Shoujo, check out the planet details screen, it has most of what you're asking for.

I want the ability to give trade goods for a specific period of time, rather than indefinitely. Something like the CivIII resource trading.

Oh, and if there are any trade goods or bc/turn as part of a peace agreement, it should be revoked if war is redeclared.

How about an option to find out what the UP resolution coming up is, so that if it's important to me, I can buy some influence from someone.

Or one step farther, have a diplomacy trade option of "vote X in the upcoming resolution." That shouldn't be too hard from a UI interface point of view, but I don't know how much AI work it will take to let the AI evaluate how much voting certain ways are worth.

How about markers? I hate doing deep space exploration, finding a nice resource or a great star system, only to forget where it is. With markers, you could mark that sector as a "point of interest," then you could either cycle through the markers until you find the one you were looking for. Or maybe you are a nosey neighbor and like to keep an eye on a neighbor's star system.

If you wanted to get fancy with the marker idea, you could make it so you can type in a brief description and you can then call up your "marker screen" when you need it.

Bill

~SDC~

I just thought of something to make the marker thing a little bit more realistic. Enable the scouts to drop a bouy to mark a sector.

Bill

~SDC~

A few more things:

*When you find an enemy starbase leave it as a little dot on the map (until destroyed or whatever).

*I'd really like a military queue similar to the social project one. If I haven't missed it... Is there a way to just get them to keep building the same military project without asking me again and again?

*Birth control! Towards the latter stages of the gigantic maps to keep morale up, I just start putting folks on colony ships and disbanding them. There seems to be a certain point on those maps that overpopulation affects morale to the point of no return (even with 0% taxes, max morale bonus ability, morale resources, max propaganda, and a great deal of all the morale projects/tradegoods available in the game). Don't get me wrong, I think its fine most of the time...

*There are certain things that the AI will not trade anything for (Precursor ships, starbases, survey ships). I'd like some indication that i'm wasting my time. Also those things its willing to trade, i'd like to get a ballpark figure on what it wants in return... and then haggle from there.

*I know its part of the story line that the other races already know where everything is. How about an option to make them search around like yourself. At the very least the AI should have to take stellar cartography, and not know where all the galaxy resources are until it looks for them.

~SDC~

default buttons!

too much clicking. much of it can't be helped, but those status popups, planet popups, anything with a "done" or "next" button should close when you hit enter.

still trying to win on sub-normal

great game though, guys, really good stuff.

Two requests:

First, I hate that I can't see starbases on the minimap. It's very frustrating.

Second, if I could see starbases on the minimap, I'd LOVE to see a special designation to those built on resources....

I love the game though!!!! Great work!!!!

~SDC~

How about an option to send a freighter to a location or send a colony ship to a location.

ie, instead of finding the freighter/colony ship and then finding the planet, allow a function from a planet list or something...

It works in SEIV, but it would be problematic I suppose in two ways:

1) choosing from multiple freighters/colony ships
2) loading the colonists

The ability in trade for the AI to recomend a trade and then you have the option of tweeking it would be nice

~SDC~

Either scale the ship and planet statistics by 10, or allow decimals. The current rounding-down scheme makes most percentage-based improvements unusable until the mid-game.

~SDC~

Will there be or is there a way to search the metaverse by player name?? So it would be easier to find yourself

Some additional surrender, diplomacy options would be nice, i.e

Conditional surrender - not allowed to mass ships near their old enemy for X number of turns (a la Germany post WW1 and 2

Unconditional Surrender - You can force this when you are Uber powerful, make them give reparitions to whoever they were fighting, ban them from building up at all. Reduce their Military Production by X% for XYears etc.

Armistace - A cease fire for X Turns, if you attack during this you encur the wrath of all Allied Civs, or are taxed heavily by the UP?

Atrocities, IE using a terror star makes all civs declare war etc?

~SDC~

Is there any chance that menu's that pop up that only have one button for example could be auto-closed with the Enter key instead of having to use the mouse all the time. I find it a pain to have to move the mouse over to the button all the time when these dialogue boxes pop up (especially when I accidently drive ships into anomolies and stuff like that).

Also 2 other things I'd like to see.

