We have some pretty specific things in mind for a micro-expansion that adds more diplomatic features to Sins of a Solar Empire.
But before we talk about them, we'd like to hear - specifically - what you'd imagine seeing in a $10 diplomacy oriented expansion for Sins.
I have already posted some of these on the forums in the past, but they should also be here on the official suggestions thread i think:
- Why is the limit for ship name lenght so strict? I cant even name my ship TDN Prometheus or TDN Enterprise without cutting off last letters. And I can only dream of TDN Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (destructive god of the morning star, dawn, and of the east - Aztec mythology). At least increase it to something more reasonable...
- Temporary cloaking for ships and anticloak technology (tiberian sun anyone?)
- Could you add a button to divide fleet in two fleets with equal numbers of ships of every type? Dividing fleets for example into one attacking and one defending fleet is generally pain in the ass. I think this could be automatically done with some clever algorithm. Also, I would like to see something like fleet manager in Galactic Civilisations.
- a Bug: I have noticed that strikecraft can fly straight through a star or planet
- I would really like the idea of being able to fleet down. If u loose a few planets and resources you can drop as many tech levels in fleet support as you want at any time for some payment if you really need econ back... BUT to fleet back up you have to research all over again investing the resources (and time!) necessary to do so. *Sorry Sarudak for stealing your post, but it was easier than typing it all over again.. hope u dont mind...*
- planetary invasions (they will take longer and cost some resources, but developed planets wont be absolutely destroyed after invasion, and maybe u could get slaves?)
- At least minimal amount of flak for capital ships and starbases (dont be afraid, it will be cool, and if u want to defend against larger amount of SC, u will still have to have a lot flak frigates)
- add planetary defenses located on planet surface(ground to orbit missiles, lasers....)
-asteroid fields IN systems that have some tactical effects(only fighters/bombers and frigates can navigate them, caps and cruisers cannot)-Diffrent gas clouds alot like armardasome that drop shields.. some that increase shield regen or interfere with diffrent kinds of weapons.
-minor races like in GalCiv 2
-space creatures(giant amoeba) -destroyable ship subsystems(weapons, engines, sensors...)
-trading planets, ships, technologies and negotiating optionslike in GalCiv 2-capturable key resources like in GalCiv 2-capturing ships and stations-more planetary slots and more powerful broadcast centers-interstellar phase lanes(not all systems autoconnected)-beig able to turn off long range jumps technology so ucan make systems connected only through wormholes, not star and have to fight yourway through (like jump nodes in FreeSpace)-binary star systems, blackholes...
most of these suggestions arent diplomacy related, so i will understand if they wont be included in the upcoming expansion. But then dont be surprised when i will post them here again when next expansion suggestions thread will be online, so they dont get forgotten.. (just copy-paste again)
Another thing I want... the ablity to force random aspects of the early game (number and type of resource extractors and number and type of millita, and so forth) to be not random... in other words... I am tired of maps where the player positions are equal as far as planets... but my enemie's side of the map ended up with 7 more extractors than my side of the map... and he had very little milita to block his colonization while my side has tons.
And so forth.
I was thinking again, and I came up with this:
A new logistic structure. Possibly called a Tourism Port or something, I could see this taking advantage of some of the planet's unique resources. This structure would send out cruise liners and civilian ships that would head to planets with unique resources, like the Glaciers and such, and would generate more revenue. To make this function diplomatic, an added feature would be that you would lose reputation if you attacked the civilian ships sent out by the Tourism Ports. Sort of a taboo against attacking noncombatants.
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I AM A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR!
Cadalancea
Stormfall Prelude
What I want is for trade to revamped and made all shiney looking:
First there needs to be convoys, which are basically just groupings of trade ships. There should be a setting where you choose the number of convoys from dozens to one giant trade armada. The smaller ones would be faster but would make less credits all while being at more risk of attack. The bigger ones would make much more cash but take more time to exit a system. Basically convoys are all about risk vs profit. If your a generally peaceful empire with little to none enemies, you can afford to specialize your convoys by making them smaller and maximize profit. If you're at war at in signifigant level, then you'll want to keep your ships as close as possible so there is less chance of the entire convoy being annihilated.
