Next patch requests

[LGM]

I would like to see units or components that foil Intelligence operations and the elimination of Counter Intelligence or at least make it unnessary except as an extra defense. Thus races can develop defense against Intelligence without putting much effort into Intelligence against other race.

Allow Troops to have a chance stop intelligence against a planet. Chance should never go to zero, more troops should be a diminishing return.

Allow Security Stations and Boarding Parties to inhibit intelligence operations against a ship. I think that to use intelligence against a ship, you have to have some way to establish a contact against that ship when it is visiting a planet. (Hard to infilitrate a ship when it stays away from a port).

Make an advanced trait that makes a race absolutely loyal (immune to many intelligence operations).

All operations must target a planet or a ship to gain information.

Intelligence Operations should take a minimum amount of time. It does not matter how many agents you have, infilitrating an enemy culture does not happen in one month. In fact the longer you take, the more effective it is, but also the great chance you will be caught (time is a double edged sword).

Foiled Intelligence operations should penalize further operations in the near future (discovery of captured agents contacts).

Right now the current Intelligence system is a pure points on points system. Like ships looking for weakness in enemy fleets, Intelligence should require finding weakness in the enemies security. Find planets with no troops or ships with no security component.

Perhaps instead of picking targets, intelligence should always be opportunistic. Allow instead of 'any Planet', weakest planet. Operations against ships would be deferred until one turn after they leave a friendly planet.

Another thing to consider, instead of points have units for conducting intelligence operations. These units would have concealed movement (not cloaked) to their targets. The longer they stay at an enemy planet, the more ability they have. Each turn, troops would have a chance to detect them. If their orders are to infilitrate an enemy ship that comes to the planet, they have a chance to work on establishing a mole in the crew to conduct some sort of damage, sieze control, etc.

I would like to see Intelligence be an important consideration, but not an overpowering aspect in the game. I dislike using intelligence in games because you can totally wipe someone out using it: Pop Posion on colonies, Revolts, Steal Minerals. It is much faster to steal all of a smaller empires minerals than it is to destroy all of their ships and planets.

You should not be able to win a war primarily based on Intelligence, but it should be a factor to help your military forces have some sort of edge and cause some economic disruption.

[Gandalph]

It would be nice if we could get the AI to build defensive capabilities on a newly colonized planet before building facilities just as we human players do. If the newly colonized planet is breathable/huge, it can be 30+ turns before defenses go up, making it an easy target to capture/destroy.

[Gozra]

I just played a turn against an AI. They had 112 troops on the planet. My first ground attack killed them down to 82. when the second wave went in they again had 112 troops. The third wave hit the planet head and again they had 112 troops. I lost over 250 troops in 3 attacks. (Then the fleet glassed the planet.) Is this a glitch or intentional?

[Gandalph]

It would also be nice if the AI would recognize what a supply ship was and use it appropriately. Same goes with a repair ship, and a flak ship.

It would also be nice if the vehicle construction file and unit construction file actually worked. The AI only sometimes builds via name, mostly it builds by type, which makes it hard to give the AI a well rounded fleet. I mean, it was a great idea to put the name ability into the file, but if the AI doesn't use, what's the point?

[Phoenix-D]

"Is this a glitch or intentional?"

I think that's intentional. Those weren't troops, those were *militia*. Defenders generated on every colony, based on the colony's population. Normal troops, you kill them and they stay dead. Militia only stays dead as long as some of your troops survive (i.e. stalemate) otherwise it regenerates; I assume that's the militia recruiting more soliders.

Phoenix-D

[Q]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gandalph:
It would be nice if we could get the AI to build defensive capabilities on a newly colonized planet before building facilities just as we human players do. If the newly colonized planet is breathable/huge, it can be 30+ turns before defenses go up, making it an easy target to capture/destroy.

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That would be very good. Just allow the inclusion of units in the planet construction file so you could build some weapon platforms first before building facilities.
Another small but IMHO very valuable addition would be the race specific anger modifier (I made this suggestion before but until now withour effect):
You specify in the politics file something like this

Number of race specific modifiers : 2
Race specific modifier race 1 : Terran
Race specific modifier amount 1 : 20
Race specific modifier race 2 : Phong
Race specific modifier amount 2 : -20

The race with this politic file would react very hostile to the Terrans but be very friendly against the Phongs. You could specify as many races as you want. This would prevent the alliance of "mortal enemies" like Eee and Drushoka that we see now. It would also allow you to reduce conflicts between AI's in a solo human player game without making them all declare war on you when you select the "team player mode".

And another old suggestion: starting tech levels (as in SE III).

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: Q ]

[Crazy_Dog]

I like the love / hate relations file idea.
That way is possible to make better mods like star trek / star wars.