Not strictly game related, but it would sure make life easier when submitting bugs/game ideas: How about making an installation of Bugzilla available? I set one up at work, and it really helped the flow of communication, both between developers, and input from management/other depts.

For an idea of what it can do take a look at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org

I think Repair at a SB should be greater than 1% which is insignificant. How about 5% to 10% per star base. If you have 50% percent damage and 5 SB's it would get repaired in 1 turn (1 month) which is reasonable if each SB did 10%.

bb413-

that would only add extra cheese

CHEEZY:
I let the AI battle fight one another and I just bring a constructor next to their endangered SB. It stays there until the SB is destroyed and takes the ressource.

The AI doesn't see it! The one who destroys the SB should be able to take the ressource at the same time with a constructor near enough.

Other cheeze:
We can buy some AI's tech and sell it to other AIs.

An AI isn't concious that you can sell it back everywhere, it doesn't sell everywhere as you do or consider that it could get it from its friendly AI.

AI isn't concious as much as players in tech trades, it could:
1- Decide to sell it to everyone (or its friends) at the same time it sells to you (so you wont sell everywhere)
2- Ask a tech from its better friend to which you just sold it
3- Ask for restricted sharing of the tech (and the AI wont like if it learns you share it)
4- Could be seen as not nice to sell a techs coming from someone else (to which extent?? in which cases, always??)
5- other? ANYTHING making it more coherent!!

Another UI thing. When going into the tactical map (which you're going to give me a hotkey for, right? ), bag the guy telling you this is the tactical map. I KNOW it's the tactical map; I'd much rather have the ship description that usually goes in his place. If you insist on the guy, make him go away when tutorial mode is turned off.

This is too good a game to have anything less than a superlative UI.

May I humbly suggest a change in the English.str from this:


[TABLEALIAS OptionsMenu]

[ScreenTitle] Options

to this... or something like:

[TABLEALIAS OptionsMenu]

[ScreenTitle] Options Panel - Game Version

I know it's a silly suggestion but it looked so much better in my game then "Options 1.02"

Of course I'm sure people will *still* post on the forum asking how to find out what version number they have

PSS - It would also be nice to have incremental builds show the last 2 digits as well (i.e. 1.02.49, but I'm sure others have asked for that one too)

It's been said before, I am sure. Could we have waypoints so one can
- lead freighters around hostile civs
- maybe even set up a patrol route for scouts/probes

cheers, -P.

~SDC~

Wanted: a "Slow (more expensive) research" option in the game setup phase to stretch the tech tree out and re-pace the game.

Could we have an "always autolaunch" option on the options screeen which we can then override manually on a planet-by-planet basis?

Sometimes I forget to check that little box every time I get a new planet and I lose track of ships.

Wow this kicks m003

(not sooo hard)

Ideas

Would it be possible to copy (steal) the resource trading from Civ3 i.e. Sell you're unique resources to the a.i. for fixed time periods, but not to more than one a.i. at once? I rather liked renaging on contracts in civ

Also, could there be a little pop up (yes like in civ3) to let you know if a trade was reasonable, it's hard to remember relative tech values.

Maybe some specific espionage "missions" ala Fragile allegiance

Finally not sure about unused production giving rebates, surely the advantage with not building is inherent in that you're SAVING money



But hey It's a great game, finally something better then fragile allegiance!!!

I know it's been said, but I'd like to say it again - it would be really nice to have hyperlinks in the research screens that show you what you're getting. The names of various techs, buildings and ships isn't enough. Civ 3 and MoO 2 both do this very nicely...

Some select changes to starbase modules and the combat rules for fighter-craft:

Starbases -- There are currently two sets of modules that provide military/social production. One set is under economic and the other set (I believe) is under mining. I think it would be cool to replace the production bonuses on the economic upgrades with +bc bonuses for friendly systems.

Of course, this would only work under the assumption that something was going to be done about overpowering starbase creep (diminishing returns, hard limitations on SBs, etc.)

Fighter-craft -- Currently, fighters are basically cannon-fodder ships. What would be very interesting is if there were a way of modelling mass strike craft assaults on capital ships. Here is how I would accomplish this: if a stack of fighter-craft attacks an undefended capital ship the battle is resolved in a series of simultaneous attack rounds. During these combat rounds, the fighter stack uses the combined attack values of every unit in the stack (or an aggregate attack value of 75-90% of total). If the capital ship is 'escorted' by one or more fighters itself, the attacking fighter-craft would first have to resolve combat normally against the defenders before attempting an assault against the larger target.

An example of how this would work: three fighters (2 at, 1 def, 5 hps) are attacking one battle axe (2 at, 5 def, 15 hps). The fighters attack with a value of 6 and the battle axe attacks with a value of 4.5. The fighters defend with a value of 1 and the battle axe defends with a value of 5. After the first couple of rounds it is likely that at least one fighter has been destroyed and the battle axe has been damaged (slightly).

I'm not sure if this suggestion is feasible, but I think it would add some strategic depth to the game. Currently, the only real strategy is to mass as many large guns as possible and blitz the enemy. I'd very much like to see a system that supported combined arms and more economy of force.

Three things would obviously be needed in order to make this work: 1) The AI would have to build fighters. 2) The AI would have to know enough to stack fighters with its capital ships. 3) In any stack vs stack battle, fighters would first have to attack other fighters as a priority target.

I hope you find this interesting.

Cheers.

Regarding post 639:

If you go with the combined arms/fighters idea, add an option for suicide attacks: changes attack fighter priority from other fighters to capital ship. Defending fighters still shoot down attacking fighters, but gain bonuses for not being the target of the suicidal fighters. They perhaps would have a higher defense (at least until the capital ship dies) to account for the fact they're not being targetted.

