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

Currently I believe that ship names are taken from the ship name txt file by alphabeticaly order...or it could be random...

Would it be too difficult to have this set up so that certain ship class/type would only use a certain set of names? That way ship names would be consistant by class.

Kana

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

This would be very nice, or have the option to have both. It has been suggested before but I think we will not see it in SE V. Warp Points are a defining feature of the Space Empires series. To have a game that would allow you to not use them is well, not space empires.

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

Hi,
I'm new here. I was just wondering if ground combat was going to be a little bit more 'beefed' up. Now I don't know too much about the process of making games, so the answer to my question could be as simple as it takes too long to make or something like that.

From my point of view, the dropping of troops and battling it out with the enemy reminds me of 18-19th century warfare, where armies would line up and shoot at each other, hoping that their superior numbers and better equipment will win the day. That was when the soldiers had inaccurate musquets. Space Empires is set in the 25th century, and weapons are definately alot more sophisticated. So shouldn't the warfare be just a tiny bit more in depth.

So here's my idea: a (space tactical combat)-like map could be used; on the map, facilities could be cities with people living in them and troops can move from city to city to weapon platform or even patrol normal land areas; then depending on how complex ground combat would want to get, you could add some areas such as forest(light foliage, normal, dense vegetation) or mountains(can only be travelled by infantry), ice floes(only light weight units can traversed), volcanos, etc. This areas could be used for hiding off/def troops, the chance of guerilla warfare, etc.

That brings me to my final point: different units. There could be unit typess such as infantry, tank, arty, helos, and fighters they already have. Each type could have different levels and then depending on size, they can only carry weapons of certain weights, so that their chosen engine can still move them. Having a map, you can move around will actually give the weapon ranges some meaning to ground combat.

Basically, we're in the 21st century and our ground combat is not standing in a line and shooting(although I'm sure the Americans would like to do that with the insurgents in Iraq right now). So if anything, 25th century combat should be the same if not 'combat evolved'.
Comments would be appreciated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Aris

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

It is certainly a grand idea, however Malfador would have to basically build a complete land combat game within a game. It would take twice as long to make then.

Edit: I include relevant chat transcript for your perusal.

[05:13:41-PM] Renegade13: Are you planning on having a more detailed ground combat system, and if so, can you give us some details or hints about it? By the way, thanks for taking the time to do this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
[05:13:43-PM] Baron_Munchausen: Just have them _close_ formation when ships are destroyed and that would be an imporvement,
[05:14:38-PM] Malfador: To be honest, Ground Combat is still much as it was in SE4 (or will be, haven't quite written that yet). My hope was to put it in but time will be the telling factor.
[05:14:50-PM] Renegade13: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
[05:15:04-PM] Malfador: At present, there's just not enough time to squeeze in something that doesn't come off as half-done.
[05:15:10-PM] ekolis: maybe at least slow it down so it takes multiple turns?
[05:15:10-PM] Fyron: Ground combat in SE4 is one of its weakest points..
[05:15:43-PM] eorg: maybe in se5 gold? like drones in se4?
[05:16:28-PM] Malfador: Yes, but one of the reasons companies don't like Space Strategies games is that its really two games in one. You have the strategic space portion, and then the tactical space combat. That's why some of the previous space strategy games have had pretty simplistic space combat sections.
[05:16:50-PM] Malfador: Having a detailed ground combat is like having a third game which is devoted to ground combat.
[05:17:04-PM] ekolis: use the space combat system with no banking ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
[05:17:08-PM] Baron_Munchausen: You could at least give us some orders/policies to issue to our ground troops, like strategies for ships.
[05:17:08-PM] Fyron: At least details such as weapon range and rate of fire should be relevant factors... It can still be simulated
[05:17:18-PM] SJ-Laptop: Even a one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would work as a nice extension to the current zero-dimensional system.
[05:17:48-PM] ekolis: yeah - ever played Anacreon? make the ground combat look like Anacreon's space combat http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
[05:17:50-PM] parabolize: maybe add it as an option that can be turned off?
[05:17:52-PM] Atrocities: Would it be possible for ground combat to simply be like space combat is now with SEIV, but use ground terrian instead of space, and have both sides meet like in space combat?
[05:18:14-PM] Malfador: Yes, but a very simple one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would look very unfinished next to the more robust areas.
[05:18:22-PM] Renegade13: good point
[05:18:32-PM] Malfador: My philosophy is that if you aren't going to make it detailed, what's the point?
[05:18:49-PM] DavidGervais: We do want the game to have a very consistant quality.
[05:19:06-PM] Fyron: SE4 has very inconistent quality in regards to ground combat

you can find the whole thing at

www.spaceempires.net

Edit 2: by the way welcome (hey I get to do it for once http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif). I would warn you about using phrases like americans lining people up (even if they are insurgents) and shooting them, though.

