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What would you pay good money for in an expansion? (The unofficial inquiry)

What would you pay good money for in an expansion? (The unofficial inquiry)

Yes I did use the search feature!

Essentially make a list of things in an expansion pack that would make you want to pay Stardock money (put "would be nice" things in a separate list)

Edit:
Yay!!! The forum will let me edit my posts now!

Anyway my thanks to whoever stickied this.

Feel free to post whatever you desire in future expansion packs, even if it has already been suggested (that shows that many people want said feature). Also don't feel compelled to browse through the previous pages of this thread.
224,058 views 399 replies
Reply #226 Top
More hull models, also bigger hulls all around.



Techs in the tree too hard to navigate. Decrease distance between the rectangles slightly and add a zoom out feature. Search would be cool too, but thats not that big of a deal.


Yeah, and what that ^^^ guy said:
Stand alone ship design program. I would love to tinker with weapon configurations and not be limited by the techs that i have researched in the game.
Reply #227 Top
I'd like to see the settings for the AI have an "intelligence" slider and a "resource bonus" slider, so that I could control each.
Reply #228 Top
I'm sure Multiplayer has been mentioned becouse it's a no brainer.

They need some sort of "Negotiating Strength Indicator" so you can see the gap between your influence and the race your talking to to indicate how good or bad a deal you are getting.
Reply #229 Top
After reading all 224 posts. . .


I didn't, heh. I'm sure either all or most of my suggestions are already covered, but what the hey, count 'em as another vote for them.

1. Stealth (opposed by Sensors)
2. Better Spying (interactive as opposed to automatic)

3. Better Diplomacy/Galactic Council. Ability to "spy out" who's voting for what beforehand. Ability to buy their vote. Geneva-convention type debates, because, frankly, using Mass Drivers, Gas, Core Upheaval, etc, is a pretty evil way to conquer worlds.

4. More random events, including:
a. Catastrophes (asteroids, plague, solar storms, space monsters, robotic doomsday robots wandering around, etc)
b. Miracles (or whatever you'd call 'em) - just nice things that are the opposite of catastrophes. Finding more Precursor artifacts. Finding unique techs that nobody else can get (like random "Galactic Wonders").
c. Increase the "barbarian" factor (more pirates), perhaps a configurable option
d. Mini-quests as suggested before is a good idea
e. Respawning artifacts, so survey ships & that Guide wonder is useful

5. Auto-attack option on Space Stations! (that's ONE way to set up borders, heh). Various options, including attackin' everybody except freighters.

6. Space-related events, like black holes, pulsars, novas, asteroids & asteroid mining! Mining moons, too, perhaps even colonies.

More a wish list than a definitive one, i guess. Frankly, I love this game, and would buy almost any expansion for it. I do feel it needs more depth and "fleshing out" in areas other than the huge tech tree.


Reply #230 Top
After reading all 224 posts. . .


I didn't, heh. I'm sure either all or most of my suggestions are already covered, but what the hey, count 'em as another vote for them.

1. Stealth (opposed by Sensors)
2. Better Spying (interactive as opposed to automatic)

3. Better Diplomacy/Galactic Council. Ability to "spy out" who's voting for what beforehand. Ability to buy their vote. Geneva-convention type debates, because, frankly, using Mass Drivers, Gas, Core Upheaval, etc, is a pretty evil way to conquer worlds.

4. More random events, including:
a. Catastrophes (asteroids, plague, solar storms, space monsters, robotic doomsday robots wandering around, etc)
b. Miracles (or whatever you'd call 'em) - just nice things that are the opposite of catastrophes. Finding more Precursor artifacts. Finding unique techs that nobody else can get (like random "Galactic Wonders").
c. Increase the "barbarian" factor (more pirates), perhaps a configurable option
d. Mini-quests as suggested before is a good idea
e. Respawning artifacts, so survey ships & that Guide wonder is useful

5. Auto-attack option on Space Stations! (that's ONE way to set up borders, heh). Various options, including attackin' everybody except freighters.

6. Space-related events, like black holes, pulsars, novas, asteroids & asteroid mining! Mining moons, too, perhaps even colonies.

More a wish list than a definitive one, i guess. Frankly, I love this game, and would buy almost any expansion for it. I do feel it needs more depth and "fleshing out" in areas other than the huge tech tree.


