The only thing i can think of is to slightly overhaul the espionage system so we can learn without shutting down a tiles contents. I would also prefer it if an option could be added so i could choose not to know what an AI ship consisted of (weapons etc) until i had a very good espionage level with that race. I think that would make it more fun as you would have to equip your ships with more than one type of weapon or invest heavily in espionage to find out before hand.

Thanks

Editors that work with eachother. I can't, for the life of me, to get a tech tree out that uses custom improvements. The map editor should support custom ships and the planets should be able to have improvements put on them.

1)Changing the mousewheel zoom to something like what sins or supreme commander has, so that it zooms in on the mouse cursor instead of the center of the screen
2)When setting the exit point on worlds, make it so that pressing the button doesn't try to set it to the tile you're currently pointing at, but to the last VALID tile you pointed at! It's very aggravating to try and set the exit points from a high zoom because you're seeing the highlighted tile where you're thinking you're setting it, but you mouse is actually a bit to the side. Basically, there should be no scenario where clicking on a tile causes the new exit point not to be set.
3)Buying spies should carry the excess cash over from week to week, instead of wasting it
4)The espionage ability should increase the EFFECTIVENESS of BC spent on spies, not just allow you to spend more per turn. As far as I know, that's still the case as it was with DA, and makes the espionage abilities pretty useless.
5)In most cases, the order I want to upgrade my improvements on a planet puts the factories first so that the other improvements will finish faster. Once I research an industry tech, it'd be nice if those upgrades moved to the top of the build queue... and it'd also be good for the AI to take advantage of that as well, if it isn't already.

If possible please check this post in a few weeks, I know from reading the latest expansion has some bugs(to be expected with it being new) but I have faith in you people so Im about to buy. If I find any problems in the game after I get experianced I will post. Anyway until then , good luck with the product [SINS brought me back to this game]

Five things.

Okay, I mean them with love.

1. Fix the tech trees glitches--Thalan Starbase Attack modules being a big one. And are the Altarian and Drath supposed to have nearly identical trees?
2. Alt-Esc crashing. I do like to multi-task (if for no other reason than to read the manual...)
3. Rebalance ships a bit. Offense seems to be a little too strong in comparison to defense.
4. Maybe let up a bit on the economic throttling pedal a little. Just a little.
5. That's it. TOA is a "one more turn" sort of game, and I love it. The glitches and problems are not "game breakers" for me (unless I were playing Thalans without tech trading--ouch!). I preordered the game months ago and don't regret that one iota.

First, let me say that I love the game and play it a lot. That's probably why I find these issues so annoying.

I'd prefer it if you just concentrated on cleaning up the game play, interfaces, and bugs.(Although the closed borders suggestion above would be a cool addition). I don't care about more options and additions if the original game play still annoys me. IHere are the things that bug me that I think need to be fixed.

- It's not easy to manage your planets' buildings. If you take over a planet, it takes an annoyingly long time to select each improvement and upgrade it to what you want, especially since you have to clear out the build queue to remove the suggested building upgrades. Most of the time, I just delete existing improvements and rebuild with what I want since it's faster (mostly due to the fact that it jumps to the next available tile to build). Most players (I assume) use 3 specialized planets (econ only, research only, production only). When you build these planets, there is only one "correct" way of building them - using the best available building and with the proper fusion plant/research coordinator modifier. So just give me the ability to specify a planet template so I don't need to manually build up the planets the same way each time. This is even more of an issue in TA because of the different tech trees and not all civs using the same tech path for factories or research. THe game doesn't know that the tech/building you just traded for (or stole) is an improvement over your existing building on every planet. So it doesn't upgrade automatically and you have to switch every building by hand. Maybe this could be a governor option - switch all buildings of one type to another....that would be great and probably easy to implement. (I thought the expansion info said more governors for TA, but all I see is the same 5 that were in DA)

- Give me a button that says "build enough constructors to upgrade all starbases and automatically send constructors to upgrade them". Starbases are really pain to manage. Everytime you get a new tech that adds a module, you have to reassign your starports construction, reassign your waypoints (usually put them right on top of the starbase I want to upgrade), and then keep moving your waypoint around to upgrade every starbase. That is ridiculous. I love (and need the benefits) of starbases, but the management is insane. I don't even build econ or military starbases anymore because it is so tiresome. At the very least, please put the available modules on the main galaxy map when you are zoomed out. Just put a number in parentheses under each starbase. And then clean up the erratic behavior when you send fleets of constructors to star bases (not every ship in fleet prompts for starbase upgrade...sometimes fleet is disbanded and each ship moves into the starbase square without upgrading.)