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

Hmm... What about that old idea about allowing external programs to run combat and feed back the results?

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

<font color="blue"> [05:18:14-PM] Malfador: Yes, but a very simple one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would look very unfinished next to the more robust areas. </font> .

However, I would rather see something unfinished rather than unstarted.

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

I suppose with a powerful enough scripting engine you could do almost that... not really run outside C++ programs or anything, but write your own "external" programs in the scripting language based on "hooks" in the game:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
// the "hook" is the function name CalcDamage
// calculates damage of a ground combat attack
function CalcDamage(Weapon weapon, Troop attacker, Troop defender, Planet planet)
{
integer range = attacker.rangeTo(defender);
// no damage if out of range
if (range &gt; weapon.maxRange) return 0;
// get weapon type from a modder defined attribute list
else if (weapon.attributes["WeaponType"] == "Projectile")
return weapon.damageAtRange[range] - planet.atmosphere.density * coefficientOfDrag;
// projectiles affected by drag
else if (weapon.attributes["WeaponType"] == "Beam")
return weapon.damageAtRange[range] - planet.atmosphere.density * planet.atmosphere.composition["Hydrogen"]
// beams must be powered down when there is volatile hydrogen!
else if ... // more weapon types and interesting code
else return 0; // failsafe in case weapon type is invalid
}
</pre><hr />

(Please note I'm completely speculating on the syntax of the scripting language; I'm just assuming it's going to look vaguely like C or Java - for all I know it could be Lua http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

edit: sorry Atrocities! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

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

I would love for there to be included in SE V, and perhaps one made for SeIV, a ONE click process the turn option. For example I am playing a PBIM (Play by Intstant Messanger) game with Intimidator and I have start SEIV (via the mod a launcher) to process the turn manually once I get his turn.

Tis a pain in the ***. It would be a lot better if all I had to do was place his plr file in the save game folder and hit RUN TURN. The turn would run and then I could send him the Game file.

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

Wouldn't a batch file or even just a shortcut do fine for that?

I have a little LAN helper program that does something similar for two players... (point it to two files, and when both are present it processes) Uses the numlock/capslock/scroll lock lights to show which files are present.
Its mainly for when you're just spamming turns back and forth, and best when both people have access to the savegame folder, such as a shared dir on a lan.

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

Hi Randallw,

Thanks for responding to my post. I thought as much that making ground combat more complex would have that effect.

Aris

P.S. Thanks also for the warning, though you may have misinterpreted my intent. But that's ok. I'll remember to refrain from making those kinds of comments.

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

Don't make me fix this page!!!

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

About the scripting language...
I'd like the script files to be something other than .txt. Maybe .s5s (Space-empires 5 Script) or something. That way, those of us with cool multi-function text editors like Scite or PSPad can create language templates for SE5 scripts without having to rename them to something else to get the editors to recognize them as something other than regular text! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

Can't you just select a template after loading the file?

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

My Hero suggestion is still, IMHO, the best way to incorprate hero's on a grand scale into SEIV.

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

It means 1 or 2 additional clicks, and I'm sooo lazy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Good idea Ed, and it's easy as pie to implement in se5.
And I would love to see se5 syntax free of spaces in keywords (like Shield Generation). Most syntax hilighters don't understand them (pspad is the one which does), and I still don't understand how to hack scintilla component to enable this. Utilization of "_" symbol is better.

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

Automatic name generator for individual ships!
Instead of "Paladin 0001", "Paladin 0002", "Paladin 0003", etc. for your Paladin-class ships, you could have automatically generated names from name fragments (i.e. you combine "USS ", "Ran", and "dall" to get "USS Randall") much as character names are generated in Angband, though perhaps with some more sophistication: you could have more or fewer than three name fragments per name, and name fragment choices could be determined by the role you assign to the ship (e.g. you could designate all attack ships and scout ships to be "USS Whatever" and all transports to be "UPS Whatever" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif)
Would help with role playing in larger games when it's not possible to name every ship manually, and I don't think it would be too hard to implement http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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

Well As least the auto option to specify the lead name such as USS, IKS, or other. The names should come from a file like the class names. But do you know how large that file will have to be? We are talking 20,000 names at a min.

