New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78

This is a sum of ideas i get around the forums...

In the creation of galaxy:
random size and type

New tech:
Stabilize planet core
Restore Star nucleus
Expand Warp (remove problems that damage ships)
Universal colony

In the tactical combat
if you start with fighters outside carriers they are reported, otherwise not ->fix

In the Empire options, add the directives for ministers:

minimum nº troops p/planet (ships don't remove above that number, and the minister try to build up to it)
type of ship priority to build (attack / colony / etc)
mines in all waypoints
satellites in all waypoints
create defense stations

In the Ship designs menu add:

Info about the maintenance of the design
Ship / unit can be build by minister
Maximun number in service of this design (the minister don't build more)

In the ships/units menu add:

Ships of class xxx

upgrade to class yyy
mothball
unmothball
scrap

All Ships AI controled (on/off)

If units, units of class xxx scrap

In the planets menu add:
change all planets type xxx to type yyy

Change the Ship Construction minister :

Generic Ship
Colony Ship
Units

If you have the flag 'Automatically use Individual Ministers for newly built vehicles',
it must include the ships captured or that join you (race surrender)

If a race surrender to you and have techs that you can't (cristal) you can't research it but
can build the itens that they have discovered (if surrender to you, they give you the blueprints)
Also, the blueprints of units/ships they have designed must be acessible

Add the system's Minister

Manage the creation of system's wide facilities (like urban pacification center)
If exist duplications of SWF in a system, remove redundant.
If a planet in the system is rioting / angry, call / build troops or UPC.

The troops minister must have the capability to send troops to rioting planets

If i send order to 10 ships to retrofit on a planet and in that turn only can retrofit 3 the others forget the order.

The retrofit rotine, must take in consideration that exist ships with cargo and add the
capability of removing it temporary (if exist avaiable space in the sector)

Add the capability of the Ships that can close warp points to only do it to
warps with possibility to damage ships (else is too dangerous to asign a minister).

If you put a fighter bay in a ship (you can put it in all), it only have use if the ship is
of design type carrier, otherwise the ministers igore it.

If i put a cargo bay in a carrier (to add more fighters), the minister start to load generic
cargo. Is possible to stop this ?

Is possible to add 'netmouse' support ?

In some games, the minister insist in building small / older models of weapons platforms (even obsolet ones).

The destrutction of ion stroms is still not reported in the log.

Sometimes, the ministers add itens ti queues of shipyards under human control (example: i use some space stations with huge cargo capability to build units in a loop, not minister controled of course, and sometimes appear ships/etc added to the queue.

If the Intelligence make a ship turn to us, in the log they report it but the go button take us to the place it appenned and not to the ship itself.
I think need to be fixed.
I think racial anger modifiers would be great - something that would allow you to represent long standing hatred between races!!
Would also be nice if you could set anger modifiers for use of certain weapons or actions - so you can set an AI to react negatively to a race that uses a planet killer.

Number of race specific modifiers : 2
Race specific modifier race 1 : Terran
Race specific modifier amount 1 : 20
Race specific modifier race 2 : Phong
Race specific modifier amount 2 : -20

The race with this politic file would react very hostile to the Terrans but be very friendly against the Phongs. You could specify as many races as you want. This would prevent the alliance of "mortal enemies" like Eee and Drushoka that we see now. It would also allow you to reduce conflicts between AI's in a solo human player game without making them all declare war on you when you select the "team player mode".

It would be nice if we could get the AI to build defensive capabilities on a newly colonized planet before building facilities just as we human players do. If the newly colonized planet is breathable/huge, it can be 30+ turns before defenses go up, making it an easy target to capture/destroy.

Allow Troops to have a chance stop intelligence against a planet. Chance should never go to zero, more troops should be a diminishing return.

Allow Security Stations and Boarding Parties to inhibit intelligence operations against a ship. I think that to use intelligence against a ship, you have to have some way to establish a contact against that ship when it is visiting a planet. (Hard to infilitrate a ship when it stays away from a port).