Secondly, this tieing into my first point, the enemy and pirates should really ambush your ship:
Pirates need to have small destroyable outposts that randomly spawn near area's of trade. After a little while they begin spawning ships which procede to raid the convoys. After looting a bit, the scaliwags can upgrade their outpost to starbase level. Now I know what you're thinking "What if the player doesn't have the resources to destroy the mighty pirate fortress?" Well then you could just pay the toll. Ten seconds after entering the gravity well with the pirate starbase, you should recieve a notice demanding some credits, which could be set one autoaccept if you so choose. The amount of these credits depend on how big the convoy is. Even if you manage to destroy the starbase, it's only a matter of time before another respawns randomly at some point at you trade route. This means that you can never destoy the pirates as after a period of say 30 minutes they'll come back. To prevent a massive amount of pirate starbases there should be a max of one pere system. While this might persuade people to immediatly destroy pirates on sight, there should be some benifit to cultivating them, somewhat like a fungus. After you've been doing business with the pirates for a while, you could offer them jobs as a sort of mercenaries. Using the credits they recieve from your tolls, they build a fleet from which they complete the missions. The more money they get, the more ships they have, and they higher likely hood of success they have.
Now that I'v had my spiel on pirates, I'd like to discuss how the player and ai could become privateers. Empires should be able to set their fleets to a sort of "toll" mode. This is where an enemy or neutral ship passes through space where the fleet is, they have to pay a price not to be attacked. The feature is particulary interesting as it could have many diplomatic ramifications. While an enemy might more than not refuse the toll if they have the strength too, a neutral would begrudingly accept it. Even so you would lose favor with the people you extort turning enemies into mortal ones and neutrals into the first. Trying to toll in another's territory can make even your most stalwart allies hate you. Alternatively, you could gradually gain favor with the neutrals for letting their ships pass unfettered through your territory, a sort of "free-space" thing. All this would be slow mind you, so a one time toll for 5 minutes isn't going to get you enemies, at least not immediatly.
Convoys need defenders:
I was thinking earlier how players might combat pirating without bending knee or sending their entire out to hunt criminals. Then I though why not let them have their own computer controlled warships following them around and creating a perimeter around the convoy? It could come in a series of upgrades which gradually decrease the ratio to which these defenders are applied, like for example one light frigate per 10>5>3 trade ships. As the convoys get bigger so do the ships given to them. These ships would enable convoys to travel through dangerous space with at least some symblance of security, allowing them to out run ambushes by pirates with minimal losses. After they are destroyed, they respawn with convoy after a time, draining a bit of profit from your trade as the corporations manning the trade ships scramble to hire captains to defend them. There could also be another tech related to that, making it less a drain to hire these mercenary captains to defend the convoys.
Good ideas. I'd also like options to feed more than 250 at a time. (How about an option to feed 1000 credits instead?) Also, please fix the problem of different planets sometimes being right on top of one another or overlapping one another; it's very annoying.
Although ship cloaking on the face of it appears as a graphical feature, it does have the obvious gameplay mechanism of permitting a player to do some dirty dealing and spying highly relevant to this phase of the expansion plans.
- You could spy on your allies to see if they are keeping to their agreements
- You could sneak off to make private diplomacy agreements elsewhere
- You could ambush your allies in an attempt to blame other factions and provoke a response.
This ability would need to be combined with an additional argueably more powerful tech to cloak or hide a battle from the view of a target player for a limited period.
It would also lead nicely on to strategies where a player may lay some bait with its own cloaked fleet to counter such measures, enhanced ping scan to reveal the presence (but not the identity of a cloaked ship), and even an ability to see if a faction has researched cloak technology.
