[Shane Watson]

...further thoughts
(I spend way too much time thinking about this stuff...)

• Communication lag times. This falls under the Space is HUGE Category again. I'd like to see a multi turn delay between the time that an order is issued and it being executed based on how far out a ship/fleet/planet is. If it's off the main communication lines, it could take some time before the communication beam gets to it's destination. Something like 1 turn for every 5 lightyears the recieving vessel is outside the the communications Umbrella.
• If a ship is lost when it is outside the communications umbrella, you don't ever really know what happened to it unless it was able to beam something back before it was obliterated. If you lose a lot of ships in deep space/alien territories, this could be really frightening because you wont know who is offing your vessels.
• Emperor as a character with POV. The emperor/player should be something a little more than just an omnipresent force behind the empire. Make them a character that is actually in the game and can move around from planet to planet. Wherever the player is, the Center of the Empire is. Kind of like when Shadam IV went to Dune. Dune became the center of the Empire for the duration. The obvious downside to this is that if you happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, like Shaddam, you can get killed and your empire defaults to the next in line (which, incidently would allow the player to continue playing, but as a new ruling character).

And yes, you can count on more later

[EDIT] I should clarify about communication umbrellas briefly: Anything with communications ability would have a communications umbrella. "instantanious" communication, like what we see ingame right now, would only be possible where these umbrellas overlap.
[\EDIT]

Cheers,
~Shane

[ July 29, 2004, 21:22: Message edited by: Shane Watson ]