More Camera Options in the Battle Viewer

I support any and all love that can be spared for the Battle Viewer.  Your point is good.  

I suggest hiring a new director/cinematographer who knows a bit more about continuity between shots and has more action and subject selection awareness during shots.  Cutting away from the action just as the missiles are reaching all the main Dreadnoughts is almost always a terrible idea, visually speaking.  It would get you fired in some studios.  ;)

My deep fantasy request is a controller friendly awareness for the free camera mode.  Flying an invisible camera ship with pan, tilt, and zoom options through the middle of a space battle sounds like a ton of fun.

I'd like it if the existing cinematic mode would be a tad more spectacular.

It seems to be keen to shows explosions, which is fine, but they look all similar, regardless of hull size. Weapon types could use some variation too (where are those nice photon torps from GC 2 Ultimate?).

And yes  - cue "but it's not realistic" replies here  - small/tiny fighter types rolling or turning like winged aircraft at least *sometimes* would be cool IMO.

I would just like the free cam to be usable... ala Sins of a Solar Empire for example.

Yeah it seems like all camera views are pointless and awful.

Target into free cam to get an okay view imo is the best there is and its pretty bad.

More robust, more functional camera options would certainly help matters. A revamped battle viewer is something I had thought was in the works ages ago, and frankly I'm surprised it's received so little attention. Was it one of Brad's little non-promise tentative roadmap items? Not sure where I got the idea this would ever happen (might have just been wishful thinking on my part) but the viewer has grown long in the tooth, no?

I also think there'd be a real benefit if GalCiv3 had a full-fledged battle arena mode. Star Drive 2, for all its flaws, has a pretty decent battle arena. It was indispensable, from what I understand, when some diehard modders came together and created the Community AI Improvement mod, which eventually made it into an official update. Coupled with a better viewer -- plus the workshop support that is supposed to be implemented with Crusade -- GalCiv3 might seriously improve.... with capabilities such as these all synergyzing nicely together! As it stands now, it's such a chore putting new test designs through the paces.

Having said all that, I consider Rog214 and Icemania's suggestions for fixing the ai's long lingering major shortcomings the highest priority. The suggestions here aren't far behind, though.

"workshop support that is supposed to be implemented with Crusade"

I'd bear in mind that this will almost certainly only extend to the new faction editor, and not beyond to other content such as modding (which, I'm not bitching about here, I'm just making sure that is clear, since you've mentioned modding).

Thanks for clearing that up, Gauntlet03. I'll be anxious to see what you and the other modders do with the game post-Crusade. I've not kept tabs on the discussions here, I admit, but it sounds as though there's more Stardock ought to do to satisfy the modding community. For the sake of everyone who's not entirely happy with the vanilla experience (and those who just grow tired of it eventually) I hope they'll implement your suggestions.