Good fun all round I would say.
a few good points, I'll go through some:
shipnames - agree
cloaking - interesting.
fleet split - well, theoretically interesting, but how pracital is it? first, you'd not always want half of your fleet stay back, but maybe only a third or less. and secondly, if it does an even, by-the-maths split, you'd maybe end up with ships useless in defense like structure busters or sieges (provided you ever built those). plus, how about capships? in some cases, the fleet is strong because of capship synergies. separating them due to an automated algorithm could be bad. again, basically an interesting idea, but I'd see too many problems in practice.
fleet research downsizing - meh, I don't have a problem with this. it should though only be changed at a cast, so no system like in warcraft III
planetary invasions - agreed. longer, riskier and costlier, but higher rewards aka already developed planet.
cap and sb flak - well, maybe. like two of flak frig banks and twice or three times as much for the sb itself. wouldn't make much of a difference, but it would be nice just for the sake of it.
surface to orbit defenses - well, how would those work? that would mean basically only capships and siege ships can attack and destroy those. that would either make them totally uber or - because they cannot really be destroyed easily - their dmg would be so low as to make them irrelevant. if someone comes up with an idea that works well gameplay wise, I'm all into it, but right now I'm sceptical
effects inside (planet) grav wells - agreed. maybe even made the suggestion myself at some point. some combination of those neutrals' effects with planet would make it a lot more interesting. how about a planet hidden in nebula ( new caprica anyone?) or with an asteroid field nearby. it's probably rather difficult with the engine, but definately something I'd like to see. good way to make some planets extra special.
minor races - definately agreed
space creatures - agreed
destroyable subsystems - nice idea, but impractical with the scale of battles
key resources - interesting, would require several changes, but sounds good.
freespace style interstellar play - let's leave that to modders and map builders. there are one or two maps that are sort of like that. many, small starsystesms, only connected via wormholes
also, a small idea from my side: I think pirates should less of a countdown machine, but show a little more initiative outside those things. you know, small groups of pirates could wander around or lurk, waiting for trade ships to ambush and the like. heh, could make capturing neutrals a bit harder, if you run into pirates every once in a while. actually, maybe the pirates would even have a ship that conquers them back. so you'd not only have to contest with other players, but pirates for those valuable neutral roids.
a few good points, I'll go through some:fleet split - well, theoretically interesting, but how pracital is it? first, you'd not always want half of your fleet stay back, but maybe only a third or less. and secondly, if it does an even, by-the-maths split, you'd maybe end up with ships useless in defense like structure busters or sieges (provided you ever built those). plus, how about capships? in some cases, the fleet is strong because of capship synergies. separating them due to an automated algorithm could be bad. again, basically an interesting idea, but I'd see too many problems in practice.surface to orbit defenses - well, how would those work? that would mean basically only capships and siege ships can attack and destroy those. that would either make them totally uber or - because they cannot really be destroyed easily - their dmg would be so low as to make them irrelevant. if someone comes up with an idea that works well gameplay wise, I'm all into it, but right now I'm scepticaldestroyable subsystems - nice idea, but impractical with the scale of battlesfreespace style interstellar play - let's leave that to modders and map builders. there are one or two maps that are sort of like that. many, small starsystesms, only connected via wormholesalso, a small idea from my side: I think pirates should less of a countdown machine, but show a little more initiative outside those things. you know, small groups of pirates could wander around or lurk, waiting for trade ships to ambush and the like. heh, could make capturing neutrals a bit harder, if you run into pirates every once in a while. actually, maybe the pirates would even have a ship that conquers them back. so you'd not only have to contest with other players, but pirates for those valuable neutral roids.
Fleet split - Very useful it would be... I often end up with one very large untactical fleet because Im too lazy to split it manually into smaller ones. The way I see it is not just dumb by the maths split, but clever algorithm which will ensure every type of ship will be in both fleets. Also u can set the number of resulting fleets, so it wont be just split in half. I dont know how other players do, but I always keep sieges and torpedo cruisers in separate fleet and I think its not so big problem that can halt the idea. I will be very useful in emergencies when u are suddenly under attack on more fronts at once and every second matters, especially in multiplayer when you cant pause the game. And yeah, capships could be a problem, but separating fleets is pain in the ass because of smaller ships. Its not so hard to eventually fix a few capships manually after frigates and cruisers were split automatically.
