My personal wish list. I'll probably just edit this post as I think of new ideas instead of spamming the forum with new threads every time a new idea pops in my head. Please comment on my ideas, I'm interested to know if anyone likes/dislikes any of them. And let me hear yours.
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Diplomacy
1. - Diplomacy Numbers. Use + and - numbers to indicate the amount of positive and negative diplomacy instead of a bunch +/- signs. Example: We Are Trading +15
2. - More Diplomacy options.
A Few Diplomacy Ideas -
3. - Option to "Pledge to Protect" Minor Civilizations. Could add bonuses for pledging such as a research, cultural, economic, or manufacturing bonus depending upon the minor civ that is being protected. Should you choose not to protect a minor civ that you had pledged to protect, you will receive a negative diplomatic penalty from every civilization as they now are unsure if they can trust you. If a minor civ that you pledged to protect is under attack from a civilization who is your ally, there is only a very small diplomatic penalty from other civs and no penalty from civs that you are allied with.
4. - Ability to "Denounce" a civilization. (Would receive a negative diplomatic penalty from denounced civ and their allies) (This is also a way to intentionally try to anger a civilization.)
5. - Bazaar Diplomacy. Options to bribe the Bazaar to increase pricing and resource requirements when selling to other civilizations. The targeted civilization must be specified, and the amount of the bribe determines how much higher the cost will be and for how long the higher cost will stay in effect.
6. - Demands option in the diplomacy screen. Ability to flat out demand credits, tribute, ships, starbases, resources, planets, or to "Make Peace With" (name civilization that they are at war with). A Trade Demand would of course carry a negative diplomatic penalty. (This is also a way to intentionally try to anger a civilization.)
7. - More options and responses to asking a civ to: "Please remove your ships from our territory before there is an incident". If you ask once, then the second time, additional options should pop up to choose from. A few options that I came up with:
1st Time Asking. - "Please remove your ships from our territory before there is an incident" Remains as the only option
2nd Time Asking. - "Please remove your ships from our territory before there is an incident" Diplomatic
"We have asked you before to remove your ships from our territory. Next time, we may not be so diplomatic" Less Diplomatic
3rd Time Asking. - "Please remove your ships from our territory before there is an incident" Diplomatic
"I grow tired of asking you to remove your ships from our territory. There may not be a next time!" Angry
The option of: "Please remove your ships from our territory before there is an incident", should always remain in case you want to remain diplomatic.
The Civs responses can vary depending upon your initial option choice, their current view of you, and if they're planning to declare war on you soon.
8. - Able to ask Faction Leaders their opinion/view, of other Faction Leaders. Your relationship would determine what they are willing to disclose with you.
9. - Asking for financial aid to an Ally, should not carry a negative Diplomatic Penalty.
10. - Giving financial aid should not be seen as "Paying Tribute", but rather as, "Financial Assistance".
User Interface
1. - More camera options for the Battle Viewer
2. - Add a "Build Nothing" option for shipyards in the Governor Commands screen. "Not talking about the shipyard itself. I'm referring to the "Commands" screen where you control/change the build ques for all shipyards at one time. *All shipyards building "x", should now build "x", etc. But there's no option to build nothing, like we had in GC2. So if I wanted every shipyard to build a constructor for a few turns, I can do so in the Commands screen, but I have to go to each and every shipyard to make them stop building those constructors."
3. - Add the Planet Details Screen from GC2 (For me personally, this made the game just a tad bit more immersive.)
4. - Notification that our trade ship has arrived
5. - Add the Stats and Graphs screen from the Civilization Manager from GC2 (It was much more informative than what we have here in GC3. When playing GC2 I referred to the stats and graphs screen frequently.)
6. - Add the Stats screen and Report screens from the Foreign Policy from GC2 (I believe that something like this may already be getting done for Crusade due to the addition of espionage)
7. - Be able to: Collapse/Uncollapse, the colonies/planets list.
8. - Shipyards have an option to "Move To The Top Of The Build Que". Would like to see this added for planetary improvements.
9. - Add a civilization "motto" in the race description screen
10. - Would like to have all of the "Sort By Options" that we have for colonies, added to the Governors - Colonies screen.
11. - I liked the large on screen notification that we had in GC2 for when someone completed a Galactic Wonder. Would like to see that brought back. The imagery in the notifications were nice to look at, and it seemed a little more immersive that way. Like it was a breaking news story, just another small thing that made the game a little more immersive.
12. - Exclude Race. Would like to see an "Exclude Race", option beside each race in the Game Set Up/Opponents Screen. Reason for this, if I choose "Random" opponents, but want to exclude a few races, well then I have to go ahead and choose all of my opponents to insure that those races are excluded. Resulting in no surprises when meeting and discovering new races in game.
13. - Notification when a trade ship from another civilization has arrived.
