Master Wishlist Thread

[Data]

introducing race pick ala MOO2 or other similar games, to extend the customization and gameplay

[unclean]

I like the fuel system, but I think there's still a lack of feedback for it that makes things hard for new players. For one thing, there isn't an easy way to tell how much fuel is in a system, and when you run out the game doesn't tell you, all you see are your ships wander off. On top of that it's hard to tell exactly how much fuel a group of ship needs, which makes things difficult if there isn't enough fuel for them in a system.

I made a mockup that I think would help improve the situation:


The idea is a slider that shows how much caslon and hydrogen are at spaceports and refueling ships (up to 20,000 each since that seems to be the max), and if you have a group of ships selected and mouse over it shows how much fuel they will consume when they refuel there.

It's a rough idea, but I think some form of it would be really helpful.

[Shark7]

tm.asp?m=2727075

That is the discussion thread for the food and farm system I'd like to see. While it certainly doesn't have to be that complicated, some kind of food production and consumption system that would help slow and limit empire growth would be a nice edition.

[Wreck]

I am surprised this is not already in the Master Wishlist, so I'll mention it.

I want a message system like that found in EU2 (and, I assume also EU3).  EU2, for those that don't know, has a realtime system similar to DW.  (There are actually "turns" in EU2, namely days.  But they fine-grained enough, and there is no way to automatically pause on each day, nor would this be desirable.)  Thus, the messaging needs of EU2 and DW are very, very similar.  But EU2, old though it is, has a much superior messaging system.

The EU2 message system works as follows.  Every kind of message in the game -- and there are probably more of them than in DW -- can be configured by the user as to how it will display.  (This can be done in two ways: (1) on a master list of all messages, and (2) on a particular instance of each message.) There are the following options:

• do not display this kind of message at all
• display only in the scrolling list (similar to what DW does at the top of the screen)
• display in the list, and pop up a nonpausing notification dialog
• display in the list, pop up a notification dialog, and automatically pause the game (stop time)

The third item in the list above is more for playing other humans, because it is rude to pause the game for every little thing.  Since I only play single player, I never use it myself.  However, I mention it for completeness and also because some people do seem to like it even for SP.

Another loosely related thing I dislike in DW is that it automatically unpauses when you dismiss a message that autopauses (i.e. letting the AI control some empire task but with "ask me").  This is sometimes desirable, but more often than not, not desirable.  And if you add many, many dialogs (as I am proposing), then it will become much more intolerable, because in most cases you must dismiss the dialog in order to give the orders that are necessary given the changed condition.

Oh, and since I am writing this anyway I will add my voice to second the good ideas related to messaging that are already in the FAQ, namely:

• more detailed messages (you can fit much, much more on a dialog than one line -- and should!)
• Order/Mission history for all ship messages
• Popup warnings for mission interruptions
• more messages overall

One more EU2-ripoff change I want: the scrolling list of messages should be ... um... scrollable!  I hate it when an event I was using to find a ship scrolls off, and I have to go manually find the thing.

Finally, let me add something not from EU2, which would just be nice.  Make all message dialogs be minimizable.  The minimized messages should queue up on the left side of the screen, just as diplo offers do now.  And the ones that block the game should probably be highlighted with a pulsing effect or something to make sure players don't lose track of why the game cannot be unpaused. 

[Shuul]

Combat and design refit
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2728587

[Webbco]

A stronger focus on Xploration and discovery in order to sustain immersion late into a game.

See tm.asp?m=2720910 

[Data]

+1

[J HG T]

Come up with idea for exploration today; Add some kind of artifact system to the game. You find different artifacts and other ancinet or forgotten technology from planets, much like ruins. These findings give your empire random bonuses (small or large depending on rarity) to different areas of your empire.
For example, 10% bonus to speed of all of your ships due to ancient mass effect tech. 15% bonus for shatterforce lasers due to extremely good quality "green gems" (don't remember the name [:)]) on some volcanic planet. 30% percent diplomacy bonus with Teekans 'cause you found old statue representing their ancient god, "Shai-Hulud".
I could spend whole day writing these but you get the idea. There are some of these bonuses in the game, but adding more of them with greater variety of effects would really add some depth to the world. Also, some of these bonuses could/should be shared with other empires for various benefits.

