GalCiv IV: Supernova - Experiments we're trying

I would love a new look at Trade, its the same old system we have had for a while, spam a bunch of ships, send them out, wait forever till they get there, forget you already sent one to that planet so find another ones, etc etc.

It would be cool to perhaps integrate your module and starbase systems. Maybe having a trade starbase where every module created a trade route overtime (maybe I could pick the race/races I want to trade with), and your module limit was based on trade route licenses.

I like this list. Emergent colonies make a lot of sense.

As a game progress, there is a lot of repetition that sets in, so I'm eager to see what you all come up with on the automation side.

I like this a lot.  Less micromanagement and more broad strokes.

I also like that you're making influence mean more but what about giving players the ability to use influence to direct which way their borders grow?  That way instead of just pressing the end turn button you can actively capture important tiles like resources and target specific factions without going to war.  Also what about combining influence with trade so that instead of just dedicating part of a planet to influence structures you would use trade routes and wealth buildings.  then you could use those mechanics to wage trade/economic wars instead of it being some vague culture war thing

Edit: I got another idea:  What about instead of influence flipping planets or colonies it flips individual citizens (including those on starbases) based on their bonuses and happiness?  That way the drengin have a hard time flipping torian planets, yor citizens are (almost) always loyal, and the festron cant culture flip anything.

Range in action:

AI already knows how to extend its range.

Было бы круто и интересно добавить ещё наземные вторжения на планету и бои, как в опыте старой игры империя на войне звёздных войн

I like this, as I currently see ship range as free civilisation points. To make this bite, could you please have a think about the mass / cost of the probe module, as currently adding a probe module to colony / constructor is pretty cheap. It may be in a good spot currrently, but that may change with range debuffs.

Some very interesting  ideas here particularly around automation (automated trade route setup would be a huge QOL change).  

I do like the idea of not being able to colonize in other Civ's zone of influence.  However 1 important consideration is that if a civ is has blocked off the space around entry point to a sector and you cant build starbases or colonize worlds in their ZOC than your effectively blocked off from that sector unless you go down the military route.

Not sure I have a good solution to this unordinary. 

I think we may have to go back to allowing constructors to setup space stations in an opposing Civ's ZOC.

It could be a good thing actually, spice up your game! Expose the player to all that the game has to offer.

One easy solution that comes to mind is diplomacy; being able to grant access or request access to a space lane through diplomacy could be a peaceful gameplay solution. It's also very "common sense".

We I guess this means if you happen to start in a area that has only 'dead' planets - you're hosed. 

Yah, that's where we'll see how good the map generation is. If it works as expected, that shouldn't happen right ?

Well yes I agree about the diplomacy suggestion.  I've been crying out for a more robust diplomacy system with a greater range of treaties ever since Next was announced.

I think the real issue with diplomacy in every 4x game since civ is that you have a bunch of things that the AI has no reason to ever agree to and other stuff that never benefits the player.  Crusader kings had a less gamey system where instead of me asking the AI "what do i need to pay you to join my war against france" i can be like "we have marriage ties/a hook so you must join my war against france."  Less bargaining and more maneuvering to gain leverage.  I wish galciv had that.  I know the game has a resource called political capital but I always seem to generate it pretty slowly and its not good for much (and I thnk only the AI has any obligation to accept it)

If we are talking diplomacy, one thing that I have always hated.

I hate that your diplomacy strength actually impacts the main deal.

That might seem crazy so let me clarify. To me, good negotiators know the real value of a deal, which is based on their needs and wants. They don't let their emotions influence things too much. So if Deal X is good right now, it should still be a good deal if you love me, or still a good deal if you hate me. Deal-making should be influenced by how badly you need something, not how you feel about me at the time.

Now to me high diplomacy should get you "extra bonuses" that the enemy isn't aware of. This is the side deals, the under the table stuff, the bribing of the assistants, etc etc. From the opponents perspectives, they got a perfectly fair and reasonable deal....its just that you happened to get a little extra in the form of some extra yields or something. The opponent doesn't "lose" these yields, you just get them.

Likewise, a hostile opponent may not want to deal, might shut me for example, but its silly for them to make outrageously unbalanced deals that I am not going to agree to. That's just a waste of time and energy. Either have them not deal with me (which is fine), have them go to everyone else first, but if they are dealing with me have them be fair deals I actually would consider.

One thing about the change where you can't colonize out of your area of influence that is super annoying, is that it seems that you need constructors at the start of the game now. Like I started a new game, on my first turn I find a good planet, but that's it, I can't do anything with it as my colonizing ship won't go that far. So it's now pointless to have them early game, would be much better to start of with constructors to build Starbases. 

Might make sense to combine several starbase types so you dont have to spam them everywhere.  Instead of having dedicate influence starbases you could have military and economy starbases generate influence in different ways.  For example military bases could generate influence the way comms bases do now (power projection) while economy starbases would boost the influence generated by planets in their radius.

I also think its time to take a serious look at Taxes. Is this feature even needed anymore? Lets consider:

• Most tax values never get used, high and max taxes are very penalizing on approval, and approval is way too important to your core yields.
• This functionality can mostly be replaced with polices. Now if I want to "go high or low taxes" I can just select policies to do that kind of work.
• It makes the math of money more complicated than it needs to be. When I get 1 mineral, hey I got 1 mineral (once my approval is mostly maxed). When I get 1 income.....well hold on a minute, you only get 33% of that due to your tax rate (not to mention crime). So now money numbers have to be hyper inflated to mean anything, and so they are highly out of sync with the value of other yields. 

I honestly think you could just throw taxes into the fire, reshift income yields in line with Manu and Research....and call it a day.

One hopes you are correct, but I could see it happening.