But having the ship come off the assembly line with the USS 0001 or IKS 0001 would be nice.

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

One thing I was thinking that would make ground combat a bit more interesting would be if Range and Rate-of-Fire actually mattered.
Here's one nince, simple way it could work.
Attacker:
Weapon 1: Range 3, ROF 1, Damage 10
Weapon 2: Range 2, ROF 1, Damage 50
Weapon 3: Range 1, ROF 1, Damage 60
Defender:
Weapon 1: Range 2: ROF 1, Damage 20
Weapon 2: Range 1: ROF 2, Damage 100

Combat starts at maximum range so in Turn 1, the Attacker takes no damage, being out of range, and inflicts 10 damage per unit on the defender. Round 2, the defender inflicts 20 damage per unit on the attacker, who in return deals out 60 damage (50+10). Round 3 and both sides inflict 120 damage on each other. Round 4 and the attacker does 120 again, but the defender only manages 20. And so forth.

Simple, but at least then range and ROF would be a consideration in troop/WP design.

On a vaguely related matter, I'd like to see a fighter component like 'Atmospheric Stabilizers' that give fighters the ability to conduct precision attacks against planets. When you give an attack order to properly equipped fighters, you'd be given the option of:
Attack Population Centres (kill people)
Attack Facilities
Attack Troops
Attack Fortifications (Weapons Platforms)

This would add a strategic dimension to fighter use, since they would be perfect for softening up a planet before invasion, while orbital bombardment from ships would just cause widespread destruction, and end mostly end up damaging the things you want to capture intact.

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

Agreed. That would be nice.

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

Large file? How so? Let's see, if we have two prefixes (one for military ships, one for civilian ships), twenty name beginnings, twenty name middles, and twenty name endings, that gives us 2*20*20*20 = 8000 unique ship names! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif And each name part will usually only be a few characters (e.g. the name "USS Enterprise" could be formed from the parts "USS ", "Ent", "er", and "prise"). Granted you will get a lot of nonsense names (such as "USS Trollumforce" to use a few synonyms http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif) but as long as some lexical rules are applied (at least for the human ship names) you won't get anything really silly (like "USS Zxbnft", which might be a good Xiati or Drushocka ship name were it not for the USS part http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)
Basically, the principle is to get the most out of your data entry. 8000 ship names at an average of 12 letters each would take up 96 KB of space, which would take a long time to type in; 8000 ship names in the 2x20x20x20 scheme I suggested earlier would only take 186 *bytes* (assuming each name part happens to be 3 letters). And if you add another name part to the list, it adds not just one name, but hundreds! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

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

I think it would be good enough to allow multiple lists to be given for different types of ships. Having early scouts, to mid-game troop transports, to battleships, to late-game stellar manipulation ships all recycling the same names takes some of the sense of 'characterization' out of it. We need to at least be able to give 'warship' names and 'utility ship' names as distinct lists.

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

This is why I like programs like Everchanging Book of Names, which do all that fun stuff for me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif It is how I made a bunch of Tolkien-themed files, like Quenya, Sindarin, Black Speech, etc.

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

Where can i find that programm you mentioned, Fyron ?!

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

Ability to have a guard or escort function/option, in the strategies and mainscreen. So that a certain ship, or unit can follow or guard a another ship or unit.

Kana

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

Yeah, I did the name generation thing for the QConflict game. I just went Online, found a bunch of "klingon clan names" and a bunch of "klingon words" from some silly "klingon dictionary" and so had two columns of words to combine. With 50 clan names and 800 klingon words, I've got a whole mess o' names to use...now, if it were only automatic so I didn't have to input them for each ship that would be nice...

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

A cool thing about heroes, especially if they're pretty rare, is then you open up the field to intel projects built around them. Assasinations, subVersions, misdirections, etc...