14. - New Trade Screen Button = Add a third button in the trade screen, a "Clear" button to empty the trade que so when a a proposed trade is not accepted, so we don't have to individually remove all items to start over with a new proposal.
15. - Bring back the "End Turn" button. So I can end a turn without having to upgrade a starbase or move a ship, etc.
16. - Anything with a "List", should have "sort options".
17. - Load Ship Screen = The load ship screen should identify what type of ship you loading, i.e, Colony Ship, Troop Transport.
18. - Faction Logo Indicator = When creating custom factions and you begin to select your new factions logo, would like to have some sort of indicator that this particular logo is already currently in use by another faction. This would really help for those players that have 30 to 100 factions and hundreds of logos, so as not to end up with two factions with the same logo.
19. - Launch Direction for Shipyards = We really need to be able to set the launch direction for shipyards like we could in GC2. Many times my ships end up in an asteroid field.
Gameplay
1. - Module upgrades for shipyards (Weapons, Defense, Production)
2. - Upgradable Mercenary ships. Able to upgrade Weapons, Defense, and Engines as new Techs are unlocked. Special Abilities remain the same and cannot be changed.
3. - The option to Upgrade All Ships of the same type at one time.
4. - Ability to trade with Allies at anytime
5. - Bring back Terror Stars - Terror Stars are perfect for turning dead systems into usable asteroid fields. I would however, incur a Diplomatic Penalty from all of the Good and Neutral races if a Terror Star is used against an occupied planetary system. No penalty for use on a dead system. And I'd say no penalty at all from the evil races regardless of how it's used.
6. - More United Planets Resolutions
7. - More habitable planets on the larger maps
8. - Bring back the Drath Legion. (Even if only for sandbox games)
9. - Bring back The Korath Clan. (Even if only for sandbox games)
10. - Do away with the Large Empire Penalty *This supposedly has been done, if it has, then something else needs to be fixed. For example, in my current game I have 61 colonies. From starting with just my first starting colony, all the way to now with 61 planets, EVERY colony has had a 100% Approval rating the entire time. Every planet has morale boosting planetary improvements, I have Economic Starbases with Morale Boosting Modules, and I'm currently mining 16 Approval Resources! (Yes, I own every single approval resource on the map), Yet my empire wide approval rating is 93. And that puts me in dead last in the civilization rankings for Approval, even among the Minor Races. Even given the fact that many other factions worlds are teetering on the edge of revolt due to cultural influence.
11. - Would like to be able to re-locate Trade Resources to a different planetary tile within a planet. Sort of like storing the Crystalized Elerium in a different warehouse. Relocation should come with a "cost to move". *This helps when planning out and building my planetary improvements, to try and maximize the adjacency benefits from improvements. For Example: If I build a Manufacturing Capital, then I want as many factories next to it as possible.
12. - Able to choose if my civilization is going to be: Malevolent, Neutral, or Benevolent.
For me this has nothing to do with the Ideology Trees, and EVERYTHING to do with Colonization Events. For the most part, the choices available in the colonization events are pretty well balanced for their perspective ideology. Others, not so much. When colonizing a new planet, I need to make the choice that's going to best serve my empire. If I'm an evil race, and the Malevolent choice for the colonization event gets me a big space gun component that I can only equip onto one single ship, but the Benevolent choice gets a +5% increase to ALL my ships movements, then I prefer to have the extra ship movements versus the gun that I can only use on one ship.
The only solution that I was able to come with is this: You choose your Ideology. Once chosen, your instantly able to build the Intimidation Center for evil races, the Missionary Center for good races, and the Preparedness Center for neutral races. Colonization Events no longer give Ideology points. You make your choice for the result that best suits your civilization's needs. To balance the loss of the colonization events ideology points, the Intimidation Center, the Missionary Center, and the Preparedness Center each have their number of Ideology points per turn increased. This also will make your choice of Ideology more relevant. Because doing it this way will mean that you can only choose traits from your chosen Ideology Tree. You'd no longer be able to choose traits from any Ideology Tree. This of course makes this decision a little bit more relevant and interesting. "Your choices matter"
13. - Would like to see the Pirates be more aggressive. Would like the Pirates Aggressiveness to be an option in the game setup menu
14. - Violating Civilization Borders. Can attack any ship (without having to declare war), that is within your territory unless they are Allies or have an Open Borders Treaty. (Does not apply to Minor Civs). This of course will have Diplomatic Penalties. The amount and severity of the diplomatic penalties will vary depending upon various factors. Such as; an unarmed ship will carry a higher penalty than an armed vessel. An unarmed ship carrying civilians, i.e., colony ships, will carry the highest penalty. If you have any treaties or agreements such as a Research Treaty, will also cause the penalty to be higher. If you're trading with, or they are trading with you, will also be cause for higher penalties. Reach a high enough penalty, or attack enough ships, and the civ may declare war on you. I would also add a Diplomatic Option to tell a civilization to: "Stay Out of our Territory". * I believe this will confront the player with a series of interesting choices. Do I defend my borders against civs that I am not presently at war with, stopping them from colonizing worlds or grabbing resources within my borders at the risk of war, diplomatic penalties, and breaking alliances? Or allow a civilization with whom I'm seeking an alliance with, to enter, colonize, or grab resources within my territory? Of course Privateers (In the upcoming Crusade expansion), can probably be used for much of the same purpose. However, an empire should not have to hide by employing unmarked ships to protect their own borders. I'd use Privateers mostly as saboteurs. Destroying starbases so I can swoop in and steal a resource etc.
