Ok, I've only been playing this game for a couple of weeks and its great, but I am disappointed with certain aspects of it. I know this is a game and not a space simulation but I would love a bit more realism somewhere along the way. I know most of the below amount to a major re-write of the program (if not Galactic Civ III), but the question was what I would "LIKE" not what I can have! Apologies if the below have already been discussed to death in the forums, I didn't check first!

1) Main map. This shows everything!!! I would prefer a galactic map which just showed stars, deep space phenomena and inter-stellar fleets. A double click on a star would bring up a system screen which could display stars (yes we could have binaries, etc), planets (not just 5), moons (colonizable please), asteroids, in-system fleets, etc. Ships would then have in-system engines and warp drives.
2) More specific racial characteristics. E.g gravity, temperature and radiation tolerance. Planets would also have more detailed environmental info meaning that planets are easier to colonize for one race than another.
3) Option to start with "pre-warp" or even "apollo" level tech which would allow initial exploration of your homesystem (would need option (1)) and allow you to witness your races first steps into the universe.
4) Tech tree. This is large, but not large and varied enough. It is also quite predictable. More please, more varied stuff - ground combat techs anyone?
5) Leaders / Legendary Characters. Availability of these from within your own empire would be a nice addition to boost bonuses.
6) Turn week. I think this is naff, turn MONTH or YEAR I can buy into - this doesn't seem believable.
7) Mining Space Resources. Rethink this please! A ship comes along and finds a load of "inluence" lying around in deep space waiting to be mined!! Come on!!! What about finding actual resources which boost manufacturing, influence, etc. E.g highly rare crystals from an asteroid belt which improve your manufacturing bonus.
8) Ground Combat please. Where are my divisions, tanks, planetary defenses, etc?

==> 1st) Special weapons like "boarding" ones or weapons that don't damage the enemy but shut off the enemy's communications or weapons. Support modules that would let the ship be "invisible" for a turn, gas weapons that would inflict casualties to the ship's crew (and then reduce the experience value of this ship).

==> 2nd) Experience : it shouldn't "just" add more hit points but help the ship to target better, evade better, etc...

==> 3rd) Possibilities to flee from battles before total annihilation.

==> 4th) Diplomacy options ... (i don't say more cause it has already been discussed a lot)

I have bought the game online, happy about what I expected to be a good work from Stardock. The game is ok. I had a lot fun playing that. However, I bought a new computer because my I can't play in the notebook at maximum settings. I have not Internet at home. Tried offline activation but it does not works. The technical support will not do anything to assist me.

In regard to the topic.
I will never pay money for anything from you Stardock. Never more!

Regards,

Edna K.

Skyjack you could at least be polite about it. I never read whatever thread that is!

How was I impolite?

ability to hire terrorist or something that would sabatoge their improvement tiles(factory's, food supply, orbital defense). they could sneak in in a ship that looks like a friendly freighter.

i would also like to see planetary weapons like a missle you could fire from your planet that would target an enemy planet and damage their tiles or planet quality. it would be really fast moving and hard to catch with a ship(not impossible tho), but could be countered with planet or starbase defenses.

as far as strategic battles go, you could have ship captains that could specialize in certian areas. like speed, mobility, lasers etc. they could gain levels and get new abilties based on levels. the higher the levels the better the combat AI.

i would also like to see a much more robust and specialized weapon and defense layout. something thats not rock paper scissors. something that could be influenced by said captians. like mid battle repairs, shield regeneration or energy weapon regeneration, and ammo resupply.

another thing that would be neat would be if in the gametype selection you could also choose average planet quality. such as low, medium, or high.

i am sure some of this is impossible to do in a expansion, some more for a sequel but i just got on a roll i guess.

SM

Here's a bunch of suggestions, some of them seem to have already been announced, but i'll list them nonetheless:

United Planets: i'd like more involvement like the possibility to
-promote votes, as in to abrogate treaties (i hate when they limit starbase modules for example), or to form a UP military force to exterminate an evil civ/pirates or to prevent and give aid in case of galactic catastrophe
-bribery when voting UP resolutions (extremely useful if i can also promote resolutions)
-for minor races: they can ask to join UP and if accepted they can start to colonize new worlds (becoming in fact a major civ)

Military:
-possibility to invade starbase (i can invade a planet, why not a starbase? maybe with the use of a specialized module with high cost)
-minefields on borders of your empire (treaty option: to give minefield codes to allow free passage to friendly civs, these codes could be also subject to espionage but require a big effort to obtain)
-borders/possibility to threat civ trespassing/UP treaty banning out of borders starbases
-Invasion troops can be recalled after a conquest (as it is they simply vanish into thin air...), maybe gaining experience which adds to their hitpoints/effectiveness
-invaded planets: they should require a few turns to stabilize (aka get to normal production/approval levels), the sooner the invading troops leave the higher the chance they revolt, this being lesser in case my civ has high influence/nearby wealkthy planets, and higher if far away from my planets. Also for invading troops an "auto leave" option when reachen a user defined approval
-logistics of a fleet decrease allowing for more ships to join with experience, if fleet is disbanded the logistic bonus is halved
-ability to move military starbases(deathstar?) but extremely slow and can only defend when attacked
-tactical options when engaging enemy fleets as when invading a planet
-treaties with other civs to perform mock battles so to increase fleet's experience (less than real battles)
-given enough espionage, ability to target specific enemy ship subsystem to lower their effectiveness because you know their weak points

espionage/counter espionage:
-steal enemy ship designs to hit their weak points
-sabotage (generic or of specific planets/improvement given enough espionage level)
-bribery of enemy fleets/planets/starbases...