1) When resources get covered with star bases they no longer show up on the big stragetic map as + signs. Could they start showing up as a different sign because when I go to war I forget where they all are on large+ sized galaxies and it's a pain driving around trying to find them again and I am sure the AI never forgets where they are

2)Does anyone else besides me find it hard to see some of the anomolies through the fog of war? Especially the blue ones which are almost invisible. If there were a way to have those show up better in a sector it would be very handy for moving survey ships directly to them instead of peering extra closely at the map for 5 minutes trying to find them. Maybe have another button to show them on the big strategic map in some way.

Thanks for listening.


~SDC~

Custom Ship Construction:

I would like to be able to customize how my ships are outfitted. It would be nice to be able to build ships with older technology that may be cheaper so, in times of need, I can pump out more ships.

Combat Strategy:

I wish that combat wasn't simply a matter of "Build more than them". I'm not even talking about a huge change, just something that gives me an option to use some sort of tactic(s) to make war feel a bit more under my control.

Friends asking for money:

Too many are asking me for money, especially when I am deep in the RED. It seems to me that friends NEVER seem to be ok with me denying them money. That isn't very realistic to me. Everyone (friend of foe) gets pissed if I don't have the cash.

It would be nice to be able to reply with:

a) I would love to give you money, but I am running a huge deficit.

and have them understand. Not in all cases, obviously, but at least somebody should.

Regarding ships, I think you're thinking of the MOO model of unit building instead of the CIV model (difference: MOO is custom ship building, CIV is units earned by exploring tech).

Frankly, if I wanted to build ships, I'd go play Stars! 2.x or Space Empires IV, not MOO and most definitely not Galactic Civilisations. This game would get less fun IMHO if I had to worry about tactics (ship building) when its a strategy game I want to play. Besides, capital ships will always be expensive and star fighters cheap, no matter what you're doing.

Damian


~SDC~

After playing several games over the last few days, ranging in overall difficulty from beginner to just above normal, there's a recurring theme I've noticed: minor civs always play with what appears to be the best ai and overall advantage vs. the major civs. As a result, the minor civs frequently end up outpacing the major civs (and the player) with a mere planet or two. They regularly construct wonders and trade goods every few turns and their planets grow like wildfire in terms of quality enhancements and population growth.

As a result, the minor civs act far more like "major" civs, only limited by their inability to expand beyond a single sector.

My suggestion is one of balance and preference: please include a separate difficulty setting for minor civs, just like the settings available for major civs. Such a setting would apply to all random minor civs in a given game and would allow the player to adjust how difficult the minor civs will be (i.e., how much of an overall role they end up playing).

-Wildcat73

~SDC~

It would be nice to be able to click on items in the negotiation screen to see a level of the item so you can get an idea of the value of it without having to keep it all in your head.

Also, the ability to introduce items to the UP agenda would be cool.

An in-game tech tree would be handy too.

~SDC~

Setting of rally points for newly created ships: effectively the ability to set routes between planets, much like freighters, but with newly-constructed ships instead going to a predetermined planet.

Auto-scouting and auto-picking-up of anomalies as ship settings.

Ways of auto-creating and auto-launching transports and colonies (perhaps setting up an intended destination as they're being created?)

In general, ways of micromanaging less in the midgame and endgame. Moving ships (especially colonies, transports, scouting ships and survey ships) get more tedious as the game continues.


~SDC~

I'm not opposed to the idea of more ship types. Maybe an improved frigate that requires more tech, but is more combat effective and just a little more expensive than the original frigate.

Hmmm... Definitely want an improved Defender. The BattleAxe is the only other ship that is defensively oriented, and it has a maintenance cost that's three times higher. And once you get beyond BattleAxes, everything is offensively oriented.

Maybe add an "Automated Systems" tech, and then make a few improved ship designs that have all the original requirements, "Automated Systems" and maybe a new requirement or two, and reduce the maintenance fee because of reduced crew requirements.

This is all stuff we can do ourselves and submit to the Library.

Declare war suggestion/bug:

When the votes are fairly close in the senate for declaring war on a civilization, you can keep trying to declare over and over again on the same turn until finally luck goes your way. I think you should only be allowed one attempt to turn (per civ) to declare war.

Being able to hit `Turn Button' and process the turn, no matter if there are planet, or fleet lists open off to the right side.

Now, even though the turn button is accessable, if you hit it when the list screens are open, the turn gets `stuck'

There is also something I can't quite define about the way the ship movements happen with respect to how the cursor decides to display each ship movement at the end of a turn.

