SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Colonel]

I like the idea with hulls in orbit but you should be able to take them out and use half completed but you couldnt just repair them you would have to complete them when you brought them back

Heres something worth mentioning. Two things with Designs

One. You should have to wait X number of turns to be able to use new tech on you ships. Most new techs dont immediately get implamented into ships.

Two. You should have to wait X number of turns in order to build new designs. A new design isn't immedaitly able to be contructed, there is a testing phase then they test out certian portions of the ships systems on a smaller scale

(I compared these to real water ships today)

[Aiken]

Colonel said:
One. You should have to wait X number of turns to be able to use new tech on you ships. Most new techs dont immediately get implamented into ships.

Two. You should have to wait X number of turns in order to build new designs. A new design isn't immedaitly able to be contructed, there is a testing phase then they test out certian portions of the ships systems on a smaller scale

It's an excessively realistic things. I don't see how these features could impove gameplay.
Unless they'll add new racial characteristic "tech mastering" which will decrease a time required to familiarize with new tech/design. Then it has sense.

[Colonel]

I guess you could add that into the game with this idea, that would actually work well with this idea.

[Phoenix-D]

I don't like the idea of tech delay and new designs not being available for X number of turns. With the tech, its easy enough to assume that it isn't brought to your attention until its in a usable form. With ships, it would simply add too much micromanagement and be quite annoying.

[Aiken]

Obvious idea for new Intel projec: "Set bugs". Targeted against enemy ships. Kind of minor Version of Crew Insurrection - you can see the ship path, observe system it passes, cargo, build queue (in case of SY), but you can't actually control ship. I think it's much more interesting than dull Crew Insurrection. Main feature is that enemy is not aware that this ship is a spy.

Or else, make it Advanced Crew Insurrection - crew is yours, but pretend to be loyal to previous master. They follow his orders, but you can cancel them anytime and take full control over ship.

Same for planets (Adv. PPP).

I remember someone else requested something similar somewhere, but I'm not completely sure
Anyway 2 request mean that it's a popular wish, isn't it?

[Tanus]

Colonel said:
One. You should have to wait X number of turns to be able to use new tech on you ships. Most new techs dont immediately get implamented into ships.

Two. You should have to wait X number of turns in order to build new designs. A new design isn't immedaitly able to be contructed, there is a testing phase then they test out certian portions of the ships systems on a smaller scale

Instead of this, perhaps going (again) back to SEIII (and I think, unimplemented feature of SEIV?) - the prototype of a new ship design should cost more than subsequent constructions (+25%? +50%?)

In this way you can simulate the added effort of testing a new design

All constrction underway would be considered to be on a prototype until one is complete - from then, all new construction is building the normal design (others started before built still pay prototype cost)

[iaen]

aiken said:
Obvious idea for new Intel projec: "Set bugs". Targeted against enemy ships. Kind of minor Version of Crew Insurrection - you can see the ship path, observe system it passes, cargo, build queue (in case of SY), but you can't actually control ship.

I think it would be even better if there was some intel project "Plant agent", which you could run against planets ships etc. Having more agents in one place would give you bonuses for further intel projects, show you more information, and give you some specific options. (e.g. some info when you have one agent aboard, mutiny when you have LOTS of operatives aboard a ship.)

Counter intelligence would have a (small) chance of detecting them every turn, along with specifc "find enemy spies" projects. (Also possibly targeted at specific ships etc?)

Some further cool things would be having a limited pool of undercover agents. (Fixed number per intel facility or like a construct queue to train them?) This might also make it worthwhile to get them back safely with a "Retrieve agent" project.

Hmm, this might make it all way too complicated.

[Ed Kolis]

Yes! I like the agent idea - that would make it harder to pull out of a former enemy's territory with your spies, because it would take time to successfully retrieve them! This would cause all kinds of intrigue...

[Q]

The entire intel should be redesigned IMO. In SE IV intel is too much "all or nothing".

The cost of an intel project should not be automatically equal to the cost of counter intel to stop it.
The race abilities (characteristics, racial trait) of offensive intel and counter intel should be chosen seperately. In SE IV this is always parallel.
And finally intel projects should always have a (moddable) chance to fail even in the complete absence of counter intel (like PPP now).

[AgentZero]

I like the agents idea but I'm not sure if Aaron is a big fan. I suggested when SE4 was underway and it didn't make it. I rather liked the way Imperium Galactica II handled the concept. Basically you have to build a spy base before you can have any agents, and each spy base can support X number of agents. Unlike IG2, I'd like to see the ability to recruit agents from a 'pool' instead of them appearing randomly. Each agent would give certain bonuses to the chance of success for a intel op.

Another little idea, if the idea of Captains makes it into SE5, I'd like the ability to assign spies to your own ships. This would work in two ways: 1) If you assign a spy to a ship that already has a captain, then the spy acts to detect and halt intel ops against that ship.
The second way would require a whole new tech area: Spy Tech. Aside from general advances that would increase chances of success/decrease time & cost, (& maybe implants to cybernetically increase an agents abilities) there would also be ship components basic ones would make a ship invisible to the enemy (regardless of sensor tech. Other spy ships would be the only real way of finding other spies). More advanced components would further increase the success rate of intel ops. Of course, the only reason this would make sense is if agents had to actually enter enemy space in order to perform certain ops. Some ops, like those against planets wouldn't require a spy ship to be sent in, since there's other ways for a master of disguise to enter enemy territory.
Speaking of disguise, if we have agents, one would assume they would be from different races. Thus, using an agent against an enemy of the same species would increase chances of success but his loyalty would be suspect.