idk if anyone has written this idea but i think there should be events once in a while like a cpu space pirates or something and alliances would have to work together to destroy their ship or raid their planets for like rubies or like artifacts that can be traded in for stuffs. anyway its only a thought.

What about planet popoluation. And a special ship to transport some of your population to your colony planet

I think PLanet population would be a fun addition - Its just good for reading if anything else. As it stands there isnt really anyone flying these ships lol

O_O u mean these ships are flying themselves !? good god, whats gonna happen if they let people fly them then, we all know people cant freakin drive, someone is gonna run over my metal mines i just know it -.-

I say there should actullay be a button where you can see a battle taking action, like you can click on the button and you can see your fleet hitting there planet, that would be really cool, i also dont like the idea with the ship that destroys buildings, i really wouldnt like it when i just built a nanite factory or something like that, and then the big boys come and destroy it, that would really make me mad, and also, defenses are really strong who said they were not strong?
They are just as strong as ships.
I hope you make the button idea.

Just a comment on the marine type ship, I think this idea is very good, that players will be encouraged to build defenses and a permanent planet rather than just fleetsave their resources, but that the ship itself (the marine ship) can have a standard cost, but depending on the building that is being target the price would be a certain percentage of the cost, so taking out a lvl 2 metal mine might cost 200 metal and 100 crystal but taking out a nanite factory would cost significantly more, and in order to prevent abuse by clans and more powerful players there could be some limit, such as a player can only lose one level of a building per hour or so.

In addition, I think that the mission time should be relative to the time it spent to build the building, so if you attack a lvl 1 deut mine it will take 20 seconds to destroy (per say) and if you attack a level 10 fusion reactor, it might take 2-3 hours. During this time the defender should be able to counter attack, either by sending their own marine ships to defend, or creating like a barracks on the planet to hold troops that can defend the buildings.

This idea could also be expanded to boarding parties that can take over other ships, obviously with a percentage of failing, but having such an aspect to the game will make the strategy much more intense and exciting

Marine assualts leads us back to the idea of including population and could mean more focus on particular worlds as they become your barracks instead of just farms.

This will give all levels of player somthing to think about as your population would rise in proportion to the length of time a planet has been left to develop

(I now have this nagging voice shouting - add food production as a resource as well)

This would balance the build a planet next to someone, IPM them, move on etc... - I also feel that planets should be abandoned and not destroyed when a player leaves unless they specifically want to (there could be a cost associated with this as you build a giant Deut bomb). This could create some interesting in game treasures for all those looking for temperatures.

While hot planets are good for solar cells you should also gain a build/defence bonus if you colonise a planet within the same temperature as your homeworld.

Back to marines - they could be used to assualt planets in drop pods and the attacked world will have to field marines to defend itself as enemy active marines will slowly dismantal defences over days unless you take them out.

I know some may howl that the big players once more have somthing to dominate the game with but please remeber they are limited in what they can do through the number of fleet actions they can perform through computer tech.

Big alliances will therefore offset this and it is through players grouping and co-ordinating that the game will remain fun and the drop out rate will fall.

I would like to add here that joining an alliance and reading the forums should have a prominate place on the 'Just Joined?' article found as a link under 'Game Help' so that new players start speaking to someone before ditching.
And a note to respond to buddy requests

'The Galaxy you discover is teeming with life and for the small budding empire it will start off friendly. Speak with those arround you and ask them for advice on tactics and building.

If you start early being nice to your neigbhours then they may prefer to form an alliance with you rather than turn on you as your need for resource outstrips your production and you look on planets to raid.'

Now if we had the above - think of the balancing you would have to do as your planets have to consider filling their usable slots with:

Room for population growth/housing
Food production
Bunkers to survive bombing
Life support if the planet you colonise is outside your temperature range (this would be a factor in population size as well)
Barracks for training marines (the number of marines available to train could be linked to population)
Naval acadamy (the number and type of ships you can build would relate to the number Naval personnel you have trained, again the number of available naval personnel that can be trained would be linked to population.)
Science Acadamy with the same popualtion relation as above.

Laters all

Trid

Trid, I really like this idea, it seems very logical for game play and realism, I think it will add a new dimension to game play, with attacks from fleet (or possibly siege ships ) that reduce the population that aren’t in bomb shelters, although I like the idea of having a food resource, I think that that level of micromanagement is to in-depth for an online mmo, but will more likely be a technology, such as agricultural technology that buts a cap on the population that you can have. Don’t get me wrong I love the idea of a resource, I just think that the development team has their handful and the technology would be a nice start. I believe that this would closely be tied to siegeing planets, allowing for a "resource" that could make seigeing worth the risk (such as reduced resource production with a reduced population) and a ground style combat with marine and boarding parties. This idea has a lot of potential and I hope the development team gives this a good look over.

Has anyone thought of the posibility of mine fields?

I would like to see ACS attack as soon as possible.

It would also be great if a small percentage of the destroyed defense goes into DF. It wouldn´t have to be as big as the percentage of the destroyed fleet.