I would not be against the idea of prominent figures that could be used to modify the statistics of whatever they were attached to (planet, station, fleet, etc).

I'm trying to remember the game now (Pax Imperia?), that had various governors you could recruit.

Essentially, each Governor had various stats, that affected different things (income, research, etc.).  So you'd be on the lookout for a 'research specialist' to place on your research colony, etc.

It might also be cool to be able to assign various fleet admirals to different fleets.  Abilities/stats they might have could include initiative, agressiveness, defensiveness, perceptiveness (increases chance of noticing things at extreme sensor range, sorta a sensor range bump kinda thing, but only if something is in a square/hex just outside of sensor range), resourcefulness (increases repair rate, and/or maximum range from nearest supply point).

Said Admirals would increase their abilities in combat and such, using some formula/system to pick which abilities would be increased.  'Scout' admirals could potentially increase their skills when they explore an anomoly, etc.

Another fun idea for a 'scout' ability would be for an admiral to be able to 'see' what's on a planetary surface when in orbit.

Note that said characters (governors, admirals, super spies, etc.) should be limited in number, say no more than 5 of each.  The game I mentioned remembering above had characters for each planet, though, and a number of them were 'mediocre'.  Essentially, I don't think anything would be gained with having a 'mediocre' governor for each world, plus a few excellent ones.  Just tracking the exceptional individuals I think would be best for simplicity.

So what, we'll start having specialist economies vs cott... oh sorry planetary economies.

I do love the idea though.

There's also a ton of other things I'd like to see.

I wonder how far along the development the game is.

Better yet have there be consequences and different roles based off of who you choose.

If you're human with a pro-open society... they may accept that Yor general to command your mightiest ships... but what if they didn't?  What if the people hated the thought of that person being their leader.

And while still on this topic, why not have factions become moralized/demoralized with the deaths of generals as well.  Such as the iconic hero dying in battle defending the boarders of human space...  thus rallying the people into a frenzy... or demoralizing them into a situation where the people NEED a victory.

With this as a general concept, having them be overpowered might not be the best way to go.  But rather there to add benefits and consequences to your actions while giving that slight boost to make or break a planet/battle.

Not to say to go overboard as this could easily ruin certain types of play, such as having suicide fleets... (if possible).  But it could be an interesting twist on the existing structure... consequences for each thing... are the bonuses as good as potential risks to allowing other race's leaders to rule your people?

EDIT: and if possible, you could have an choice screen (like the alignment one) based off of what happens to spin deaths (or even victories/defeats) different ways... 

It would be interesting to have a semi-random event system where you could negotiate with individual heroes if negotiations with the parent government failed. 

For example I could see a general negotiating a cease fire with a player if negotiations with the parent government fail.  This would take a portion of the fleet out of the war with you.  The reverse could also happen.  The general may refuse to accept the cease fire and continue attacking.

I can also see this happening with trade negotiations and planetary governors.

I suspect many players would not like the lack of control so there would need to a configuration that would enable/disable the feature.

I think it would be neat if the "hero" characters could be hired for a regular salary, or defect if another empire offers sufficiently more. Just so that they aren't permanently associated with one empire.

Recruited: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Bonuses:

• Influence +100
• Tactics +700
• Popularity -100

I really liked the 'heroes' approach of Rebellion.  You could send your heroes to perform certain tasks (Diplomacy, espionage, sabotage, ...).  Admirals boosted your fleets.  But the coolest part was that you could try to capture or assassinate the enemy heroes if you discovered them.  It really felt cool when one of your heroes was captured and after a long search and rescue campaign you managed to liberate him from enemy forces. 

It would be really cool if that was available in galciv 3.

Nice to know that some many games out there (that I haven't played   ) do have characters too. I understand that Rebellion means Sins of a Solar Empire?

64-bits and all, I was thinking that the number of those heroes could be different depending on the size of the map. Five heroes, for example, could be enough for a normal map but for a super duper 64-bit huge-to-infinity map, that number would be too low.

The poor from where you can recruit (AIs would get their own one, obviously) would be composd first of members of your race(species or whatever) but as you meet new ones, new options appear in that pool. Aligment would condition that too (good Altarians don't get to use evil Drengin). The current number of employable heroes could be base on faction traits, researched stuff and "popularity".

I'd keep them quite simple. Even if there was tactical combat (fleet and ground), battles would be to big in scale to have them running/flying around by themselves. So gear may not make much sense despite it having some potential. Being able to level them would be ok though. And being able to specialize them further or maybe in other stuff could be ok too. Maybe Luke Skystroller beings as a hero taht gives bonuses to population growth but you later wnat to add some bonuses to ground combat. Plus also allowing to work with whatever you got instead of tirelessly waiting for the correct guy to appear in your recruitment window.

But in any case, nothing complex with tons of stats for each one. Portrait, name, race and aligment would be a must. From there, some skills would be enough. No Hit Points or Mana needed. Or resistance to lasers... If they are defending a planet that gets conquered, there would be a chance to lose it for good but if they escape, they would appear in another of your planets but unusable for X turns. For fleet battles or atacking planets, losers would have an even reduced chance of surviving. No hit points at all. Live or die.

I like that of using/abusing them with espionage related stuff. Not sure how "sleeper agent" could work considering than anyone else could be trying the same on the same guy ("You lost control of your sleeper agent" window?).

But yes, spies, admirals, merchants, researchers... So much could be done with them!

I'd actually like heroes/officers to be handle like in hearts of iron 3. As in you need to keep a pool of officers trained to a certain level to keep your military running at an optimum level which costs resource to fund. You also then have a pool of characters (commanders) which you can assign to say being governors or commanders of different types of fleets. 

So say you've got a character that's good with ground troops you would put him in charge of a fleet with a lot of troop transports for invading planets to give the troops bonuses. Or if you've got a young up and coming character you would stick him in charge of a small fleet and build him up/train them via skirmishes.

I emphasize the idea of hero units as an option in the game settings.

Good idea. The experience isn't tied to a ship.

The only game that I've played with decent heroes in it that didnt stuff the game up was SW:EAW in GC 2 we have governors and the ships get xp please dont screww this up

Personally, I could do without heroes.  While they are fun in Fallen Enchantress, I'd rather see Galciv3 dominated by huge fleets and not individual special characters.  I hope to have more to worry about than leveling up Buck Thrusterblaster so he can use the +3 Mindcannon with the laser scope.

Although if heroes are in the game I'm sure it'll still be great.