Reply #231 Top
The option to "Launch Ship" from either the "Breaking News" window, or a checkbox when ordering it constructed. When upgrading ships, they keep all the installed modules (weaponry, defense, modules, etc) by default. Have an option to globally clear them, maybe.

More detailed resource gathering on planets somehow; perhaps requirement of constructing mining facilities. Maybe make certain rare minerals required to build specific units.

Trade: Add specific resources that can be held on freighters (or a combination) relevant to a planet's surplus. Food, for example, could be traded to impoverished worlds, or metals, etc. Each world could have specific "needs", from 1-3, and trading to them for these items would bring a bonus.

Different grades of planets: Habitable, Barren, and Uninhabitable. Move Terrafarming farther down the tech ladder (if necessary), but once achieved, "Barren" planets can be terraformed and made habitable. Process can be either timeconsuming, expensive, or both.

Also, it seems like some things, like entertainment and farming are not required to be built (and should be?). Starving people revolt.

Reply #232 Top
I like building starbases, so here's the Starbase Wishlist. Posted some in another thread but belongs here, really.


1. Auto-Warning for Starbases: Like the Ship Guard selection, if an enemy ship appears within the base's scanning range it warns the player at the start of the turn (appears along with other start-of-turn messages). Naturally,the more one invests in the base's scanners, the better range it has.

2. Either expand Cultural bases, or make an entirely new type of Starbase, where ships can dock. The new base have their own Logistics value and tech tree. No matter how much you invest its logistics, though, they will not hold as many ships as a planet
Reply #233 Top
1. What about more interaction with events in the galaxy. For example, you send your fleet to a world you want to conquer. While the fleet is on it's way it passes a fleet of your enemy, an options screen wil pop up with various suggestions like:
*try to move past them undetected (if you know what technologies they have and sensors, you're fleet could make a small circle around the enemy fleet avoiding detection)
*engage in battle
*flee
*continue first objective (going to the planet you want to conquer and caring about the near enemy fleet)

When you arrive at the planet a sort of close-up movie of your fleet arriving at a star system shows( don't mean a movie like the movie shown when invading a starsystem, just a close-up of the system followed by a close-up of your fleet) and a new options dialogue pops up with a warning you're fleet has arrived it's destination and some available options about what to do next:
*attack planet (disabeling planetary defense)
*invade planet when there's a troop transport in your fleet
*leave planet alone
*secure immediate surroundings (search an attack other possblie fleets in that square)

2. It seems all specific, but in my opinion when i play the game i don't really feel I'm in space. The graphics could have some improvement. I'd really hate it that ships are represented in such a static way. There's no life in it... for example, when you move a vessel, why not make the engine make some light and make sure when it stops it burns out. Or when you zoom out and somewhere in the galaxy 2 powerful fleets (don't have to be yours) are into a battle a small lighteffect occurs on the map. The same for supernova's or when a fleet destructs a planet, make something to look at, besides the lasereffects and why does everything always has to dissappaer when it's destroyed...leave some rubble that can be salvaged like resources in asteroids.

3. Space is beautiful, toxic gasclouds wich makes ships vulnerable for attack when there passing through or slows down ships when they enter, making it difficult to get it out or through, these clouds aren't always visible it depends on wether you researched sensors for example. Asteroids, which are inserted in de XP, very good. But what about solarsystems that are formed or that explode by supernova's(rare in the beginning of the game but after a certain point in time become more frequent, but never too frequent) making rubble that flies through space able to hit a planet or wathever is on it's path? Comets visible on the map on a path to a planet, a dialogue screen pops up and gives you options 2 handle the situation.( more life on the map than just moving ships.

4. A bigger map would be great to, it doesnt mean there has to be more in it, but i like the idea of a large empty space and the fact that races are more isolated from eachother. Races won't discover eachother that fast and the galaxy really becomes something to be explored.

5. I want to see more interaction between friendly civilizations...when you click on a world of your empire i want to have an idea about the different races their live on it..:
70% are Terran
10% are drengin
20% are Torian
This changes with the relationship between 2 empires. When the Terrans are at war it is obvious there are almost no Drengin on your planets to be found(except for the spies).This is mainly for having more information about your current relations with another species. On a Terran planet where there are more drengin, for example the Terran planet lies in the drengin influence sphere, your own people would be less content. Interracial difficulties occur like having protest wich do not occur when you've researched cultural technolgies and re-education or perhaps a new technology like, cultural tolerance.