- Fix the bugs, I need to confirm, but yesterday when I was building the technology +20 percent building for the torians, it was not affecting my total RP upon completion. (That is, planet was producing 100 rp before and after completion)

- cost to research a specific tech seems to increase over time. I read that others are seeing this too. Farms cost 200 rp one turn, then 250 rp later on.

-

1)Ship movement. (bugs, getting stuck, pathfinding)

2)Gaurd Mode, Sentry Mode, Retreat mode working predictably

3)Typos, missing text, grammer mistakes corrected

4)Interface Tweaks (drop down menues, keyboard shortcuts)

5) Implement this for the AI

those are my ASAP requests.

If you didn't care for #5 from my OP, then how about...

5) In the diplomacy screen, when you choose money to trade, it doesn't always choose the amount to make the AI happy, sometimes it'll pick a number far less, then you have to manually increase it until they are happy. Perhaps adding this as well for the sale of IP in the diplo window as well.

i would like to get like missles that you build and put a warhead on and fire to attack a enemy planet they would have like a very short space before they died or somthing

1)More meaningful description to technologies and planetary improvement.More flavour (text) to races and minor races.

2)New interesting events, which are not the usual (good,evil,neutral) choices. Events which are also less groundbreaking

3)New planet surfaces skins, new portraits

4)Starbases should be strenghtened in the end game.Some new tech which give more weapons,defenses,HP and possibility to repair faster for Starbases

5)Korx AI is broken they always perform worst than all other races.

Great idea this, limiting our ability to exploit the AI is as good as an upgrade IMO.

Release a build that doesn't crash to desktop.

I've played an awful lot of Galciv2 builds and not one of them has been without CTD errors. I understand that the game is complex, and that complexity breeds errors, but consistantly releasing new patches, all of which contain fatal errors is a shockingly poor effort and works to undermine Stardock's entire anti-piracy policy.

I remember reading the origional Stardock-Starforce drama just before I bought a copy of Galciv2 and hearing "By releasing frequent, convenient, free updates, we reward people for buying the game." which I thought was perfectly reasonable and a good argument and have since bought galciv2, both expansions and sins of a solar empire either via retail or directly from stardock and have enjoyed them both immensely. What bothers me now is that despite all of the frequent, convenient, free updates I still can't finish a game without having to restart the application at least once.

I get it, the game is constantly under development and as such constantly has bugs. It may be unavoidable, but it is still a gigantic crock of shit.

1)Kill the big bugs that affect gameplay, such as "cheating" of automatic ship designer or trade not providing significant income.
2) Constructor management is very tedious - should be automated somehow.
3) Option to disable trading of unique techs
4) Starbases are too weak - they should have much more HPs and better defence.
5) Big one: it is pretty clear now when AI builds less scouts (and later too) that AIs know the location of habitable planets. This has big impact on the dynamic of the game. Make AIs to scout properly.

Dammit, I forgot a big issue. Instead of beefier starbases I would like to have trade screen that would list all the tehcs in hierarchies (so it could be seen easily what tech is prerequisite etc). Also, make it so that when you buy say laser V, you also have to buy all preceding techs - the current system is messy, it does not make much sense and AI can be easily milked.

Alright:

1. Fix the Mind Control Center, and by fix I mean, allow it to work as it was originally intended, do not readd the 100% economy bonus, it unbalances the ethics choices way, way too much.

2. Allow multiple construction modules to be placed on a constructor. So rather than having to build five constructors separately, I could just use one with five modules.