It would be nice in the tactical combat mode if the satellites were evenly distributed around the four corners of the warp point or planet "picture"... rather like the traditional symbol for a castle .. a square with a tower at each of the four corners. In this way you would have 360 degree coverage, instead of the 120 or so you get now.
This would help the AI & occasionally the human player.
One of the things I would like to see, (I don't know how everyone else feels) in regards to jammers.
If a ship has a jammer and you clik on it you are not allowed to see what it has, ok, However,

In tactical combat, you can still clik on any enemy ship and see its contents whether they have a jammer or not.
I would like to see, if a ship has a jammer, even in tactical combat, nothing is revealed until the jammer unit is destroyed at which point, everything would be open to view.

AI must have a history of relations and evolve based in that, because is stupid to offer a treaty one turn and declare war next.
if a ship have a destination and not enough supplies to go, select the nearest supply depot, refuel and stay on course

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Good ideas in there, including some I haven't seen before. I think a lot of the ones you list should be low priorities, but any improvement is an improvement=-)

BTW, universal colony components are already possible they're just not in the standard game. Play Devnullmod, that has unicolonies.

I'd like to add to the list:

-Route-finding code will automatically divert ships to pass through a friendly resupply depot if that can be done at no extra movement cost. This will help both AI and humans.
(Flags in Empire options to turn this on/off for own/allied depots?)

-Intel Project success probability modified by:
--Presence of own/ friendly race on target planet.
--Anger level of target planet. (collaborators.)
--Presence of target race in own empire. (brainwashed agents=-)
--Experience level of target ship.
--Any other relevent factors I've forgotten.
Percentage modifiers moddable in one of the text files.

-Ground combat modified by terrain: Rock planet race at a disadvantage on an ice planet, for example. Percentage modifier moddable in one of the text files.

-"Modify ground combat" ability for facilities, and maybe even for (friendly) ships.

-Allow retrofit, scrap, mothball and analyse to be added to order queues (ie move to planet, mothball.)

-Bring back the Halt command from SE3. Effectively a command that says "Don't move for remainder of turn" and can be added to order queues. (Two of them in a row should mean halting for 2 turns.)

-contextual rather than immediate calculation of "nearest", so that repair/ resupply at nearest can be meaningfully added to order queues.

-ability to re-arrange and remove items from order queues like you can with build queues.

I have many other suggestions, but these are the ones I think could be implemented comparitively easily. Small changes, but I'm going for a high "bang for buck."

EDIT: typos, crapnesses. Need sleep...

[ August 16, 2002, 13:21: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

First and foremost, this is simply the best game I have ever played in the 4x market.

All that I would really like too see, is improved Political AI, and the addition of wheel mouse support.

The ability to set the exact number of Neutrals and AI empires would also be very nice, as well as setting each races starting Tech levels.

Past that the game rocks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Hell yeah - I agree with your praise of the game Atrocities (although I wouldn't limit it to "in the 4X market"), but I'm just greedy and I want more, more, MORE features and improvements.

I can't know for sure but I think Aaron must enjoy creating / evolving this game as much as we love playing it - after all you don't get dedication like this from anything but passion.

If this is the case, I assume (I hope) that he welcomes suggestions like this for what they are, (Ideas to help the game acheive its full potential) rather than criticisms of what the game is lacking (which is certainly not my intention.)

EDIT: Does any of that make sense? I didn't get much sleep Last night...

[ August 16, 2002, 13:18: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Yes it is the BEST game i play for as long i remember.
But because MM is so great in supporting / expanding it, guys like me are allways asking for more, trying to see if the ideas that whe have to improve (?) it can be implemented. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Is not criticism, is one of the best apraises that i know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can easily set exact number of random races : edit settings.txt and put the same number (say 10) to Min. and Max numbers of players for, for example, "medium number of races". Then start the game and you will always get 10 random races when you select "medium number"

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

What would be nice would be the option to put randomly selected races before you in the player list (ie make yourself player 15 rather than player 1).
Or has the "low player number advantage" been really really fixed in 1.78?

