[klausD]

phönixd

-amount of inhabitants should have somtimes an impact on the number of available facility slots."

Agree here, though the Last might be a bit too much micromangement- what happens if it falls too low and some of the slots would not be available?

Good argument. Maybe I should overthink this idea.

-facilities which generate additional empty facility slots (eg. underwater, subterranean or orbital habitats, or representing just an improved city-infrastructure)
-facilities which need a certain amount of pop to be fully operational (if not they are effective only at a certain %)
-facilities which cost maintenance"

1 maybe, 2..eh..seems odd (*cough* sphereworld with 100 of these), the rest sure.

I think facility which provides additional facility slots could be a real "hammer" for colony planning. I see not much problems with this. (of course it has to be balanced with costs in production and tech) Eg an empire researches the tech "marine habitats" which enables him to build a underwater facilty (only one per planet) which gives him 2 or so additional facility slots on this planet. In combination with point one (not every facility can be built on every planet) the whole colony planning could be very tricky.

"-auto-launch for satellites/mines after building"

With a slight tweak this could be done in SE4- just give planets, ships and bases the ability to take a "launch" order even if they have nothing in their cargo hold, and allow the repeat order button to be selected in sequential games.

Thanks for the tip, but I would rather like an "official" and easy to handle button.

"-Get rid of these population bars over the planets. Better would be say 3 pictures of each planet type. First pic portrays an empty world, second level is a colony with some small structure layouts and third level is a busy hiveworld with traders and orbiting sats etc. I would make the planet pics larger (about 2 times the size or even larger) and the amount of available planetary objects per system smaller. Of course I would add many more systems than 255 to insure real epic games."

Definitely do not like this idea. It reduces the amount of planets in a system for..what? More eye candy.

Yes its both, some eye candy AND to see at the first glance which importance the planet has. (to avoid clicking at) But even for a TB strategy game this graphical eye candy is rather simple (compared to the real time combat engine of starfury)
Reducing planets in a system is the like reducing ships in SEV because of the new RT engine(yes, starfury - and so SEV - will demand this...)

Again I disagree. In one of my games I have five distinct weapon platform designs for different roles, two types of mines (cheap and heavy), ship attack fighters vs interceptor fighters, police troops vs quick defense troops vs assult troops..in addition, simplfing the units would remove many possibilities for modding.

Well maybe you have some use for different unit types in SEIV. I did not have yet an advanced use. Maybe I am playing the game wrong
But of course I would rather like to have a game where the units have some sense too, instead of getting back to SEIII.

PVK: ditto

Suicide J.
thanks I will try your mod. Maybe designing the units there has some sense.

Guys - thanks for answering so fast and competent
tschüß
KlausD