6. It would be cool to be able to send out diplomats in ships like freighters, they would continously try to improve a goal you set up as long as they are active
*better trading in goods, wich increases revenue
*better trading in researchtechnolgies, which makes it easier to negotiate for technolgies even if your diplomacy is still low.
*just giving them the feeling they are important to you wich increases diplomacy status.
This can be limited so you can send one out only one at a time to one race, but not all to one race.

7. More and stronger space pirates who make your traderoutes dangerous and maybe have a homeworld (like a minor race), but far more difficult to eradicate. It makes the galaxy in time of peace still a relative dangerous place.

8. Unexpected phenomenons/threats
*a black hole, you better don't get to near to one..
*time anomalies, brings you to the future or the past and back with new technologies, ship improvements etc
*a wormhole opens from another galaxy, a very large number of fleets of an unknown race passes through claiming everything in this galaxy and an urgent UN resolutions should unite everyone to conquer this obvious evil race.
*whenever an evil race discovered a new weapon with superior capabilities, let the spies warn you.
*whenever your spies feel the enemy is building up a fleet, let them warn you..
Not every little piece of informations should be notified, but more would be welcome because of the fact that you cannot/and focus on everything in the same turn. It just should ease up things a bit.

Though i really liked this game at the start, now i do feel there is a lot room for improvements. AI is of no discussion for me, it's pretty good..but I like a game with a profound deepness. Ruling an empire in galaxy, is more than just sending warships and trade vessels through empty space, you already did a good job in GCII, but I think in this sort of game, you just can't have options enough. I really don't like it seeing the same events happening over and over again in your galaxy whenever you start a new game..patches should be released from time to time with new events.

There are still tons to be added ,if not now, later in the future perhaps in GCIII

Reply #234 Top
well i wished that there could be a seperate campaign that can include your custom race and their control for power over a galaxy, not scenario morelike a plot version
and allthe other stuff i included in my post way back
Reply #236 Top
* Less-linear single player game. More ways to get to the end game and maybe even some free time between main-quest missions to pick up unique objects such as ships, techs, alliances, etc...

* Carry over ships/planets/tech/resources between missions for some parts of the campaign. Games (IMO) tend to feel more immersive if your actions have consequences - if I wasted a lot of resources completing a mission then those resources shouldn't suddenly reappear... Of course it would be nice if the user was forwarned if this is to happen - there is nothing worse than stripping somewhere only to discover that when you come back at a later point it is now a hopeless case!

* Unique ships/techs/resources. Either earned by trial or inherent to a race.

* Multiplayer. This should be pretty easy to implement in a turn-based game - you can even avoid classic networking and use email to distrubute turns requiring player A to 'load' player B's turn. All you'd need to do is validate the input from the player B to ensure the moves made were actually possible! If all of player B's moves are okay then you execute those rather than have the AI calculate and perform it's own.
Reply #237 Top
What would I pay for?

I'll certainly cast my vote for many of the things already mentioned:
*Tactical combat
*Better Ai
*Tactical combat
*Carriers/fighters
*Tactical combat
*etc...,

BUT what I think is really more important is an significant increase in the game's "immersivity" (that is, whatever it is that brings imagination to life and makes you feel like "this is my empire"). Thus my suggestions are:

*A Revamped Planetary Interface. There is very little aesthetic appeal to the current interface, but if you could build up your colony by actualy placing 3D buildings on a 3D landscape, then you feel like you have actually traveled there.
- More variety in the kinds of planets. Surely not all habitable planets have green vegetation and earth-like mountains.
- If you are adding to the planetary invasion process, perhaps you could build a "combat tower" to your planet which you may upgrade with the weapons you have developed to defend your colony against a ground invasion.

*Military Personalities. For example, somewhere along the game, due to "valor in combat, Captain So-and-so has been promoted to Admiral. A fleet which he commands receives these bonuses: ..."

*More Galactic Scenery. Things like Asteroid belts, huge red giants and black holes, etc., all which could affect gameplay in some way.

