A lot of neat ideas here, but please, PLEASE if any of this is implemented allow it to be turned off for competitive games.
Nothing ruins an all night hot seat game like someone's empire being crippled by some 'random' critter. I cant even count the number of times that happenend in MOO...game is going along great...all player competitive and having fun...and then...bam! INCOMING! And one player is forced to divert resources and ships to this random event, barely beats it, and is summarily scrubbed from the game. No thanks.
Just my $.02 on Random Screwings..
Talenn