surface to orbit weapons and destroyable subsystems - like flak on capships, just for the sake of it (destroyable subsystems could be paired with capturable capital ships and stations to add whole new dimension to the game.. imagine having to protect your disabled lvl 10 capship from attackers trying to capture it until it heals itself or repair ships arrive..)
pirates - agree, pirates definitely should ambush trade convoys, thats how its meant to be in all sci-fi stuff... and they should evolve with players, because in later parts of the game, they are weak as a tea...
ya some kinda of fleet management screen would be REALLY REALLY great. it would help us gather a fleet at a rally point and then redividing it into strike groups quickly. the screen would have access to the fleet controls (create, leave, formation, attack orders) and access to the rename feature.
a comment of some of the trade stuff from before...
i really dont want to micro building trade ships, but being able choose between auto/manual trade route might be nice. and having a convory group that you can add warships to for defense would be cool. then, i could have an established primary trade route in the rear of my empire and assign a couple of light carriers to it as a guard.
I wasn't saying fleet split was a bad idea, I was sceptical as to how it could be put to good use. that said, I sort of do have an idea for it in mind. some here would probably have played imperium galactica II and this split fleet screen could be the basis. more or less a transparent overlay, where you could click all the ships over to the right side of the manager that you want to go to the new fleet.
my revamped idea would go like this: same overlay, but at top you have a few sliders. first, the number of fleets you want to split it into, standard setting would be two. and then for each fleet a slider indicating the % of original ships you want it to have. lastly, there could be a setting that switched between different types of fleets like 'offensive', 'defensive' or 'support', that would prioritise the type of ships that go into the screen.
so, basically you select your fleet, bring up the screen and go:
3 fleets
40% fleet 1 - offense
40% fleet 2 - offense
20% fleet 3 - defense
nice, clean, simple, I'd say.
Sure ship names would be nice, but what you mod to have thousands of ships? are you going to spend hours programming in the names sure, you could seperate autoship names by class (as done in Aramada II) but seriously, the String files would probabaly reach 100mb, and it probably won't be even filled with all the names you wanted.
As for cloaking, the ability to cloak is already done, but to be fully done, the game needs to be changed. so I agree, but there should be an ability to increase your cloaking strength, and cloaking detection system.
As for ship movements, the fighter movements in Entrenchment is great, however, this needs to be improved. Ships running purposefully into asteroids, buildings, other ships, etc could at least be fixed. Also, when ships are moving as a fleet, give the option of moving as a fleet but in no specific formation. Maybe a command that tells to move a formation or in general direction.
As for planets, sure making them as solid as the buildings are nice and when explosion hit the planet surface, it should do some planetary damage.
As for damage per say, when ships explode, don't they damage other ships in close vacinty? (or can this be done in entrenchment)
As for free space, maybe a planetary system, maybe it isn't so round... so it can act like a boundary.
The thing is with capturing ships and stations is that do you have the techs to use them, sure if you are doing for the same race you could use it immediately but for other races how would we do it, like C&C you have to research it just to re-use it.
Well, as for more planetary slots and more powerful broadcast center, you could mod the entity files and then get it...
Interstellar phase lanes(not all systems autoconnected)
beig able to turn off long range jumps technology so ucan make systems connected only through wormholes, not star and have to fight yourway through (like jump nodes in FreeSpace)
Well you could just use one star or remove the tech from each player. No phase lanes to the star. just pure wormholes
-binary star systems, blackholes...
mod
As for planetary invasion....instead of bombing your enemies to bits and then re-colonizing, using the diplomacy, you could "pursade" population to join you as is.
i havent played that game before, and your description sounds almost overly complicated to me. why not have a column with your fleet in it (similar to the tree). there is a second column representing the new second fleet. drag and drop ships over. since its using the existing tree control, it would have the pinned ships and stacking options available. there could be a button on the bottom to add additional columns for more fleet splits. that way, its drag and drop with the familiar tree view.
Ehm... maybe u didnt get me.. I was talking about ship name lenght limit (in characters/letters), which is currently set to 13 characters. That is just not enough for some famous ship names (Enterprise, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli... ) especially when has to include prefixes (TDN). How about increasing it to something more reasonable? Autoship names count doesnt bother me...
another idea: naming fleets!
