Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah - and make it all moddable with something like the RDL (Rules Description Language) of the sadly departed Stars! Supernova Genesis! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif It seems what we want isn't so much a 4X game but rather a build-your-own-4X-game kit!

Here's a feature I think someone suggested for SE4... warp points of varying sizes such that you can't send a ship through a warp point smaller than the ship. So do you attack the obvious route that restricts you to smaller ships, or use dreadnoughts but take the long way around? Perhaps longer warp-points would be smaller - sort of like Stars! stargates, you have to trade off distance for capacity - or the warp point creation components would have a maximum size as well as maximum distance...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

raynfala,
Hex Grid
Has a lot of issues. Most likely the biggest one is programing. It would be a nice feature but the time and effort required would (In my Opion), not be worth it. I personaly would rather see the time and effort go into other aspects of the game.
I shudder to think what it might require in the re doing of ship sets.
who knows, I could be way off base.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mmmmm, I can see two areas where hex-mapping would throw a bit of a wrench in the works:

* Path finding -- writing an algorithm that can pick its way along a hex path instead of a grid probably takes significantly more effort, especially if it's going to do it right. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
* Coordinate system -- everything tied to those nice, tidy Cartesian coordinates (movement orders, planet/unit positions, etc.) needs to get reworked. In short, Aaron would have to create a new coordinate system: one that is both intuitive and consistent, so that when your orders window says "move to -blah-,-blah-", you know exactly where on the map its refering to.

There are plenty of war games that use hex-maps, although I've never actually played 'em. I wonder how they deal with it...

--Raynfala

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Regarding hex-maps:

Now that I think about it, there is an alternative.

We can take a cue from Master of Magic. In that game, the battles were coducted on a Cartesian grid. But, units were chaged 1.5 movement points for going diagonally, which is a fair approximation of reality (the actual distance is 1.414). And units were not allowed to move at all if they have 0.5 movement points remaining.

People may now debate whether or not a unit with a fractional movement point should have it added to their movement points for the next round or turn. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

--Raynfala

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

hi, I think somebody, who has time, needs to sum up this tread up til now. That way we don't repeat thing over and people don't need to read all of this to catch up.

- I just know sonebody is going to say this again just because I said that, oh Well.

[ February 14, 2003, 23:05: Message edited by: Crimson ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Yeah, what he said!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Sorry, Crimson. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

For the solo player:
A delay befor you know everything about a race. Possibly the delay would be reduced by components, experiance such as combat, or a treaty level

The abilty to randomize some of the traits of a race at the start of a game so when you do run into them you would not know what they would be like from memory.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Wow, my first post, Ahem, I don't know if this has been said yet but I think a new "Aqua" planet type would be cool so we can make "fish/sea mammal" races. Like in Moo2. or maybe a "liquid" type of atmosphere.

[ February 17, 2003, 07:39: Message edited by: Hugh Manatee ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

How about if the game actually read the roman numerals for components instead of just deciding what was most advanced based on its position in the file? It would also be good if components/facilities were tied to there names, not position in the text file, so you could mod a game in progress without destroying the universe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Well, you can always add levels to the end of the file. Changing the order is what messes the game up.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Besides, you don't always want roman numerals in the names, and sometimes you want duplicates, etc.

Its more flexible this way.

What you can do is add the components to the end of the file while modding and while running/debugging with a test game.

Then go back and sort things nicely for the public release of your mod.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Research:
Research should not be based in the number of research points avaliable per turn, instead the number of research points should make for a percentage of the chance to discover the tech that its being researched. This way it will be more realistic. Research its not an exact science, in real life you can't tell when a research proyect will be acomplished.
Think about it. It could take anywhere between 1 and 10 turns to discover PD weapons, for example. Every game would be completely diferent. They way it is now I can predict almost to the minute when I'm gonna have my Meson BLaster VI. It could have a maximum of the equivalent to 30% research chance, and thus forcing the player to put any extra reasearch points into another research proyect. Maybe researching a new level of an already known tech should be easier than researching a completely new tech....
What about a random research tree?
Humm............. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds cool, but then Aaron had better make sure that there's a random number generator seed that is exclusively devoted to tech breakthrough "rolls", and that this seed is stored to the save game file.

Otherwise, people will have a nasty habit of saving the game just before the end of a turn, hitting the next turn button, and reloading the game if their breakthrough "roll" fails.