Also, I would think that heros should have a single, or at most two, stats that they affect. Some examples I think would be good:

Local heros:

Hero Admiral: + 5-20% bonus to ship offense, ship defense or both.
Hero General: + 5-20% bonus to ground combat offense, defense or both.
Hero Governor: + 5-20% bonus to planetary production rates
Hero Administrator: + 5-20% bonus to one or two planetary resource production rates
Hero Marine: + 5-20% bonus to ship boarding actions
Hero Scientist: + 5-20% bonus to the research production of a planet
Hero navigator: +1 movement for a single ship or fleet of ships
Hero engineer: +1 repair rate, or + 5-20% to space-based shipyard rate
Hero Explorer: has 10-50% chance to avoid stellar damage (ie from storms, black holes, etc...)

I don't think heros should be "mercenaries" - they don;t get paid, and would only switch allegiances if your enemy ran a sucessful "subvert leader" intel operation on them. Neither should they stack - two hero admirals wouldn't give you both their ship combat bonuses. Only the highest.

Also, I would hope that the heros would be treated just like ships in that you could name them, move them, etc...

And, I think there should also be Empire-wide heros, such as below, which would be limited to no more than 1-3 per empire I would think (since they have empire wide effects):

Hero Spy: + 1-5% bonus to spy points, (or perhaps allows new missions, or can do missions on their own?)
Hero Trader: + 1-5% to trade amounts gained by your empire?
Hero Diplomat: +5-15% in diplomacy with neutral races (NOT AI empires)

And, once again, I don't think there is any need to have unique hero
pictures - just use the racial portrait pic, maybe modified slightly,
for all the heros in your empire.


Thanks,

Alarik
Ps: cross-posted to SE4 yahoo group

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

Heroics shouldn't be routine, I think.

A big bonus randomly achieved every now and then would be better http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

Like, as a random event?

This brings up something that I have been thinking of for a while. There are things that are treated as random events that shouldn't be. That is, the driver for some of the events are things that are under player control and so can and should be modeled if practical. Specifically, I think that component breakdowns should be based on the amount of maintenance you are spending.
I base this on my work, which involves analyzing US navy readiness and maintenance, among other things. Ship components break down all the time, constantly.

So, I would like to see maintenance be on a slider, the middle of which would be "100% funded", and then perhaps it would range from 50% funded to 150% funded.

Paying 100% would result in some level (call it X) breakdowns per turn (determined by some algorithm, with a random element)
If you took your maintenance budget down to less than 100%, then X would increase comensurately, according to some settings in the data files. On the flip side, if you increase your maintenance over 100% then X would decrease.

Therefore if you're in a tight spot, you could assume the risk of breakdowns in order to fund your entire fleet, if you're flush you can spend resources to ensure your ships are at a higher level of readiness.

Frankly, I'd actually like to take such a system further: Aircraft and vessel maintenance and lifecycles generally follow a bathtub curve, wherein after commissioning they have a period of time with many breakdowns (the "break in" period), then a longer period of time with a few breakdowns, and then, as they near the end of their service lives their breakdown rates increase greatly untile they undergo a major maintenance overhaul or something similar.

So, I would say that ships should have an age (tracked from when they were built) and their breakdown rates should vary depending on their age and the maintenance budget slider.


Also, I would like the maintenance budget to be on a non linear scale. There is only so much money/resources you can throw at the maintenance budgets but you'll always have some sort of breakdowns going on. So, perhaps do a logarithmic function of maintenance, or something else (I'm not a mathemetician) that results in a decreasing return to maintenance or an increasing breakdown rate as you reduce the maintenance budget...

I think I'll leave it at that for now...

thanks,

Alarik

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

To much micromanagement.

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

No no no, I didn't explain it well. The *ONLY* thing the player has to do is either keep the maintenance slider untouched at the base of 100% or modify it. That's it.

I think Europa Universalis had this system, and it worked quite well there...

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

this has been a feature of se4 since the final patch was released.

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

I like that idea. Currently I add ships to my "attack fleet" and remove them when we arrive at the destination I sent them to.
A simple "Guard" option would indeed be better.

Additional request:
In human vs human games better ability to enter a battle *together* rather then both attacking something and one battling it out with the enemy and leaving the other out of it.

