THIS IS EDIT#41: This post will include idea by writing them in a brief format.
There have been numerous good ideas for this game that have been read. Sadly because we are human, some may have been forgotten or discarded. I am sure Stardock has a great creative process to remember them, but this list is a courtesy as there are currently 14 pages with about fifty posts on each one.
Alpha game ideas are welcome, not bug reports or what's absent (duh). Features already in game or planned to be will be removed from the list as they are added to the alpha/beta.
Here is a easy to read list of all the sane ideas I have found.
UNITS, COMBAT, AND RELATED FACTORS:
1. A enhanced ship leveling system.
2. Ship promotions: a system that gives more than HP as a reward.
3. A way to easily upgrade multiple ships at once.
4. Star base docking and joint tile defense with fleets.
5. Total planetary bombardment. (or the ability to modd it.)
6. Some kind of late game super weapon.
7. Heros/admirals/commanders/crews.
8. Logistics influencing ship range.
9. Logistics impacts planetary defense and invasion.
10. Capturing ships/star bases.
MODULES AND THE EPIC SHIP DESIGNER:
1. Science vessels. A module that adds a set amount of research.
2. Starbase population modules.
3. Different laser beam colors.
4. Over clocking components. To increase the size of a component for increased effects. The same for under clocking applies.
5. Old galciv2 design imports.
6. Starbase designer.
CIVICS, CIVS, AND IDEOLOGY:
1. Civics and ideology that influence the probably of rebellion.
2. More ways to make and prevent planetary rebellion.
3. More playable civilizations.
4. Multiple leaders per civilization.
IMPROVEMENTS:
1. "Dyson Ring" orbital Power Stations.
2. Improvement modules that increase output and efficiency, like; larger living quarters in factories=more output.
3. On/off switchs for improvements to reduce maintenance in hard economic times.
COLONIZATION, FEATURES, AND GALAXY SETUP:
1. Custom planets for custom races; a way to customize your home system at the game setup.
2. Partly random race selections in game setup.
3. Blind tech advancement.
4. Pocket universes; a area that is accessible from one tile. (Also a large. Area initially out of reach of colonization was wanted to. Like a mirror universe.)
5. Chosen completed tech branches.
6. Optional tech branch speeds;
7. Different race life forms; be like the Yor as robots, or organic, or something in between.
8. Partly Randomized tech tree cost.
9. Partly Randomized improvement cost.
10. Custom civ traits that can define your play style. Example: +% in laser damage, or +% armor.
11. Rainbow worlds: full of resources but weird stuff tends to happen if you colonize them.
12. A minimum threshold of habitability like in Galciv1. (what does that mean?)
13. A way to have homeless players in games, including the player.
DIPLOMACY AND TRADE:
1. Special dialogue between allies, and specific tasks.
2. More relation factors.
3. More treaties to give.
4. Defensive pacts.
5. Add Morgan Freemen's voice as a valuable diplomatic resource for the game.
6. Closed/open borders agreements.
7. Ships can get range a increases in allied territory. (for a fee possibly)
8. Civ credit ratings.
9. Request allies to research techs. And joint tech research.
10. Trade routes can yield production, research, or minor morale boosts.
11. Ultimatums and time dead lines for demands.
12. Planet liberation. (return the planet to the original owner, and you get all surviving troops and transport.)
13. The ability to loan/rent starports, or other things.
14. The use of collateral for trades.
15. Third party deals; have someone make a deal for you or with someone.
16. The ability to surrender to a faction becoming a vassal state; Doing so may result in losing your super ability or other bonuses.
18. Option to give credits per turn in diplomacy.
19. Population trading.
INFLUENCE:
1. Improve the way influence is calculated; economy, and morale can be factors.
2. Grant visibility within friendly borders.
3. Influence can help go to grow population.
4. Options when someone violates your closed borders agreement; destroying the single ship instead of a automatic conflict.
5. Planet influence tile limits; so a super planet can't go over a sector or a entire small map.
6. civs cannot colonize planets in your influence.
