[Batman]

Ok, I applied to join the game, but can't post to the forum yet.

I did have a couple of suggestions:

1) Increase the # of ships allowed. If we are starting with 5 or 10 worlds then we will have a large industrial base. Gotta have something to spend it on. Plus, if you allow tons and tons of units, and only a few ships, then any incoming fleet will get shot down well short of the capital by the hoardes of fighters and drones that everyone will put on their planets.

2) Tech Level & Tech Costs. Since the thrust of this game is on diplomacy etc, and since we are supposed to be commanding fragments of a large and long-lived galactic empire, I don't think it makes too much sense to start us at the lowest tech level. Instead, what about starting at medium tech level but making the tech cost high. That would act to make research happen at a more reasonable pace (especially since our inital research levels will be high) and also allow us to field good tech ships from the start.

3) Quadrant type. I feel that cluster would be bad. I think that the Capital mod would suffer from having too many chokepoints in the warp chain; ideally everyone should be able to attack lots of people, and be vulnerable to attack on all sides. This should keep the politics and diplomacy more knife-edge and chaotic. I think that ancient might be bad for similar reasons.

4) Quadrant size. Small or medium, depending on the # of players. Or Large, but only if you take ancient as a galaxy type. The game feels like it should explode into conflict almost immediately (which was another reason I suggested medium starting tech)

That's about it I think. Sorry if a lot of this sounded like I was giving orders rather than suggestions; it's your show, and I'd like to give the mod a try no matter what you choose.