New features I would like to see>>>>

[Menschenfresser]

I like the flee option, but it needs some work. Otherwise, it is only another advantage for the human player, in that he will never choose to fight a battle he cannot win. Maybe only have it kick in after 10 turns and then give a large negative bonus to the fleet and ships.

Brings up another thing--empire morale (possibly a different value for each empire).

An option for WP decomposition and for new ones spontaneously opening.

I like the ally feature someone suggested...aka joint strike force.

This is for 5 (if it ever comes to be)...Given the new Civ 3 release, I would love to see specific resources put into the mix. But different from Civ...
-A) Make it completely moddable (ie add new, change attributes, etc).
-B) Have some that are on ALMOST every planet. And have a host of others that are harder to find.
-C) Give them the option to be finite.
-D) Maybe expand the resource extraction techs to that the player could not tell if a given planet had the higher levels of research.

Of course that would be another thing for the AI to wrestle with. In civ 3, the AI doesn't do such a great job by my mind. I just suggest this to give economics a greater impact on the game. As it stands now, it is rare that a player suffers in long game from a lack of one of the three resources. Usually we suffer from a general lack, because we do not have enough planets. And even if this hurts the AI further, so be it. It would be great for pbw games.


A few ideas.

[mac5732]

how about an option you could use or not where not every planet would have all three resources but only 1 or 2 of the resources instead of all three?? This wouldn't have to be for each planet but maybe 2 or 3 in each system, make this a random game setup option. This would make planets worth more and fighting over those with all three or just those you need worth fighting over, or something along this line.

just some ideas mac

[apache]

I dunno, I think that resource specific planets already exist. Personally, I don't use a planet for resourcing of resource X if the percentage for X is less than 100%. But I am not against making planets more special in some way to make them worth far more to fight over.
As for the flee option, I think it would be quite easy for the AI to use it. It already analyzes known ship strengths and decides when to fight or not. If it gets into a battle where it has superior speed, but does not want to fight, it should flee. It would give an advantage to those folks who are using Battle Cruisers in their fleets trying to battle Dreadnoughts and Baseships. I am all for a flee option based on ship speed.
Heres what I want:
A) Fix the typo with the shield regenerator V. It still takes 30 KT space, and only puts out 25 shield points per turn, while the shield regenerator IV weighs 20 KT and puts out 20 shield points per turn. This one has been around for ages too.
B) Drones!!!
C) I don't believe its a typo, but I find it hard to reason why a mine warhead III weighs 5KT, and does 300 damage, while a cobalt warhead III also does 300 damage, yet weighs 50KT. I would like to see the cobalt warhead drasticly reduced in size so that it actually becomes a viable strategy.
D) Another thing I have a problem with is how the larger base mounts give extra range to the weapons, yet weapon platform mounts do not. I think weapon platforms should have even better bonuses than the base mounts simply because they are on a planet, and have tons of space they can occupy. It would also make defending planets much easier. As bases use a 2,4,6 range modifier distribution, I would make weapon platforms have a 3,5,7 range modifier distribution, with similar to-hit modifiers.
E) Satellites are smaller than an escort, and should even be more compact than an escort, yet an escort has a 40% defense modifier, while a satellite has none. I suggest a 50% defense modifier to sats, based on their small size.
F) I would also like to see the torpedos get a to-hit modifier to make them more useful.

OK, I guess these requests aren't as grand or as far reaching as other people's, and I know I can mod the files to do this stuff (and I do), but I think they should be standard in the game.

[jimbob]

What I'd like to see added...

Stuff that just can't be modded

1) Components that explode if hit. Perhaps something that gives you quite an edge, but if it gets hit, yur ded. (S.J.)

2) Area effect weapons. The ability to hit several ships simultaneously. Possibility of injuring your own ships by accident or necessity. I'd give em' a minimum range too. (Val and others)

3) Morale on the galactic and ship level. There are entire threads on this topic. Sun Tsu said it was *the* single most significant variable in war. Vimy Ridge was won by the vastly out gunned Canadians because of it. Morale needs to be added, IMHO

4) Unearthing the occassional monster and/or nasty race when exploring ruins (mac). I really like this one a lot. Maybe some monsters would be homebodies, while others would rampage the quadrant.