I think I would rather the main screen just stay where it's at, instead of popping you over to where the cursor under a ship is. Because, now, your point of reference to where you're focus is in the main galaxy screen is thrown off kilter.

Thanks

Two things that annoy me that I'd like to see in the game.

1. Planet shields. I don't want to have to have any spaceships for defense. Make them a social improvement. Maybe even make them use cash to sustain. So you could bounce them up to max power when you suspect and attack.

2. Each sector has a player that controls influence of a sector.
Take it one step further. All the controlling player to set the rules for each controlled sector.
Example.
1. Anyone can move though the sector.
2. Anyone but those at war with you.
3. Only defensive ships (other then allies)
4. Only Mini Freighters (and allies)
5. None one. (allies allowed)
6. No one at all.

Any ships you have in that sector set to auto attack would automatically go after rule breakers and chase them out of the sector. (Or kill them) Mini freighters would go around sectors of 5 or 6.

War would not be declared on you for defending your own sectors.

TFM

Hey Brad,

Here's a minor quibble, I love to play with RANDOM ALIGNMENT for my alien adversaries BUT find this suprise defeated when I can already gauge their alignment via the flavor text at the bottom that cleverly changes to reflect their alignment choice. While this text is great when choosing their alignment why not either put a big question mark down there OR at least give each race a descriptive text to the effect of, "We really have no clue on their ethical orentation at this moment." worked in with the rest of the descriptive text.

Hello.

I've played couple of victorious games now, with federalists, against Normal AIs. Some observations (some of these reiterate what has already been said here; consider those as supporting votes ;)):

- The governor screen, and indeed, all places where there is references to tech, improvements, ship types, need a hyper-text like quick access to the technology data. In the governor this is a must, but would be VERY helpful in the tech screen also. (though I don't know if I want to know more, game-wise, from more advanced techs, i.e. in future research options).

- resources (that have been found with a scout etc) should _always_ be visible in the strategic map. Now when I have found some resource I want to mine, send a constructor, and it disappears from the strategic map, I instantly know that an AI player has built a star base there. The resources, and also starbases, IMO, should be visible in the minimap after they've been found, and should remain on the "tactical map" also. If covered with FOW, their state should only be upgraded if someone goes and looks.

- Federalists seem to have a very tough time declaring war; I think there should be an option to bribe the senate, even if it incurs a shift to evil (sometimes I absolutely need to take a resource from the AI, but the senate won't allow me to attack).

- I managed to take a technological victory (had to change my tactic in midgame, I was aiming for a conquest-style victory, but Altarians had managed to get up from their slump, and took advantage of my war against the Arceans), but it was _very_ time consuming. Which I gather it should be. Anyway, the video in the end was VERY cool, and I would like to see it again without loading up a save (to show to friends and whatnot). Think Baldur's Gate, where you could wathch the videos from the main menu after seeing them in the game.

- I would love to see the different ships have more meaningful names; When I'm trading a ship to an ally, it usually makes a difference whether it is "USS BattleAxe 911" or "922", as the two can of course be in totally different locations.

- Similarly, it would be very helpful, if I could right click or something on a ship in the diplomacy screen (own ships only, of course), and see where they are. Also in the ships list this would be helpful. Say, if a ship is on planet Thirdon, location would be "Thirdon", and otherwise it would inform me that "two parsecs from Thirdon, on route to Sol" or something to that effect. This would be a huge helper, as currently the ship manifest is mostly useless without clicking it through.

- Military production should also be queueable, somehow, be it a governor or planet-specific build-queues (this would help reduce end-game micromanagement). I would've loved to just queue "ranger-combat transport-ranger-combat transport-you get the idea" when I was in the middle of a heavy war.

- I managed to get a class 44 planet, but it couldn't have more than 100 billion inhabitants. Why is this?

- Ships should by default leave orbit when built, most of my ships at least don't have any business in orbit. At least constuctors should leave orbit. This was a major headache for me in my last game, where in the end I was building 5 constructors per turn, and had something like 20 turns of research left for "Near Omnipotence"(or something to that effect). Lots of clicking.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all the people of Stardock for this great game! No game so far has caused me to miss more sleep or work as this (practically played this all week). This, for me, is the real indicator of game quality. Also "One-turn-more"-syndrome has never struck me harder than with this game. The level of support is also astonishing. My hat is off to you!

//sjl


~SDC~