Not that I've ever done anything like that before... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

--Raynfala

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

MOO2 had random research costs (100%-200% the stated cost) but I never heard of people cheating like that... then again I never even thought of the idea so I wouldn't know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

edit: another idea, someone might have posted this before, but an in-game communications log of all Messages sent, received, or intercepted by your empire! (at least SE4 lets you copy it out to a text file with a right-click menu - most games wouldn't support that at all! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

edit again: ah, one more thing - if there's not going to be a full-fledged Rules Description Language like in SSG, at least make the data files in CSV format - they might be harder to read, but they can be very easily imported into any spreadsheet or database program for advanced editing!

[ February 19, 2003, 04:00: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

< /BEGIN RANT >

My wish is that MM would figure out what a "percentage" is. Oh like lets say you got a couple opposing ships at a range with a 10% hit chance. The ships (and training, racial stats) are identical except one has Combat sensors I giving plus 25% hit chance. Thus the chance to hit for that one ship should be 10% + 25% which of course = 12.5%. But oh no it doesn't it is acutaly 35%. So your little combat sensors have actually improved your accuracy 250%!! There are several other areas of the game such as race setup where you may think you are getting a certain "percentage" improvement but it is actually much differenct
< /END RANT >

[ February 21, 2003, 03:59: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Or it could mean it makes you 25% more likely to hit..which is exactly what it does.

Phoenix-D

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Does not. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif Are you disagreeing with the example I gave were your to hit chance was improved 250%??

[ February 21, 2003, 04:46: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

regarding randomized research, i must point to an example from another empire building game. Imerialism II, if you have ever played it, had a very nice research modle.

prerequisites were randomized, within a pool. for example, road building required maybe 2 out of a possible 5 base technologies. saw mills, required 2 out of another pool of 5, with maybe some overlap - but each would not require the same tech.

i dont know if this makes sense to you. let me try again.

tech A, B, C, D, & E are base technologies, low on the research tree.

tech 1 requires two techs from the group ABCD and tech 2 requires two techs from the group BCDE, but their prerequisites may not overlap. so 1 may need A+B, and 2 may need D+E, but they must not both need tech B. or they must not both need the same tech..

and the whole tech tree went like this. and most of the pre-requisites made some sort of sense, even given their random nature.

but sure, random technology costs would be the sissy way of doing it.

and while im on a drunken rant, let me tell you that Imperialism and Imperialism 2 were MAN's empire games! politics mattered! strategy was important! 1 was more political manuvering and turmoil, 2 was more resource raping conquest. they were both great games, and still worthy to play today. Trade Empires was written by the same company, and is possibly the greatest economic / merchantile sim of all time. In short, Frog City is probably one of the most ingenious development houses on the face of the planet, bar none. if you have not played their games, you should go pick them up on the discount shelf, or order them Online. you have not played a real empire building game unless you have played these. SE4 and its brethren are alot of fun, but it cant compare.

of course, you cant blow up suns in the Frog City games, and as far as i can figure, its not so easy to make mods. so you are all cursed with my presence.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

That sounds good, Puke, but being easily moddable its a must. Otherwise how can I "fix" what I don't like? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

My greatest wish for SE5 its to be even more modable than SE4.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Let me take this opportunity to bring up again the idea of 'types' of research. Doesn't it seem odd that you can channel ALL of your empire's research into some physics related project like propulsion, then whip-saw it into a completely unrelated project like bio-weapons the next? This is bizarre. We need different 'types' of research just like there are different 'types' of resources. There are at least 4 clear major types of sciences:

Physics/Astrophysics, Chemical, Bio-medical, Psych/social

Then there are 'technology' fields that might not be pure sciences but are pretty elaborate and can be justified as independent fields of research. Engineering, for example. It needs physics for basic facts about structure and stress, but can also involve chemistry (materials). I guess you'd have to make Engineering a field that requires several types of research to advance a level.

If we had four seperate types of research facilities producing these different kinds of research, and science/tech fields could require one or more than one 'type' of research, it would be a bit harder to just rush down the tech trees.

[ February 22, 2003, 05:13: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Ooh, I like! Just like how SE2's "money" got expanded to "construction points" and "research points", and SE3's "construction points" got expanded to "minerals", "organics", and "radioactives"!

Better yet, make the different research types moddable! (Hey, I might divide sciences differently than you or Aaron does - you skipped Mathematics, for one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif And someone else might try to simplify things and combine Chemistry and Physics...)