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

* the option to control battles yourself instead of the computer doing it in multiplayer games.
Note *OPTION* as this should only be available in TCP/IP games as it would be FAR to slow in any other form http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
(Note this would require the TCP/IP option to be further developed and improved for stability in order for this to work correctly)
One majorly fun part of Moo2 was doing battles yourself :-)

On a sidenote: PLEASE NO REAL TIME BATTLES!!!
I am a *huge* master of orion fan but threw moo3 into the trashbarrel. Didn't like it at all. Of course real time is mostly for the thrill and eye candy so a much better compromise between real time and turn based would be the Birth of the Federation method. All sides issue orders to their ships, press "done" and the orders are executed in real time that turn. Then the combat paused, and allows players to issue the next orders, etc.
Of course if you dont get to control your units at all during battle proper real time is the way to go. Or at least an option tio "play" the battle without having to press next turn every single turn. Add a "pause" and "stop" button to this which u can press at all time and voila, a great working system http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

Or realism and play balance... those are major advantages to real time combat. None of the absurdity of one side firing first, or the tediousness of watching each ship or weapon from each side firing, one at a time... There are a few turn based models that can approach real time in terms of balance, but they tend to be tedious and complicated in execution.

Most likely, SE5 will have the ability to pause the combat and issue orders while paused, so single player battles will be at whatever pace you want them to be. No possible problems here. Multiplayer PBEM games will never have you controlling the battle, so it doesn't matter from the player's perspective how the AI executes the combat (in terms of real time or turn based). TCP/IP probably won't have player-controlled battles simply because this would really screw over games with more than 2 players, or even 2 player games when combat with the AI occurs. Hot seat games could have player controlled combat, but there at least you are physically present to whap your friends when they are taking too long in any case... A simple auto-execute X seconds of combat then force pause with turn-based like phases of each player issuing orders will eliminate any problems with hotseat real time combat. It will make the combat function like the best of turn based systems, only better, because there will be no limitations of turn based combat on play balance at all.

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

Have component and facility pics specified by *name*, like the event pics and sound FX, not by number. Also, get rid of the "Components.bmp" and "Facility.bmp" for the minis and just generate the minis on the fly by shrinking the portraits. This will save much space on imagemod patches, because then you don't have to download the entire Components.bmp again every time you want to update the imagemod! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Also, if the shipsets are stored each in their own directory, don't require the race name to come before each of the file names! It's already in the directory name! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Actually, what would also help is something like this - in place of the limit of 1 alternate pic per vehicle size, allow any number:

Name := Light Scout
...
Picture List := LightScout, ScoutLight, Scout, Escort

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

I have an idea for a new component, a required component, that every ship and base must have. A power component is a logical component to have. Normally that would fall to the engines, but as we all know when engines are knocked out the ship weapons can still fire. By having a power component, or reactor that powers all components on a ship, if it is knocked out, then the ship is for all puposes dead in space.

Make it increadibly strong, say shielded.

Shields, Life Support, engines, etc can all be powered by a reactor.

You can even have a weapon that targets reactors specifically. Thus giving way to a new compents that Shields reactors, or better reactors that are 50/50 amune to such weapons.

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

Here's a funky idea, how about a component that, when activated over a warp-point, will change it to being distorted, or back again? Cheaper that building a bunch of mines, and rather damaging to a big fleet trying to get through. You could, of course, have a minefield as well, but because the number of ships getting through would be reduced, the minefield would be exhausted less speedily.

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

Warp Point destabalizer. LOL interesting idea.

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

Remember Ascendancy?
I was making a mod of it, but becasue of the limitations and timecontraints I stopped.
In Ascendacy there are very interesting ideas, the Lane Destabilizer is one of them.
When SE V comes along, I plan to continue the Ascendacy Mod.

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

I never played the game. Hell I didn't even find out about Stars and SE III until 2000. I missed out horribly.

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

You don't realize how many times I've wished this!!!, I see the same folks still in this forum, hello again, to all you forum "oldtimers" as it were, as I don't come by too often, but SEV is still number 1 on my game waiting list. And I still play SEIV!