Finally, I have to mention carriers again. Apparently the developers don't like the idea, but you asked me what I'd pay for.
Reply #238 Top
Not sure if this has come up yet but i find that when i'm at war my military is very small, but i have a huge tech advantage. The AI sends it's fleets at me and they the ratio of losses is somthing like 30-1 in my favor. I would like to see an AI that will take into account the tech diffrence of ship's. I have to compleatly destroy the AI's entire empire before we have about the same no. of ships and they try to make peace.
Also, I only have about 4 planets by the end of the colony rush and after i take my opponents planets it messes up my economy; I would like to see a way for orbiting ships to fire at the planet from orbit. You don't need to capture the planet but reduce it to a smoking ball of rock! (not good for the health of the population)
It could be useful against low quality planets or ones you just don't want.
(as already said above tactical command and a better level system for ships)
Reply #239 Top
I'd pay good money if Galciv2 would burn less power on a laptop. That game drains the battery in under an hour, and that's with all the audio/video turned down.
Reply #240 Top
Ok I love this game so don't take this as all complaining just as a suggestion for expansions beyond Dark Avatar which I am buying btw . I have not read all the replies just a few on this page. This is what I would personally pay for

First let me say that I agree with all the ideas reply 233 had . Also i make game graphics for a living so I am more specific in that area.

1: My only real complaint: Even though I love the game play the graphics are abysmal . After playing Star Wars empire at war and today the Supreme commander demo I really miss looking at appealing graphics . I seriously suggest spending nearly your entire budget for the next expansion hiring some senior game artists even if only contract and improving the graphics for the game . The ships are not to terrible . Although if you got a really good texture artist you could take what you have ship model and component wise and improve it 500%.

Really suggest taking a look at Star wars empires at war and Supreme commander and shooting for that level in as many areas as possible graphics wise. Im sorry if I am insulting anybody on the graphics team but I mean take for example the battle screen for the invasions ..the graphics are Nintendo 8bit at best . The modeling for the races looks like something you would see from a bad student reel . I just really hope you take into consideration how much graphics affect future sales and the dire need to improve the graphics to at least a minimum 2007 standerd.

i'll edit this and add more thoughts later it's getting late











Reply #241 Top
After wading through most of the posts and even though I'm pretty new to the game, I would say that I agree with the majority who want improved diplomatic options.

A few examples have been mentioned - threats, varying kinds of alliances, etc. One thing I think would be interesting - after a "full" alliance is made, the more powerful ally can point research in whatever direction it feels best. In other words, something where you could gift a tech to an ally, say Singularity Driver 4, even though they don't have some of the pre-req's for SD4 - and by doing so, they research Graviton Driver for the alliance. When they finish, both allies get the tech. Add in a "die roll" based on the relative strengths of the allies, so that a succesful roll means the ally will research that new tech, otherwise they will continue their normal research path. Maybe only allow this alliance type through building an influence Galactic Achievement or Trade Good to restrict it more.

Other than that specific idea, I like the ideas of tactical combat or at least a tactical component to the current system (e.g. choosing target order, etc.), and more long-term diplomatic arrangements (e.g. per-turn bc trading/tribute, non-military-only alliances), and unique ships/improvements.
Reply #243 Top
1) New Ship Parts and Hulls.

2) Cloaking devices and counter technologies.

3) True WMDs, while the spore ship is nice I think it would be alot more fulfilling to cause a star to go Nova and destroy all planets and ships within its system or to perhaps collapse it into a Black Hole that will suck up anything that gets to close.

4) A Z-Axis to the map. Space is 3D not 2D however I suppose this may have to wait for Galactic Civ 3. Either way this would add a new level of general strategy and military tactics to the game.
Reply #245 Top
1. better ground combat models, make it more interesting to watch the battles, different invasion techniques and different weapons should make for different battle scenes.

2. more varied hulls, 1 small hull with more space, and after certain research get new small hull with few more hit points and more space, thus giving more options in each hull category.

3. more hitpoints for star bases, stronger star bases. starbases should be major strategic battle points, even early on in game.

4. i moddded my game to have starbases with starting hitpoints of 420 hps. my ships also have more hitpoints. my battles last a little longer which i like in cinematic view.

5. this is a great game, very moddable. the graphics on land battles needs major work, very boring.

6.
Reply #246 Top
I'd love to see:

1)Optional tactical space and ground combat.