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I like this idea with the exception of the Last bit. It sounds like an unecessary comlication. How about just one type of research facility but you could then channel the research into each of the four different areas you mentioned. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ February 22, 2003, 03:29: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, 10% + 25% equals 35%. 10% + 25%*10% = 12.5%

The screen says to-hit increase, which is exactly what it does. It increases your accuracy rating by 25%, not 25% of what it currently is.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The only other one that could be confusing is maintenance, which isn't really that bad.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Then wouldn't it be the same as the current system only with just four tech areas? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Perhaps already stated:
I'd like a way to give/trade tech where I can se what tech levels I got.
And also trade for example shields 7 by pressing shields and then something labeled 7, instead of shields 7 times.
And a "Send all" button would be appriciated.

AS stated in the GUI thread I'd liek a 3d map as that in the Space game "Elite II Frontiers"

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I noticed another "SE5 Wish List" thread was started. So I renamed this one to clarify that this thread was not a 'Poll' but the Official (as in Aaron has it bookmarked) thread where you should all post your wishes.

I'm trying to make life a bit easier for Aaron. He is a very busy man and when he drops by his time is limited. Hopefully this will save him the task of searching through a bunch of threads that all have the same theme!

It's probably my fault in the fisrt place for originally calling this thread a 'Poll' when in fact it was/is a depository!

Cheers!

[ February 22, 2003, 16:12: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

There should not be a colon in SE5. The game is not Space Empires: 5, it is (or will be) Space Empires 5. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Then wouldn't it be the same as the current system only with just four tech areas? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't think so. What I meant is that you could say allocate 20% of your total research to say "Physics/Astrophysics" Then the actual tech areas that required Physics/Astrophysics would use that portion of your research points.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I guess if I was to sum up my personal self centered wants:
More data that is easier to read on each screen. I'll be happy to go through each screen and specify. It should be ready by Monday the 24th

I would love as many tweaks to the AI as he can justify.

I would love a scroll mouse

I would love to be able to move a window

I would like the enter key to close a window
I would like the Tab key to move between fields, (I think it does this)
I would like to be able to save "New Game Settings" up to and including the AI I have chosen.
The settings should the races, pt values, type of quadrant, game mechanics, etc... It should not include the name of the game.
That was suggested by someone long ago. It is a matter of conveinance. It makes things a lot easier.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

The ability in the game creator to specify exactly the # of planets you want in a generated map (without having to change settings.txt)

Scrolling, or repeat on hold button, for ship design screen component list so I can quickly get to the other end of the list, esp if "hide obsolete" is not checked.

Make phased shields a separate class from shields for upgrade purposes.

Add a component ability: "Works only X % of the time" This would be very useful for mines and unreliable components.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

For research, go look at how SE3 did it (there is a free shareware download available). That system would be the best to use.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

This is a bold idea. I hope you like it. I realize that this will not apply to everyone who plays this game, but it could possibly be implemented in such a way that it does not preclude the way things are. Please have an open mind, it may not be as off the wall as you think.

This game is a great game. Unfortunately, it is a bit too big. It takes quite a long time to play a game with a large group. Even if everyone is able to play a turn a day (which in my experience is seldom), games can easily Last 6 months.

The alternative seems to be writing an AI and battling other AIs with it. This has its drawbacks as well. There does not seem to be enough fine control over the AI.

*IF* (yes it is a big if) the internal calls to the AI routines were structured properly, they could (at the request of a race setting) call an external DLL that is provided by the programming skills of the player!

The first call to the DLL could pass a data structure that contained the game state as known by the AI.

Subsequent calls to the DLL would be function calls that ask specific questions about what to do.

As an alternative, there could be a call to a function that returned a data structure that represented all of the orders given.

I realize that this may be totally incompatible with the way the program is currently written. I have no idea how much code will be reused or rewritten for Version 5. If the AI is part of the rewrite, it might not be much trouble to include this feature.

For the record, I have not tried to write an AI. I have looked at it and am willing to accept that it is more flexible than it looks at first blush. I am certainly impressed the accomplishments of Malfador Machinations, and I feel that enabling the gaming community to have direct control over this feature would bring some surprises in how certain problems are solved. This might open the door for this game to have the most proficient computer opponent in strategy gaming.

This is a wonderfully customizable product. The AI is already customizable to more extent than any game I have ever seen. Perhaps this is asking too much. Of course, you never know until you ask...

