quote:
Originally posted by Spyder:
Personally, I LIKE lots of things to build & research. I didn't mind the tons of building & management in MOO2 & Civ.
I agree. I like micromanagement. I'd even like to be able to design cities like in SimCity! (SimSEIV? OK, that's extreme to the point of wierd, I know.) And I'd like to control space and land battles in fine detail.
BUUUUT, I also have to agree with the macro people here, that once your empire gets big the micro can get pretty tiresome. (Can anyone say "carpal tunnel syndrome?") That's where good AI ministers come in.
quote:
Originally posted by Spyder:
However, if there were a tool that would allow you to build a certain item on selected planets, all planets, etc, then this would be greatly simplified. But, overall, the more stuff, the better 
Yes and yes.
quote:
Originally posted by Spyder:
I also thought that Civ's research tree, with each new discovery attributable to two or more previous discoveries, was much more fun than SEIV's research tree, and made your research strategy more difficult to plan out ...
Never played Civ, but played SMAC, which is similar. I disagree with Spyder here. I found the Civ/SMAC research "net" idea restrictive -- at least the way it was implemented. I was forced to research almost everything in order to get the stuff I really wanted. So trading of research wasn't worthwhile, because everyone had most of the same stuff. And it was the same every time.
What I wouldn't mind, and which I think would add some fun complexity, would be the choice to have the research lines either all independent (as they are now), or to have them be interdependent (like in Civ/SMAC). But for interdependent I would want two additional options. First, I'd want the interdependence to be different each time. Or, even better, different for each empire. (Oh man, that would rock! Just think how that would affect trading! And how about a special racial ability that can ignore research prereqs?!) Second, I'd want to be able to set the granularity, meaning that I could set the number of interconnections anywhere from few to many.
quote:
Originally posted by Spyder:
By the way...I am working on a complete research tree document and will publish it here when I'm done.
Nice. Looking forward to it.