5) One word - Drones! (Apache and many many others)

6) I'd really like to see the capacity to beam people around... A la Star Trek. I just can't believe this is absent!

7) Star Gates? You know, as in the movie and TV show. Beaming civilians, troops and fighters (and maybe weapons platforms) from planet to planet IF there is a star gate on both. Forcible Star Gating to enemy planets IF they have a Star Gate too.

8) Okay, I know I'll get burned for this one but... I really think there should be a way of building individual intelligence agents, like in Star Wars Rebellion. *The* redeamable feature of the game was the complex nature of using agents to accomplish missions. I far prefer this to the current intelligence procedure in SEIV. I'm experimenting with troops with counter intelligence components (hope they work) but wouldn't it be great to make troops that could infiltrate other planets and pull off missions? Currently the abilities section allows for intelligence modification in the broadest of strokes (planet wide +/-, system wide +/-). How 'bout a component that decreases the likelyhood of a single ship defecting? Protecting a specific ship from crew rotation by adding a component? Creation of spies (new class of unit) that can be outfitted with different abilities to pull off different missions.

Just my thoughts on the many suggestions so far.

-jimbob

[mac5732]

I like the flee option, however, some type of restrictions would have to be in place otherwise, everytime you get into a battle and find you can't win, the human or AI would always flee without taking any losses or damage. Maybe you have to stay 50% of the combat round lst (15 turns). This way you would have to at least fight/defend until you could start retreating, otherwise it would take the fun out of it especially in SP play.

Drones a definite YES...

Morale, I think in another thread someone stated the possibility a morale/experience combination, otherwise to much hard coding to get it into the game... Good Idea tho

Jimbob, ref #8 good idea, maybe put it as a trait found in ruins, that way not everyone would have it and it would be a random factor. (makes you want to find those ruins)

In standard game, un-modded, have AI use troops for invasions.....we need some ground fighting on these planets by the AI,

Stargates/transporters, I'm still thinking on this one, sounds good but what would it do to play balance in current game?

WP mounts, most definite, need to be more massive then allowed on ships, more range, etc. Make planets a little harder to take without taking some damage or losses, also would eliminate those w/seekers standing off and glazing planets or wiping defenses before invasion because of the range differences.

How about instead of simultaneous, you have a say 5% chance of when you miss l ship it strikes an adjacent or l within say 2 hexs of the target?? Those missing beams have to go somehwhere, would make you work more on formations that way you couldn't always count on your ships striking intended target. This could be tied into various levels of Multiple tracking etc the higher the level the less chance of striking non target, lower/none more chance of errant beams, could even strike your own ships if they were close to the target...

just some ideas mac

[This message has been edited by mac5732 (edited 14 November 2001).]

[capnq]

quote:

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Satellites are smaller than an escort, and should even be more compact than an escort, yet an escort has a 40% defense modifier, while a satellite has none. I suggest a 50% defense modifier to sats, based on their small size.

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OTOH, satellites can't maneuver; all they'd have would be station keeping thrusters. The escort can use its engines to "dodge" and otherwise make itself a less predictable target.

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Cap'n Q
My first SE IV mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Taqwus]

Maybe a flee option could be balanced by a) requiring that fleeing ships be faster, b) that they be out of range of all enemy weapons, and c) letting it be a random die roll based on relative experience.

Hrm. Maybe variable combat-initiation distance, too -- an attacking fleet, especially a cloaked one, might try to "start" the battle from an unusually close range.

Morale/loyalty I'd definitely like to see -- in a sequel, say.

Simultaneous combat, or at least somewhat interleaved to better reflect the probable chaos (not just UGO/IGO on a per-player granularity) would be nifty.

Greater tweakability of ministers would always be nice. e.g. being able to specify what areas you might want to see mined, or a population movement priority, et al. Speaking of ministers, it'd be quite nice to have a 'skip minister-controlled ships' bit, and for the iterate-through-ship arrows to stop (or pop up a dialogue, before looping again) when all ships had been iterated through.



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-- The thing that goes bump in the night