R.E.P AND POPULATION:
1. Asteroids that give research or economics if chosen.
2. Two populations; one civilian and one military.
TECHNOLOGY:
1. Researching multiple techs at once. (you may have to research this ability. Lol )
2. Research points can be dispersed and spent if you have multiple techs at the same time.
3. Unending technology research. tech branches become more potent the second time being researched.
4. Enable race research bonuses in specific tech areas. Example: Drengin get double the research points when researching Warfare tech.
5. Let Research Treaties allow techs either civs couldn't do alone.
6. Object based requirements for techs. (ships, starbases, and treaties)
VICTORY:
1. Allow Vassal states in conquest victories. (So everyone doesn't have to die.)
2. Capital victory. (conquer all enemy home worlds.)
3. Espionage victory. (Advanced intelligence on all civs, and spies on X% worlds for X turns.)
4. Economic victory. (be the richest and or most influential civ.)
5. Domination victory. (like the influence victory but with population)
6. Super technology victory. research all techs to win, (possibly twice or more) and build the winning super project.
7. No victory conditions selected. (for when you just want to play forever.)
AI, UI, PROGRAMMING, AND MODDING:
1. AI can declare war on first encounter with you in real games.
2. Applying to ALL game aspects, may there ALWAYS be a defense or a way to lessen negative effects via strategy.
3. In game editors. (like in civ)
4. Smarter automated scouting and way points.
5. Computer generated opponents.
6. A disable tag on events for easy modding or in game selection of controversial events.
8. Support for scripting languages that could allow players to add new game play mechanics.
9. Fully adjustable AI; Have one slider decide how much help you or the AI gets with production, research, and economy. And the old AI intelligence/algorithm slider to make a game with a more customizable difficultly.
10. Animated leader reactions/movement when given proposed deals.
EVENTS:
1. Civil wars. A group of planets rebelling at the same time for independence.
2. Auto trigger events button that isn't a cheat code. like the disaster button in SimCity.
3. Race specific random events. Like drengin declaring war if your Torian or machines Rebelling if your the Iconian.
4. An event were special abilities can stop working when they are needed. i.e Altarians not getting help in wars.
5. Random event missions for ships and your empire. (explore X sector or improve relations with X empire or be first to complete X tech for a reward.
6. Planetary events don't always have to be ideological.
ESPIONAGE:
1. Make spies easier to train; a flat rate to create.
2. Spy costs scale with the amount active; when a spy is lost the cost scales with the amount active, so the price isn't exponential if you loose spies. (if 1. is ignored.)
3. Spy interrogation; find out what civ sent the spy.
4. If you place a spy in a research lab, instead of nullifying the lab you can steal research points from the lab each turn. Or steal a tech easier.
5. Missions against planets that can increase the probability of revolt and loss of assets.
6. Spies are not detected the first turn of infiltration, unless your espionage score is high enough.
If you have a idea write it in a similar format and in as short as possible in a post and I'll add it. Keep it simple though, don't give me a headache with long paragraphs and riddled words.
Thanks you and remember, its easier for a dev to look at this every now and then vs every forum made. So double post a abbreviated version of your posted idea here.
DARCA
MORALE, CIVICS, CIVS, IDEOLOGY, AND IMPROVEMENTS:
8. "Dyson Ring" orbital Power Stations. (A Late game orbital super project built in space and supplies free power for factories, research labs and other buildings. Boosting output and reducing maintenance for all improvement on linked planet.)
I hope it's to your liking. I like the idea of electricity being a game element.
Darca civics is an option by itself to be more in depth than governments has more to do than just the private sector or just rebellions it really is a standalone option.
Well the research was half right, but there is an idea to also to combine tech research with multiple factions.
Different paths to the same tech.
Tech points to decide how techs are researched if you have multiple techs at the same time.
You could also loan you you factories to help others build stuff they want.
You could loan warships for when the war was done they would go back to whoever loaned them if they survived.
Can you add that on closed borders that you can't just know about the ships to arrest them, but you also have to catch them.
there aren't enough ideas or information yet for it to be separate.
Maybe. Once the illegal vessel is engaged it will be prompted to submit, and will be teleported out of your space after paying a small fine. Or destroy it on site, and still be justified. Or take it as a act of war and the invading civ will be blamed for war, the galactic community will see the invader as the aggressor. Or not care because you were bluffing anyway.
it's one thing to not have a open borders agreement, but how about closed borders agreements.
