1.  Add the ability, like GalCiv2 to upgrade all ships of x type for x credits per Turn.

2.  New Bazaar feature, broker buy/sell durantium/elerium/ect... for credits.

3.  Ability to upgrade merc ships by contacting Bazaar and gives option to upgrade ship for x resources x credits.

4.  Repurchase merc ships when destroyed for higher rate, may be upgraded some as well from base model.  Therefore keeping it interesting longer into the game.  Right now Bazaar is useless one war starts.

5.  New terraforming option...  add extra land for x durantium, (or another resource).  Increases double amount per time used so next time it would be x*2 durantium, then x*4, x*8 ect...  Again gives option to upgrade planet beyond what it is now.

6.  Expanding Galaxies...   This may be a good DLC....  Start game on tiny map with 2-4 players, player wins, well it would be nice if this could continue.  Game gives option to continue same game in larger map.  This then generates new small map (or 4x tiny map size) with the original map taking up 1/4 of the new map, 3 new factions advanced and expanded enough to make the game appear as already in progress to match your progress.  Then if player wins this they get another option of the same all the way until the max map size.

7.  Ability to transform dead world into useful planet either as low class planet, or resource for an expensive cost/resources.

8.  Binary star systems.  (originally planned per Paul)

9.  Mega black hole.  (originally planned per Paul)

10.  Rift.  (originally planned per Paul but, then pulled back per difficulties/time restraints)

11.  Fixes to color scheme of planetary tile bonus's to match color of type boosting, such as orange for manufacturing, dark blue for research, ect....

12.  For custom factions, ability to design home star system with/out modding.

13.  Copy/Paste option for custom factions screens so one can easily copy/paste their story/description for re-doing factions.

14.  More time in a day....  :)  Thanks for listening.

Fix the default ship population.  At 2.5 the AI is tossing half it's raw production into space with it's 1st colony ship.  At base growth rates it will take the homeworld 25 turns to recover while the colony founded by the ship maxes it's raw production in 5 turns.  This must be terribly crippling to the AI's early game.

I don't like the old or the new population to production schemes.  I mod it to 0.92 and it feels right. (2 cents here)

Armor seems underpowered.  Armor components have the highest-per-tier mass requirements, provide equal levels of protection, yet counter the highest cumulative-damage-output weapon system.  I raised Armor Efficiency in my games to 0.3 to offset this.

Random anomaly defenders please.

50+ new anomaly outcomes please.  A fine DLC if it also adds a new type or two.

When, and if, the major game-shifting changes are passed, the improvements, ideology choices, techs, components, global defs, bassicly everything needs a global combing for consistency, utility, balance.

Consider bringing back the starbase moral improvements with the return of the 1:1 pop to production scheme.

Leave a gap between max and starting population on the homeworld so that potential growth is not wasted making an initial choice other than rush buying a starport and a colony ship.

Agree on all of these.  The Bazaar is a neat idea; but it could do more.

I'd suggest....

1: If a Merc is destroyed or retired then a new random one takes its place in the bazaar.

2: Tier 1 mercs should be upgradable to tier 2 once you get there and tier 1 and 2 should be upgradable to tier 3 once you get there.  I think it would be easier to just do it the same way you would upgrade an asteroid mining base from the map screen.

3:  Bazaar sells strategic resources, administrators and mercenary citizens.  Inventory changes every ten turns.

Here you go:

Ground invasion demo

See my post above.

1. Perhaps it's just me, but I very often (read almost always) get the feeling that I am Team 1 and the AI, all of them, is Team 2 - regardless of AI personality and how strong, advanced, or extensive my empire is. That is fine for small deathmatch maps, but for bigger maps with more civs, this doesn't feel like an immersive galaxy.

2. It's been said above and in many other threads, but if there is a way to make colonization and starbase construction within another empire's influence only possible when at war, I would be happy.

3. Previous peaceful cooperation treaties (Non-Agression, Alliance, Research, etc) need to weigh as much as previous wars seem to when factoring AI diplomatic stances.

4. Have a look at the abundance settings for planets and how they interact with eachother. Can't put my finger on it, but something seems to be 'off' there. Abundant all setting has very often left me with the worst luck ever - one colonizable in intitial range, for example.

Since I made this post recently and it seems relevant I might as well post the link here. Its mostly adds to the UP and adds 'Story' like events in game without become something to crazy which seems to be the direction your wanting Gal Civ 3 to be in.

[Enhanced United Planets Resolutions and Event Projects.] https://forums.galciv3.com/485054/page/1/#3689957

Yeah, once you start putting more than one abundant setting it seems to start taking away from everything else, personally I've never liked the abundant settings on the largest maps,  Large and below seem fine.

I just read through recent reviews and wow the level of totally moronic comments in most of the negative reviews is rather high.  There is always a small but vocal minority that just don't like change, and don't give the game the time to see they are almost always for the better, so seems hard to avoid, and totally ignores the fact that most existing players recognise the effort and improvements.