Oops... it appears to have been re-fixed in 1.58 - pardon me.

[ August 16, 2002, 14:09: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

FYI, since this thread has been started, About a week ago, here's a list of minor updates I sent to MM as suggested improvements. Most of them are more GUI-oriented, rather than game-play. Comments?
-------------
List Ordering:  There are many of them, but it's annoying to me how many lists (e.g. Ship Type, Colony Type, Research & Intelligence categories (within their main Category), etc.), that are presented in non-alphabetical order, making it hard to find the desired choice - they should be sorted before presentation, where appropriate.
 
(Bug?) Combat Replay Sound:  I noticed that during Combat Replay, when missiles hit their target, there is no explosion animation, and similarly, no explosion sound effects.  These sounds were definitely there during the tactical presentation.

Combat, Ship Identification: During combats (both Tactical, and Combat Replay), there is no indication as to which ship belongs to whom! Normally, this isn't much of a problem, but I've captured several enemy ships in different ways, and during combat, my ships look just like his, and I can't tell whose is whose unless I wait for all the animations to stop and I have to put a mouse over all the ships to see whose it is! There should be a colored box or asterisk or something drawn on or around ships to indicate the player color.

Combat, Component Damage: I love during Tactical combat (even when I select "Auto", or "Resolve Combat") seeing the ship's components, damage bar graphs, at whatnot. Why are they not also shown during the Combat Replay? Seems that doing that would be no different than when they are shown during automatic combat resolution in tactical. Please add this if you can! For me, being a new player, it's helpful to find out HOW exactly each ship got damaged the way it did, even as a learning tool.

Ship Repair at Ally Planet: This would be great. Perhaps since you can gain ship supplies at Ally bases at a Military Alliance, you could also get your ships Repaired at Ally planets - at either the MA, or even at the Partnership level (considering this a "higher level of cooperation" than simply refuelling) (with Ally planets giving priority to their own ships' repairs over any ally player ships).

Repair Priorities: To reorder the repair priorities, you must remove ALL items from the list, then re-add them one at a time. There should be buttons to reorder them, as with other queues, etc. (i.e. move to top, move to bottom, item up, etc.). Perhaps the ability to save these preferences as default for future games?

Tactical Combat, Ships to Move: I'm new to the game, and am still trying to get through Tactical combats, but I'm having trouble knowing which ships still have movement points left to use. Perhaps some sort of indicator on the ships' icons can show if more movement points are left (or not), rather than having to click on each and every ship. Similarly, to show if there are still weapons to be fired. This is a nit, probably, since there are the arrow buttons at the top of the screen to cycle through the ships that can shoot and/or move.

Variable Speed Replay: Seems that battles can be viewed in either "slow" or "fast" mode. Personally, I'd like something in-between. Maybe this could be some sort of slider setting, with maybe 5 settings between slow and fast?

Saving Empire Options: When I set these, they are the way I want them. when I start a new game, I have to set them all over again. There should be a way to save the current list of options as my "default" options, so that when I start a new game, they're set the way I want them. Same goes with the Global game options (i.e. save game every x turns, etc.)

Destroyed Facilities: My homeworld was just attacked, and it was not immediately obvious that my Space Yard Facility had been destroyed, along with the 4% of the population. Perhaps a list of destroyed facilities, etc., could also be displayed in the Log entry listing the combat? Similary, I once got a message about a comet or something destroying 2 facilities - but it did not tell me WHAT facilities got hit.

Galaxy Map: With the galaxy map window open, I can add "Notes" to a system, that are displayed when I mouse-over one of the systems. This should also work when I mouse-over the galaxy map that is part of the main screen! There is even a little blank space below the map that is just enough room!

Ship Icons: Wow, a lot of these ship icons are DARK! Brighten them up a little!