2)For Space Combat:
-the speed of ships makes them harder to hit.(ultimately having 2 engine types - travel engines verses maneuver engines)
-the size of ships makes them easier to hit as they get bigger
-accuracy in general, having targeting computers or something, ships don't always hit their target! So techs that increase accuracy and factors that put demands on it.
-defense systems gradually weaken as they sustain damage, like sheild hp, armor hp and anti-missile hp
-I think damage should have a range rather than an absolute, like a 1-3 damage rpg style. Other techs can raise the minimum damage or the max damage.

3)Characters:
-characters to choose from or option to make custom ones and create our own portraits, characters add huge depth to the game and make it more emersive. They have various skills and can be put on ships, on worlds and do espionage missions. (they can improve your ship, fleet, ground combat, research, production etc. depending on what you assign them to do and their stats.) I seen this concept in Star Wars Rebellion and think it was very awesome!

4)Ground combat:
-ground combat really needs more oomph. I think you should need to build armies to attack and defend planets, the entire population of a planet are not warriors, so why is your entire population getting your stellar marine bonus' etc? This dynamic would add much more to the game, if you want to defend a planet you need to build a dedicated army there, your scientists and farmers are not great at fighting of armed soldiers! I can see if your race is a warrior race that their average citizen may be better at defense than those of a merchant race, but trained professional warriors are who really win the war and hold the new terratory.
-infantry, vehicles, and aerospace fighters that bring different dynamics to planetary combat.

5)skilled citizens:
-imagine if you could have schools and train groups of citizens for better skilled labor, these citizens are more valuable for their specialization than regular citizens.(This is a concept from Sid Mier's Civilization.)
Reply #247 Top
I almost feel like a bunch of twelve year olds answered this question. If you want real good improvement ideas go to the "What do you want to see in an upgrade" post. There are some great and feasible ideas.

PS. People if your gonna put ideas in for an expansion pack don't give them ideas that are impossible to program in like half of you did.
Reply #248 Top
Fortify command:
I need something that will make my ships stay still, regardless of what happens. The sentry, and guard commands are simply not good enough.

Space Fortresses:
Starbases aren't strong enough end game to justify installing defensive modules of any kind. I want to build something that would be strong enough to stand the test of time. Space Fortresses would have more hit points, and would have access to modules that starbases wouldn't have.

A repair command:
Something that repairs ships, and starbases. I feel guilty for trying to use the upgrade/repair exploit.

PS. People if your gonna put ideas in for an expansion pack don't give them ideas that are impossible to program in like half of you did.


I agree with you. I keeping my list small and simple.
Reply #249 Top
I agree with many others... the game definitely needs multiplayer

I thought there was already a thread named "The case for NO MULTIPLAYER" stating it'd never happen

1.) I'd definitely pay for a Carrier and Fighters addition. By the end of the game, all the smaller ship classes are virtually obsolete compared to the Huge hulls, so I think that either fighters should get a bonus versus large ships, and large ships a penalty versus fighters, or smaller hulls should inherently have higher speed, something to keep them useful in the late game. I think Carriers would be a great way to do this, and would an another element of strategy to battles without overcomplicating them.

How about just a fighter-tech tree; and make it a type of weapon? A tech line like
Aero Dynamics, Aero Basic Tactics, Arial Combat, Modern Fighter I-IV etc, Quake Fighters ...

6.) An option to slow down the tech tree, or perhaps some in game time limits to what becomes available for research when. As it stands, I can just shoot up to Total Majesty in the early game, pop in a couple crappy ships, and then build at my leisure.

You can allready slow it down, it's one of those options where you pick the size of the map. you can set research speed Slow...Normal.Fast...Very fast etc.



7.) I'd also like for ships to be able to orbit starbases and defend them like planets. Seems kind of strange that my starbase has to duke it out on its own when there's a fleet of warships nearby, or that they can't fight without its support. This might be a military starbase only ability.

Definately another tech/sb module would be cool for this


I'm happy with the number of races, but I'd like to see more hull types instead of races sharing types,

Definately!

Reply #250 Top
(didn't read all replies so maybe somebody said so already)

I want to build Doomstars and blow planets up. Cool graphics for that were nice too. Oh yeah and sort of a new race were cool. maybe some insectoid race? Or a race that actually lives in space? Then instead of a Doomstar a LEXX-like ship, of course also able to blow up planets.

actually, just blowing up planets is what I care about