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Oh yes, this a thousand times.
--Another overhaul of the research tree
The 3-color weapon system of Endless Space, Gal Civ 2, etc. is a great system that seems to encompass sci-fi weapon systems. Additionally, SR2 does a great job of not simply providing upgrades, but providing alternatives (e.g. muon cannon research) as well as enhancements (e.g. targeting research). Other systems (e.g. gravitonic condenser) are not technically "weapons", welcome though they would be.
But the research tree could do with (A) a multi-branch system (e.g. Gal Civ 3, Civ 5, Beyond Earth, or Pandora) that could be randomized (e.g. Pandora) with each game, and (B) a research tree that varies according to game options or race options (e.g. Endless Space). Without setting pre-defined race identities (e.g. ES), custom race options might allow the player to define "racial archetypes" which could open/close/re-route research branches.
Please note: I provide examples of other games only for reference; I *really* love that SR2 is not like any other 4x game!
I also understand that is, primarily, the purpose of mods; but the allusion to a "vanilla" SR2 experience was made above, which is the version that I still play 100+ hrs into the experience.
--Ships
Counter to some of the comments listed above, this is the one game in which having a specific "carrier" class of ship or module type for the ship editor is *not* high on my list of demands--every ship in SR2 is a carrier. I recall seeing a thread back in April about the fact that someone really didn't like this aspect of SR2; this person probably shouldn't have played SR2.
Perhaps the difficulty that some players have interfacing with the inherent carrier-based nature of SR2 is that sci-fi games in general have spent so long creating an artificial divide between "carrier" and "fleet". My recommendation with respect to ships is to decrease the labor cost of creating support ships, and the upkeep cost of capital ships--give vanilla players the ability to generate more fleets, even if they are slightly less effective. (Which, again, could be accomplished with a mod, but perhaps the devs are looking to re-balance along with the expansion?)
An enhanced summary of a fleet's strength (at least, relative to potential targets) would be nice. I've never really experimented too much with the varied support ship AIs, for example, because I still don't understand what benefit one AI gives a fleet with respect to the default behavior. I understand what they should *do*--the terms are pretty obvious, e.g. cannon or raider--but my fleet enters engagement range, and fighting occurs, and then I leave, without regard for ship behavior.
--More planet complexity
I don't want SR2 to monkey too much with its quite unique planetary resource system; rather, I'd like it expanded. The native pressures that come with some planets (e.g. native influence, native power) are a nice base level of complexity.
But what if some planets could export multiple resource types? Or certain planetary buildings allowed for the development of multiple resources? The refinery adds 1 pressure. What about upgrades to/expansions of refineries?
I understand that key balance in SR2 includes the fact that level 0 planets (A) cost money to upkeep, requiring a young empire to balance expansion with resource development, and (B) will probably be forgotten soon after their acquisition. Refineries are ways for cash-bloated empires to sink their budget in exchange for resources, just as farms/hydrogen.s allow the direct conversion of credits to higher-tier resources. It's also an important balance to defense against invasion/diplomacy--being able to lose a dozen planets while you build up your armada/influence cards should be tolerable, provided your opponent isn't hitting your level 4/5 planets too hard. But if the devs will be re-balancing for the expansion, having extra resource options on planets would be cool. Perhaps being able to develop multiple types of food--and having higher level planets require food variety (e.g. Pharoah or Caesar 3)--could be an interesting balance mechanic.
Or, perhaps the introduction of a manufactured goods system would be interesting: imagine requiring a certain density of good A in order to maintain access to research branch A, or adding a Defense bonus with production of good B. It was suggested above that players be able to focus Defense production; manufactured goods might be a way to manipulate this decision. It could also achieve resource complexity and impact research, energy, and diplomacy, without adding complexity to the basic resource web of planets.
--Pre-settled planets
I'm sure it's been considered as a mod, and the real universe consists of mostly-uninhabited planets anyway, but having pre-settled planets in surrounding systems would (A) give one's fleets something to do once all the pirates are gone, (B) give one something to do with all of those Annex diplomatic cards other than targeting major empires, (C) provide micro-empire elements (e.g. Sins of a Solar Empire, Beyond Earth) that wouldn't necessarily require one to actually dominate the galaxy, and possibly (D) provide artifact options other than "wait around until something you like actually spawns". Which leads me to...:
--Alternatives for artifact generation
Until you find that Cyllium planet, you're kinda boned for rapid artifact generation; some games, I can't generate energy fast enough to take advantage of all of the stellar/planet generators; in others, they're so scarce it's incredible (classical definition: unbelievable). Perhaps an entire research branch could focus on ways to preferentially generate artifacts. But I think a gestalt approach would be appreciated, and is better suited to SR2's core philosophy--so, energy, research, diplomacy, and/or credits could be used to generate artifacts.