Come to thing of it, this is actually somewhat similar idea as bonuses and artifacts in Sins of a Solar Empire.

Exploration is one of those areas which enhancement would do only good for the whole game.

[Wreck]

I have always wanted a game where I could play being a galactic emperor -- and it was hard. Your government is unpopular, and rebels keep appearing. You, of course, put them down as fast as you can, but corruption is rampant and you are losing control...

DW is, currently, not that game. But I think with some modest additional programming, it could be.

First, let me second several ideas already raised in the suggestion FAQ.

• Migratory factors should include racial/diplomatic/governance factors. (Look, it may be difficult for USA to identify and deport, say, illegal Mexicans. But it should not be difficult at all for a high-tech empire to identify and deport monstrous insect-people.)
• pressured and/or forced eviction of unwanted species
• different levels of civil unrest starting with no taxes, damage to state property, etc.

OK, now "my" ideas, in this case largely stolen from EU2.

Several items of data are added to existing data structures. First, each army is tagged with a species, which it is assumed to be uniformly composed of. (This is already sort-of present, in the names of the units.) Also, each army unit is tagged with one of three owners: "empire", "elite rebel", "popular rebel". (Could add "pirate" to this set, if pirate armies were introduced...)

Second, each planet has a planetary government, which has one attribute: controlling species. (A second attribute, planetary government type, is a natural addition. But this is long enough, so I won't detail that.) There may be one controlling species, or none, but no more than one. (There will always be a controlling species for some types of empire governments, i.e. hivemind. But it may or may not be for others, i.e. democracy in a multi-species planet.)

Similarly, each planet may have a "popular" species: the dominant species in terms of numbers. Whenever one species is 60%+ of the population, it is the popular species. I would suggest that for "nice" government types (democracy, republic, way of ancients), the popular species is also necessarily the politically controlling one.

Now, here's how the above data are used.

There are two kinds of rebellions. One is the "popular" one (the popular species rises); the other is a "elite" rebellion (the political class rebels against the empire). Some general factors make both kinds of rebellion more likely; others make only one more likely.

Elite rebellions should be more likely to happen at a planet if the politically controlling species:

• is different than the species controlling the empire
• is the species controlling an empire which the owning empire is at war with
• is aggressive, stupid, reckless (use existing species attributes)

Popular rebellions should be more likely to happen at a planet if the popular species:

• is different than the species controlling the empire
• is different than the species controlling the planet
• is the species controlling an empire which the owning empire is at war with
• is aggressive, stupid, reckless

Both kinds of rebellions should be more likely when the planet:

• is unhappy (use "happiness" already present in DW)
• has few or no garrisoning military units
• already has rebel troops present
• has had no failed rebellion in a long time (see below)
• has no starbase(s) overhead, or unarmed/weak ones

If a popular rebellion happens, then the game should automatically generate rebel troops on the planet. Rebel troops are independent: they have a species, but no owning empire. Popular rebels are weak -- they have, say, one quarter the strength of normal troops of their species. (Ideally this should be done by making them start damaged, so later on they can heal up to full power.) However, they may be very plentiful: a rebellion should get say one unit of troops for every 100 million of their species on the planet.

An "elite" rebellion is similar in effect, but it gets fewer but better troops. Its troops are full-strength for their species, but the amount generated is only 1-4 units.

Once they happen, rebellions are resolved just as other combats are. If the rebels lose, it is simplest just to end it there. But DW might add a "purge" option for a bit more realism, particularly after a popular rebellion loses. In this case, the options might be:

• bring them in the government: rebel species gets political control. Failed rebellion counter is not set.
• mild purge: Political control by empire's species (if possible). Failed rebellion counter is set for 10 years.
• bloody purge: 1/100 of species on planet is killed. Failed rebellion counter is set for 20 years.
• decimate: 1/10 of species is killed or deported. Mild reputation hit. Failed rebellion counter is set for 40 years.
• genocide: 9/10 of species is killed or deported. Large reputation hit. Failed rebellion counter is set for 60 years.

If the rebels win (i.e. there are zero empire troops on the planet, and 1 or more rebel troops), then the planet should become rebel-controlled. When this happens, the owning empire loses any income from them, cannot build troops or bases/ships (on the ground), and cannot access planetary stockpiles of stuff. Orbitting bases are still controlled by the empire. The planet is still owned, and may be fully regained by timely enough military means. However, there is a high chance (say 30% per month) that it rebels and leaves the empire.