Combined arms would be awesome.

Damian

~SDC~

Yep. A more detailed fleet combat system would be a real neat thing to add, hence my suggestion. Unfortunately, I suspect that it would be a lot of work. Maybe too much work to be implemented in a simple patch. Perhaps a more detailed fleet combat system could be implemented in an expansion?

If the idea were to recieve alot of attention it could be possible to expand the concept to incorporate escort-class capital ships as well.

Failing that, I would at least like to see fighters as a viable threat when employed intelligently and in significant numbers. Having superior fighter technology should actually matter in some way. As it stands, super capital ships are pretty much the only real factor in space combat.

Thanks for the great game and I hope you guys are well!


THREE THINGS:

1 Can someone make the political parties: Universalists and Industrialists as described in the manual? Though i think the universalists bonuses should be 5s not 10s right?

and upload it to the library?

2 Is the Trade Embargo feature coming back into the game as listed in the manual?


3 The history summary feature you were originally working on that would give you dates and when you went
to war, took or colonized a planet, lost a planet, first
built a certain tech or wonder or trade good...is that
coming back? It was great feature in Civ 1. Nice to
print out when the game ended.

Douglas

The Universalists & Indutrialists are already in the .PARTY file.

~SDC~

This is a pure fluff suggestion: It would be really cool if you could name sectors and regions in your empire (ie. Sector -- New England, 5-sector region -- The Core Worlds, etc.).

I love the empire building side of this game.

Probably already listed, but a suggestion:

Anomalies:
I would like to see anomalies displayed on the mini-map and/or the tactical map. They are often hard to see, and it can be difficult to spot the closest one, or where there are clusters of them.

With 645 replies I haven't read them all, so I may repeat. Be good to have (like Civ3):
* The ability to see what each race (major and minor) is paying you in tribute and when it expires, and vice versa.
* When you move a ship it shows how many turns it will take.

Yes this game is far superior to MOO3, thanks.

Suggestions are:
1. Show the name planet in question on the moral dilema screens, maybe on some planets I'll take the bonus and other the penalties.
2. Numbers of turns for a ship on AutoPilot.
3. Anomolies diplayed on the minimap.
4. Fog of War areas shown on minimap for areas that have already been explored. I can't tell how far my sensors can see except on the main screen, I can't be the master of all I survey unless I can tell what it is I can survey.
5. After a wormhole is explored show a green line on the minimap to where it comes out, assuming it doesn't move around.
6. Show minor race influence on the screen that shows cultural influence for the sector.
7. When loading a save game it takes a couple of turns for my influence and other bonuses to fully kick in, don't know if it's a bug or just designed that way. Would be nice to not have that happen.

That's the main ones I can see otherwise you have made a stellar game.

Diplomacy option:
Offer different amounts of money now and along time, like 1000bc now and 100bc/month over 10 months rather than have to do 2000, 200 over 10 months or 100 over 20 months.

Also, being able to make annotations on the map (minimap, tactical, maybe even standard).
This would allow to name sectors, mark starbases if you can't see them with fog of war (someone already suggested to fix that).

First thing I must say is awesome game and support!
Not had yet the time to play as many games as I would have loved, so here are a many UI improvements I'd love to get better information on what's going on. Which would greatly ease the way a beginner like me can get up to speed...

- foreign policy: a tab that would provide a comparative view of some (selected? all?) empires on information from espionage. Same thing for tradable items (to see in one glance who has techs you need, or trade goods you covet, or the biggest fleet)
- from the diplomacy dialog screen, information (popup or temporarily replacing the portrait) on ANYTHING you can trade: trade goods definition, tech info, systems-ships-starbases: location and characteristics. Feedback (even just a few in-context sentences) on WHY a deal is considered good or not by the alien

- can't be stated enough times: "new tech found" screen should at least have ALL the info on the tech.
- tech screen should be redesigned to allow navigating the tech tree (hyperlink prerequisite and future tech), goal setting ("research techs leading as fast as possible to this tech and show me the path and the time needed).
- integrate a GalacticPedia (like the website), with all notions from the game.

- on the planet details screen, display the planet position on the map or, at least, its coordinates (sector 0-1 for example). Maybe instead of the planet views (center round view or lower right landscape view), which could be kept in the detail screen.
- make planet list a full screen (or put a toggle between current view and full screen), with a table listing for each planet: pop, governor, prod (mil/soc), projects already built (icons+popup description), building, GARRISONED SHIPS, trade routes, indicators (unrest, in a sector with hostile ships, etc.). Clicking on a column header would sort table. Many actions could be made from here (cancel project, change prod, launch ship). Don't forget the minimap to indicate selected star position...

- a unified "new this turn" screen/place (lower right corner) that would contain finished projects, combat results, but also events, techs. For each entry, you could view it (would focus on its location if appliable), and "check it out" as a second action instead of the current "one click does both".
- similar options on the main map that are available on the minimap: view AutoPilot destinations, sector ownership, pop or prod indicators on planets, etc.
- treat strategic map as a zoomed-out main map, allowing full play from it: planet/ship select, move orders, etc.

Whew. Sorry for this long one.

~SDC~

two suggestions:

1) move propaganda slider to the main planet window. it feels like more of a control than the information displayed in the details window.

2) make purchase clearer or have two purchase buttons. i've accidentally purchased the social project many times.

Issue: Paying Tribute

Discussion: I was paying tribute to the Dregin, during the payment schedule they declared war on me. However, I was still paying tribute to them during the war.

Recommendation: If you are at war with a Civ, your tribute/payments should stop. (In reality, that would be the first thing a person would do.)