things seem repetitive.

1) Starbase-building strategies are way too powerful. Before using this approach, I had trouble beating the game on Tough, but now even Painful is a walk in the park, and though I haven't tried it on higher levels yet, I'm sure I'll probably find the same is true for those too. With all the modules that are available, one starbase per sector is enough. One thing I suggest is increasing the number of resource squares to one per sector and setting it such that starbases can only be built on those spaces. This way, if more than one civilization has a colony in a sector, control over the resource space could be made a point of contention between them, sort of the way it is now when an enemy will demand that you hand over your starbase in their sector, but much more intense. Also, if starbases are to be limited to one per sector, some tech-enhancing modules would be nice.

2) I've always found it odd when a list pops up of the most influential civilizations and it lists minor races among the major ones. It's also strange that you can buy influence from them and use it in planetary council decisions. I think that their influence should be set to zero, since lack of influence is what makes them minor, isn't it?

3) If you go to war with a civilization that has strong influence over your territory, shouldn't that cause unrest on the influenced planets since they identify somewhat with the enemy? This way, people trying to play a peaceful game have another way of defending against aggressive civilizations, and preserving your own cultural influence matters more when defending your borders.

Being able to set "auto-attack" for fleets. The behaviour of those options on a fleet level are inconsistant. You have to go through each ship individually, if you aren't careful they leave the fleet, and even if you succeed in giving the same order to all ships the fleet doesn't always follow them anyway.

~SDC~

I'm getting used to the thought of a 50%ish morale is normal. But could there be a button where you could 'ask' your people what they want? (i.e. We are mad, because we don't have entertainment networks! everyone else has them!)

Likewise, when morale gets really low, perhaps the planet could petition me saying 'Build these entertainment networks, or we are siding with the Yor!' or something along the lines of 'WE'RE OVERCROWDED!'. Right now I have to guess.

Speaking of morale... when I dump a million colonists into a colony ship, shouldn't the morale take a turn or two to stabalize? Going from 50% to 100% just seems rather strange... If population was that big of a deal, I would ask that I have some technology or laws I could implement that would curb the population (birth control, liscenses to allow birth, etc).

Which makes me think of something else. It would be neat to have laws you could impose on your own civ, like the UP. Laws that could make people happy/productive/etc. Like colonization events, some laws can be evil/good.

Some laws could be such that it increases the defense against culture attack (i.e. a law that says 'NO ALIENS ON OUR SOIL!') This could limit trade, perhaps make you leave the UP, etc..

Re: Juiblex and morale



I have this sick little scenario I play in my mind whenever I'm using the whole "Colony Ship Release Valve" tactic. I imagine that I call for a great state-sanctioned protest rally. When all the dissenters show up, I have the Davonian Space Marines escort them at gunpoint into a colony ship and launch them into the atmosphere. . . where I detonate it, broadcast live over the Entertainment and News Networks.


"Now, is there anyone else who is unhappy?"

Morale: 100% (instantly)

As mentioned in another thread... Spending sliders (military, social, research) by governer, such that you can have certain planets 'specialize'

Also, I'd like the ability to change the names of the governers Is it just me, or am I the only one who wants a governer to be Moff Tarkin.

* Personal Hall Of Fame

Local listing of games played, scored, win/lose condition, etc. Shouldn't interfere with Metaverse.

This will allow people to keep a list of their games played, and see their progress. Should help out with those that don't want to dial in to their ISP before winning the game just to get a record of their games, which is only accessible while on-line.

AI colonizes sub-15 planets when they have the tech to make it a productive planet.

I think you need to add a "StarbaseAttack" ability & "ResearchAssist" ability to the SBMODULE files.

"Could you please think of an ability to regulate spending between sciense, military prod and social prod for EACH planet not only fore entire empire - now it's a bis subid - i have some planets in the core of my empire have all social structures constructed but i can't effectily build ships on them - because overempire spending is directed for frontier colonies development!!! Please add this feature - it will greatly improve gameplay." This is from thread "Hope you add this in next patch" People liked the ideea and think that i should post it here. So i do. Please consider this ideea.

M-5: To switch queues without changing anything, click the word "social" or "military"

My votes, in order:
Zoomable (or just adjustable by settings) main view (I can dream...)
Galactic auto-explore
Improved Constrctor (by Tech)
Rally Points or hot-keys for locations (like in Cmd&Cnq F1-F4)

~SDC~

Control-click on fleet screen to pick which ships are going to become part of a fleet.

Multiple fleets on the same spot, each highlighted by a different border colour.

Scroll-wheel support on the 'production produced' part of the turn screen.

Hmmm.... more suggestions later

Damian

~SDC~