DARCA (all caps Admiral )
I felt I should chip in, considering I didn't before. This is just a cursory opinion.
7. Enhanced combat mechanics and direct control. ( I am vague because the topic is...delicate. Lets not discuss this one here. Please.)
8. Add some kind of late game super weapon.
6. Blind tech advancement.
HATE, HATE, HATE:
1. Tactical combat has no place in this game outside of a few minor decisions.
2. Late-game superweapons are used for breaking stalemates, and in Galactic Civilizations those are very real.
3. I would dislike having a forced 'blind' tech advancement, as I like to plan ahead and choose my strategy. I would really hate to be dragged along by the currents of chance.
The list is "comprehensive" meaning; 1 .complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something. 2. of or relating to understanding.
As long as the idea is sane, distinct, and I am aware. I'll put it in.
I wouldn't mind open borders or closed borders as long as you are required by a ship to catch the other player to do anything about the player physically.
You could still declare war or any other diplomatic actions.
As far as ships coming into your sector that would also require normal sensor capability. Not just knowing when someone is in your territory, but you would have to see it on your sensors.
A closed or open borders agreement is fine as long as their is no impregnable force field where none thing you don't want to can pass. You can make a diplomatic declaration with the intention to back this up. How this is taken internationally should be dependent on your relationships with other factions.
Can I just add some ideas to the pile. Maybe not the first time I have suggested them, but the first time for a while
1. Link the research tree to the universe more. Have resources impact on research (either some techs/branches are not able to be researched without a particular resource, or are faster with that resource).
2. Randomisation of tech tree. Omit some techs at startup, or randomise (a little, 10%) their tech costs in a structured way. This avoids there being a clearly defined path that is 'best'. Best will depend on the situation. In some cases, Beams will clearly be cheaper than missiles, so might be best to go that way. Next game, the reverse.
3. Randomisation of other costs. Similarly, change a little the costs of other resources at startup. Might have to shake up your 'normal' approach if suddenly your favourite building is a bit more expensive, etc.
My suggestions:
1) The ability to choose if you are an organic life form, cybernetic life from or a mixture (cyborg) in the custom race option (aesthetic change and some dialogs, even maybe diplomatic relationship with some races, like Yor not calling you “meat ball” if you’re a cybernetic life form or despise you utterly for dirtying the pureness of the machine (cyborg))
2) +1 to parallel research, I’ll love to assign % up to 3 different researches (make it an advanced option, the creativity trait only affect the main research and that the main research has to have at least 50% of the research income to avoid game breaking creativity exploits).
It's all been added guys and gals. Fyi I put part of the closed borders idea under 'influence' because it's border related, Admiral. And added a modules section because it's popular.
Thanks all of you for making this post better, I consider editing this a break from working! Lol.
Hey DARCA I know all you are writing is ideas that have been brought up, but some of these ideas that have been brought up on some of the posts I totally disagree. My question is is this post just a listing of ideas, or are we allowed to comment on how we disagree, or even the idea might be acceptable with stipulations? Again is it alright to comment on how we don't like an idea, or how it could be acceptable? This is not talking about the ideas I suggested, but its about other ideas that were listed.
Basically. There are no rules, and I have no real power to make any. I try to put any idea I read that has a voice or two behind it on the list. Along with being sane and distinct (distinct being original and not too similar to something else listed.)
But I would request that this forum not turn into a discussion on ideas you don't like. There are other forums for discussion, but I made this one like a catalog. I There's to much here by to many people to pick out someone's idea when I could edit the phrasing or description the next day. (I try to put some context with the idea, for better understanding.)
If you want to copy this forum and re-post it so people can say what they think about different ideas, that would be great. Everything comes in pairs eventually.
Wow, good job DARCA! Glad to see someone else likes the pocket universes idea.
Mods, can we get this pinned?