When a planet rebels, it may either go independent, (petition to) join an existing empire, or form a new empire. In all cases:

• Starbases should have a chance to defect.
• all "elite" rebel armies persist (owned by new polity of course)
• "popular" rebels mostly demobilize: 3/4 vanish. The others remain, with full strength as per their species.
• The new planetary government is controlled by whichever species had the most powerful military faction (elite or popular)

The choice of independence, own empire, or join existing should depend mostly on species. Species with lower aggression tend towards independence. Higher intelligence tend to want to join others. Existing and powerful empires of their species will tend to be chosen. The ownership of the local system should also have a role: if it has no owner (after accounting for the rebel planet's loss), independence should be more likely. Otherwise the existing owner should be a contender for new affiliate.

[Wreck]

I find the current system both tedious (since the player must MM like crazy to optimize scouting), and unfair (since AIs don't/can't scout optimally). Thus, I'd like the following changes:

First, relics should not be detectable simply by entering a system. You must actually scan the planet. It would also be nice for players if unexplored relics were marked differently than explored ones.

Second, although I agree it seems reasonable to let scouts see the existence of a planet, and its size and type simply by entering the system, I think it is debatable whether they should also be able to determine its quality without a nearby scan. So, add planet quality to the list of things requiring a nearby scan.

These two changes alone would help the AIs significantly, without any additional changes. AIs still would not be able to scout anywhere near as effectively as a player, but at least they'd get a reasonable share of relics.

However, I also want the MM nightmare to be addresses. Add a new mode for exploration; call it "quick scouting" mode. A system is "un-quick-scouted" if it has any known planet which:
(a) has a known but unexplored relic, or
(b) [if in own or unowned system] is currently colonizable, but uncolonized, and not scanned for quality
(c) [if in foreign-owned system, and checkbox for "settle in foreign systems" if on] ditto (b)
In quick scouting mode, the ship would:

• target a nearby un-quick-scouted system (more or less as it does now), and hyperjump to it.
• if system has known but unexplored relic(s), explore each one
• if system has currently colonizable planet(s) that are not explored, explore each one
• if fuel is half or less, and fuel is found in the system, go fill up
• if fuel is quarter or less, go fill up at nearest
• loop

AIs might vary in how they use this mode, but generally they should do what players do: build their first N scouts and put them on this mode. (For 250 stars, I find about 6-8 scouts will do the job, so maybe try for one scout per 40 stars.) Later scouts can determine resources and hunt for relics.

[Merker]

I've been told it's best to put my ideas from the thread in here, so here they are:

1. Military transport - basically, just make a new ship role called military transport, which is just a freighter which can be controlled by the STATE, and it's sole purpose would be to move resources to strategic areas or wherever they're needed.
The ship would have a new set of commands like: load cargo ... at ...; unload cargo...at....; run supply run between ... and ...(basically just continuously moves resources between two set locations).
This kind of new ship role would enable players to broaden their war tactics and would probably solve the fuel and other material supply issues. Of course, the problem might be in making the AI properly control the ship. A new resource need routine might need to be added. But for player use this ship would indeed be a boon.

2. Planetary military bases - Right now we can build military bases of all kinds in orbit of uninhabited planets to prevent colonization by greedy enemy empires. However, what I'm proposing is the addition of a new ship called "mobile command base" or something that can go to any uninhabited/uncolonizeable (except obvious things like gas giants) and make a 'military base' type colony. Basically it's just like any other starbase or monitoring station except it's on the planet, and so that planet can't be colonized until the base is dealt with. The base needs at least 1 troop contingent on it to exist, can house maybe a set number of troops, and has a maintenance cost(say like 2-3000 or maybe based on number of troops stationed so as to prevent abuse of them on the front line). But I do believe this would be preferable to the easily destructible orbital bases and the lengthening construction queue for the C-ship. They would also be bombardable without reputation consequences but same planet damage. Might make nice forward bases for troop contingents, or maybe a first step to colonizing a system.

