1) The UI has a ton of really lousy design covering up even more lousy design. Get rid of the popups and consolidate more information into an easy-to-read single window. I don't need 45 popups about mining starbases. You already saw my thread on this (telling me to get bent, oddly).

2) Tech trading is miserable. Again, you already know about this as you told me to go to hell. But whatever. Make it so we have a few options on how to change trading that will restrict it in a way that still allows trade, but doesn't allow the AI to dilute tech trees. My proposal: Any tech that isn't in your tech tree cannot be traded for. This will keep 90%+ of the techs tradeable, and will make races like the Drengin / Korath natural trading partners.

3) Altarian / Thalan tech trees feel really incomplete. The former just feels like a beta feature, the latter is just broken.

4) Espionage is still really bad, but I guess that's changing.

5) Make diplomacy harder! With a good diplomacy rating, you don't have to do anything and everyone will just love you. In addition the diplomacy modifiers, like -- "Trying to Ascend", are simply weak. It's way too easy to get a ++ for "good relations", a + for "trading", a + for ethics, etc. and you'll never have to worry about a thing.

There are a pile of techs that aren't tradable from some racial tech trees...just not all of the * flagged ones.

Another thing I'd like: an option to choose the proportion of extreme environment planets when setting up a game. One slider that would add a ton of gameplay variety IMO.

I might be repeating some things others have said, I only read half the posts, but:

1) I think the yor economy is fine and like how different they are. Their buildings are fine too. I'm not requesting that they not be changed. I'm just saying, when 'fixing' races due to complaints, fix things that aren't operating as intended, add whatever ya feel like, change 'em up in whatever ways ya feel like, but I request those doing so just keep in the back of their mind the need to avoid taking away their uniqueness while doing so. Races should have weaknesses as well as strengths. Don't fall prey to constantly overbalancing like WoW until everything is the same as everything else. The game just came out, so obviously it isn't much of an issue yet, I'm talking long term. It would be all too easy, one little step at a time, to accidentally end up like this w/out noticing, so better to mention it early.

2) The rally point map that comes up doesn't seem to actually show rally points, or if it does they are so small I can't see 'em. The trade route map, on immense at least, is too small to gain more than a very general idea where the routes are.

3) Maybe this already exists, but I'd like an ability bind a key to turn on all travel lines for all ships so I can more easily tell which ship I'm sending where at a glance in congested areas. Then, I could turn it right back off again once I've gained the info I need, and could do so w/out having to go to an options screen. Could also use it to trace back and figure out 'which ship is it that has this destination point I see here?'. Some times I load a saved game and see a lone destination point in a weird place and wonder why the heck I sent anything there? Which of my many many many ships out there is the one I sent here and why? hehe. Or another alternative, the ability to click the destination points, make them selectable, and upon doing so, the travel lines for that destination show up. Same w/rally points. Would make things less confusing when loading up an old save game from an immense map when trying to remember what the heck I was thinking.

4) This might be intended, so just ignore me if so. When cultural victory is enabled, the victory screen tells you how close you are to a cultural victory. If you are at war, you can't have a cultural victory. This is fine. But if you are at war, it no longer tells you your percentage towards completing a victory. On an immense map when you're past the point that its certain you are gonna win and you're just wrapping up, it'd help make for a quicker 'lets finish this' option if I could see that I'm already past the cultural victory point so if I could just make peace I'd instantly win. There's no gaurantee I'd be able to make peace after all, so that'd still be up to me, the player, but the information will let me know there's a quicker way to have my victory so I can start up a new game. => And its not like this info is exactly hidden from the player anyways, the minimap gives you a general idea of your cultural percentage, but since victory needs a specific number it'd be nice to be able to see where you are at, even if you happen to currently be at war.

5) This is one that probably is as intended, so ignore as needed. But when I get close w/another race adn want an alliance, but can't because they don't have the tech (even though I do), it seems somehow wrong. I turn tech trading off, so I can't give them the tech either. I don't want to be able to give them techs, mind you, but in this one instance it creates a problem. Perhaps, as long as I have the tech, and in games w/tech trading off, I should be allowed to propose it if I meet the other requirements (close enough relation, pay whatever it is they demand, etc..). In other words, only the proposing party would need the tech. This would only be needed in games w/tech trading turned off. Makes diplomatic victories a bit difficult as it is in no-tech-trading games when the AI just never researches the tech. Or, as an alternative, it could be an option in the trading screen to tell someone you're close enough to that you'd like them to research a specific tech next on their list, if you're willing to pay them enough to make them do so (make it very expensive). This way you could guide them to getting the alliance tech for themselves if they don't already have it and you're not willing to wait.

As a rather casual player I play infrequently due to RL commitments and haven't tried the metaverse thing.

1) I'm really looking forward to the espionage update. I'm hoping for it to become a real feature. I envisage something like this. Maybe the ability to train agents then, in the same way as ships, form teams of them. Then send the team out with objectives and a level of risk. You could have buildings and tech's for training and improving spies.

