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.

Yep! It's easy to scorach a planet if you have the right equipement. Hurray! But invasion is not quite like this. What do you know about armies and wars? You have billions of people that only have their home land and are desperate to protect it as they have nothing to loose and would die anyway. So what they do? Fight for their lives. In contrary invaders don't want to destroy the planet but only take it over, which means very difficult street fights, guerillas etc. on the unknown terrain. Not mentioning that they are far from home and famillies.

As I said in the main thread for the Xpack I would like the following:

My functionality request is simple. I would like to see all the Random galaxy variables as an input options for example the X & Y axis for the map. Moreover have the ability to set it to something 100x100 for those of us with monster rigs.

Now I'll go all out and suggest the following:

1. The hard coded limits for abilities removed or at least set to something 100% and the unimplemented ones fully implemented.

2. The ability to turn class 0 planets into bases as well as be given the chance to turn them into colonies with the tech of course.

3. An extremely detailed diplomacy system that is woven into the espionage and sciences systems.

4. The ability to move windows around as I have a couple monitors.

5. A Galactic stock market where we can invest into planets, companies and even empires and buy and trade ships, planets, star bases, troops -etc...

6. A massively expanded random events library or at the very least give us the chance to add and save our own via an editor during the setup phase.

7. Civ and planet specific goods and resources as well as galactic wonders.

8. Product development via resource acquisition that sold and traded. For example product X requires resource 1, 2 & 3 which are all controlled by different Civs. So if I can get them I can build a special factory and convert them into the product.

9. Random super novas every 100 turns or so.

10. Sharing of planets with allies. While I'm on the topic loyal allies at that!

11. Full control of tactical combat for both space and land attacks.

12. Orbital defenses, worm holes and black holes!

13. Ongoing anomaly generation throughout the game.

14. A massively expanded tech tree with unique techs for each race.

Update: I just finished reading the entire thread and most of the suggestions make me think of a Pax Imperia, Masters of Orion, Civilization, Capitalism, Entrepreneur, Close Combat hybrid. Something like that would be the ultimate game in my opinion.

I aggree with many other friends. But As I read quickly I disagree with 0 level planets to become usable about mining. Nope I don'T want that kinda thing. I'm happy with this style. Beceause If ıt was become, there will be too much unneeded micro management.

You cannot use all the planets, If you would like so much , you can choose habitable planets as abundant.

*I'd like better diplomacy.Like more questions that I can ask, and some begging or some threating. Or something that peep has wroten like.
*I'd like more core designed ships like Laser Attacker I, II ,II , Missile Attacker I,II,III.
*Yeah In fact It is nice to do it own too.But If so I don't wanna see core designed ships.. They re unusable ,old , useless as my ship designs.
*Yeah invasion screen can be better.
*And also I agree there must be better campaign and a story.

And there must be more I think.

But anyway I have to say, I like so much this game.. And I have to tell this, I will buy the exp no matter what it includes..Cuz I love this game.

Yep! It's easy to scorach a planet if you have the right equipement. Hurray!

Who said anything about scorching a planet? Today, we have precision-strike nuclear weapons. Add on a few hundred years of development, and we can probably have shape-charge fusion mines and precision-strike plasma lances. You can, with the right equipment and some people who actually know what they are doing, manage to take out key defensive buildings and leave most of a city unharmed. At the very worst, you throw some dust in the air. And it's a lot easier to rebuild a few buildings than to waste hundreds of soldiers trying to take one of them. Plus, in doing so, you demoralize the enemy as well, potentially saving you from blowing up all of the defensive buildings.

But invasion is not quite like this. What do you know about armies and wars? You have billions of people that only have their home land and are desperate to protect it as they have nothing to loose and would die anyway. So what they do? Fight for their lives.

That's part of why you kinda need those precision-strike weapons. Now, don't tell me that someone who can build a ship capable of travelling faster than light is incapable of making a shape-charge warhead for a missile.

In contrary invaders don't want to destroy the planet but only take it over, which means very difficult street fights, guerillas etc. on the unknown terrain. Not mentioning that they are far from home and famillies.