Thanks for a great game!

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is the point of a PBEM game.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is already handled through text files, which is much better than a dll, because anyone can edit text files. Dll's require some more knowledge of programming code.

[ February 23, 2003, 01:20: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

But the point is, that you can directly alter the way the AI does things in the game. At the moment, you can just adjust some values but cannot alter AI behaviour. For example, the AI will at the moment only scrap atmospheric converters after they have done the job. What Samurai is suggesting is, that if you don't like it, you write your own routines to teach the AI how to scrap different building and under what conditions. In effect it would allow you to write your own AI. I personally would love it and it has been suggested in the beta forums to Aaron. I hope he will implement it, even some simple if...then conditions would be of great help.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

This was discussed months and months ago:
The other "programing" ability I would like is commands for a ship. For example:
Go to < System Name > Cordinates
Do < Action >
Go to < System Name > Cordinates
Do < Action >
It would be a bonus if there could be conditional aspects to it as well.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I like the idea of allowing plugins.
I wouldn't be able to write them, and the primary way to make mods should still be editing txt files, but there seem to be a lot of programers among the players.
External plugins to add some function or improve some AI behavior would be great.

We all want SE3 like research!
(will this make AI research harder to mod?)

I also want se3 like construc/repair queues!
and my multy SY bases!
and a construction system that resembles more SE3

The ability to save initial setup to start another game with the same settings and to save during a simultaneous game turn.

Editable damage types! Choose if they skip shields, if they target, skip or do some % more/less damage to a specific family/ies of components ect.

Ground combat could resemble space combat in SE4 (space combat should of course be in 3d space, but the surface of a planet can be asumed to be flat). Just change the space background with some ground background, give move points to troops.

Orbiting planets.
Orders should be move to this planet, since actual coordinates of the planet will change during its year.

Researchable domes!
Early in the game you can only colonize planets of your type and atmosphere, later you can research a dome for every other atmosphere, there can even be several levels of domes getting cheaper and allowing more space.
You should allways need a dome in a planet of a diferent type.

Supplies of all types can be transfered between ships like cargo, and delivering supplies is an important part of an empire's strategy.
There are several types of supplies, generating supplies has a cost, and that cost is the manteinance cost of your ship.
EG even if a ship has a QR, an endless supply of energy it will still need other supply types, such as "ammo", or "spare parts".

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I really like this, this would allow for more complex tech trees.
But if you want to be realistic with the SW example, while you're researching "the light side", "the dark side" will allways be there tempting you with cool looking easy to get stuff, but as soon as you star researching it, you'll be unable to use all you had researched in "the light side". But even then you should be able to return to the path of light by reffusing to use dark side items and researching the light side.

Messages such as "the star will explode in 3 years" should be followed by a countdown.

What if the game would actually remember enemies seen in systems you no longer have presence, old Messages, and almost anything players may need to remember and are usully to lazy to take notes.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The solution to this problem is having enough races so everytime you play they are not the same old friends and enemies but someoun you hardly know.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds like you're saying I want windows standard GUI like SE3.
But yeah a game like this should be almost fully playable only using the keyboard.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Turn Based games are still available...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Andrés Lescano,
Laughing at myself.
I never thought of choosing other AIs to get the unknown. I usualy choose an AI based on the ship set.
Thanks for the wakeup call. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

One thing I would like to see is the ability to retreat from space combat - especially if your ships are faster. It's frustrating that your three light cruisers cannot escape from a sector when confronted by a fleet of ten dreadnoughts.

I realize this would add a whole level of fleet and ship orders in simultaneous games (always retreat, stand and fight, retreat at 20% losses, etc.), but I think it would alleviate the two fleets enter, one fleet leaves (almost completely intact) aspect of space combat, and make smaller ships more valuable. It would also allow support ships a much greater survival rate.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

SE5 needs a better icon, why is SE4 icon an SE3-like star?

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I had an Idea about the colony dome thing Last night, What if you could just build more "domes" on a planet that is unbreathable? just put it in the construction que or have another colony modual land on the planet. Or perhaps a new type of modual, There are three types already, rock gas and ice, how about a 4th, "Domed", or make that a smaller thing you have to use in combination with the three colony components.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is possible with text files, too. Yes, it would be nice if MM would give us control of more of the AI's decisions in the text files. I'd especially like to be able to select which planets to send colonizers to (size vs. resources vs. atmosphere) and which Intel projects to use. More complex chois ein existing controls woul dbe nice, too. You cannot teach the AI to use anything other than the default colony types which MM has created for it, for example. Why can't we have different scripts for 'large' and 'small' mineral mining worlds, or for worlds with a good level of several resources?

