I wanted a firm grasp on the game before posting ideas, so after 150 hours I'll post now.Minor things
When creating a ship can we please get an icon for the hud display, right now it's left blank when in a fleet.
AI creating space stations in your territory "without" an open borders treaty, destroying said space station triggers war.
Fix: Only allow players with an open borders treaty to create a space station in your territory, If a players star base is overrun because of influence give a diplomatic option (to both sides) to remove the star base or "sell it to the current owner of the territory," lastly destroying star bases in your territory should not trigger a war, angry yes.
Major Things
AI's not properly setting up a planet for good/max benefits, and not using economic rings to strengthen themselves. AI's not utilizing capitals properly.
Trade routes: longer = better is lame easy yes, dull you bet ya.
Directing trade routes to planets with positive income should net more no matter the distance, a display for players "trade capitals" should also be available in the trade menu, trading at them "should" net higher income for both parties. Rough suggested formula: ((0+(trade capital 1.25) * (distance /100, if < 0 = 1)) * (planetary income / 50)
You don't own territory in this game. That border you see is an "influence area" and differs conceptually from a defined empire border.
Well then allow influence to effect star bases.
That premise is quite acceptable but the problem is that the game itself isn't consistent with itself in how it interprets the borders. Sometimes it treats them as political borders, sometimes as influence zones. The game should decide which is the correct in-game interpretation and then stick to that interpretation and use it consistently. Now it looks like the different developers had different ideas what they mean...
A good solution would be to make the distinction explicit in the in-game universe:
"Zone of Control": The area-of-effect radius of your starbases plus a similar radius around your colonized planets. This is the space you have occupied and that you directly control. It's "your space" and its border forms the actual political borders of your empire.
"Zone of Influence": The spread of your influence.
Then tie political border related diplomatic stuff to the "Zone of Control" area and influence related game stuff to the "Zone of Influence" area. Would make it much more logical and clearer.
where is the ZoI actually used as ZoC ?
the only thing i can think of is that one stupid UP-thingie
Aren't border treaties and diplomatic penalties tied to influence borders?
I personally like how the AI can "Get off my lawn!", but when you come to the forums, everyone tells you influence isn't a hard border.Someone tell the AI that my starbase is fine.
The Influence zone in this game is a big deal for the developers as it makes their game unique. I think its here to stay as it is.
whenever the ai whines about you having your ships (starbases) in its space
the ideology perks that reduce ship hp / sensor range in your controlled space
The thing is the AI actually treats the borders much as the player does. They can't enforce them and they don't declare war if you transgress them, but it sure pisses them off.
Borders in this game represent the area in which your civilization holds the dominant influence, but they are not enforceable. Your political borders extend essentially to the orbits of your planets and that's it. However, civs (both AI and human) like to think of their ZoI as their political borders and get mad when you cross them. If you want to treat your ZoI as your political border, it is your responsibility to enforce it.
The only problem with the system in my opinion, is there should be a way for the player to communicate to the AI that they will treat crossing their ZoI as an act of aggression and respond accordingly. You can attack anything that crosses your border, but you have no way of making the AI understand that that is your stance.
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