SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Phoenix-D]

Side note: pushing "show all" on this thread is sort of dangerous.

One thing I don't know if its been mentioned: keep Starfury's mod structure! Picking a mod from a menu when you start a game is much easier than changing path.txt manually every time.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I'd ALREADY gotten that... I'm sorting posts "Newest Post First" so the first page contains the latest posts.

And I still think diplomacy should be overhauled (if that hasn't been done already). Think like EUII. Not just for the "points" system, where the victor gets to demand things (like military access or captured territories) from the loser, but also in DIPLOMATS. Just sending a message yourself is dangerous in intergalactic politics... you let the diplomats handle that. You get a certain number of them per turn, or if you have such-and-such amount of pop, or you can produce them. Would make diplomacy sooo much deeper...

Example:

You (the Atla) have been at war (with the Boota) for years, and you're both ready to call a truce. You were once the most powerful factions in the Galaxy, but a long war has depleted both your resources. You're economically aground, your fleet is smaller than the amount of rocks in a Tiny asteroid field, and you've both lost over half your colonies. But you're still spread out wide. You send a diplomat/an ambassador/a delegation/whatever, assasins for as far as I care - but another faction (the Coa) has been rising to power recently, and their position is in jeopardy if you two (A and B) call a truce and start expanding again. The three other remaining factions (I won't think up alphabetic names for them, just call them D, E and F) are squibbling like infants and thus could be easily overcome by either of you two (A and B). C therefore needs to stop you from making peace or perhaps even an alliance so that he can continue his rise to power in the galaxy. Well, back to the current situation: A is sending a diplomatic envoy to B. C needs to stop it. What C does: He builds/uses several cloak-capable warships with transponder jammers (they hide the faction they belong to, should also be able in SEV, handy but large and expensive) and/or gives them transponder signatures like B's ships. He thus intercepts and captures or destroys your diplomatic envoy - and for all you know it's B trying to keep your diplomats away from his ones to prevent them from making peace against his will. A and B are once again poised for war. This time, in the interbellum (assuming an armistice had been signed a year or so before) they have had the chance to develop some proper technology, and this time it's sure to consume the GALAXY. They both have warp point creators, QRs, cloaking devices, solar destroyers, tectonic bombs and such (OK, in one year this is impossible, unless they traded with D, E and F.) If war breaks out, the only ways to victory would be opening warp points around the borders into other people's territory, forcing the other (with a weak battle fleet) to destroy the sun in that system as soon as a warship enters, taking perhaps half an Empire with it. This way, eventually, the entire Galaxy will be annihilated in a super-war. (I know I'm ranting.) Then what do you do? (assuming you're A) Go paranoid and open warp points around his borders? Open one directly to his home system? Or be wise and not be deterred by one setback, and send another team of diplomats?

It's RANTING ON what I've just been doing, and I know it.

Also, as stated somewhere in the above mess:

Transponders.

Transponders and their corresponding frequencies could be very handy for sneaky backstabbing attacks... I.e. each empire has a certain transponder signal. If one of your ships detects a ship with the signal of empire B, even though it is CLEARLY from empire C, it will show as an empire B ship. Who knows? Perhaps B has captures one of C's ships, or perhaps he's traded for it. If the ship then attacks, you will automatically break off connections with B (like Sharon did with the Palestinians a couple of days ago, even though he cancelled it about three days ago) and perhaps even declare war on them. This way, C (who was in control of the ship all the time) will have triggered a war between you two (or at least bred mistrust). Or you could have ships that HIDE their transponder frequencies - it looks like a C ship, but it could also be B, D, E, or F. What do you do? Let it pass your defenses, perhaps to strike at your Homeworld? Or do you attack it, risking a war with any of five empires?

And, in combination with the jumble above about Diplomats:

You would also need to be able to sign general treaties yourself, using messages with another empire. Say, you could use this method to declare war, sign an armistice, demand/accept unconditional surrender, propose a small trade but not much else. To sign a truce or any other proper treaty, negotiate about the terms for a surrender, propose more complicated trades (i.e. with ships, important techs, lots of resources, units, etc.), you need to send a diplomat. The negotiations would have to last several turns (1 or 2 for an armistice, up to 15 for a Partnership treaty) and you should also be able to place an embassy in the other empire to make things go more smoothly/speed up negotiations/make them like you more/etc.

Also, you should be able to play on after a surrender. (assuming it wasn't total and unconditional) You could buy or rent a ship/ships from someone to start your Empire all over again. Say, the enemy occupies almost everything and demands your surrender. You stand no chance. If you don't accept, you'll be destroyed. You buy one single colony ship full of population somewhere waaay outside your home system from one of your allies. You surrender your home system... but keep your colony ship. You can then start anew.
Also, if someone demands your surrender, you should be able to give it to him... or at least for as far as he knows. You could also just give him several outlying worlds with one full of pop and all ships in there and perhaps also some outside of what he knows, but you should still be able to retain that which he does not know you have. What you can't see you can't claim.

[Atrocities]

I want oxygen nitrogen nebulas and nebulas that I can mine for resources. I want hidden planets in nebulas and nebulas that increase or provide a positive bonus to the ship and crews, planets, or bases within them.

I want money to be worth something so can build ship hulls and sell them to others for cash. I want those hulls, once bought, to be able to have weapons or other components added to them.