'cause I'm too lazy to read all 9 pages, I'll may end up suggesting things that may have already been suggested.
at the top of the page ShotManLaslo noted that you shouldn't have a name limit for renaming caps. I totally agree, as I once wanted to rename my Sova 'TDN Karamazov' to 'The Brothers Karamazov'. The 2nd is the name of a book. Where'd ya think they got it? But all I could put was 'Bro Karamazov'. Not even a period for the abbreviation!
Also, I'd like to see the TEC's starbase get some refinement enhancements. They are the economical juggernauts after all.
ShotManLaslo, I agree with the naming fleets abilities. That would be awesome.
This being a diplomacy minded expansion set, I think they should add a meter to measure the consequences of your actions. For example if your a peaceful guy, the meter would mark you so. If your some beligerant conqueoror, then the meter would tell you and all the ai you are. This all would affect your dealings in the game, directly and indirectly. Being peaceful would mean your society would be more open to the universe, and as a result your trade would increase. Also when trying to make a deal with an empire equal to or stronger than your own, you would have more results. Smaller more insular empires would be the opposite, as they are most often hardened into mistrust to larger benevolet powers. If you're war-like, your civilization would reflect it. Ships and military tech would be cheaper, while social programs would command a higher expense do to the civ's disregaurd for personal welfare. When diplomatically dealing with empires you would have a higher chance of itimidating the, basically manhandling the smaller ones, pushing the equal ones, and commanding the disrespect by the more powerful ones who see you as pathetic.
You would start in the middle of the meter in the beginning of each game, but by midgame your morality should be well decided. If you don't like your empire morality, you can spend credits in game to change it, maybe reflecting the government spending immensive effort to change. Some research might even make this cheaper, for example the TEC's master politicians would have an easier time than the hivemind of the Unity.
Some technology might even have a required morality. I always thought planet destroyers like the Novalith were a little wrong for a peaceful society, so maybe to be able to research and use it, you would have to have a ruthless morality.
I whole heartedly agree with the idea of embassies and consols being built around planets. Maybe by building an embassy around another empires homeworld, you would gradually get them to like you more. It would be a slow process so it wouldn't happen immediatly. However someone mentioned the enemy destroying your embassies to decrease your favor with the targets homeworld. My additition is to have spys, if they are implemented be able to target the embassy and for a large some destroy it.
They could also destroy other structures at different prices, depending on their importance. It should always exceed the price of the structure so its not spammable. This means the player will have to strategically choose his targets as it will be too costly not to do so.
One last thing is the idea of system capitals being implemented. They would require research, and wouldn't be nearly as powerful as empire capitals. Not only is this realistic, but it would greatly increase the taxes collected do to increased alliegence. You should also be able to transfer empire capitals to these at a lowered cost.
SOASE is a great game because it's streamlined and fluid. Yes, it needs far more options, but nothing too complicated that would bog down the action.
Here are my suggestions and reinterpretations of other peoples' suggestions.
Part 1
Diplomacy
First Contact
Seeing that diplomacy will be revamped, the races obviously should begin either with a mutually neutral stance (50%), or with some mutual distrust (25%). Maybe difficulty settings would dictate this.
First Contact with another empire should be important in setting the initial tone for future relations. Should you GREET emmissaries of another empire? Or REBUKE them? The GREET option gives an automatic +5% boost to diplomatic relations, hinting that future treaties might be in the air. REBUKE should give a -15% penalty, hinting that distrust and competition might be in the future.
Diplomatic Effects of War
Empires should remember the wrongs they have endured at the hands of others, along with the signs of friendship they received.
- If you declare war on a Neutral empire, they will remember your aggression. Even after the war is officially over, you will still have -15% relations with them for 20 minutes afterward. Even if relations rapidly improve, they cannot be perfect.
