If Moo2 can have leaders, I can't see how putting them in a game 10 years younger could possibly be any difficult.

Rather, it's just one of those tons of feature ideas that have been proposed that the devs just aren't interested in.

Damn you Featauril you beat me to it!

Ditto for Zoomba. Moo2 had terrible AI and they never used leaders. Stardock would never alter the game so that one side had an advantage over the others. This means recoding the AI to take advantage of leaders intelligently.

I'm pretty sure that was just Brad playing around.

Leaders that gain experience expresed in higher ability bonuses that would be even nicer. If i am not mistaken moo2 had the same system only that leaders would advance in time and you couldnt choose in what would they leveled up.

If its any concession, Ships gain experience.

After battles a ship will gain experience depending on how tough the fight was (For a pushover your ship will be hard pressed to raise the experience meter by one point, For a very narrow victory however you will most likely gain a level).

Admittedly the bonuses only apply to the hitpoint values but it is better than nothing.

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I would also like to say that just because it worked in Masters Of Orion II, Dosent mean it will work in Galactic Civilizations II...

But you can use your imagination on this one, The next time your fleet of puny size 20 ships look up and see a huge battlecruiser, Imagine a great leader in one of those ships, For that kind of courage they are needed.

That is the one big feature I wish Galciv2 had that many modern stategy games have, personas to assign. It lends a real feeling of control, but more importantly it grounds an otherwise ambiguous set of strategic resources with a person, and a name.

I just lost my +5 fleet with battleship x

or

I just lost my fleet and with it Admiral Fergalon and his flagship

I never played MOO2 before, but I did play rome: total war and they use leaders in their game also, and I really like the ability to use leaders, like someone said you tend to get really attached to the people and stuff. I would love it to be in this game, but it is not a big deal if it isn't. Although if you want to play a stardock game in which you do something like this wait a little bit for society, I read alittle about the game and this concept is in there.

This is a feature it surprises me has not been included, given the design philosophy of GalCiv (and so presumably galciv2) seemed to be to create a game with a degree of narrative structure. After all, this is the reason cut scenes, ethical choices, graphical bells and whistles etc. are put in - to increase the sense that one is playing through a space opera rather than crunching numbers. I am unsure why some people think this would be so difficult to program, given the excellent quality of the AI in other areas. How is the AI deciding where to place a character any different from deciding where to build a factory or construct a starship?
At the moment the only personal face we get for any civilization is their leader, but as in all space operas the really interesting characters are those not quite so high up the hierarchy - the advisors, generals, and hangers on.
I remember reading somewhere that religious crusades can occur in galciv2 - how much more satisfying if there is an actual character frothing at the mouth to give personality to this crusade. A space opera on the tv screen is only as strong as its cast of characters. Without Londo Molari the Centauri are just chaotic evil traders, without Worf the Klingons are just +20 weapons.
While I don't doubt that galciv2 will be excellent on it's own terms (I still enjoy the first one years on and fully intend to purchase the sequel unless the reviews are really awful), I want my time in space to be amongst dashing space pirates, desperate young blades, deadly assassins, and brilliant viziers who may plot a coup against me at any time. C'est la vie!