3. Allow races to propose what law the U.N. votes on each year. Or simply change how/what laws are chosen. I swear half the time the law proposed is some useless, "limit the trade routes of evil races" that almost always gets struck down, and even if it passed would probably do nothing to change the game. Also give the A.I. a chance to leave the U.N. if they object to the laws. (might not be doable)

4. Separate Military/Social and Research sliders. Ok, I know it's probably too much to ask, but one can dream.

5. Fix bugs. Obvious, and vague, but I couldn't think of a fifth.

Okay, that's enough... i've seen plenty of SLIDERS_For&Against that i absolutely must give my opinion on the controversial process.

It's good as is to me, since i can actually prioritize anything at 100% while both others can move to 0% or_between_less_more to 50%, cuz that's what the integral countdown sets forth to get a real TOTAL_EmpireWide_Centralistic_Coherent_Definitive value.
Production/Research/Social (three concepts, variable in meanings to some and yet obvious logic to many more!).

Why is it so hard to "understand" (not sure about that exact word)
- that the **Global Control** pattern has to be present somehow
- that it also doesn't enforce anyone into a pre-set management towards Manufacturing(x2 types) OR Research in any way other than what they HAVE to decide sooner or later by properly developping key assets
- that it wouldn't, in as far as i can evaluate mathematically, provide a different spending or wasting edge in all three major areas if they were maxed out to a full 300% (indirectly) total as a whole
- that when i want to alter the variations at the planetary level (Which IS the whole empire numbers too, btw) i just pay the spreadsheet with my presence and floods it with any focus buttons locked into just *3* simple columns (Logos & all to hint me about the consequences for me to grasp by looking sharp at any) as i please -- all at once!

0%+15%+85% is always equal to 100%. This metaphor will never let anyone abstract the Laws of Intelligence beyond reality.
Multiply_Divide, cope with it.
Break that very maximum value, and you're in for a nightmarishly different game altogether including a Macro(the biggy type, ya know)-Managing loop hole so daunting you'd instinctively rush for a QUIT permanent button within 20 minutes of trying to handle that much decisions never to return again to this game unless someone brought it right back with the excellent actual balance - asking for y_our begging smiles.

So, there.
Off my soap box.
Keep the sliders or change them, SD.
The risk is still yours to take, but if the above theory didn't convince anybody, nothing ever will.

Sorry about sliding away from the 1 to 5 suggestions schema.
I had to.

Like everyone else I love the game, but here come my preferred fixes/modifications:

1-FIX TRADE ROUTES. Right now they are hardly worth it and distance seems to make no difference. It seemed to work fine in the recent betas but right now it is really wonky other than for diplomatic purposes. It is really irritating and I am tempted to revert back to an earlier version if possible.

2-Fix the bug that occasionally causes crashes when I use spies on planets.

3-Make the ascention aura needed for victory adjustable when creating a new game.

4-Beef up the diplomacy a bit. For example, I should be able to say "Hey buddy get those influence bases out of my space (or stop building them) or I will kick your ^$#%^#..." And they should be able to say the same to me.

5-I find the the graphs at the bottom middle of the screen can be very hard to read when somebody (usually me) is so much above everyone else. It shows me that I am so much above, but I cannot see how the other races rank with respect to each other because all their lines on the graph are squished together.

Cooled up, don't worry!
You can go about your business - says Obiwan.

I've actually HAD the AI make comments about building bases near them. I could swear I have, anyway. I would like to be able to warn the AI itself off, though. It's always trying to flip my planets with those things.

And on the comment, I guess this is a sixth thing but... I'd like to be able to make suggestions for UP laws too. The ones that come up often seemed aimed against me, but I can't do the reverse.

Awsome game by the way but these are some things I would like to see
1. the least interesting part of the game to me is the end game there is always a certain point of the game when a win is a foregone conclusion so one idea to add some difficulty to the end game would be to give your civ a diplo penalty when it gets too poweful encouraging smaller civs to band together and possibly prevent you from an easy end game win.
2. maybe give planets a morale penalty when they are too far from your homeworld making it difficult to hold a large empire together near the endgame forcing you to use more tiles on those planets for morale buildings, making them less productive for research or military production.
3. Minor civs still seem like easy picn's for an aggresive civ maybe give diplo penalties for attacking them also. or I also like the idea of them becoming vassals if you choose.this might make them a little more relevant instead of a civ you could easily bump off to gain a highly productive planet with little consiquence.
4. toggle civs on and off on the graphs
5. package each game with a bottle of eye drops, my eyes get kinda bloodshot after playing this game all night.
Keep up the good work.