- If you declare war on a Neutral empire, other Neutral empires with whom you are in contact will be slightly alarmed by your display of aggression (it makes them nervous, wondering if down the road they might be next). In this case, relations with all other Neutrals go down by -5%. But if you declare war on a Neutral who is fighting another empire, the latter will like you. Relations with the latter automatically improve by 10%.
- If you declare war on an Ally (the ultimate backstab), relations will be -30% for 30 minutes gametime after the war concludes.
- However, you can't just declare war on an Ally if your rating with them is 90% or more. This is not realistic. (In real life, America is just not going to attack Britain or Canada over night, for example.) Instead, if you want war with a 'strong' ally, you have to chip away at the positive outlook that your empire and the allied empire has created over time. Then you can get an excuse to attack, or provoke them into attacking you. When relations become strained to 65% or less, after certain incidents have happened, then something has the chance to explode.
- If you wiped out an enemy homeworld, relations thereafter will be -35% for 35 minutes gametime. (However, if facing major defeat, the AI will still seek for a ceasefire/neutral stance by offering concessions in order to survive.)
- For every time you get caught in esponiage spying, relations will drop 3%.
- For every time you get caught in sabotage or other forms of covert ops, relations will drop 5 to 15%, depending on the severity of the damage.
- Engaging in combat with the enemy forces of a Neutral empire or the enemy forces of an Ally should increase your happiness rating with those empires. For every time you destroy 1 ship belonging to an enemy who is attacking either a Neutral or Ally, your empire relations will go up .5% with them. Example: You blow up 12 ships attacking a Neutral, so the Neutral's stance towards you increases by 6%. Soon they want to make friendly treaties with you.
- If your ally is an AI empire and if it asks for help, and you don't help in the way it wants, then relations with that AI empire should deteriorate according to a formula. Every time your ally calls for help in war, either by assigning a specific mission, or simply asking you to destroy enemy forces, and you don't respond in a reasonable time, relations should drop by 10% increments.
Next up....
Diplomatic Actions
Diplomacy is a deadly game.
Not really they had just signed a nonagression pact.
Geez. A piece of paper is one thing, the actual relations is another.You can have 100% relations in Soase and yet not have a peace treaty.Hitler was always going to attack Russia. The nonagression pact was just play on his part.Stalin on the other hand strongly believed in Hitler's good intentions. He was so convinced they were good friends that he waved off all reports of Wehrmacht activity in Poland months before the invasion on Russia. Stalin did nothing to safeguard himself.
In other words.
Hitler played with Stalin using political promise and bluff so that Stalin liked him above 90%.Nevertheless he attacked.
If this above suggestion passed, Hitler would not have been able to attack Russia because Stalin liked him too much."Oh, poor comrade, how could I want to kill you and take your lands. You liked me so much. I'm sorry, I'll retreat."
Since you are asking, the brief answer is, "Please! No Diplomacy Expansion!" Tedious diplomacy will detract from the dynamic flow of the game. Adding Diplomacy is a step backwards towards turn-based strategy that really doesn't fit what is essentially a smoothly flowing combat game. Then too, it would add nothing whatever to online play.
Sure, you can add government types, you could throw in religion; but how many players really want to be anything other than an absolute dictator? I like being a dictator! If I want an ally, I'll make one and lock teams.
1. Fix the game that you have, first of all. There are issues, you know about them.
2. If you want to add another expansion, then market to the demand; to do that, look at what is popular already. Look at 7 Deadly Sins! Do this, only more of it!
Or perhaps less of it. Even just an expansion with only enhanced planet types and more planet types alone, heck I'd pay $10 just for that! Throw in a couple new ships per side, bingo! Huge sales. Much money!
You are not going to sell a Diplomacy Expansion to anyone but the converted faithful, and I guarantee you half of them are not going to like it. New players will find the game with diplomacy even more baffling which will not help sales overall.
3. Want something to do right now? Today? Add a new section to this forum, and call it New Pilots, or New to Sinning or somesuch. The newbies should not wind up on gamefaqs trying to find out how to play.
Please, please just leave the diplomacy alone. Stick that in and you are opening a can of worms not easily recanned and alienating a lot of your player base who liked the game like it was.
