Apologies if the ideas have been explored elsewhere. I have like an hour before I'm due to go to work so I lack the time to check - wanted to get the ideas down before I forget 'em though.
First - Are there any plans for Scenario play? I'm thinking of one offering Asymmetrical Beginnings. By this I mean, in a normal civ game or Galciv game, all factions start out more or less as equals, albeit with their own advantages to help them progress faster in certain areas (Drengin = military, humans = diplomacy, korx = commerce etc). So, they all get one planet and some basic starter-kit techs that they all get. Well, why not have factions start at different 'times' in some sort of scenario? So, the computer would arbitrarily establish pre-existing empires with extra techs/less techs.
The lore even basically says the Drengin and Arceans have had space travel and been at war for yonks (so their techs will have crystallised to combat the other race) before the plucky humans appeared on the scene. So, why shouldn't they have a few dozen planets/systems each as well as a standing military, while the Terrans by comparison are barely even potty-trained, but can tech up a bit quicker through reverse-engineering or a 'common knowledge' perk (similar to Civ2 Great Library - you learn any tech which all/most other surviving civs has) to bring themselves to parity or even supremacy over oppos' crystallised tech (so, humans would design/use ships that fielded a variety of weapon and armour types where the drengin and arceans have been flinging the same old stuff at one another for centuries and so be deficient against them). At first you might have to pay tribute or accept hard/expensive bargains, or might not be able to carve out a massive empire before you start stepping on others' toes but later on you would be able to be viewed as equals. It wouldn't have to be fair (it wouldn't be the 'grand campaign per se - just an optional extra challenge), but it would be a different challenge.
Second - Are there any plans to water down the OPness that upgrading ships is? In GC2, when your economy becomes Awesome (with a capital A), there really is nothing to stop you taking your fleet of Cro-Magnon-class and turning it into a stack of your latest, greatest flying death machines, two turns away from your enemy's core planets. It can get to the point where there's almost no need for new construction if your weapons techs are good enough - you can just design a ship with twice as many guns and armour points then just upgrade everything in way less time than it takes to build new AND ship it to the front line.
Now, you couldn't possibly upgrade real aircraft and wet-navy ships from past wars to serve modern needs, which is why they get scrapped once newer and better stuff is put out there (unless you're the Royal Navy, in which case you scrap first then build new construction, but I digress! 
). Their armour, weapons, internal systems and design become woefully out of date.
I propose two possible solutions:
- 1) Upgrades can only be done at a Starbase/Shipyard. How are we fitting new and exciting weapons, armour and propulsion in the depths of space? What, are they mining the kanvium armour themselves from nebulae and spot-welding it on??
- 2) Upgrades can only be within the same weapon/armour/engine 'type' -so for example you could upgrade Lasers I to Lasers III to squeeze an extra one in/lower maintenance cost/damage increase whatever benefits that offers. Going from Lasers to Plasma Cannon would require a more thorough overhaul of the ship so better to scrap it and recoup a great deal more money than you do in GC2 for scrappage, as your older stuff becomes more and more obsolete. It would also offer a more realistic approach to long-term warfare and teching up - when the Germans invented the Tiger tank, they didn't immediately cease production and use of their older Panzers - they made do with and updated what they had in the meantime until the newer stuff rolled off the production line.
Or, some combination of the two.
Thoughts?
