1. ill start with the little things: Avatars  please make more avatars and please let us choose the one we want or have sever options for (rebel) etc.. please make them story related or have some kind of function (ship personality trait or a unique cap. ship with the avatar you choose per fraction)

fan made:

for example C&C generals 1 and zero hour did that with their "generals" this might make an interesting idea if fractions were

further unique depending on "the general you picked"

2. please go further in with a little back story to the avatars or like little animations that not only show ship battles (opening cinematic) but generals in a control room or other related things so you can feel "in the game" 

like this one i made: 

4. updated shield and graphics over all 

computer technology will change thus permitting people to get high end gear for cheap

5..

please no, dont make it free to play

6. bigger story line, more sense of urgency 

As far as mechanics go, we just need more armor types. That's what caused the eternal balance issues... Then we can add more unit types...

Also, if it were to be on nitrous, the UI would need some changes to tactical view or fleets would not be manageable. To explain my idea fully would require a thread unto itself...

Well, brad said August would have an announcement that would make us happy so...

suggestion 7. more random events (like a death of a general "ai") one of the enemy main commanders dies and then the system changes avatars and changes randomly the "settings" of the ai suppose from economic to aggressive or research or defensive.

this will add a new layer to game play, maybe give us the option to influence the event

suggestion 9. (this one will be a hit or a miss)

add more war paint to the designs of the vasari ships- to me it makes 100% sense, the new cap dose not fit in and it too round and bulky and big. it needs to be more of a ship rather then a bug

vasari have a native tribe feel so i think their ships should be more natively, with the new cap i feel like someone modeled a bug then added engines, make it more edgy more sharp

suggestion 11. SPYing 

EVERY ONE LOVEs syp related game play please add more, to envoy functions or spy missions 

it would be cool to influence a ai to not "build" a temple of communion on a certain planet ... etc make more options and new options available, 

Construction animation? Probably. I don't see a need, but I imagine it could.

Degrees of damage? Doubtful. Maybe simple things like at 30% health some system goes offline. But if you're talking blasting pieces off ships, you either need modular or deformable geometry. Nitrous supports rotating turrets, so you might be able to blast them off.

suggestion 12 clarification

besides the need for extra verity of ships in the existing classess, i feel like we need:

a. some thing between a cap. ship and a titan (make titans more expensive and thus rare)

b. some thing a little bit less powerful then a cap. ship but stronger then a heavy cruiser

c. something smaller then a corvett? or perhaps a new class of ships?

d. more Support class Cap. ships and more attack class ships

Honestly, by this time, the Vasari loyalists will probably be gone. I feel like the advent rebels will have joined the Vasari rebels and might even be funded by the TEC loyalists to fight the shadow of the Vasari. The advent loyalists will probably have become some military and cultural juggernaut while the TEC rebel government will likely be on the verge of collapsing due to lack of funding forcing it to choose between poor economics and severe corruption.

Considering Sword of the Stars 1 had that as early as 2006, rotating turrets is really not that remarkable.

I'd love to have a ship builder and ship designer of some sort.

SotS had tiny little fleet battles.  When you're only tracking a dozen objects, you can do whatever you want to.  Rotating turrets in Sins, where you track thousands of objects, would have been extremely impressive.

ORB had it earlier than that. But that's a lot of overhead at Sins scale.

Also, ground warfare is pointless when you have interstellar warships. "Don't like our policies? Say hello to nuclear fire."