Component Browse in Tech Tree: When viewing the Tech Tree (if allowed to in the game) under "Tech Levels", I'd like to be able to right-click on a listed component to see the information on that component, so I know what it is I'm working towards in detail.

---------
And here are two earlier ideas I submitted, for the sake of listing them all here in one place.

Simple GUI addition: On the main screen, at the top, where your current stock of Minerals, Organics, and Radioactives is displayed, Add a small dash, up-arrow, or down-arrow after the "material icon", to display whether current supplies are steady (dash), increasing i.e. surplus, or decreasing i.e. running a deficit). could even get fancy and do some kind of double-arrow if supplies are increasing or decreasing rapidly, or if levels are critical.

Ship Designs I Already Know: I know the design of a particular enemy ship. Thus, I can view it in the ship designer windows. However, when I see one of these ships in actual space and click on it, it does not allow me to click on the "Comps" tab to see the components - when I cant remember what sort of weaponry it has. I notice, however, that if I get a long-range scanner within range, I can again see the design from the main screen by clicking "comps". See also previous discussion.

[ August 16, 2002, 14:49: Message edited by: ckotchey ]

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

An addition to sorting that I would like to see.

Sorting my Planet Type. Rock, Ice, Gas. This would make it a lot easier when send out colony ships.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Both Fyron and I played around with this yestarday Oleg, but neither of us could get it to work. Could you be a tad bit more specific? Perhaps post what you have if you have it working.

Thanks

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Find in settings.txt
Minimum Computer Player Medium Setting := 4
Maximum Computer Player Medium Setting := 7

(i think these are defualt numbers )

change it to

Minimum Computer Player Medium Setting := 7
Maximum Computer Player Medium Setting := 7

Now, when you start a new game with "medium number of random computer players", SE will generate game with 7 random empires.
The same can be done with Neutrals.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

i still want to see the facility ability "increase maximum facility slots"

it cant be that hard, since there is already a racial ability that does it by a %. this would ideally do it by a fixed number.

it would serve two purposes. first, you could make facilities that were the foundation for a hive world, building up into the high atmosphere and diging down into the planets crust, increasing the maximum space available on the planet that can hold productive facilities. or some such analogy.

second, you could make highly beneficial system wide or planet wide facilities that take up multiple facility slots (or simulate taking up multiple facility slots). an exploit to this would be that if it was built LAST, it would not actually penlaize you. (like capturing a world filled up by storage experts, or conservationists, or whatever they are called).

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Thanks for the tip Oleg, but it did not work. The game just generates 5 random Neutrals each time. No matter the setting, just 5. I even changed it back to orginal, and still just 5 no matter what I do, I only get 5. I want 10 damn it, 10! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes! I'd love to see this. The way I'd like to have it implemented though is on a "one at a time" basis, with no treaty or anything required. What I mean is, the ally would request the repair, and then you would have to authorise each one through the scrap/analyse button or something. This would give greater control over the process in vsHuman games.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I didn't know about the mouseover! I have always avoided the notes function becasue I thought it was too far buried in the UI. Cool!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Excellent idea. Like this one.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Atrocities - Here is the way I have mine set and it works perfectly.

Minimum Computer Player Low Setting := 7
Maximum Computer Player Low Setting := 7
Minimum Computer Player Medium Setting := 11
Maximum Computer Player Medium Setting := 11
Minimum Computer Player High Setting := 19
Maximum Computer Player High Setting := 19
Minimum Neutral Player Low Setting := 0
Maximum Neutral Player Low Setting := 0
Minimum Neutral Player Medium Setting := 0
Maximum Neutral Player Medium Setting := 0
Minimum Neutral Player High Setting := 0
Maximum Neutral Player High Setting := 0

Hope this helps.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

I'd like to see additional planet type, a Water World to go with rock, ice, gas

just some ideas mac

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

I would like to see the addition of a usable Senerio creator. I am sick of not being able to make my own senerios, and would love to be able to do so.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

I would like to see an option as to what type of planet and atmosphere are made when making planets out of asteroids not just a random type and atmosphere. I mean if you have the science and technology to make a planet you would think it would be developed enough that you get what you want not some random planet.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

What about Adding reseach and intell comps http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Do you have 10 neutral races? I checked my pictures\raceneutral folder and I only had 6.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Whatever happened to the neo-neutral pack? (Fleye swarm and 3 other neutral races- anyone remember them?)