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or what if there was a facility to increase population capacity just like there is for cargo capacity. Another long-standing request.

I would like to see colonization changed, though. It should not be possible to live undomed on a non-native planet type. Gas giant planets aren't suddenly good environments for surface-dwelling creatures just because they have been altered to different gases. Gas-native races are 'flyers' or 'floaters' of various types, remember. So your colonies on non-native type worlds should be domed regardless of the atmosphere. Your race will always require special structures to live there.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not by much. AI research modding would be identical to how it is in SE4. You would still specify the max number of techs to work on and the tech areas. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif You would have to decide whether to try to give different percantage rates in the different tech areas, or to use equal amounts. In SE3, the AIs researched technologies pretty well, so I guess it couldn't be too hard to mod what they do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Actually, the only major difference is that you don't get extra points going into the next tech area, but into the next level of the same tech. But that isn't really a bad thing IMO. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ February 23, 2003, 23:24: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course, I can just as easily say that the SE4 universe represents a tech level similar to that of Star Wars, where colonizing a gas giant with a breathable atmosphere is no more difficult than building a standard repulsorlift platform. If you have the technology needed to build sphere/ringworlds, then atmosphere and planet types are non-issues to your race. You could easily cover then entire surface of a planet with a dome with those levels of construction abilities.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

SE4 is not at the tech level of Star Wars though. Not by far. It takes years to cross the galaxy with starting tech in SE4. SW ships take weeks.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Their transportation is inferior, true, but their construction abilities are overwhelmingly superior. Building a ringworld or sphereworld is a task that makes building a Deathstar about as significant as me drawing a circle on a piece of paper.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Baron Munchausen pointed out:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">With all due respect Baron, this is not completely accurate.

We'll assume a rock native population for this.

You have a domed colony on an ice world and your atmosphere converter just finished its job. You may now disassemble your dome, because you don't need it to hold in your atmosphere, and spread out. Of course your buildings must be heated but now you can put them anywhere you want.
Real World Example: Antarctica
Sci-Fi Example: Hoth

Now the fun one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
You have a domed colony on (should be in) a gas giant. How would this even be possible? Bubbles. A "domed" colony would be nothing more than an airtight bubble floating in the atmosphere. How does it float? Just like a ship in water. The higher atmospheric pressure of the planet would hold it up (we won't discuss keeping it in place http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ). Now your atmosphere converter has been working its little heart out and manages to convert the atmosphere. You can now build pylons on top of your bubbles tall enough to put platforms up where the pressure is more comfortable. With enough bubbles and platforms you get more usable space. If anything you should get more facility slots on a gas giant even if it's "domed" and tons more after the atmosphere has been converted. How many Earths would fit in Jupiter?
Real World Example: Yeah, right! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Sci-Fi Example: Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony

It all comes down to being able to use the space more efficiently. I'm not saying that all the physics involved are correct, but hey, this is science-fiction. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I'm also not saying that the game should be changed to reflect these ideas, that would destroy game balance. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is possible with text files, too. Yes, it would be nice if MM would give us control of more of the AI's decisions in the text files. I'd especially like to be able to select which planets to send colonizers to (size vs. resources vs. atmosphere) and which Intel projects to use. More complex chois ein existing controls woul dbe nice, too. You cannot teach the AI to use anything other than the default colony types which MM has created for it, for example. Why can't we have different scripts for 'large' and 'small' mineral mining worlds, or for worlds with a good level of several resources?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Earlier I posted the suggestion that SE-V be architected using a client/server approach, where the game engine is the server, and the client(s) can be an AI program, the user interface, a third party's user interface, etc.

Same thing for ministers, too. I would love to be able to code my own ministers so that it would do exactly what I want it to do.

--Raynfala

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nah....I don't agree. In an Ice planet, even with the right atmosphere type, you could never build as many buildings for the same price as in a rock planet. Ice planets would freeze anything. You would need far more heating power than in Antartica. And don't try to go out for a walk in the park. The other point is how many people would prefer to live in a freezing planet than in a cozy rock planet? Look at Alaska for a real life example.