Suggestions for Space Empires V

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Moddable vehicle types are a modder's best friend..... well, at least where eccentric ideas or other sci-fi universes are concerned no but really, if this is an actual function in SEV I'd be overjoyed.

[Exan]

As long as I can create starbases/space stations that can open wormholes/warp points to other systems my modding wishes are fullfilled.

[Zereth]

Warp gates rather an or in addition to warp points? Yeah, that'd be good.

What _I_ want is to be able to build a border control station on a wap point so that nobody else can use it without authorization or going through with force, or possibly stealth.

[Kid]

I would like to see the component list scroll when I hold down the mouse. All the clicking is getting to me.

[douglas]

Kid said:
I would like to see the component list scroll when I hold down the mouse. All the clicking is getting to me.

Once you satisfy all the requirements of the design (bridge, CQ/LS, cargo/colony/fighter bay requirement, etc.), the mouse wheel scrolls the component list in SEIV.

[MrSnuggleBunny]

Dear Santa,

When SEV is released I would like to have...

1) Maneuverability - It just doesn't seem realistic that a unit can go from dead stop to full speed and make a bootlegger's reverse (180-degree turn) all in a single turn.

Can we please have some mechanism to dictate the acceleration and decceleration of a unit? Nothing extravagant but something along the lines of: a unit can acel/deccel 1/2 of its total current movement allowance in a single turn.

Limiting the number of turns a unit can make in a single turn should be reduced as its speed increases, i.e. at a dead stop a unit can make a complete 360-degree revolution, at half speed and can turn up to 4 facings at full speed it can turn up to 2 facings (assuming a square map with facings being the four sides and four corners collectively).

2) Firing Arcs - One aspect of this game that makes it so entertaining is that the vast expanse of the tactical battle map and the limited range of weaponry means that maneuver actually matters. If a ship gets hammered on one side the commander should have to manuever to reposition his ships to present a new broadside. Designating firing arcs at time of construction would be a plus. The tonnage allowed by arc could be set ratios of the overall unit tonnage.

This would be particularly helpful whn making planetary assaults. Let's face it: attempting to take a planet with troops while the planet has a robust array of weapons platforms mounting missiles and point defense weapons is all but an exercise in futility. Why should platforms mounted at the south pole be able to hit me if I'm concentrating my forces at the northern pole?

Dividing a planet into quadrants for the purposes of basing platforms and troops would be nice. Troops could be limited to moving to one new quadrant per strategic turn.

3) Stacking Limits - I can understand that stacking all of one's units in a single space could lead to some lop-sided tactics but can we have limits on the tonnage, say 500 to 800 kT? At least allow us to move a unit through a space occupied by a friendly unit; sometimes the AI will designate a movement path for a unit that costs me 1 or 2 movement points and ruins the calculated movement I had planned.

4) Customizable Formations - A formation editor and some method of designated which units are 1st, n 3rd etc within the fleet would be really keen.

5) Customizable Weaponry - Can I trade range for damage/rate fo fire/etc? Weapon mounts allow me to trade range and damage for tonnage; let's make a good thing better.

6) Interstellar Travel - besides warp points. A system 2 sectors away can take less time to reach than a system 10 sectors away depending upon the placement of warp points within a system. What if I want to cut "cross country" to save time? Such movement could also balance us mid-tech slobs against empires that can open and close warp points at will.

7) Planetary Orbits - I exploit the fact that planets do not revolve around their suns by picking planets equidistant betwen/near warp points to place military installations. MAKE ME STOP! In real life the planets would be orbitting the sun thus denying the use of "permanent basing."

8) Auto-Retrofit/Upgrade - If I lewt ministers handle upgrading production facilities they tend to onle upgrade one facility per turn...over the entire bloody empire! Fire these bums. How about upgrading one facility per planet per turn? Designating units to auto-upgrading ship/base designs as a particular technology improves would be nice.

9) A Pony - I promise to take care of it, and brush its long silky mane and name him Buttercup and I'll be good forever and ever. Puh-leeeeze!

Anyway, that's my wish list...

...for now.

[henk brouwer]

I did some thinking about intelligence projects, I don't really like how they work in SEIV, it seems to be too much of a all or nothing situation. Either you can not breach the enemy defenses and nothing will happen, or you can breach them and there's nothing the enemy can do.

So I tried to come up with a solution in the form of a new class of intelligence projects that could be added to the existing ones: tactical or combat espionage. This project would send spies out to study enemy combat tactics, and learn from them. When completed this project would give a small(1%)permanent combat bonus against the race that was spied upon, the project could be completed multiple times and the bonus would stack. there would be NO DEFENSE against this project, other than doing combat espionage on that enemy yourself, to get your own combat bonus. maybe the cost of the project should increase depending on how many times it has already been completed

This would make intelligence far more interesting, having a race that specializes in intelligence could be a viable alternative to a race with a high natural combat bonus, races that would be the victim of such intelligence would still have a change to win, if they compensate with more research and better sensor technology..

any oppinions?

Henk

[Suicide Junkie]

Check out the "Leaky Intel" for SE4.

The idea there, is you delete the counter-intel projects.
You make all of the projects relatively expensive, except for the "intel sabotage", which you make very cheap.

Suddenly, intel is dynamic.
You have to actively target an enemy race to defend against, and even with constant counter-intel, they can slip projects through (especially the cheap ones).

The more expensive projects are more likely to be stopped by counter intel, since they take longer to complete, and the defender gets more chances to discover and sabotage the project before it is launched.

You can team up for defense or attack, and you can't defend without the target knowing that they are under suspicion

[henk brouwer]

Suicide Junkie said:
Check out the "Leaky Intel" for SE4.

There is such a thing as leaky intel for se4? sounds very interesting, which mod?

It sounds like a huge improvement over the original system, the proposed combat espionage project would still be interesting as a new project though.

[Suicide Junkie]

I don't have a list of mods which use it, although I have implemented it in Carrier Battles Mod for one.

It is quite simple to do, although AIs will certainly have trouble.
The thing to do for the AIs is either (A) mod in a racial tech which gives the AIs stock counter intel, or (B) disable intel when playing solo.

Against human players on PBW, though, it is great.