1) Transparent LAN play, no host processing as it were. I push next turn button, you push next turn button game turn advances, like MOO II but one that works (HA!)
2) Ability to use multiple FTL drive types, not in the same game necessarily. Warp points, Warp drive, Warp generators, Stargates, Hyperdrive etc. or at least the ability to modify the worm hole properties, so that it could take a special component ability to use worm holes.
3) Bigger map editor (for bigger maps of course)with more editing features. And with the ability to randomize the planets and starting locations on premade maps, for increased re-play ability in specific star maps. Ability to see Star name and star type only instead of "unexplored", at least your empire would have the star name and know what kind of star it was.
4) Ability to create scenarios with multiple start planets and fleets already built and located on the map. Possibly some sort of event creator (editor)to move a scenario along with scripted events. To allow the AI to follow a story line of sorts, ie like the First Tholian War or Assault on Hoth, or the Man/Kzinti wars.
5) A better form of ground combat... Could you link to a simple turn based hex map &amp; military unit counters??

These are my top 5.. Yes Yes I know, pretty tall orders, but its my wish list. I like to play in various SCI-FI worlds, Star Trek, Star Wars, Bab5, The new Battlestar Galactica, Man/Kzinti wars, Starship troopers, Space 2300 (First Bug (Kafer) war. So having more than one way of traveling FTL would really be cool to correctly simulate all the various FTL drives. Unfortunetly I'me kind of a realism freak (I am an engineer in a space flight program)So my mods tend to stick pretty close to my vision of future conflict. But SEIV still rules them all!

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

Hey LarryBush, been a while. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif You really should post more often. A fresh perspective on things is always a good thing to read. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

Here's an idea. A ship log. The player has the option of activating a ship log. Each ship will keep a history of its exploits. Traveled to X location. Was involved in battle X - destroyed such and such ship. Suffored damage on such date at such location. The file would be kind of large, but would be very interesting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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

And very useful in certain circumstances. If MM allows detailed 'scripted' orders for transports (instead of just 'repeat orders') we would then be able to review the log of activities instead of having to look at each ship during each turn to see if it was doing what we wanted it to do. Pick up 'x' number of mines from planet 'm', take them to planet 'n' and leave them there. etc... It would be very helpful to be able to turn on a 'verbose' log for certain ships and see every single event in order to 'debug' the script or just watch the progress of certain things.

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

How about some stacking ability modifiers?

Example:
Mines have a base cloaking of 500 points/levels/etc.
Each warhead stacks a -1 to that ability.

So, your small minefields will be hard to impossible to see, and if you pile hundreds together they become easier to detect.

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

And multipliers... maybe each warhead would halve the cloak level of the mine instead?

Come to think of it, remember how in Stars, cargo mass affected things like cloaking and fuel consumption? That is, a 100kT ship carrying 100kT of cargo would have half the cloaking ability and double the fuel consumption of the same ship running empty. (Actually Stars! used some funky cloak-per-kT vs. something or other chart to determine the visibility radius... oh yes, cloaking will be radius based, won't it? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

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

#1 - Editable Waypoint names. Currently the only choice is 'Rename' which wipes the current name. It's not that hard to make that dialog a drop down list wherein a list of possible names (like vessel type/name is now)is displayed to choose from.

#2 - Allow us to rename a system instead of just a planet within the system.

#3 - allow editing of facility 'Fill Queue' list. Right now it's all or nothing and if you misspell something it's Delete and Redo.

--- it would be nice if that list was read into the game from a text file so that it could be edited. Thus Facility Construction Fill Lists could be constructed before game play and then reused with any game. I understand that the current list is saved with the Empire so that different lists can be used for different races - but putting the Fill Queue list into the Race folder solves that problem.

#4 - when using fleet formations - tag the command or lead ship with some sort of designator.

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

With the log maybe a symbol on the map showing the site of a famous space battle.
You know a map bigger than 0,12 X 0,12 would be nice more rings, more graphics. Maybe even open up the game code to allow sensors and scanners in that map for some "cat and mouse" or "destroyer vs submarine" detect and destroy play! Might even use "unknown" style ship icon on that map until ship is detected &amp; identified. Possibly allow game code to utilize stealth values in component design/hull design, not cloaking but just "quiet" ships with low EM emissions, maybe even seperate modes for active and passive scanning, you know EMCON mode for quiet travel active mode for active scanning. Kinda crazy are'nt I, just think the big system map is good for detection and close then the tactical map for actual combat. Give fast ships with good electronics suiets a chance to withdraw if outgunned.

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

Adding the ability in tactical combat to let the computer auto control some ships while leaving others on human control. Instead of the current all or nothing system.

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

Excellent idea. We ought to be able to play as 'commander' of one ship in our fleet while the others are under AI control.