3. Landscape modifiers - what I'm referring to is the existence of effects from the various space environments existent in DW.
For example, my favorite place to play in in any space game, be it X3, or Nexus the jupiter incident is an asteroid belt. Mostly because I can dodge enemy shots using the roids and turn their superior numbers into nothing. So in DW, an asteroid field would modify the stats of any ships already in there by let's say -50% visibility, -50% targeting by the enemy outside and -50% speed due to navigational hazards (or just +50% shields and -50% speed).
A star would add -50% visibility to all and maybe -25% shields due to rad damage for example, making sensor research a goal for commanders with the habit of fighting in orbit of stars. A nebula would add -75% visibility, -25% laser damage and -25% speed, making it ideal for covert strikes on enemy mining expeditions, or a place to ambush the heavily armed but poor sensors enemy fleet by your lightly armed but with much better detection equipment and engines strike force. It would be awesome if battlefield location actually mattered, and open up new tactics for guerrilla forces and strategy oriented players. Kind of hard to make the AI use them though, but through sheer luck, a sensor research oriented AI might get to beat your laser research oriented heavily armed fleet for example.

4. A most desired thing(for me) I have yet to see in any games is a PROTOSTAR, a star in formation. Might be neat to see it in DW, maybe make it be of extreme value for the informed commander, sort of like an El Dorado for miners. What I've thought about is a very radioactive and beautiful star in the center, with lots and lots of asteroid belts with roids containing rare materials. The closer to the star the more valuable and numerous the materials. But there's a catch: the star emits huge levels of radiation, so you need better rad shielding as you get closer to it. That could make the basis for a whole new tech tree of anti-rad armor, or just make the normal armor have a % of rad protection for each tech level, giving armor a whole new other role(since I've seen players claim it's mostly useless). Maybe also add radiation damage near stars, neutron stars and supernovas for unarmored ships. So to get to the richest things near the protostar you need some of the highest levels in armor research, multiple armor layers not stacking rad protection.


5. Illegal trade goods - these are a must for any empire dealing with corruption. And generally speaking, what one empire considers normal and legal, another one might think otherwise. So there should be new trading wares, relatively rare, that are illegal to some races and not to others. For example, the nabataya liquor might be just a mild drink for teekan but highly toxic and addictive for humans, so humans ban it from their colonies. There might also be an option to permit illegal trade or not. If your freighters are caught then you take a rep penalty and a decrease in relation with the empire you sent the goods to.
Also, pirates deal in wares illegal in your empire and sell them at your colonies, earning a profit and increasing their size, while your colonies get a development penalty for becoming addicted to the drugs/toxic stuff.
Goods illegal in an empire value 100 times more than their normal price, making smuggling EXTREMELY profitable, but the relationship damage considerable. However, illegal goods cause a development penalty for the colony that receives them.
Perhaps a new "scanner inhibitor" or "hidden cargo compartment" component could be added, but that might just complicate things.

6. Selectable trade goods - the ability to select which ones of the commodities that your empire has you want to trade with the other empires, including illegal wares mentioned in the previous point. If for example you don't want to sell your scarce illosian jade to the dhayut, who don't really need it, and only want to sell it to the wekkarus, who have a huge shortage of it on their colonies, you just select it in a new trade menu that can be opened for each race.
I think this could be worked out with the reserved resources mechanism that currently makes DW trade tick. The trade menu would just prevent one resource from being reserved for a specific empire removing the occasional need for a general trade sanction. Goods illegal for certain empires would automatically be blocked from trading with that empire, to prevent you getting rep hits if you don't want to trade them.

[Data]

good work, merker, even more detailed than previous ones on this
+1

[Merker]

BETTER PIRATES
There's a thread on the main forum in which people declare their dissatisfaction with the current limited life and immersion of pirates. And I tend to agree with them. My idea for making them better is this:

Make them like an independent colony in the sense of evolution. The pirate bases spawn further away from empires, and if they survive long enough, a nearby habitable planet is turned into a PIRATE COLONY, which basically is like an independent colony, acts like a pirate base, but harder to find, and their number and power of ships increases exponentially, the pirates get cruisers and such, and they can trade.
That colony, if it survives long enough becomes a PIRATE SYNDICATE, a small empire, which deals in illegal cargo, or if that's too complicated to add, trades with empires of bad reputation, that have many trade sanctions. For example: you manage to get the korrabian spice, which you keep for yourself and your ally and deny the Dhayut empire you dislike so much. The nearby pirate syndicate, however, seeing the opportunity takes spice from you and sells to the Dhayut for twice the price, making money and expanding its fleet and colonies, eventually turning into an empire of its own.
Pirate syndicates would become a means of dealing with hated empires, or obtaining goods otherwise banned from you by the others, also housing quite a formidable fleet, in case you're looking for mercenaries as well, or if you're looking for combat..., eventually becoming a threat to the middle-sized empire if left unchecked.