Which means a lot of property damage, a lot of time spent on repairs and rebuilding, and a lot of time calling in air support. Guess what? I was kinda counting on all of this when I made my post. If the people fight too much on one street, call in air support. One shot later, you have the street. Combine it with precision weapons, and all you have to fix is the area the enemies were and clean up some debris.

People have mentioned a map editor and more campaigns. I like both of those but let's take it one step further and have a fully customizable campaigne editor!

Also like to add that sometimes you just don't want to take over a planet, that it would look much better as just another astroid belt. How about the ability to research the ultimate weapon (second if you include a weapon that could cause a whole star system to supernova).

You can make military spacestations, but must they be stationary? How about Carriers that you can load up tiny to medium ships on. These military additions could lower the logistic costs of your ships, allowing larger fleets. Or remove the costs except for that of the space stations and carriers.

what about colony space stations with additional modules being available for aditional improvemnts and living capacity... clearly not allowing for populations as large as a planet colony but its a place to move population when i don't need troopers (transports) and the colonization phase is over.

To me update 1.2 is a very good game that i truely enjoy so I am sure I'll buy any expansion for GC2 that Stardock makes.

But what would get me really excited would be a whole new metaverse. Something like where we can join leagues and play the same games and have won-lost records for playing the same games. Maybe give out points for the order of finishing the games by earliest dates. Completely throw out the current point system for games -- looks like you have to establish a win then play a sim to get population up and build humongous fleets to get great scores -- just don't get the appeal of it.

Something really needs to be done with espionage too, which i believe is planned.

A map editor would be nice even if i don't use it.

Larger map sizes with user specified X x Y sectors. And Wraparound map options ( left-right and top-bottom) with ability to center minimap on any sector.

More controll over game difficulty. 1% incremetal sliders for anything that can be modified would be nice.

Even larger maps. 16x16 is big, sure, but imagine 32x32.

Which leads me to my other idea: another propulsion tech tree, or even just a continuation of the current one. I can't think of what to call it(I'd say hyperdrive because that is traditionally what I'm talking about, but it's already used) so I'll call it the Wormhole Generator. It allows you to create a wormhole to move ships and troops rapidly across huge distances. Say, you open it in one place, choose an exit(or require a second ship to be in a certain place to create an exit) and then drive your fleets into it. Several turns later(the exact number determined by how far along the tree you are) your ships pop out at the exit.

Could create some interesting scenarios, and the generator would become the prime target in battle, because it is so dangerous. Perhaps as a special acheivement, a planet-based wormhole generator that can be used to move troops to other planets as an invasion force, at the cost of half the planet's population.

Really, I want bigger maps, and if you have bigger maps, you're gonna need a way to get around faster.

Reading the topic on dyson spheres i thought about this:
how about a military structure like a ring built aound a planet used as a defensive structure? upgradeable with weapons/shield/ship assist modules like a normal military starbase? And if it seems that it makes conquering a planet hard how about making it as a planet tile upgrade whose maintenance cost rises with each module installed? This should make it costly enough to think about it twice before building (say a cost of 1bc per attack/defense/assist points or 3-4 bc per module installed)
And only for these kind of structures add a fleet orbital manager module (maybe with a cost doubled than its planetary counterpart thus compensating the additional free tile on planet surface)

Another thing regarding starports/ships building:
I'd really like to have at least a building queue (as happens for planetary improvements), an "auto-launch ship" toggle (global or for each starport) maybe with the exclusions of transports/colony ships.

Lastly an enanched governor for starports: i could simply set a few option like build "x" ships of category "y" and send it to rally point "z" with a priority (higher means "drop whatever you are building and switch to this order" and lower means "finish what you are bulding then build this"), obviously once finished the order involved starports should resume what they were doing (and possibly with their previous settings for rally points). If told so this governor should also be able to use multiple starports, chosen by me or auto managed (say nearest to rally point or simply those planet that have higher military output)

1)multiplayer. I really want multipaler, it has been many times that i and my friends have want to play a multiplayergame.

