Hi all,

I've spent a few hours with the game since I bought it and I think I may have some ideas that shouldn't be left unshared. When reading this, please keep in mind that these are _suggestions_. As is reiterated several times below: take from it what you like, modify what you like a bit and leave the rest. First, some points to keep in mind that shaped my game experience and are (probably) specific to me:

• I don't have a great computer. The specs are not that bad but it tends to go hot even with a cooling pad and all performance goes down the sink. The game does not run smoothly and many things are laggy, but it's still somewhat playable. As performance goes, I will only mention a few things which I suspect may be a good target for optimization. I understand that optimizing the game before it is "done" is not a good idea and I don't expect any improvements while the game is still in alpha.
• This also means that I haven't tested some game features: ship designer and huge/late-game maps.
• I have no one (and probably will have no one) to play this kind of game with - I've only played single-player and I don't care much about multi-player though I understand it's importance to others.

Now to the general comments and game-play suggestions:

1. Everything needs a tooltip. With a game this complex, everything needs to be explained. If an explanation is too long I'm not against a small question mark button that opens a larger screen with explanation or points me to an in-game encyclopedia ("galcivilopedia"...). I've seen this mentioned several times in different posts (tooltips, encyclopedia, ...) so I believe people are aware of this. What I'd like to add is that I've missed detailed mechanic explanations in several games - the kind of explanations that say what equations are used when two units engage in combat, how the combat rounds go, what the math is behind population growth and manufacturing, etc. This information is far too detailed to be included in tooltips (as many people are not even interested in it) but it would be handy to have somewhere in-game.
2. Multiplayer. There's just one thing: I'm glad the game will have a multiplayer. Just don't sacrifice singleplayer features. See https://forums.galciv2.com/98074/page/1
3. Customizability. It is important to be able to customize almost anything you come into contact with - the size of your galaxy, the starting credits, the pace of technology advancements, the aggressiveness and cleverness of your opponents, and so on. There are so many possibilities where the game could be customized and almost every one enhances its replayability. GCII has achieved greatness in this aspect and yet we could go further: starting credits per race, technological advancement pace per race, abundance of resources (asteroids, resources, planets, ...) near the starting location of a race, teams (already there), alliances and relations that could be configurable at the start (let the Torians _hate_ the Drengins already) and could degrade over time until the galaxy falls into permanent war, intelligence of an opponent being enhanced while the game is in progress (or decreasing intelligence if the player was too successful so far) - making computer players able to keep up even in later stages of the game, the number of starting ships per race, etc. There is a crazy amount of settings possible and they don't always have to result in balanced starts as some people like to get advantages (other than just plain intelligence/stupidity of an opponent) and others like to play from behind. If these settings would clutter the "New Game" dialog, having three menu options - Quick Start, New Game, Custom Game - that allow you to customize your game in three different levels of granularity would be perfectly fine.
4. Replayability - extending on the ideas from above, I'd like to see some premade rulesets (as was Advanced start in GCII), mappacks and scenarios (map with a ruleset - The Conquest of Arcea (Drengin and Yor invade the quadrant with Arcean homeworld), Stopping the Crusade (Thalans attempt to save the future of the galaxy more "directly" in an alternate universe), Nomad's Life (sending away and saving enough Korx citizens before your homeworld is conquered), ...), having an option to play as multiple sides in scenarios would be great. You also aren't limited to a single campaign or a single storyline in a campaign - having the option of trying to save Earth from the Drengin (as humans) as well as having the option of stopping the humans from breaking your grip on the galaxy (as Drengin) could be interesting.
5. Modding - good modding support can extend the lifetime of a game considerably. A game that I will not mention, that is of the same genre and similar name - just lacking the "Galactic" word and having a "IV" in its name is a great example of this.

Performance - possible areas for improvement, see first point about my computer though (above):

1. Leader screens when choosing a leader at the start of the game are laggy. Lord Kona's eyes seem to have three states: open, closed and half-closed (but always angry). Leader screens in-game (diplomacy) seem to be fine.
2. The star map is quite smooth as long as I don't have anything selected. When I select a ship or a planet the map becomes a bit more laggy to move around, ship movements as well. When I unselect a ship while it is moving, the rest of the move is smooth. This also pertains to tactical view.
3. Tech tree is quite laggy. This does not make much sense to me, so it is included here.
4. Planet managing screen. I suspect the spinning planet in the background is the root of my problems.