18. In the MODDING section. FYI I play small and concentrated with my strategy to off set my inefficiency compared to the AI. So pocket universes would be a must for my play style. (and it's cool. )
I didn't see many of my ideas up there; here are some of them, with examples for clarity:
Technology, Combat, and Espionage.
older components still having a use is a great idea I think. If you've played Armored Core V then you know how that's a good strategic idea. Just because something gives higher damage doesn't mean it's better. The new part could actually be worse in one category were your enemy is strong, leaving your fleets as a new anomaly. (and thanks for reminding me about the list. I was beginning to forget.)
There is a lot of nice ideas in this post and I only want to point something out. There are ideas that looks really nice on paper (e.g., pocket universe/dimensions) but in practice is a little hard to come up with a way to reduce the time spent in those features in game. (I’m not writing this to discuss pocket dimension or other ideas, it is just to make a point) Lets say, if you play in a small or tiny galaxy taking care of a second dimension would be feasible and not bothersome, but in larger galaxies it does become “another thing to manage that slow the turn”. Instead of having another thing to worry it would be better to have a better planetary management. It is the same with planetary invasion, it would be great to have a sort of real tactical combat but in larger galaxy where you are going to have hundreds of planets to conquer it’ll became a little troublesome and it’s not going to be used that much (in contrast, design your own formations, decide which one to use and the IA resolve the rest its good because you only design a small number of formations and can be used in a game or games).
* If you have an idea, think big. The size of the galaxy is a thing to consider, a tiny time consuming element per turn in small galaxies could become minutes per turn in larger galaxies.
* If you say something like “if you do not like it don’t use it, even though I’ll use it and I’ll use it against you” it can be that the idea suffer from big faults (it can be) and it is better to rethink it and see from other perspective.
* Think of in game balance. A lot of tiny small and almost no noticeable elements could lead to a complex network where it become almost impossible to balance something without crippling another. E.g, changing the rock-paper-scissor property of weapons-defence might lead to corner most players to use only one type of weapon because, in the long run, it is the best.
* Not because something is easy to program it mean that it’s going to be implemented mainly because, as stated before, it could lead to imbalances (or really hard to balance), time consuming task (even game breaking) or other factors (even lore wise).
I write it all because it’ll be great to see a lot of those nice ideas implemented and to help the developers to get better ideas, more detailed and easier to implement.
AI, UI, PROGRAMMING, AND MODDING: #21. Is your idea.
I think Stardock, with dozens of smart creativity people working on this nearly every day, for hours a day, (with alpha testers,) will end up making a game that's fun and immersive.
Now. Everyone has a slightly different idea of what a great game is. That part of why I made this list. People forget things they once thought were important and move on, neglecting something that was once a great idea, for the next big thing.
I believe. Fun and immersion is whatever the player wants, Stardock usually finds a way to creativity put player ideas in the game eventually, either in DLCs or expansions because it's the right thing to do. For the list I try not to put "absolute" on anything, because it's their job and passion to create and make changes for us. I mainly phrase them as ways they can be implemented.
All ideas deserve a way to be implemented or modded because it makes a better game. As for difficulty of programming, some of it is harder that others, but not many things in this world are easy and give a deserving reward. (this doesn't have much to do with anything, but I believe. If you have passion, determination, and creativity, there is no challenge to difficult.)
As for the money to players using a particular feature ratio, then a feature like tactical combat should have a higher priority in a future DLC than pocket universes or other features. So yes some ideas are better than others, but they deserve to be heard and considered.
DARCA, you're right, (by the way what does mean DARCA?). every people has a different meaning of what is a good game and everyone should be heard. And that is why is better to ensure a high degree of quality while, at the same time, trying to please everybody. But my point was (if you were referring to that) is that to have the most ideas implemented in a game at least they should think more or less in the same way that a developer does in term of gameplay. Everyone here can share a story of a game with a lot of potential but bad implementation, they probably have an idea of how the way a game could have been worked better just with a a few tweaks (or a lot of). If developers learn something is that they have to have a middle point between great ideas and gameplay. Some ideas just can kill a game even if they're a great, just because they did not see how that idea interacted in "real situations" or they think it could be fixed latter of tweak in some way latter. Any way, I didn't want to create chaos, I just wanted to point some things that could make a good idea a better one or, at least, see the light in the game
I don't think all the ideas on the list are good, but I do understand that you are doing no more than making a list for the developers to easily refer to.