hmmmm got one or five:

1)- Battle Veiwer - Allow for the ships to fire and explode simultaneously (both sides). We all know the combat is most likely computed a head of time (hence why w can push the Done button and get teh results at any time). It's kinda awkward with the one at a time firing. In addition its also awkward when the last ship of losing fleet is registered destroyed, but still flys around for a good 10-15 sec as it still has to fire, and then "mysteriously" blows up. Simply put, the animation doesn't sinc well with the dice roll list. Simultaneous firing/dying/exploding ala the Old Invasion screen. Would look spectacular with our ships!

2)- Ability to cut/copy/paste selections of components in the ship viewer. Simply select the base part hit "copy" and it and the parts attached to it can be pasted onto any hardpoint you want. Perhaps be able to "save " it in the Favorites tab, too. Would be really helpful for sections of ships you would want to use over and over again (like building multiple turrets, etc) Edit: this would be for jewelry only.

3)- Could be really interesting:

4)- I would like an Ethics Redo (Worth 4 and 5), however this one still appears to be based on an existing game mechanic (sort of):
Instead of researching an ethos, make it more RPG like. The way the player plays would determine the Ethical alignment. We all know how you have to make ethical decisions and we all know of the slider in the Empire tab. How bout this: Think no slider but a triangle. You start in the middle. As you make ethic decisions, you accumulate Good/Evil/Neutral Points, moving your philosphy towards that respective side of out triangle. As you move closer to your ethical alignment, technology and abilities start to beomce unlocked for your Civ (worst first, Best last). If you move away from your ethos (change of mind perhaps), the triangle will update and you will begin to lose your abilities and tech. This allows you civ to straddle ethics if you want (a mix of Good/evil, Evil/Neutral) allowing you to get some entry level abilites/tech, but if you want the really good stuff, you'd have to commit to an alignment.

5)- In addition to the ethical decision screens, normal actions should affect the ethical alignment. Breaking treaties, going to war, Giving aid, or associating (via trade, trade routes, treaties, etc) would all have a bearing on your alignment. Either a once shot punch (break a treaty and get X Evil points) or something sustained (Establish a trade route/treaty with a neutral race and get Y neutral points a turn) would be how it is implemented.

I would like to be able to place a spy in infiltration mode like this poster is suggesting. Because they're not arousing suspicion by throwing a spanner in the works, they should also need to be detected by a defensive spy first before they can be nullified.

The "borders" in galciv are just your sphere influence. There are no real borders in space, since that would not be doable to control anyway.

There are no borders on oceans either.

Bring back the old invasion screen. (To be honest I thought that improving its graphics was what they had in mind for TA).

Here's a suggestion on the ascension victory.

Obtaining ascension starbases to win is a good addition to victory options. Having "Korath Clan -- 1000 Weeks until Victory" appear in the top-left corner is alarming at first and later a constant nagging to intervene. It isn't enjoyable to sit back and watch it tick down unless you want to risk war by getting your own or attack the race that owns them. Because we all want a slice of the cake I believe it would be more fun to change the number of ascension crystals to nearly the same number of the races. Perhaps exceeding by a certain amount occordingly. Obtaining one base shouldn't affect the countdown if someone has the same amount of ascension bases as you do. They should oppose each other. The countdown only decreases by the difference of how many more crystals a race has obtained compared to the race with the second most. Eliminate the hate for having ascension-bases if the counter does not descend. And lastly, make the number of weeks depend on map size, and much less for smaller maps. Basically this causes only the race that is profiting from the ascension bases to be targeted and introduces some new strategy into the game. Right now it has a serious lack of polish, so whatever the case it should be improved.

There should still be some sort of penalty for say, colonizing the planet to my home world. Or for building all those influence starbases next to my colonies.

Sure, I could go to war, but then I'm militaristic or a warmonger or whatever, and the other civs trust me less. The AI will provoke you, but then ignores that when you attack them.