[userx]

I have a few major things on my wish list that I don't think has been covered.

1)Real Homeworld Abilities
There should be a big difference between your colonies and your homeworld... even in a late game or 200-300 turns.

A homeworld has 1000s of years of development, population growth, culture, facilities, etc... a colony, even after 100 to 200 years of colonization, should never match the importance that a homeworld has. Currently, after a 30/40 turns for example, a colony can have the same population and industrial importance as a homeworld... this is nuts.

Imagine us colonizing Mars. After 20/30 years there might be thousands living there and they may be contributing significantly to science and industry, but they would be insignificant in terms of industrial production capacity, population, real GDP (or rather GPP), culture, science, etc. Even after a couple of centuries they would still be small (maybe important) compared to Earth.

That's one...

2) Many Very Minor races
One thing that SE is missing is the feeling that there is lots of intelligent life in the universe. It would be good to have minor races that are planet bound that you could trade with, conquer, or form a union with. They would provide huge population base, industry, economics, and science. It would also add to the importance of the concept of a "homeworld (see # 1)." You could aquire serveral important homeworlds through conquest (empire) or peaceful assimilation (United Federation of Planets).

Not to be confused with minor space faring races.

3) Emphisis on Planetary Conquest
OK, how many time has an alien fleet showed up over one of your colonies and destroyed it? This is not very economical.

Destruction of a colony or homeworld should be a Last resort and very rare occurance. Empires are formed by conquest not destruction.

With planetary conquest comes the possibility of rebelion and liberation as well as long term ground war commitments.

Also, there should always be survivors of a planetary attack. That could prove interesting if the enemy desides to colonize the planet he's just bLasted for a few months... guerilla war anyone?

4) Lastly, like in our own history, empires rise, fall and rise again (and fall) and wars don't Last forever. Currently in SE, your can tell early in the game who will prevail (or at least who will surely lose). The strength of races over centuries should be a little more dynamic with the possibility of strong empires suddenly falling while weak ones suddenly rise. You get the idea...

That's my wish list. Oh, and more ship classes and serveral possibilities in the same class.

Thanks for reading.