That was a really cool pack, but I haven't seen or heard of any updates to it in ages. I'd love to have a Gold-compatible Version.

I don't even know who produced them in the first place...

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

To get more than 5 neutrals, you need more then 5 neutrals race folders http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Kyat (spel.,?, one with all star wars races) space yards have extra neutrals. Once you have these extra neutral,, you can set SEIV to generate more than 5 by editing settings.txt

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

The one thing I don't want to see in this game is the inclusion of hi-res graphics or anything 3D. I don't have the funds to go buy a new computer with all of the latest bells and whistles just because so many games nowadays have to have 128+ megs of ram or 16 megs for a 3D accelerator. That's one thing I do love about this game. I don't need all of that stuff to play this great game.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

Actually I have 20 neutrals. 14 of them are Star Trek races that I have customized to be neutrals.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very true, well said. I am also a bit of a low-tech anarchist at heart. (although I recently sold out and invested in some tech=-)

One thing I wil add though- I don't think the 4X genre lends itself particularly well to low hardware specs. Sure, we can do without 3D graphics, but what about all that data? I mean if everything we suggested on this forum got incorporated into a future patch, the game would have to track about 4 times as many variables as it does now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif And right now it tracks a LOT of variables. A large map can have 255 systems, each system has a dozen or more worlds, each world has (potentially) a population value, resource values, conditions, cargo... and that's just the planets. Anyway, all this data takes up memory. Windows can just use swap files if it runs out of real memory, but that slows things right down... future Versions of SE might run on a P200/32meg, but it will take you all night to process the AI turns=-)

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

I don't want any new "stuff", just things fixed regarding the AI and diplomacy:

There should be a relationship between the AI agreeing to do something in response to your demand/requst and actually doing it. Really, it should just agree and do it or tell you to forget it. If it positively must be programmed to lie sometimes, then if it agreed there should be only a small change it will not.

AI or human, colonizing a system should automatically claim it. You should not be able to claim or colonize in a system if it is already claimed by a race with which you have any treaty (even NI). Any deal establishing a treaty (NI or better) should have to include resolution of all conflicting claims - for each contested system the deal proposal must either give the contested system to the adressee, or demand that the adressee give the system to the race proposing the deal. Giving a system should automatically abandon any colonies there, regardless of the population size, unless giving the planets was part of the deal.

The AI should have some sort of memory regarding its relationship with each other race, so that its actions make some sense. It should weigh both its strength vs the other race and its feelings about that race as part of decisions about treaties or declaring war. It should only declare war if it is furious. Just being furious would not be enough, though - it should also consider relative strength to the other race and its "war score" (gains/loses at the other race's hands). The "war score" be a running total which moves toward zero on its own by some amount every turn, but goes positive if it loses a ship or planet (varying by the value of what was lost) and negative if it kills/captures a ship/planet of the other race. The positive score would make the race more likely to offer or accept peace if already at war (because it is losing) and less likely to declare war (because it remembers that it lost Last time). Peace breaking out while a race's war score is positive should convert its feelings toward the race it defeated to neutral if they were below that. The idea is that the loser would tend to stay furious and eventually, as its negative war score decayed to zero, come back for a rematch.

The relative strength thing should also cause the AI to slowly become more angry if it is stonger than another race (at a rate proportional to the imbalance and its own agressiveness), but not to become more friendly if it is weaker. The idea is so eventually it would become furious and declare war if it is and agressive race and stronger. This would only apply if systems claimed by the two races are joined by a warp piont.