15. - Make the "Battle Prediction", an option to have on or off in the Game Set Up menu. I personally prefer not being told how a battle is going to turn out before entering in to it. Look at the enemies strengths and weaknesses as compared to mine and make my own determination. If I calculate poorly, I lose. The "Battle Prediction" takes that critical thinking away from you and simply gives you the answer. But I would go ahead and leave it as an option to turn on or off in the game set up menu for those players who prefer to have it.
16. - Bazaar Changes = One idea could be to have one large Central Bazaar along with the other ones. This Bazaar's location must be found in order to purchase from them. And they would carry ships unique to this Bazaar only.
17. - Please fix the ship movement. If I have a ship with let's say 16 moves, and I set it on a course, I can't stop the ship and make it change direction if I need it to. I have to wait until it's finished the original course that I set I on, and by then I've usually used up all of it's available moves.
18. - Hiring Mercenaries = Instead of a one-time payment for a mercenary ship, why not have weekly payments to the mercenary? This would make it possible to lose a mercenary due to insufficient funds, and then the mercenary would go back on the market.
19. - Culture Flipping Asteroid Mining Fields = Since Asteroid Mining Fields can be fully automated, I'd like to see them become much harder to culture flip.
20. - Sentry Option For Unarmed Scouts. Currently, I cannot set an unarmed scout to Sentry. (Wake up when an enemy is within sight range.) I can set him to Guard, but he's not really guarding anything. Allowing unarmed scouts to be positioned at strategic places and act as sentries to alert you when an enemy is near will also make scouts more useful mid to late game after the map has been fully explored.
21. - Galactic Wonders. Need more galactic wonders/achievements that we can build. Some of them should be available in earlier Ages. The Galactic Wonders are typically powerful planetary improvements. Having some available at an earlier Age, will add to the amount of important decision making in the early game as well as in the later game.
22. - Need some race specific Galactic Wonders.
23. - Ascension Gate Planetary Improvement. Personally I would change this improvement from a Research Improvement to something else. By the time you can build an Ascension Gate, you're already done researching techs for the most part. Since the gate allows you to reach another plane of existence, I think it should give a large civilization wide bonus to Moral. Perhaps a cultural benefit would be a fitting secondary bonus.
24. - Liberation!!! If a race has been completely conquered by another faction and has thus been eliminated from the game, and I conquer the eliminated race's homeworld, I would like the option to "Liberate" the conquered civ. Doing so, would also give the liberating faction a lot of positive Diplomatic Points with the race that has just been liberated.
25. - Hiring Mercenaries as Citizens. A selection of "Mercenary Citizens", added to the Bazaar for hire. Can easily justify purchasing spies, commanders, and saboteurs as guns for hire at the Bazaar.
Ships
1. - Flagships. Originally I wasn't going to add this in because I believe they're already doing something with flagships for Crusade. My idea for flagships is fairly simple. Each race gets only one. If destroyed you can build another at that time. Same or slightly more capacity than a Huge Hull ship, more Hit Points than a Huge Hull ship, and it should come pre-equipped with a few Fleet Enhancing components. (These fleet enhancing components would not be available for other ships and are different than the ones currently available.)
2. - Advanced Cargo Ship Hulls. This was something that I had modded into GC2, and it was extremely useful. Larger carrying capacity and a few more hit points. I had given mine 5 hit points. I frequently used them as armed trade ships so they could defend themselves when attacked. Also came in handy for colony ships and constructors as I could pack on more engines and range boosting components to reach planets and resources that were much further away from me a lot faster. This may also be very useful for Crusade, since resources are going to play a much larger role. One will have to make the decision whether or not to research for Advanced Cargo Hulls to reach resources faster, or spend their time and money researching other avenues to advance their goals.
3. - Civilizations Logos added to the Ship Designer as ship components, just like the Arcean logo. Would like to see them all as, Lighted, Unlighted, and in various colors.
Misc
1. - Not sure if this would be possible, but I would really love to be able to mod the game and have it affect saved games. As it is now, you have to start a new game to see any changes that have been made. Some new techs or planetary improvements are designed for late game use, then there's testing for balance purposes, it's much easier, (and faster), to do all of this when you do not have to start a new game each time.
2. - More Ship Styles and ship building components like the Builders Kit