I want to build a basic ship, sell that, and the customer customize it to their own specs with their own weapons.

I want to be able to build captured designs. IE if I capture a Phong ship, or they surrender to me, I want to be able to build "phong" ships in addition to my own. This would be a great tool for espinoge and such.

I want a comodity system where we can mine or aquire rare resources and be able to sell or use those resources to make new and exciting technologies. For example mine heavy metal from a black hole and make support struts for Artifical Warp Point Colliders. Mine gold and or platinum to build super conductors and or really advanced electronics.

I want a 3d map star map system with the ability to go off the grid with a fleet of ships and send them through the emptiness of space between systems without the use of warp points. (Very slow, but with hyperlight engines make the process speed up.)

I want ancient events to be added to the events like ancient mine fields that encompus an entire system. Anciet battle moons that act like death stars when found and used. Ancient travel systems that allow players to move cargo from one planet to another instantly. (Think Stargates)

I want both a light and dark universe where a player could move between the two equally sized galaxies via a modified warp point or other phenominon.

I want multi facited galatic maps with 255 system quadrants, 4 quadrants to a galaxy with up to 4 galaxies per game. (One big huge map borken up by levels that a player can move between)

I want the ability to use planets based weapons to protect near by warp points. Think long rang particle cannons or something like them.

I want the ability to claim a planet simply by landing a marker on it. "I claim this work in the name of Atrocities Empire." Then send a colony ship when I have one available.

I want my Commander / Hero system - simular to the way I describe it and not the way other have diluted it.

I have many many more wants, but not enough bandwidth to post them.

[RudyHuxtable]

I want more cowbell.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

UNLIMITED size maps...

Interstellar warp-point-less travel. I.e. you build a massive dreadnought, but oh! you forgot the size of the warp point in your system. Fortunately, you know a system nearby with a warp point big enough, and fortunately your dreadnought is equipped with MASSIVE engines. You send it on an interstellar sojourn to the system. It would take a little while, but it would work. Would also be nice for Generation Ships :-)

You CAN'T see how many systems there are or where they are at the start of the game. I.e. line-of-sight galaxy exploration. Would add to the realism factor, and IMO would not deduce from playability too much.

More ship pictures. DEFINITELY more ship pictures. Perhaps even REDUNDANT ship pics. Would be handy for modders :-) you want a massive starship-of-the-line? Fine, you just use one of the redundant pics to prevent confusion with smaller unworthy craft like Dreadnoughts!

[Alneyan]

Phoenix-D said:
Side note: pushing "show all" on this thread is sort of dangerous.

I must confess I am quite disappointed, it barely took a few minutes to display all the posts, and some 150 mb of ram. Truly, I had expected something more impressive.

[Atrocities]

More ship pictures. DEFINITELY more ship pictures. Perhaps even REDUNDANT ship pics. Would be handy for modders :-) you want a massive starship-of-the-line? Fine, you just use one of the redundant pics to prevent confusion with smaller unworthy craft like Dreadnoughts!

You will be able to add in as many ships as you want just like in SE IV. The only catch will be they will need to be 3d files in X format with a polygon count of less than 1500. (Est)

Right now, for SE IV, there is the Neo Standard pack that adds in a ton of image for the stock races and there are many sets, most of mine for example, that are neo-standard.

Neo standard sets have about 20 + more ships and images per ship set that various mods call for. Images such as Baseships, Heavy Dreadnoughts, Heavy Destroyer, War Station, Fighter Huge, etc.

[Fyron]

StrategiaInUltima said:
You CAN'T see how many systems there are or where they are at the start of the game. I.e. line-of-sight galaxy exploration. Would add to the realism factor, and IMO would not deduce from playability too much.

Were it not for telescopes, I would agree. 16th century astronomers and mathematicians were able to make a decent map of the space surrounding Sol. Perhaps some limited range around your systems for the system locations you can see, based on technology level? Of course, this all depends on how large the map is supposed to be... Some sort of control over the distance each square on the galaxy map represents would be great.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I know you've created a lot of shipsets, AT, and I know about neostandard, but I mean EVEN MORE ship pics. Oh, and (I know it's been mentioned b4) MORE entries for the pic in VehicleSze.txt. Now, it's pretty limited. NOT good. Limitations are BAD.

And I meant exactly such types of exploration, Fyron. Telescopes, deep-space probes, unmanned explorers, old probes you regain contact with (think Voyager and Pioneer projects)... Also, if you explore far, I still think systems should be able to be hidden. I.e. you've got a massive Terran Empire spanning half the Galaxy, and you've explored all you can (with no stellar manip), and you think you've explored it all, with no more systems - then, suddenly, an alien power opens a warp point to your systems.

[Ed Kolis]

StrategiaInUltima said:
You CAN'T see how many systems there are or where they are at the start of the game. I.e. line-of-sight galaxy exploration. Would add to the realism factor, and IMO would not deduce from playability too much.

SE2 had that; you could only see your own home system and any other systems you have explored on the galaxy map. That idea was scrapped in SE3 for *realism* purposes, as it was assumed that any decent spacefaring civilization would have telescopes of some sort to at least see the stars with
Now hidden *non-star* systems, that would be interesting... maybe a flag on each system type whether it's visible or not