SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Yes, you're right. Once you've got better tech (and implement it on all your ships/bases/etc.) you've got the upper hand. Then, it's simply a matter of driving them out of the galaxy.

Also, I would like to see more pics for components/facilites and the like. Also, more open slots for beams/torps; if you make a mod with a ****load of weapons, it would only be realistic if you've got a ****load of displayed beams and torps to go with them. As it is, you can't make much more than six new beams and four new torps. What if you've used all beams and torps, including open slots, but still need more displays?

And I also agree with (whoever it was, can't remember) who said that MM should get rid of the Components.bmp/Facilities.bmp file and simply shrink the image. This way, modding images is easier.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Look, I'm sorry if I overreact sometimes (my first post was just over SIX PAGES long), but I get like that sometimes. I've got so many ideas...

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Different Government Types!

Like, not just the "Empire Type" box you fill in at the start, but starting government type - and you should be able to research more types later on. However, this musn't affect the "Empire Type" of your race/conglomerate/whatever. (though having a despotistic tyranny and calling yourself the "Enlightened Democracy" isn't really fair to your people)

Also, you need to be able to change the "Empire Type" and "Emperor Title" during gameplay. Perhaps even the "Emperor Name" to reflect political changes (such as elections, assasinations, rebellions, etc.).

Examples of government types:

Start:
Tyranny
Feudal State
Monarchy
Democracy
Republic

Later:
Multi-Racial Conglomerate
Interspecies Federation
Imperial Parliamentary Democracy
Transcendent Civilization

and the like. There should be more, but this is just an example.

Each government type affects you in a different way; for example, Tyrannies produce more resources and construct things faster, however it will be harder to keep your populations happy. Democracies will make for happy populations, however production/construction rates will drop slightly. An Imperial Parliamentary Democracy will have pretty happy people and a strong fleet, but diplomacy will be harder to conduct. Transcendent Civilizations have ENORMOUS bonuses to research and intel, will be extremely happy no matter what, but their weapons will only be about 20% as strong as normal.

There should also be tensions between different governments, i.e. Democracies will attack a Tyranny more often that they do a Republic. Races should also have preferences for certain types of government, for example the Terrans want a Republic, the Toltayans cling to their Feudal system, and the Imperial Dynasty (a custom race) will like Monarchies or Imperial government systems better.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I still cling on to my idea of resource freighters and independent organizations. That way, if a system is being heavily used (think like homeworld system, interstellar trade hub, large-scale fleet yards, etc.) you see lots of small ships flying around. This can also be an indicator if a system is being used heavily commercially as you first enter it. These ships should not only be freighters and organization's ships, but also randomly generated things (like interplanetary cruises, interstellar passenger ferries, luxury yachts, and so on) that increase in number as more people are in the system. This also makes it easier to spot a trade center.

Also, you should have the option of building a "Ring Station" around a planet. Designs for these have already been made. This would be a ring around a planet, with surface-to-orbit cargo lift tethers, docking bays, habitation quarters, storage spaces and the like. This would have to be very expensive, but when it's finished you should be able to have more population and cargo space (say 10% more) for the planet.

And btw it looks really nifty, to have a ring around a planet with all sorts of small ships (as described above) docking/landing/launching from it.

It might be too much animation, though, and it might cause you to lose the general overview later on in the game (especially in your homeworld system and trade centers) when hundreds of small ships are present.

However, it still should be implemented, I think, so you can have blockades of systems or even sectors. That way, it's more realistic.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I'm sorry if I'm raving on and on.

But, that's me.

[Renegade 13]

No problem man, suggestions are always good! Though I must say, it's going to take a while to read through all your suggestions!

[Baron Munchausen]

StrategiaInUltima said:
I'm sorry if I'm raving on and on.

But, that's me.

Yes, you are definitely raving on and on.

First of all, you'd see that many of these suggestions have already been made (and accepted by MM) if you read the chat logs at spaceempires.net

http://seirc.spaceempires.net/archives.php

Governments, for example, are already in. No word yet on exactly how many types there are and what effects they can have, though.

The debate over actual freighters has been going on for ages. Very few people want them, so you are not likely to win. But some people have suggested 'trade routes' that are explicitly marked on the map so you can deliberately blockade them. This sounds like a reasonable compromise, but would still require MM to add some features to the game that might take some time. Given how many things he wants to do this might be relatively low priority.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Another thing I'd very very very much like to see:

Shared Planets.

I know I've stated it before in my first post as "Planetary Surface Use", but this is slightly different:

Have the option (selectable/random) of whether or not you start off on a planet together with another (or more) spacefaring race(s). They could be high-level Primitives (or low-level ones), Neutral Empires or even full-blown Empires of their own! Think like, for example, the Earth: As it is, if SEIV (or V) were to suddenly become a reality, you'd have at least three to four Empires:
-The US (duh.)
-Europe (with the ESA)
-China (they just launched their first space mission, remember?)
-And perhaps Russia.

Maybe even more.

Now, they all start off on the same planet (the Earth) (duh) and so in SEIV there should be a sudden ground conflict between these powers (and other Primitives - think India (relatively highly developed, with nukes), the Middle East, South America, Africa, the Amazone Indians, Micronesians and so on) where one would emerge victorious after a while. Is this realistic? No. The US versus China and India alone (leaving Russia, Europe and all others out) would mean nuclear doom. Instead, it's perfectly feasible that multiple nations continue to exist when interstellar travel is discovered (provided we don't almost wipe ourselves out with nukes first, in which case the world will unite into a happy nation, yeah right) and so in SE you'd have multiple Empires of the same race originating from the same planet.

Why not put this into SEV?

Would also be nice if coupled with a sudden alien invasion - the aliens land on the planet and attack the humans, who will then almost certainly seize the opportunity to settle differences once and for all, so you've got several parties fighting at once:
-The USA, Europe, the Russians and the Australians. (After all, we filthy rich countries (Russia somewhat excluded, but perhaps not in 2400) must stick together to prevent the hungry, poor masses getting their filthy hands on our precious money, no?)
-The aliens.
-India.
-South America.
-and so on.

This would make for a VERY interesting game.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Mines that have the ability to lock themselves on the hull of an enemy ship and explode after a small while. Ever seen the Enterprise episode where a Romulan mine got attached to the hull and pierced Reed's leg? That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Crew Amounts; i.e. a ship has a maximum amount of crew of such-and-such. If the amount of crew falls under such-and-such performance will suffer. If a ship with less than minimum crew arrives at a planet or manned space station (mastercomputers don't count, unless you've got redundant crew quarters) the crew will be replenished. If too few crew are available, the ship will be put on Standby - like Mothballing only then you don't need resources to reactivate them, just crew, and going on standby goes automatically and can't be toggled on or off (until you've got enough crew). Crew rotations can be set to Automatic, Manual or None in the game setup screen - None, standard SEIV type, crews have experience but don't do anything else, Automatic, if redundant crew is present they'll board other ships in the sector automatically, Manual you've got crew rotation under your control. Crews can also be used to defend from boarders - now, if you've got a Baseship with a ****load of crew quarters and no marines/boardingdefense, and a boarding ship drops 20 stinking marines, the ship is captured. HELLO?!?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Baron Munchausen said:

Yes, you are definitely raving on and on.