It's sad that you have to care about this at all.

Ongoing balance, AI improvements and OP exploit fixes

The introduction of proper end-game crises

A lot more variety in exploration e.g. anomalies

Improved combat viewer graphics

Oh, and music that rivals Stellaris

Music is already awesome

Universal Starbase Designs

I think it's time to get rid of starbase types. Having a single type would further streamline starbase building.

https://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/36

Features I feel are very lacking(still).

• Panel Searching - currently when viewing the universe you can list planets, ships, etc, and you can sort them which is ok, but it would be really nice to have some "Filtering" capabilities
  • Planets, be able to search for specific types of planets (radioactive, toxic, etc).
  • Ships, again be able to search for all my Colony ships, or transports. 
    • Or even better yet exclude certain ships from list
      • Since Crusades favors smaller ships I seem to have literally 100+ scout ships, and I usually don't care about those when I'm looking for a ship so it would be nice to exclude those from the list
• Planet control - currently you have to manually disable automatic upgrades for each planet. Now while crusade again pushes most factions to a "small" empire because of the number of admins, there is the "Colonist" option, where I get my admins back, thus I can easily get 100+ planets and having to manually set not to automatically upgrade is an extreme pain. This should be global setting or a global toggle.
• Shipyards, since 99% of the time you simply click on the button Shipyard idle which takes you immediately to the shipyard production screen it's hard to recall what I just built. So I have to exit the build screen see what ship I just built and then click again to go back into the shipyard and select the ship I want. The shipyard should know what it just built, and display this information on the build screen "Last Build:" and it would be nice to have option to just double click that to build it again.
• Planetary manage screen - front line planets (those planets near an enemy or other) I often set as production worlds, where planets in my "interior" I set up as money/research planets. So when I click the Planet idle button it takes me again directly to the manage planet screen and I do not recall where the planet is located (especially in the early stages of the planet), thus again I have to exit the screen and see where it is, then go back into the planet and select my build option. It would be nice to have an option to display minimap of where the planet is. Either as a popup or somewhere on the existing screen (yes the planet art to the left is nice, but I would put it there as once I see it for the 1000th time I really could use some more useful information there.
• Ship way points, really...
• Starbases, similar to ship yards should be able to move. Especially with the new admin system you missplace a mining starbase or miss a resource because FOW is terrible. You have no option but to either place another starbase or destroy existing and add another, in either case it costs you another admin. Make it move very slowly .5, that is fine, but some movement should be possible (because logically nothing is holding it in place except stabalizers, so should be able to move/push etc).

I think it should take a couple of turns to construct a starbase with no defenses during that period. It could also be faster depending on the distance to your next planet/starbase.

Mechanics based narrative pressures:  Ideology as reason for alliance/conflict, Diplomacy affected by historic events and promises, more prominent display of these factors, especially involving an Espionage system, War Weariness, Inflation and other economic events with solutions based on UP interventions.  Anything that provides interaction between the various mechanics and their outcomes and effects on one another.  

More extensive Workshop support.  Where are mods and buildings and other workshop items?  I will mention failure to support custom factions in MP, not a pleasant thing that my customized faction cannot be shared in action with my friends and enemies.  That is a big thing of not meeting expectations of implementing your otherwise amazing customization.

A meaningful final game score.  It is a ridiculous ego boost factor, but it is something that should be obviously meaningful or removed completely.  Metaverse is presently nothing but a big data free disappointment, at least for me.  A replay the whole game feature, where I can start out with that lone first planet and watch all factions grow in an animated replay, with or without battle replays.

Custom defaults for dialogue box defaults, such as auto-upgrade on Planets, repeat last ship, repeat last planet improvement, etc.  It is a little thing that greatly affects overall micromanagement.

A control system for the free movement setting in the Battle Viewer where I can fly an invisible camera through a battle scene and make custom videos with cool viewpoints and transitions, even jump cuts like the automated viewer does,  and a little bit of automated programming to create new moves for the camera to use, even in automated battle view.  The battles are one of the most important events, at least visually, and should be fodder for lots of video posting acting as crowd source/word of mouth advertising of the game.  Where are my videos with a couple dozen ships on each side going at each other with slow motion emphasis on key ship deaths?  User manufactured eye candy, free for one and all.

Along with that, a sandbox where I can pre-stage battles with arbitrary ships and let them duke it out.  I think that would be a big DLC opportunity.  It is sort of like firing up the first campaign just to see those first big battles you set up.  Players should have the same set up and watch it go type interaction.  Again, home made advertising fodder.