2)bigger techtree. i think it is small, maybe more planetary improvements?

3)Expanded ground combat. Blackmist005s idea is good. i would want to se longer battles on planets, especally on the big planets.

4)bigger hulltypes. the biggest hulltype isnt big enough.

but i want multiplayer most. galciv is a great game in singleplayer mode but i want to play against my friends or other people.

I would like to see the following
1.A make a map that works  
2.more hall sizes
3.to have cababilty to have other civs fight at begining(in the part were you pick the cives in the game)
4.to have cheats that work      

my ideas for the exp....

I you colonize a planet with a moon orbiting it, maybe you could get a choice when you take over the plant, a one of choice. for example:

either

a weapons station
a trade centre (to boost income)
a big loudspeaker ? ? ? to extend influence.

just an idea?

I"m not sure if it's considered a random event I've had, or it happens to everyone.... my last game, I play evil(to the point of demonic) for the first time, then out of nowhere suddenly half of my empire(16/36 planets) brokeoff and formed a new race and truned against me...

I'd like the ability to easily scroll around the map by going to the sides of the screen. I'd also like it if military bases attacked enemy ships that got to close to them rather than just attacking when defending and modifying the effects of other ships in the vicinity. Something along the lines of a civpedia would be nice also as would better explinations of what the exact boni of a tech is before i research it, ie i get to know the future stats of my weapons. Not necessarily more ship hulls but more ship types like carriers, etc. The ability to choose a type or quality of my ground troops before an invasion. The ability to capture an enemy's ship. Race specific warships.

Alright, I'm relatively new to this game, but have been playing strategy games for a while and have a few things I'd be interested in seeing.

Hotseat multiplayer. I honestly don't care about LAN or Internet multiplayer that much.
More hull types and sizes, perhaps a hull type for each civilization. Also, someone suggested a chassis-editor for the hull types, and I like that idea as well.
The anomaly system is cool but on standard and smaller maps most of the anomalies are gone by the time you're able to build new survey ships or put the survey module on ships. If anomalies or other events gradually got reintroduced into the game?
In the opening video it says something about the civilizations using stargates to move ships from one place to another, functioning almost identically to the Star Gates from the movie of the same name. Yet we don't see them in the game at all, and it'd be a great way to get around quickly on a Gigantic map in the mid/endgame.
An expanded tech tree. More government options, more ethic-based options, perhaps a general defense system for ships.
As some people have suggested, ways to create large-scale space stations, terraform planets directly (ie transform unusable tiles into usable tiles), or create planets (obviously a lengthy and involved task).
A way to get some use out of class 0 planets, either by the above method or by allowing military bases, etc. to be built on them.
A bonus for having a planet with a moon that might have resources, etc. (the moons are there in the game but serve no purpose other than to look pretty)
Characters or special forces, that can station on a planet, gain experience like ships, and provide special bonuses or advantages.
A more involved planetary invasion system, and a tactical battle system for fleet battles.
Pirates, aliens, and minor nations serving a greater role.
A more involved Ethical system. More choices to make, penalties for changing ethics too quickly or too much, bonuses for staying consistent in alignment for long periods of time.
More distinction between "fighters" and "capital ships"; it's mentioned in the manual but in play fighters are just smaller capital ships. Perhaps carrier-style ships, that can carry fighters or groups of them? Or even better, a way for fighters to have their own logistic system, called "starfighter points" or something, and for larger ships to have a "fighter bay module" that grants them a certain "starfighter point capacity, so fighters don't count against a fleet's capacity but you have to customize or specialize ships to carry them.

A few things inspired directly from other games that I'd like to see here:

A "Civilopedia"-like reference section where I can find information about the ships, technologies, planets, etc.
Also from Civilization, a more indepth diplomacy, trade, and espionage system.
From Star Wars: Rebellion - the ability to perform "missions" on planets without having to invade or bombard. For example, you could perform subversion missions to reduce enemies' approval ratings, sabotage missions to take out key starports or industrial sectors, etc.
Also from SW:Reb - More random events on planets, like archaeological discoveries (providing research bonuses), disasters (reducing available tiles and/or destroying improvements), or resource finds (providing manufacturing, food, or economic bonuses).
From Spore (I know it's not out yet, but still) - A way to upload my own civs, ships, campaigns, and mods and download others' civs, ships, mods, and campaigns from the game itself.