Exactly!
Dar-ca means dead life in old Cappriem. The name was taken by a simi-organic drone prototype with a embryo that grows with the mechanical body. Which slowly evolves into a sort of cyborg. (there is ALOT more to it but that's the basic concept.)
twelve thirteen, is the unit number. The name is in capital letters because it's not yet alive, and capital letters signifies drones and clones from the living. ( all of this was from a novel I'm writing, along with other projects. so no one distribute or use any of this! Or I will sue you no matter were you are!!!)
DARCA (and it's a cool name.)
2-axis alignment system (good/evil, law/chaos) that would make the factions more unique (even though the torians are dead, apparently)
Rainbow worlds (full of resources but weird stuff tends to happen if you colonize them)
Completely overhauled spying system (someone suggested spy ships) including the ability to frame other factions alpha centauri style. you could also research new types of espionage like hacking/viruses or psychic stuff depending on your tech tree.
Weaponized trade: In addition to making you money, trade routes would give you a way to potentially wreck another faction's economy. Factions could counter this by imposing trade restrictions or embargos (but the united planets could vote to overrule these...) Just another way to conquer the galaxy without building huge navies. Trading proprietary goods (like micro repair bots) could create significant vulnerabilities in another faction's economy, and restricting their import could create smuggling rings and other black markets that would make planets more vulnerable to espionage. With certain goods you could directly harm other factions by selling defective products (tainted aphrodisiac could cause heart attacks, sabotaged diplomatic translators could be used to engineer wars, etc.)
Race-specific invasion types. A race that doesn't breathe could poison the atmosphere of a planet and take it over that way.
Abilty to run a planetless faction by building command and factory ships. The enemy would have to destroy all command ships to win and factory ships would build more ships by mining asteroids. Both would take a long time to build.
A superweapon that's more useful than terror stars (which took forever to build and added almost nothing to the sandbox game)
Weapons should come in different sizes/masses and have damage bonuses against ships of certain sizes. Some weapons, such as bomb racks, would only be usable on small nimble ships, where as huge cannons would require a bigger hull (although you could get creative and upgun a heavy fighter)
replace leader portraits with 3d models, include a way to customize the appearance of faction leaders (colors, accessories, other paper doll stuff)
The ability to surrender to a faction, then manipulate internal politics to take over and continue playing as that faction. This would be more or less effective depending on the faction you surrender to (The Drengin would enslave you, the Yor would kill you, but the since the Krynn are made up of many different races you would have a chance to subvert them)
support for scripting languages and other stuff that could allow player to add new gamplay mechanics/random events/faction traits/overhaul the economic system
Make different weapons types scale differently. Example: "Compared to Lasers I, Lasers II do 2x damage for 5x component cost, with same space taken. Plasma Cannons II do 0.9x the damage in 0.5x space taken. Mass drivers II do 3x damage for 1.5x space taken, compared to Mass Drivers I, but require a minimum ship size, since the component has to be longer, not wider, to do more damage."
Why should we need to ask for the developers to design weapons for us? My idea is, if we have a ship designer, a weapon designer should not be that off.
- Make the weapon tech tree more oriented to weapon parts (for example, laser: energy core Mk I (damage+), prismatic lens (precision+), nitrogen cooler (fire rate+)) and passive damage increase (5% laser). An example of two possible laser cannons:
A medium laser cannon “standard” would be: An energy core + prismatic lens (100% base precision) + one cooler (1.00 fire rate). Final size 100.
A medium pulse laser cannon “standard” would be: An energy core + two cooler (1.25 fire rate) with 0 prismatic lens (80% base precision). Final size 110.
- Such parts have their size (so, if you design a really big plasma cannon similar to SDF-1 one, it can only be mounted into a ship with enough space). And, miniaturization wise, or make it work in ships or make it work in the parts but not in both.
With this you are no longer limited to the pre-design weapons and it’s much easier to come up with a Doom Star or a SDF-1 (or your favourite big and deadly ship).
This is all very well and good, but wouldn't it be prudent to start a similar thread for all the insane ideas? Just for balance...
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