Possible "objectives"
Temporary effects - Occur as an "event" and wear out over time
*Damage moral for specific planet.
*Disable or reduce effectiveness of building/ship/starbase/planetary defence.
*Damage political relations with other Civ.
*Gather military intel. - can choose Space combat, Invasion, or both.
*Gather general Civ intel.

Permanent effects.
*Frame other civ for action.
*Destroy building / ship / Starbase.
*Steal Ship. (maybe easier to do with a ship in production or orbit.)

You could receive information of estimated times for when these will be achieved. but there would be a random element.

2) Is there some way to "train" ships without fighting? If not, how about training academies and the likes.

3) Sorry, but I'm not a fan of the current sliders. I want my developed worlds to be churning out mainly research, whilst my newer worlds are working on building infrastructure. How about the following?...
Have research, production and espionage sliders, each capable of 0-100% capacity. Then, for planets where you have a starport, each could have a slider to direct the split of social/military. If that sounds too much like micromanagement. Have a single universal slider to split the production for planets with active items in both queues.

4) Revamp of transforming / extreme colonisation. - Although there is nothing wrong with the current system how about this....

Each planet could contain upto 3 environments. Each requires a tech for 50% production and another for 100%.

5) Again have I missed this one, can I survey a planet before colonising it? I'd quite like to know what bonus tiles there are before I commit.

Sneaky 6) Updates to the planets list for 4 and 5. ;o)

Thanks for the invitation to influence the game.

In order of priority,

1) tech tree bugs, e.g. Thalan starbases, and any existing building bugs, e.g. Mind Control Center

2) a lot of what you guys have done with the GUI is really great and kudos for that! But since you asked there are some really basic elements missing like: Being able to move multiple selected fleets with one click. And being able to refer to where a given planet is when setting a rally point. And a ship building queue, like "Build one defender, then spam Constructors" or "Build: Destroyer, Overlord, Transport; repeat".

3) AI responds poorly sometimes, esp. to mega events. (intimidated into unneccesary surrenders by pirates, unable to stabalize economy after setbacks, etc.) Even in ordinary play there are a few other examples where the AI should be more responsive. E.g. as soon as anyone researches Planetary Invasion, they should prioritize research/trade a basic weapon tech and scramble a few star furies or w/e in the air. There's no good reason that I should be able to catch neighbors with their space-pants down in practically every game (not even trying to rush specifically! this on tough)

4) espionage overhaul would be welcome; but at the very least the cost shouldn't continue astronomically increasing the way it does. Frankly it's not a fun element at all as is.

5) Really like the new Fleet Assist modules but was hoping for a few more unique weapons. Like "Area of Effect Gun: Attacks all ships in enemy fleet" effective against swarms of fighters but weak against all armor types. Or "Armor Melty Beam: Reduces Armor of Target for next 3 battle rounds", effective against capital ships but useless to have more than one of.

Oh I thought of a second thing. When trading, if I want to "top off" the trade with money the slider automatically goes to the max the AI is willing to give. Could you please do the same for influence?

You mean nitpicky?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

On a more constructive note, when somebody mentioned the ability to gift fleets I realized that should have made my list. It drives me nuts when I'm trying to fight a proxy war and I can't gift an army without breaking the entire thing down and then renaming each of 50 ships (I tend to play with swarms of tiny ships) so I can find them in the diplomacy screen.

In my most recent ToA game I was building and giving ships to the Altarians, who needed these ships very badly as they were losing a war.

I'd launch the ship (right next to my planet) and then I'd give it to the Altarians; it's color would change to Altarian blue. But then several turns later I'd notice that it was still right next to my planet. Why won't they move their new ships?

Eventually I stopped giving away ships, but only for this reason. Can anyone please tell me if there's anything I can do to make races whom I've given ships to move their new ships? Thanks in advance

PS; That can actually be expanded to include even the circle-selection taggers AND supplemental cues on many visual hints about anything you'd care to splash up on that centralistic Foreign_Policy information asset - BTW.

Its still annoying having to make so many constructors to build up starbases, so I almost never bother with them. It might put me at a disadvantage, but I'm willing to take it to avoid the extra micro. The only ones I do build are to nab resources so the AI doesn't get them.

Also, when you upgrade a ship with description text, you have to hold down delete for a while to clear the box. Can't we just have a button that empties it of text for us?

I like the idea of a random race button too. I usually just roll some dice and count the boxes clockwise when I don't know what to play, but that would make things easier.

Oh, and I spotted some broken text in the diplomacy window. It said "Don't you have a crappy little empire to run, Thalan Empire?" I'm guessing the last part should be the leader's name, not the empire name.

That's about it for now, lol.

I have only one issue that I have been crusading for.

Please fix the influence borders being wrong upon reloading.

Scincerely,

Scintor@aol.com