As I said I'm new to this game but it's a great game and I hope to see a great expansion for it.

More component / weapon options to build a bigger variety of ships and something , anything, for us to do with Class 0 worlds.

Just that, and I'd buy an expansion. The weapon choices now are boredom city.

I'm liking the idea of spies. I want more ways to directly compete with the opponents without going to war.

In my last game i got way too tired of the amount of clicks necessary to upgrade a starbase.
Since 90% (or more) of the starbases that i build are identical and are of 3-4 kind i was thinking of aseembling a starbase project (more or less like a user defined ship: you select the modules , maybe they are built in the exact order you select them for the project, and save the design) and when you try to build the starbase you get prompted with the usual 3 kind (military/economy/influence) and also you get an additional tab "user defined starbases".
When you select a user defined starbase all the constructor on the tile are used to fill the modules enqueued on that particular starbase design until you finish the queue, then for any additional constructor you get the usual upgrade starbase dialog.
If you don't have enough constructor to fill the design queue, when you send a new constructor you get 3 choices instead of the usual 2 (upgrade starbase: "yes" or "no") with the third being "yes, build next queued module"

This way you can simplify starbase constructiuon: you create a design, the you form a fleet of constructors (or simply place a bunch of constructor on the same tile) and choose to build your deign and voilà you get your designed starbase with just a few clicks, instead of a ton of clicks for every constructor you send on a starbase

Also if you upgrade a design (as more modules are available with research) you should also be able to upgrade existing starbases to the new designs.

Actual Pirate presence. Not just the Mythological pirate armada event.

What about cloaking devices? Make it so that it works best for single ships rather than fleets (a cloak gives off distortion so sharp eyes could see a cloaked ship, but the distortion would be more obvious if the fleet is cloaked).

It would give greater strategic options, but it would also make investing in sensor technology paramount (as it acts as the counter to cloaking - if your sensors are much more advanced they can see through the cloak).

I would pay for a Galciv expansion that let you fight battles in space and on planet surfaces if you want to (kind of like in Medieval Total War, where you can play the game entirely on the strategic map, and only fight at the tactical level if you want to)

I think it would be cool to be able to have a flight simulator level combat in the Galciv universe. This might be a seperate game entirely.

Also, a role play style game in the Galciv universe would be great (if well done) Something along the lines of Ambrosias Escape Velocity series, where you start off small, and grow into a major player in the universe, with various options and possible endings. This would be cool if it would mix first person interaction on planets and starbases, along with the flight simulator combat. Perhaps ambitious, but hey, that is the type of game I would like to play.

Oh, I would like to be able to do something with non inhabitable planets as well. Mining colonies perhaps? Pirate bases? Sensor arrays? Defensive items? Not sure, but they seem awfully darn useless. I think there should be a role for planets even if they are uninhabitable. Resource harvesting on these worlds, not only from the magical resources that appear in space?

Option to continue after wining.

Fo example if you win by an influence victory, if you click continue it should allow you to play on with (just) that win condition disabled.

Similarly it would be good to be able to continue after losing due to a particular special victory condition with that condition disabled. For example continue after "losing" due to technology victory by computer.

I'd pay for multiplayer too.

I don't need it competitive, so I don't care if it's inherently not "fair" - the game can continue to apply random events inequitably. Just give me a turn time limit that I can set, and the already-existing ability to do ship designing outside the current game (or to propose "ship design time" as a diplomatic option w/other human players), and I'd be ecstatic.

I think being able to build outposts on uninhabital worlds would be nice.
More hulls to pick from
more color choices for everything
An option to sort the colony manager by production time/to build
multiplayer
unlimited/more opponents
ability to link starbases together of diff types for a superbase
some kind of "net" feature between military starbases to "blockade" your turf