Star map suggestions:

1. Ability to queue ship moves (shift click) would be helpful I think. Sometimes, you just want to force a route your ship will take.
2. There is an option for quick moves in the options screen. The ships move a little bit quicker when it is enabled but perhaps there could be an option for... even quicker... moves? This also applies to strategic view where ship movements could be quicker by default I think.
3. Starbases should show the number of modules available for construction. I'd rather see a total number of currently available modules (those that I can build now _and_ those that I will be able to build when I build those I can build now) than the number of currently available modules (as was the case in GCII).
4. Nebulae don't do anything to my sensor range unless I'm inside them. I think it would be more intuitive if they limited my vision even when outside. I've also discovered the location and shape of the whole nebulae cloud when I only scouted it's tip. The rest of it simply showed in the fog. Asteroids also incur a movement penalty that isn't mentioned in their tooltip. While we're at it, good job with adding nebulae and dust clouds . I'm looking forward to seeing the galaxy become more cluttered (with the option of having it clean) as it lacked a good amount of strategic features before.
5. I've noticed that when you zoom out just enough, half of the star map is in normal view and half in tactical. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of this, I'm perfectly fine with having the whole map either in normal or in tactical view, ideally with the possibility to configure the zoom level at which the map transforms.
6. Starports can't be left orphaned (or so it seems). Why not? Just have it written over it in huge red letters so that everyone knows. This way, I can pipe all my production into a single starport while having the others in temporary standby mode. Piping a production into a startport stationed at another end of the galaxy does not make much sense though, is there a limit to the distance of starports to their sponsors? Or perhaps the production should be cut by some percentage when starports sponsor is too far away (could be enhanced by technologies).
7. Moves left from autopilot - the moves a ship can take _in_ one turn are in green. I think it would be more intuitive to have the moves a ship can take _this_ turn in green, the next turn in orange and so on. The difference: when my ship is out of moves this turn, there are still some green arrows in the autopilot path. There would only be orange (and orange-red, red...) arrows if the ship showed the moves it can take _this_ turn in green. It would be easier to see which ships are out of moves this turn.
8. The whole starport concept gets a from me. Possible improvements: perhaps I'd do it as a starbase of some kind? With modules and mild defensive capabilities. I've noticed there is a defending fleet there, if it works as a defending fleet on a planet the vulnerability of starports (which was discussed in length in another post and I _mostly_ agree with this comment: https://forums.galciv3.com/455668/page/1/#17) may not be that bad of an issue. There are many options again, you've opened a new box full of possibilities.
9. Colors in tactical view - different resources can be of different colors or can have different icons. Planets of special qualities can have different colors. Also, when you select a ship in tactical view it should be obvious which ship is selected - have it flash or draw a large circle over it. I spent a lot of time in tactical view in GCII and this has been a nuisance.
10. As destroying planets will become possible, it should be also possible to destroy ships - in starports as well as on planets. Moreover, when I put a ship in a starport (it was in shown in defending fleet) and clicked on "command" I didn't see the ship in any of the lists on the starport screen. It may be undone or I may have been completely blind, I haven't spent too much time on that screen. Not being able to destroy ships in space makes sense.
11. Anomalies that provide some bonus research to a technology that is currently being researched should not provide a variable amount depending on which technology it is (e.g. 25% to research of current technology). This support unnecessary micromanagement when you have to change your technologies back and forth whenever you pick up an anomaly if you want to be ultra-efficient. If you want the number of research points to scale have it provide something like: ((num of tech currently researched / total num of techs) x 100 )% out of 10,000 research points.
12. When colonizing planets, I've gotten a single colonization event (the thing with alien pods and research) like 10 times in a row. I thought it was a placeholder and I intended to write about how random events shouldn't always have the evil (merciless) solution be the best one (in terms of efficiency). Sometimes you'll just get more from being a good guy (your people will like you more, good relations with native species will enhance your research, etc.). Just now I've gotten a colonization event ("Swamped" - ship buried in northern ice) that doesn't even have a good/evil axis and I like it. Three possible solutions, each one viable.

Interface suggestions:

1. Some missing tooltips/explanations first: I'd like to know how teams work when setting up a game. Are the races with the same team number in a team? If so, which team am I? Is zero a special team number that means "in team with no one"?
2. In ship list - there could be more info on ships in tooltips - attack/defense/moves/... are already visible in the list, perhaps there can be maintenance (even if zero), ...
3. In planet screen after clicking on "govern planet" the slider that divides production into planet/starport should really say what it does. I felt like an idiot after I spent ten minutes figuring out what it is for. There is one such slider on the empire govern screen with icons that describe it's purpose perfectly, I just happened to open the planetary screen first. Maybe the icons could be there as well (?). You know, for us, slow people.
4. There could be tooltips on all menu options explaining what they do. E.g. what do quick moves do? (to be honest I only noticed my ships were moving a bit quicker after I turned the option on and off several times, they don't seem to move that much quicker in tactical view). Most of these are not game mechanics options, you don't need to be too detailed with them.
5. Sentry and guard options should have tooltips explaining what they do - e.g. sentry wakes up the unit on enemy presence inside its sensor range, guard wakes up the unit on enemy military presence inside its sensor range. Do they wake up the unit when a ship is garrisoned in an enemy planet?
6. I find that I don't understand how projects work - research project, cultural festival, ... Shouldn't the +1 bonus register somewhere? It also does not make much sense to me what the +1 actually means, perhaps the tooltips could provide more information on the mechanics.
7. In planet screen, the tooltip for wealth and research shows something as "raw wealth" and "raw research" respectively. Tooltip for manufacturing shows "missing info" instead. Also, maybe it could be said, what the "raw wealth" is - "raw wealth ..... 12 - 34% of population + ..."
8. The income of whole empire could have some breakdown on where the money is coming from and where it is going to (in the tooltip) instead of just income (base starmap/interface, icon of coins in the upper right). Also, why is my total income 3 when my two planets say their income is 4 and 1? I admit I haven't studied the threads on economy and this has been a source of mild confusion but I think there should be tooltips explaining these discrepancies (if they're intended). There is also a difference between the wealth output a planet shows in it's "manage" screen and what it shows in the planet list. While we're at it, I see that there is a TODO on the clock icon in the upper left (implement current date). I'm actually happy with turn number being there, could this be an option at least?
9. I'd differentiate between "attempt to end turn" and "really really end turn because I've finally finished moving all my idle ships that didn't run out of moves on auto pilot". Or there could be a turn number mentioned? Click "end turn 8" and after you fix your few ships with left moves, you'll see "end turn 8" again and you'll know you're only really ending turn 8 now.
10. In planet screen, I think I noticed some "production improvement"/"manufacturing improvement" inconsistency in naming though I can't find it now when I'm looking for it.
11. Planetary production queue should have options for moving projects up/down in the queue and possibly "suspend" (production will move on another project but I will not lose the effort I put into this one). Also, the "Cancel" button _above_ the queue should be renamed to "Demolish" or "Destroy" or "Raze" as it does not cancel an improvement but it destroys an already existing one.
12. I believe I haven't found any way to queue ships in starports. The manipulation with this queue should also be possible from quick build menu - with the options to raise/lower the priority, cancel the construction, ...
13. I like the look of the new production/wealth/manufacturing ... thing (planet governing screen). Still, I find it lacking in precision which may be caused by the lag on my screen. Perhaps there is enough space for three fields where I can use my keyboard to input three percentage values for P/W/M distribution? This may be useless to others, take it with a grain of salt. And also, I really really _like_ the ability to configure my P/W/M distribution per planet.
14. The direction in which ships are ejected should be configurable (planets and starports). Perhaps star_bases_ could have a defending fleet as well?
15. There could be some kind of notification when a planet is done constructing a building or when a constructor has reached a starbase and is ready to construct modules on it. There could also be an option to automatically garrison constructed ships in starports in which case there would also need to be a notification that a ship has been completed.
16. The number of turns in which I will research another technology should be well visible (not just tooltip). Planet list should also show the number of turns it will take to complete its planetary project (at least in tooltip).
17. Is it possible to zoom the minimap in/out? That could be useful on larger maps.
18. The "confirm battle" dialog is a good place to review who is fighting whom and with what ships, possibly, what are the odds of victory and how many ships from a fleet am I expected to lose. Also let me put the screen aside and look around the galaxy to see where the fight is taking place (in case I'm attacked).
19. I've been playing with the idea of "global commands". E.g. "Send all ships of type <freighter> to <this tile>" or "Select all ships currently heading to <this tile>." or "Send all ships from ship group 1 (a collection of fleets and single ships) towards that tile (which is accidentally the Drengin homeworld)" ... Namely the ability to group ships and fleets (as fleets are limited by logistics) into groups that you can control with a single click is appealing. Then, you could create such groups from all freighters/constructors/... Selecting the ships from ship list could be an option.
20. Ship list - there are many possibilities of sorting and filtering the ships, I'll mention a few that I wished at least once I could use: offensive/defensive capabilities (best on top), move speed, special features ("constructor module"/"colonization module"/"survey module" on top), proximity to given tile, ships currently heading to given tile (which I wished I could use when redirecting constructors to another starbase in GCII)
21. Oh and I _like_ the new planetary screen and the way it works - adjacency, etc. Just the graphics still seem to be a bit ... fresh.

That's it. I probably just didn't notice many things and some points may thus be invalid, just say so and ignore them (or just ignore them). If I find I have forgotten something I will comment on this post, if I find I have some more things to share with future versions I will probably only comment on this post. I hope it is at least a bit helpful. Take from it what you will, I'm confident the game will be awesome anyway. If you have any questions, there's plenty of space below. Great job so far!