There should also be a "grudge file" - the AI race would keep track of each system it gave up (surrendered its claim to) in a treaty that ends a war (only), and count this as a permanent bias on its feeling toward whatever race currently claims that system (and in even of war against that race, will reclaim that system). This effect will be extra strong if it is thei AI's home system. Similarly, it would have a bias for every planet populated (in whole or in part) by its species which is held by another race, and in the event of war with that race would claim any system containing such planets.

The more races an AI is at war with, the more likely it should be to make peace, and the less likely to attack someone new.

If an AI race is hemmed it (no unexplored warp points and all the explored ones lead to ststems claimed by another race), at peace, and has no breathable planet it can colonize within its own claimed systems, then it would slowly become angry at all its neighbors until it declares war on one of them. The war score and relative strength considerations would apply to that decision.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

My two cents:

If you're allied with an alien race - say Partners - I see no problem with colonizing a non-race-specific planet within the others system if permission is granted to do so. I suppose that you can do that now by asking (demanding) the gift of a planet?

But doing so without permission should degrade the relationship.

I also agree that if the AI agrees to something it ought to do it.

Also - plz let us position satelites in small Groups where we want to.

cha-ching.

[ August 16, 2002, 21:10: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

I certainly agree that the weak AI is the chief problem with the game right now. We need vastly better ways to test planets and decide what sorts of colonies they will be, and then better ways to design exactly what facilites are put on a planet and when. Some sort of check on how many and what size planets are in a system total need to be included so we stop having tiny single planets in a system all alone that have a Space Port or an Urban Pacification Center and nothing else. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif We also need an 'AI_IntelligenceProjects" files so we can control how Intel is used. And some way to design fleets, that is, assign how many of what sorts of ships go into a fleet.

Of the non-AI changes, I'd say that some more 'articulation' of game features is what's most needed. Too many things are still too crude. MINES for example. 'Dogpile on the rabbit' is not a believable or interesting implementation of mines in open space. We need some sort of randomization of both mine attack and mine sweeper effects. I'd still like to see several major changes for troops, too. They ought to remain loyal and fight the population when a planet rebels, for example. And they ought to be stored differently in planetary cargo so they cannot be vaporized from orbit without destroying most of the planet along with them. And speaking of 'rebellion' there ought to be some sort of defense against Ship Insurrection. Either make Boarding Parties attempt to retake the ship or invent a special 'political officer' component that enforces loyalty and has a chance to prevent or counter-act the Insurrection project.

Planets need more detail, like gravity, radiation, and temperature range. "Conditions" is bland and useless. And alien populations need to retain more of their characteristics when captured or conquered.

Vast numbers of cool ideas were/are in the text files for the game itself. When will Planetary Cloaks be implemented? Or Planetary Engines? Or Warp Gates? When will "Combat Satellite Group Size" actually DO something? How about restoring "Population Required to Operate One Facility" so those of us who want to can use it? When will the various component restrictionsrequirements for ship hulls -- other than engines, colony modules, and cargo modules -- actually work?

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The ship dots are color coded on the display in the lower right corner; a ship will even change color if it's captured during the battle. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">For some of the custom shipsets, that seems to have been a deliberate decision by the artist.

One thing I'd really like to see improved is pathfinding and formation movement in combat.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now, can't give yourself too much of an advantage over the AI. (At least I haven't seen them send colony ships to the wrong planet...)

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">More to the point, peaceful races should not colonize in systems controlled by allies w/o asking. The main reason why I don't engage in treaties (except with neutral races) is because I know the race, regardless of attitude will send tons of colony ships onto planets I plan on settling later.

Re: New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly - it guts the diplomacy system, because making any alliance higher than NI means giving up control of your own territory to your ally. The only thing you can do to stop them when they try to colonize your systems, which they WILL do immediately, is cancel the treaty and declare war. Better just not to agree to a treaty in the first place. That is the problem my proposal was intended to fix.