[TCGiant]

I registered just for this, so I figured I might as well make use of it before my eyes turn square and I have to go back into hibernative naptosis for a few more hours:

* Weapons that strike in a cone-like manner, so they could hit more than one target at a time and have the fortunate side effect of looking pretty cool while doing it
* Dyson spheres. Not sphereworld, sphere SECTORS.
* An AI that would rather do smart stuff like not freak out the moment you enter a sector they're in or declare war on first contact. Also, AI that played deceptively would be nice.
* Swarm-like missiles as opposed to(or in addition to!) the huge missiles in SE4. Again with the coolness, but from a strategic standpoint, the more projectiles coming at an enemy, the more trouble they'll have avoiding them. It'd simulate more realistic combat, at the very least.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but most of my ideas aren't really briliantly unique or anything.

Oh! I almost forgot: Miniaturization. It would make sense that as you learn more about technologies, then older ones should get easier and easier to make or improve on, which was kind of factored in automatically in Master of Orion 2, but never in SEIV. Ever play Spaceward Ho!? You could research miniaturization technology, which reduced the amount of metal(non-renewable resources) it took to make a ship, but increased the cost in cash(which was renewable) as a result. It'd be neat to be able to shrink down one's technology(as I was actually thinking about for a mod!), at the cost of it becoming more difficult to repair as a result of its' compressed nature, which would be reflected by a higher maintenance cost or lower damage resistance.



Also, would it kill ya for some higher resolution modes? Those of us running at 1600x1200 have to look at all that ugly negative space outside the 1024x768 playing field right now, and it drives me nuts. :/