Narrative interaction should be the goal of all mechanics and be considered in multi mechanic interactions.  Our history with other players should come up in discussions with other factions.  The present custom dialogue is difficult to adapt dialogue for, and this affects the ability to provide story type content.  I  have played with the concept with the present mechanics and it is very limiting.  It needs some open ended or logic/keyword based control.  It is such a great potential I would hate to see it not get some love and development.  Custom dialogue with custom behaviors would be a way to add value to workshop items as well, with narrative benefits and penalties possible.

It's pretty good. But the Gold Standard for space games was the original Homeworld.  Whomever did the orchestra composition was amazing, plus, it came with a whole Yes soundtrack that played regularly.  Homeworld 2's game music was just as kick-ass, even if they didn't get Yes to return for additional stuff.

Both make Stellaris sound like a Jr High performance of John Williams.

I go for making them at all times. It just makes negative relationship points.

Personally I would like to see Pirates raised to a place between Minors and Majors. I think we are missing out on what you can do with them. 

• Able to send and use Pirates as a tool to disrupt/hinder the ai.
• Use the threat of using the ai in diplomacy and doing so you take a hit in diplomo with 'good' species.
• Trading with Pirates to take specific actions that have tangible effects such as
  • Disrupt trade routes
  • Disrupt and lower food stores of a civilization
  • Disrupt and remove a base % of gold from a treasury
  • Attack with prejudice specific targets as requested by ai or player.
• Taking any of the above actions can cause a 'significant' drop in diplomacy with other races should they discover you are dealing with Pirates.

More repercussions in Diplomacy. If  you get low enough (in diplomo-rating) I want to see 3 or 5 factions (opposite) DoW on you and change their focus to build and attack reduce  or destroy you. 

You can even call your DLC, 'Rise of the Pirate Kings' <<<< See? I am helping with marketing! 

All of these are great ideas - I have an ask for a paid DLC myself.

An animations pack which would simply be a number of animated backgrounds and foregrounds for other races/minor races without any other information attached, they are simply animations that the community can combine and use (or not) for their own custom races rather than the majority of copy/paste races or static images for backgrounds and foregrounds we currently use.

I'd pay £10 easily for 30 (15 backgrounds, 15 foregrounds) for something like this.

Also, can we bring back diplomacy with minor races in Crusade please? I liked being able to trade with them before and broker distractions or bushfire wars between minors and other minors or even ganged up wars with Majors. Right now they are just "there" not doing much, I can't speak to them, I can't trade with them. I normally invade minor races early in the game for extra space because otherwise they are useless to me.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but there have been a lot more awesome ideas already.

For starters, I'd like not every game to be a death match. I personally like the empire building and expansion aspects of 4X games as much as the fighting and I don't want to be forced down one path every game.

Like others have mentioned in the thread I'd like to see minor races expanded and refined.

Other thoughts,

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I actually like the sliders much better than the citizens and I have reverted to playing the base game over crusades because of it. The sliders to me seem like a much more intuitive way to manage your economy and production.

Here's my list. Mostly politics and government based.

1. Influence as a currency-influence generated by planets and structures are now used for diplomacy options such as tech trading and declaring war, etc. Civilizations can trade and conduct diplomacy with each other anytime instead of waiting X amount of turns. Players must now make the decision on what to use the influence points on. No more civilization A meeting B and C early game and immediately trading 25 techs between the three civilizations. Influence points can also be used to affect the United Planets. I usually skip influence structures in my games, this change would make influence structures more useful.

2. Bring back The Drath Legion-New ability allows them to use the influence to buy whatever other races can buy with credits.

3. Bring back the Korx race-They have new ability that prevents them from declaring war. Can ban civilizations from the black market and bazaar. The Korx are immune to bans with a new ability. Special ability to get a small percentage of credits of each black market transaction.

4. New Race for expansion-They can't use diplomacy and have no such thing as credits or money.

5. Black market: Civilizations can buy or trade resources from the black market. Number of resources available depends on how much other civilizations have sold. Can "Order" or "Fill Order"

6. Trading Companies. Can create trade routes within your own civilization with trade modules. If you're at war and playing on smaller maps with few civilizations, players are losing income by not being able to trade.

7. Pirate factions: Pirates should be divided into many different factions, depends on galaxy size. During mid game they should start attacking more civilizations. Pirate bases can spawn in asteroids or space maybe if territory is left in the FOW for a while. Bases can spawn legions of troops for invasion of player planets.

8. Ideology screen- Icons showing stats of the structures. Similar to icons on planet tiles with resources if players mouse over them. Allows players to see the stats of structures before hand.

Some really cool ideas in here. Just one to add myself:

Hotseat

Hotseat

Hotseat

Hotseat

Hotseat!

Just to be clear:

2.6 as I write this isn't released.

You will only be able to build two cities on planets in 2.6.

Here's the demo itself. http://www.jrcse.de/Ground_Invasion.html

It doesn't seem to completely work for me (Firefox 56.0) but I see where you're going.  Yes, I like this as an option.  (Actually, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't an option, but I know others would.) 

Thanks.