I agree.. Things like trading techs, ships, planets or spies are okay, but but adding things like religions, political parties, governors and complicated relations is just too much for combat-oriented realtime multiplayer game. There are more important things to add than complex diplomacy stuff. As you said, 7DeadlyDins and graphics mods are good inspiration, along with threads like this.
I think that is just the point. I don't want sins to be purely about combat and preparation for combat. I have played more tbs than rts in recent years and I really like those dimensions and I would well pay for a well-built expansion in that direction. some of you aren't interested. fair enough. but a whole lot are. and don't forget that the online crowd is much the minority, there are quite likely far more ppl out there playing offline, so it can make business sense to cater to them too.
all those things are items where you might want to sit down and brood for a little while about what to do and I like that. I pretty much hate the rush and stress involved otherwise. maybe then rts just isn't something for me (anymore), but so far sins managed to be slow enough to allow this kind of thinking. at least if you're not played at breakneck speed. so, yeah, more of that too, it IS after all a hybrid between the two genres and right now it feels more like a really slow rts with some few extra features thrown it.
I've noticed that many people want cloakable ships to be able to sneak around, but there really is one way to provide all that without having cloaking. Simple: fog of war. We're all familiar with it, from Civilization to Age of Empires, but Sins doesn't have it. Sure, you can't see enemy planets, but I'd say that jumping into an enemy or uncolonized system shouldn't allow you to see EVERYTHING in the gravwell. POssibly it could be made so that ships can only see a little bit at a time. This way, you could try and sneak ships through areas, or try and hide from a superior force. Maybe an asteroid field would add to this, and make the range you could see severely less. As an added bonus for scouts, which for me at least become nothing more than kamikazes (Advent) or useless (TEC&Vasari) once everything has been explored, they could have a much, much larger area of view in a gravwell then other ships. By adding fog of war, you could set up ambushes and such, and try and catch the enemy unaware.And that would be awesome.
Also, privateers. Add a few units (say two frigates and a cruiser) that you can control, and are not shown to be owned by you. Then add a bonus research feature which allows you to impersonate other empire's ships. That way you could use these imposters to sneak through enemy territory, because they would think you're their ally. Another way to do this would be to allow ships to get captured. I don't know if any of you have read Saints of a Solar Empire, but there's one part when the Advent captured a handful of TEC capital ships, and snuck them into a planet and into a big defensive area, and started shooting. It caught the TEC off gaurd, and inflicted a ton of damage. It would be nice to be able to capture, say, a Vasari ship, fly it to their home, and then..KABOOM blow them up while they're still confused. To make it fairer, so you couldn't capture a ton of cap ships, you'd have to stay within your fleet capacity.
One final thing. I don't know how hard this would be, but if it is possible, I'd like one change more than any other.
IF all our planets are destroyed, but we have one ship left that can colonize, please do not make us lose. That one ship could still colonize a new planet, and start again. That would add a whole new level of awesome, and create a Battlestar Galactica-esque feel when you lose all your planets, and all you have left are a handful of cruisers, a battleship and a Utility capship that can colonize, and you have to flee from your enemy in order to start life over.
I agree with the idea, I wa thinking about FoW in Sins too. Its not that unrealistic, if you think up the right technobabble to justify it, for example widespread stealth hull technology like american bombers have, allowing you to spot only enemy ships closer than certain distance, and ships mimicking background space radiation with their hulls.. The posibillities to enrich gameplay are many, like sneaking, ambushes, sensor/stealth tech, sensor stations...
Okay, I shouldn't have brought this up because it's going to start a red herring history conversation. Let's not make any more references to the details of real-world history.
I just wanted to agree with HeroicHerald in that a non-aggression pact is very different from a true, long-lasting alliance where two empires have fought side by side together in several campaigns. In the latter scenario, citizens of the empires and their rulers actually have developed trust and history together. Whereas a non-aggression pact is a treaty of strategic convenience, perhaps made very cynically, and the empires and rulers involved don't necessarily trust or like each other at the moment. The pact may set the groundwork for a real alliance in the future, or just simply delay eventual hostility.
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