Optionally, the artifact system could be shuffled over to a manufactured goods system (see above).
--Rebalance ore-based developments
...Especially the ring-world and artificial planet. Again, a mod would fix this perfectly. But even when planning a robust strategy of "make miners and tractors from the very beginning, mine ore throughout the game, and ensure the home system has enough labor (and/or I have enough construction asteroids when the time comes) to build the damn thing once I've collected trillions of ore", I find myself at the end of a game...just not needing them. I love the concept of the ore-based planetoids, and I always research them unless I'm positive I won't even try to build one, but between floating continents and moons and vast plains and those special resource planets (e.g. FTL shards, Cyllium, Allondium; the ones you'll always try to level to 5), I just have no use for the ore-based planetoids.
Not that I ever seem to have the ore for them anyway, even given 40+ miners harvesting the 20+ asteroids my 5+ tractors spend the entire game towing back to the home system. "Oh, yay! My ring-world is completed! ...Not that I need it."
I agree that they should be relatively rare, but I want them to be something that provide a reward on par with the effort that goes into their construction. This might be as simple as getting to choose one of the aforementioned special resources to be native to the planetoid upon construction.
AFAIK this is imposibble the client dont have (and cant have ) all the data.
Alarcarr is correct, the nature of how multiplayer works in the engine makes this impossible.
We've experimented with this idea, and technically there are certain things that can get you multiple resources on a planet (Cultivation cards, for example), but we've found that every time we tried doing something like this it ends up being a management and UI nightmare. Breaking the 1-resource-per-planet rule makes it very hard to see and use a lot of things, so we tend to shy away from it.
Funny you mention that, because in our beta versions of the game this was actually the case (requiring variety of food types), and directly inspired by that mechanic from Ceasar 3. The reason why we removed that part of resources is because instead of adding depth to the economy all it did was add extra busywork. Instead of "I need a fish for my L4 planet, let me find a fish." it becomes "I have a fruit, but I need a fish, let me look through all my L1 planets to find one using a fish and swap it out for this fruit I have.", which ended up being quite un-fun.
Hmm. Seed ships should be bringing over more and more artifacts depending on how much energy you are generating and how many artifacts you're using. If all you ever do is use your energy on things that create planets, though, you're probably going to end up pretty sad. Perhaps we should do a balancing pass on artifacts so they become more useful in general and you don't have to wait around for particular ones.
Noting that I don't tend to use artifacts at all until I have a base generation of 10+/s:
I find that Ion Cannons and Skip Drives are a fairly useful utility when I have the energy to spare. Planet/Stellar Generators are invaluable as an economic tool, and Floating Continents tend to appear on high-priority planets like homeworlds or Death Stars.
Command Computers tend to be ignored as insignificant (this probably has more to do with my tendency to ignore support ships in general, though), and Orbital Frames, while useful, aren't too high on my list of priorities unless I'm building a defense station or some such.This is probably just me being reckless with my budget, though, as I have more than enough energy generation by the time I'm doing stuff like this.
Arcologies... I probably don't notice them as often as I should, but I do use them in a similar fashion to Economic Materials, bolstering Morphic/Fulrate-heavy planets or my homeworld. Espionage Probes and Telescopes tend to go unused because I'll probably have enough Influence anyway and intelligence gathering of this magnitude is rarely of any use to me even in ABEM.
Support Stations will occasionally crop up in a battlefield to bolster fleets in need. The Buster Machine, however, is rendered meaningless by Graviton Condensers (not to mention Superlasers in ABEM), and I don't see Comets or Genesis Devices half as often as I feel the need for them.
Command computers are the difference betwenn winning or losing a game in 10 minutes , ohh wait ... your games last 7 hours.
Edit: But i agree in one thing later Comand computers are a bit ignorable cause the flat bonus instead of a % bonus.
Planets Tab:
Unused resource panel that shows all planets not currently exporting resources. Having a list of these down the side of the screen would make it easier to manage planets once your empire gets fairly large and it becomes a chore to scroll down to the bottom of the screen, figure out which planet you need, and then drag it over to the correct planet. Ideally a list you can sort by resource type, planet level, and resource tier.
