1. Yes. Can be modded right now, but internal editors are always preferable.

2. This already exists. Try the circle button on the control pad.

3. Good one.

4. I don't know if it does this already. If no, include it!

5. I have talked about this before, and the main problem is that 3d modelling is HARD. An internal graphics editor would really just confuse people. (Not to say that SD shouldn't MAKE a graphics program, however!)

6. YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. How would this work?

8. Good one. How would the UI look?

Yellows, greens, blues, purples and whatever else can hover above my darn reddishly sharp Apocalypse ships even if i can already turn them off by clicking on the provided camera dot!

(Oooppsss, shoulda known someone would also point you at the tiny circle! )

(PS2; as for the rest, ShipYard needs total revamping as i've stated elsewhere and strangely your ideas are a perfect match of some suggestions already made -- that makes two of us.)

I prefer the standard modeling Z'Y'X' coordinates system to Yaw/Tilt spheres though.

The thing in the upper right is called the camera? We need some accepted terminology for this!

Lesson21 from DL/tutorials shows you how. And if you launch from orbit (since they will be built in sequence), they'll already be stacked and ready for fleeting.

The main problem I see with the ship designer is that I'll often think up a design and be like OMG I MUST BUILD THIS... then I'm building it and have to put extension pylons or poles to get the peices where I want them because theres no null point where I want one to be... something where I chose what part of the piece I'm adding is attached to the null point would be nice... and a thing where you don't need null points it just attaches to whatever you click on (thats closest to the screen).

And a clipboard function... (copy/paste/etc)... at least this one... can't be that hard stardock.

It would probably be better to drop the base size entirely and make engines (and life support and some defenses) take a straight % of hull size. A top-line engine takes a flat 10% of hullspace, regardless of ship size. So if you really want to, you could strap 8 of those on a hull, with a minor weapon and a survey module and make one badass anomaly harvesting machine (also useful for collecting experience anomalies before upgrading to a real warship).

The problem isn't currently as bad as you think. In fleet battles, defenses degrade during each round of combat, so the second small ship is firing at reduced defense. It's still an advantage for the bigger ship, but it's closer to 20+10 instead of 20+20.

With the current defense degradation, the offensive part of this isn't that big an issue. The defenses might be believable for missile defense, maybe even shields. Not for armor.

Hmm, yes, there is that, they should not overdo it, but have some. its a balance thing. but id hate it if the game turned dull and humorless. Id like a few laughs here and there.

Bullshit.

Now enter an Arleigh Burke class destroyer (I picked the newest destroyer class I knew off the top of my head). This only weighs in at 8315 tons compared to an Iowa's 58000 tons. So multiply the 6 inches/second recoil by about 7. A  3.5 feet per second thrust is hardly "skimming across the ocean" to something already moving 30 knots.

That would be a valid point, except the Hood was most likely destroyed by plunging fire, not a hit below the waterline. Neither aspect was well armored, as the Hood was a battlecruiser, not a full battleship.

Edit: damn posting from work, I get too distracted by other things to post in a timely manner.

A. Ok, but you may have to change the names a little...

B. Excellent!

C. There is a "social project" filter for them....

In that case, it would certainly help with the micro-management.

Now, for something that has been bugging me about tech trading:

When you get a tech, you can use it, but you don't get the techs before it. This makes no sense whatsoever. If you gave Thomas Edison perfectly detailed schematics and step-by-step instructions to build a nuke, he would still be unable to do it because he did not have the industrial equipment, raw materials, or background knowledge. Same thing with techs. You should only be able to trade techs that a civ already has available. Of course, you could just give them an entire line of research in order at once if that was what you wanted to do, but it would not be possible to do the reverse. Needless to say, the AI would have to be programmed to only value the last tech in a sequence, but it already can discriminate anyway, so I don't think there would be any difficulty. This might also help to minimize the whole tech dealing problem, although it wouldn't get rid of it entirely.

@Scout

Is the simple solution of requiring that all techs preceding a tech be a prereq for both it and the items it unlocks too complicated?  GC2 does in fact support multiple prereq techs, although the tree doesn't handle them well in the view, and we've spoken off and on about GC1's multiple prereq system as well.

For instance: Change Warp Drive (the engine) to require Impulse Drive III, Impulse Drive II, Impulse Drive, Ion Drive, New Propulsion Techniques, and HyperDrive, in addition to requiring Warp Drive (the tech).

It's not perfect (you would still get tech bonuses and it wouldn't look quite right) but it's better than what we have now and it CAN be implimented in GC2.

Ohh ya you guys know how everyone complains that terror stars are too slow... how about this

Every 2 maps sizes it gets a speed bonus of 1. So tiny speed of 1, Medium speed of 2, Huge speed of 3, and anything bigger speed of 4.

Also Terror Stars can join fleets.

Blockades

1. Park your ships on your enemy's planets.

2. Requirements you need logistics level of 3 to 4 (depends on race).

3. You need at least 4+ ships to do it and you need a Carrier (then with any other ships), or at least 2 mediun ships(with any other ships sizes and you need at least 1 tiny or 1 small vessel too ie your fast ships to tackle )
4. The enemy planet doesn't give out money, tech, and building stops.

Planetary Defense Structures, Invasions, Planetary Bombardment and Defenses against Invasion (tactics)

1. Brainstorming... come back later...