Pirates are such a COOOOOOL feature of this game, I believe they have been seriously overlooked. They really need a bigger role than to bother starting empires.

This idea would be so doable it would be a shame not to implement it. Go DW devs!!!

[Kakuzu]

Purging: When you conquer a world, you may choose to “purge” the population. The population vanishes for whatever reason. There’s no given explanation after you press the button. Whether you forced them to leave or killed them all is left up to the player’s imagination. Aggressive and less friendly races would “purge” newly conquered worlds more often than not. The Shakturi, for instance, would “purge” every world they conquer. In addition to the flavor, this offers a strategic twist. Purged worlds don’t need to be defended from enemy attacks since there’s no population to defend. Likewise, troops don’t need to be stationed on that world since there are not enough people to actively revolt. However, “purging” hits your reputation quite hard, and after the war, you’re left with a bunch of uninhabited planets.

Open/Close Borders: You may choose to open or close your borders to certain races. This way, you can found a race of only humans or only insectoids. Unfortunately, you don’t gain whatever racial bonuses you’d normally get from alien immigrants. Likewise, your population wouldn’t rise as quickly since you’re excluding certain populations from immigrating to your worlds. However, its nice flavor, and it would be realistic for certain races to close their borders (i.e. insectoids to humans).

Terraforming: There should be a technology branch that allows you to improve planet quality via buildings. For example, a technology called “Advanced Terraforming” allows you to construct an “Atmospheric Regulator”, “Radiation Absorber”, or an “Artificial Gravity Machine”. These buildings would increase planet quality by X% when constructed. The idea here is to take those less habitable worlds (i.e. below 50%) and turn them into paradises by constructing expensive terraforming equipment. The downside, however, is that these devices are great targets for the enemy fleet. Lower planet quality would mean a drop in population and production.

Recycling: Bouncing off the last idea, there should also be a technology branch for recycling. You can research recycling for key resources. X% of all consumed resources are recycled back into the market for further consumption. Subsequent technologies increase the percent of resources recycled. This would also allow construction of “Recycling Centers” that increase this boost. Overall, this would allow for a higher galactic population and “bigger” galaxies.

City Worlds: One hidden per galaxy, inhabited or uninhabited. A city world is a planet where its land area is entirely cityscape. A city world has a very large population but few resources. If we follow the previous two suggestions, then they’d have both terraforming buildings and recycling centers. The point of one of these worlds is recruitment, taxation, and commerce. Since they’re almost entire city, resource extraction would be impossible. The best example I can think of is Coruscant. The entire surface is covered in city, and its population is enormous. It imports raw materials but exports industrial goods, commerce, and culture.

I think these would add more flavor to the game.

[lancer]

Player Only Game Options

The Idea

I'd suggest a couple of small extras - in addition to the existing comprehensive set - that only apply to the Player, not the AI. Keep it simple.

First would be a check box like "Longer Construction Times" which if ticked adds +50% to all player initiated construction times such as for bases and ships.

The second would be another check box, such as "Higher Resource Useage". This causes all player constuctions (ships and bases) to require +50% more resources than they normally would. Eg. a ship component normally needs 4 Argon, now it needs 6.

The Sales Pitch

Reasons for adding both checkboxes would be to cater for the chunk of players, such as myself, that would prefer the option of having ships take longer to build and for resources to have more meaning.

As it only applies to the player there is no need to have to rejig the AI. They are optional settings that would take up minimal screen space. As both construction time and resource useage multipliers are liable to be global variables within the game it would - I think (?) - be relatively easy to implement.

As a bonus you would - in one fell swoop (cue trumpets and a drum roll) - shut down a lot of arguments on the forum between different groups of players regarding the direction that they think the game should take. Eg. those that like a more grognard approach vs. those that like a more streamlined game.