Research Tab:
A list of queued reseach right now research is pretty much pause the game, go click a bunch till you hit what you want, and completely ignore the research screen. At minimum, just the list and the ability to cancel items. At best, a list with the ability to drag to sort, cancel any items, and a progress bar for any items currently being researched.
Nice ideas.
... Can you write GUI scripts? D:
This reminds me. I hereby request a GUI editor, another tool I've been known to ask for.
i don't know :) Game already have a "standart" 3 different type of weapon (gun, beam, missile). So any new weapon, that i can imagine - is just a sort of this type... It is will be good if dev's add completly new type of weapon, but i have no idea :)
May be some kind of weapon, that can "catch" asteroid or moon and "throw" it directly into enemy planet or big starbase? :) This is will be funny :))
Or add posibility to place minefields on planets orbit or anywhere in the open space...
Or may be some kind of bioweapon (virus)?
Or some kind of "psi" weapon, like in starcraft psi storm, but for Ships?
Or some EMS jamming, to break communication between FlagShip and Support, and make all support useless?
Or... i don't know :) Lets make mind-storm :)
Not possible, not possible, depends on desired effect, not possible, maybe, too vague to assess.
No, i don't agree with you. FlagShip is not a Carrier. Of course, it all depends on how you look at it. But i look at FlagShip as a obvious FlagShip with escort of lesser ship to help him solve his task. Only things that confuses my - is that i can not directly control this ships.
I am not sure about needs of completely new class - Carrier. But a new system - Carriers Bay will be interesting. It can be base for small and incredible speed Fighters (Drones) wich fly very close to enemy ships and completely surround it, attacking it in weak point. A speed is the key survivability of this fighters. So we need to add some point defense in different direction to counter it. Or add own carrier bay, to protect ships. And so on. This is will be interesting :)
P.s.: i don't understand, why we can not control a support ship during combat? I think, that this is a thing that confuse many players and make FlagShip with SupportShip so similar vs Carrier with Fighters...
May be add possibility to control SupportShip like a FlagShip? Ofcourse In some radius from FlagShip. It is still big differnce betwin FlagShip and SupportShip, but it is add more difference betwin SupportShip and Drones/Fighters...
Not possible because it is too hard to code it, or why? In any case, i offer just a raw idea, wich need to be adapted to SR2 mechanics and designs :)
BioWeapon can be both, vs planet and vs ships. Vs planet it can slowly decrease population. Vs ship it can slowly decrease hp or combat strength/effectivity etc...
Communication Jamming can greatly decrease SupportShip strength, or decrease accuracy of it shots, or completely stop it attacks due they have no correct target from FlagShip... Or may be even give them totally false order to attack friendly ships! :)
Implausible because turning objects into projectiles is tricky at best and impossible at worst, and because that projectile will impact the first support ship it slams into and be rendered inert.
Minefields don't work. Period. Firgof's 'Crazy Subsystems' got as close to minefields as is plausible with the engine, despite Alar's occasional insistence to the contrary.
Bioweapons could apply a status, decrease population on planets. On fleets, things become a bit trickier. Combat effectiveness could work, maybe, but it wouldn't be on individual ships as you suggested.
Psi storms can't exist because they are essentially a temporary object floating around at a set position, applying damage to everything they overlap with. The issue at hand is very similar to the problem with minefields, and is identical to some proposed minefield implementations.
Communications jamming could, at best, lower the flagship's support capacity. This would force some of its support ships to detach from the fleet, which will not be as effective a weapon as your idea.
As for 'mind storms', you haven't provided enough information on their intended functionality for me to determine how many roadblocks might exist.
I don't know how I missed this post, but...
That thread may have been mine. I still find the seemingly arbitrary support-flagship divide ridiculous, more so since there are no actual 'fighters'. If you could make some kind of 'superfleet' consisting of several loosely connected flagships and their support ship/fighter complements, then I'd be fine with it - that'd be a hierarchy I often see and am comfortable with.
I don't think you've got the cause of the problem right, though. Sci-fi franchises in general, not just games, have made a very clear distinction between fighters and capital ships. From TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers to Vipers and Battlestars, Starfuries and whatever-they-were-called, Death Gliders to Ha'taks, Type 8 shuttles and Galaxy-class cruisers... I can't think of any example that doesn't have some kind of equivalent coupling.