Most of the important things have been said IMO, so I will push the ones I agree with the most:
1) No tech brokering option. Made even more valuable when tech trees are fixed/fine-tuned.
2) Cleaner, centralized new turn screen (with necessary announcements).
Surprise factor3) Option toggle for hiding enemy ship stats from the player UNTIL they actually meet in combat. A higher level of espionage (higher espionage tech? Not all spies are created equal) can give that information to the player, providing a further strategic reason for espionage and adding a greater dimension of decision making in what type of weapon / defence path to go down.
At present it's way too easy to figure out what you are up against in plenty of time to take appropriate action. Having to work to get the info or wait until you are at war would make the rock/paper/scissors aspect of ship design and combat a lot more involved and interesting.
PLUS
3. GCC news shouldn't mention events concerning you haven't made first contact with if the player has blind exploration on, at least for the first year or two of the game.
COMPLETELY agree with this.
MicromanagementOne of the biggest issues of a large game is the exponential amount of micromanagement involved, especially for planets, and starbases. I liked a few of the ideas:
4a) Starbases - Constructors should be able to carry more modules.
This is so logical, it's surprising it hasn't been done already. You can already make multiple Troop module ships, so why not this?
Some form of governor/automated upgrading process makes plenty of sense.
4b) I liked the idea of a specialized planet governor type. Have it follow basic precepts for developing a specialized econ/research/production planet without the need for major babysitting. It would exploit the resources accordingly too, meaning build
Ship magic upgrades5) I realize this will sound strange, but it never made sense to me that a ship could be upgraded to a new model, in space, as soon as the appropriate tech and ship design had been developed. Might make the game harder, but I'd think a ship would have to go to a Starport to do this. I mean, how would they have gotten the right pieces with this brand new technology while flying around in space? Magic?
Those are the 5 ASAP suggestions I'd make, other than the aforementioned fixes and bugs mentioned by others. As an afterthought, I thought this was a very good idea, but ths would no doubt be for later:
6) [This maybe too big a job...not sure how AI would handle but...] Add some cosmic variety to the map. E.g.
- black holes a sector wide, that ships cannot go into (without being destroyed)
- Nebulas (real ones NOT background image) - allows ships to hide, reduces Hit Points of ships the longer they stay in
- Pulsars, Super Novas, Cosmic Strings etc.. These would all have effects on ships/people. Makes the universe alittle more varied, provides some "terrain types" to the map. Add some strategic depth to the game.