If you wished to make use of the options then they are there for the taking and if you not then you could happily ignore them.

Smiles all round, world peace and cheaper Caslon for the masses.



Cheers,
Lancer

[Merker]

1. Trade node
A New class of station called a trade node, that can be placed on long trade routes as a resupply for freighters, or be used to direct the creation of trade routes to your liking, maybe even around that hostile empire between you and your trading partner, or around that pirate-infested nebula. It could be coded to be considered as a colony is for trade and be used as a resource drop-off point even for longer routes, thus enabling the creation of custom trade routes.

2. More explorer control

Currently the exploration ship seems to not be so functional on manual. But maybe adding customizable AI control options could solve the issue. Example: the ability to tell the E-ship to focus on finding habitable worlds and not linger in every system for detailed scans, or find fuel sources or other rare resources then tell you about it. Perhaps an option panel for each explorer, so you can have dedicated explorers for resources and others for colonies.

3. Continuous laser beams
In DW I have yet to see a laser beam to my liking, as in a real beam, continuous from ship to target, like in Homeworld's Ion beams. It's not a requirement, or really urgent, or necesary, and the lack of it would never make me stop playing, but I thought I'd share the idea in case the devs want to add more weapons.
Picture first to explain the concept:


The concept is based around different resistances for both shield and armor types, so now researching those techs has more meaning than just durability. So if for example you research molecular shields and reactive armor and your newest enemy has mostly researched beam weapons as offensive potential you can easily take on his more numerous but beam-only equipped shields, but if he has pozitron shields and you incidentally only have classic blasters(which are weak versus pozitrons, strong vs molecular shields) then it's just going to be a long battle, and you'll actually have to use TACTICS[:'(]

4. Crew resource.
The concept of crew for ships has been approached multiple times. It might be a very complex thing to add though. So I tried to think of an easier way to implement this.

What if crew was actually a resource, like fuel, generated at colonies and maybe spaceports. The bigger the colony, the greater the generation speed; perhaps a space academy facility could be built to speed up the process. Each hab module on ships and spaceports would have a certain amount of crew, the greater the number the more crew you have on the ship/port. Each ship starts fully crewed from port. The life support component gets a critical role here. Once that gets damaged crew starts dropping rapidly, the only thing that could stop it being the repair components fixing the life support or the arrival at a spaceport.

Once a ship is crew-less, it turns into a derelict, and can be claimed by any empire that brings a C-ship. C-ships would carry some extra crew aboard for such eventualities. So, this would probably make huge derelict fields possible during actual gameplay, but also make the process of claiming them more difficult.

[cookie monster]

When another empire asks for mining stations etc, it would be nice if you could hotlink to the location.

Rather than having to scroll and zoom.

Loading troops at planets with multiple ships takes too long. It's a PLANET, I think a large amount of ships can land at the ''Military Base''.

This is also compounded when migrant transports are docked.

I realise I can build larger troop carriers, but still...

[Bingeling]

I think you can also build more docking bays on your space ports? Or build space ports in the first place.

I would not expect a spaceship to ever enter the atmosphere.

[Data]

Planetary entrenchment

Orbital bombardment damage cannot be avoided but we could have different levels for this (underground pop and buildings, on the surface but fortified, etc) to reduce the damage.

[jrhindo]

Hi, I have a couple of suggestions to submit and try to improve this great game!
-All celestial bodies should be colonisable (except suns ofc). Gas giants could have floating cities, think of a city like Bespin of star wars but completely isolated from the planet's atmosphere. Same for all the useless rock planets, they should be colonisable just build a domed city. This kind of colonisation obviously require engineering skills and some thourough research before actual attempts, and could be quite expensives, but would sure give more strategic possibilities.
-Space cities! Also acting as space port and dockyard. Very expensive things to make and avaiable late game, but would provide a very useful forward base.
-Colonisation attempts should have the possibility to fail. Simple realism and would slow down a bit the expansion of empires.
Edit: -And, something maybe less important, Independent Nations should be a mini faction of their own just like the pirates and you should be able to get information from them and do basic things like absorb them by intimidation/love, or support them to become a real empire (no need for free trade deal, it is automatic no?).