Politics/Diplomatic:
-given proper form of governement ability to have vassal states (they pay a fee, I protect them and they have access to my researches/economic etch bouses)

Miscellanea:
-stargates: even if obsolete they can be useful on huge maps (istantaneous travel): i'd opt for a tunnel approach:stargates A B con only go though tem, you can't choose C or D when entering A or B. they should also cost a bunch
-starbase modules to give economic bonus to nearby planets
-a multi constructor module (something like the adv troop mod) that gives the possibility to install eg 4 modules on a starbase with a single ship
-somewhat personalize fleets/planets: say i'm ethically good and do something evil: fleets/planets can rebel and join other civs, with a higher chance if they have great experience/wealth/influence (maybe for planets a decrease of income/productivity before defecting)
-terraforming 0 PQ planets or possibility to install special facilities to mine particular resources, maybe with unexpected events tha require more money/time to complete or a productivity penalty
-economy: a Galactic Stock Exchange (a galactic wonder?) which boosts your and other civs economy who decide to join (the one who build it has a bigger bonus)
-economy: a market place where you sell goods/ships/etc, other species can ask for contracts like "build me 10 fighters for XX bucks"
-random events/disaster that requires an UP emergency meeting
-some super-iper-mega-project as a dyson sphere which gives influence/research/manufacturing bonuses
-very huge maps (thousands stars)
-ability to continue playing even after a victory
-eye candy: an easy way to import leader pictures (the other day i wanted an elf portrait but had to desist)

Well I suppose this is enough

1) A more advanced U.P. Council with more features.

2) Borders.

-terraforming 0 PQ planets or possibility to install special facilities to mine particular resources, maybe with unexpected events tha require more money/time to complete or a productivity penalty

Some proposals:
- Distinguish the planet quality and planet size: total number of tiles should depend on the planet size; 3 types of tiles (habitable, industrial only, non-habitable); on habitable tiles you can build everything normally, while on industrial you can only build industrial type buildings at bigger cost and also bigger maintenance; non-habitable tiles cannot be used at all (no way to build anything on a gas giant); using the terraforming techs you could turn some (but not all) of the industrial tiles into habitable or some non-habitable into industrial; using this approach you could colonize non-habitable planets (if they have at least 1 industrial tile) with a special colony module and build factories, research centers, spaceport, etc. - but no social, economical, cultural or food producing buildings (and no, or only part of special/galactic projects).

- Terraforming ship module (big and expensive); such ship if it lands on a non-colonized planet can be used to transform 1 tile into a better one (still not always - gas giants and heavy acid atmosphere planets are just not usable at all); this process should take some time, similarly to using any of the terraforming techs on the own planet.

2) Borders.

Maybe not borders, but AI should take into account that colonizing a planet or building a mining/military starbase inside the very heart of someones else teritiry will be considered as a hostile action, thus deteriorating the relationship unless the other race agrees. I can allow my best allies to do it sometimes, but they should ask my permission or if they don't care just ruin the relationship. In the same way it could also work between AIs.

This post has reminded me of a thing that I don't like in Galciv2 (BTW great game), which is the fact that it's much easier to capture a planet than to defend it. You can easily turn your whole population into soldiers without any training costs (in time or money) and boost them using various invasion tactics. Poor defenders don't have much choice - they die in billions. In my oppinion more difficult planet conquering would make the game more colorful - longer and more realistic wars. Now I can conquer whole alien civ within just a few turns.

Well, it might have a lot to do with the fact it's actually very easy to invade a planet. Once you get into orbit, you pretty much own it. For example, right now, invading Earth would be a cakewalk, even with all of our missile launchers and airplanes. You don't need to land the soldiers first. Just use those fancy high-tech ships to blast anything that looks like it might be military from orbit, maybe take out a couple of cities, and then land the grunts to do cleanup while your ship provides orbital support and simply blows up anything that resists too much. Pretty much, I would say the game is very realistic in how it treats attempting to defend a planet. Same goes for invading any planet. Want to know how planets can counter this? Look to my suggestion about cannons.

More realistic fleet and ship options.

Increased importance on ships Larder ship classes with exponentially longer build times, and overall civilization logistics that limit the amount of larger ships you can have. A feature seen in moo2 that didn't affect the game in any way at all. but one that affects it would be cool.

Better namingFighter-class ships with hidden build numbers (They don't say Star Fury 991 in babylon 5 for instance)

Carrier class ships More than enough people have asked for this. Add one more to that list.

Bigger size ups between ship classes Obviously this is limited, but fighters should be mere specs upon a massive hulled ship

Fleet doctrines Specific tasks for fleets - and the ability to use several in one battle

trainable crews As opposed to experience, keep them seperate - To improve overall performance

Combat doctrines Approaching battles with different plans in order to take advantage of your fleet

Named heroes Recruitable ship captains and admirals, a la moo2, but a little more detail. smaller selection of specials but stats that improve fleet and combat?

Better united planets I pretty much expect this!

Base hulls That are "Cleaner", less spiky bits - I hate modding Torian hulls.

Limiting planet specialisation Requiring buildings of a certain line (say industrial, research etc) to activate the specialisation thats currently in GC2, and by doing so, blocking off certain avenues of building - Build the ultimate research planet, and be limited to your military or economic build options

Economic specialisation On top of military, social and research, that literally cuts everything else to zero and funnels all money after upkeep into profit.

Cant think of anything else right now ^^

Keep the Metaverse, just add online Multiplayer where one person can play against up to 9 other real online players! Make it so one person can make a game ( with a difficulty limit-if say limit: tough then if the joiner's won more than once above that difficulty then he/she can't play.