What id the Galactic Council screen would show the pre-requirements of an empire voting for the player and their status e.g:
Allied: Green Tick
Higher Pop: Green Tick
Stronger Military: Red Cross

This way it would be obvious for players what the conditions of a vote are, as well as their status visible in a single screen for all factions.
Especially usefull for players who did not follow the change log and forum closel. The flavor text within the speach boubles does not need update. Also reduces clicks for players who already know what the conditions are

The player does need to look into the praphs screen to find out by how much their pop or military is lacking compared to their ally and admittedly would take away some of the mistery and exploration from diplomacy but might be worth for the elegance and functionality of it

zolobolo wrote:would take away some of the mistery and exploration from diplomacy

This.

In diplomacy, could we have the option to ask someone to declare war on someone else?
With basic checks for "high enough relationship with me" and "low enough relationship with the target", a comparison between the potential ally's and the target's military might (possibly also population/industrial capacity/tech ?), an Influence cost and maybe a money or metal cost as well (perhaps if relationships aren't that friendly but not under the "help" threshold).
And if you worry about this being possibly abused too much, also a condition that the player must already be at war with the target. Or a softer limit, with highly increased costs if the player is not at war with the target, and maybe even a discount if the player is the one being attacked (or if the target is much weaker).
It's annoying that the AI often asks me to attack someone else (who they might not even be at war with yet), without offering any incentive, and the time I'm being invaded, I don't even have the chance to ask for help.

Noyyau wrote:In diplomacy, could we have the option to ask someone to declare war on someone else?

I've put this on our suggestions list. But in the game currently you can do it indirectly. If you have sufficient reputation and influence, you can make an alliance, and your new ally should automatically declare war on your enemy.

Does it make sense to have "Alien Rulers" penalty when other faction is annexed?

From a tech side it makes sense as withouth the tech the base behaviour applies but if they join willingly it would be cool to see a special bonus offsetting it like: "We are stronger together"

zolobolo wrote:Does it make sense to have "Alien Rulers" penalty when other faction is annexed?

From a tech side it makes sense as withouth the tech the base behaviour applies but if they join willingly it would be cool to see a special bonus offsetting it like: "We are stronger together"

Well, just because your government decided to welcome our new alien overlords doesn't necessarily mean that the average joe is automatically going to like being ruled by space bugs.

I think we need more detail in the population morale system, but that's a big job.

Speaking of more detail in the population morale system, maybe there should be some sort of penalty to the chance of minor colonies offering to be annexed by Tinkers or Gremak? Or at least the Tinkers, anybody could see that's not likely to end well when they're pretty up-front about their desire to bring all together in unity in Dzibix. I could at least see the Gremak concealing their intent to enslave everybody up until it's unable to be stopped.

This suggestion inspired by several games where I saw a minor colony not decide to join with me immediately, but join voluntarily when a Gremak or Tinker ship arrived. Which invariably resulted in enslavement/harmonization, which I'd think would be an argument against choosing to be annexed by those two.

I'd really like to have more asymmetrical race relations, as well as more positive and negative effects on morale. But to do that, I think we have to give the player more levers to push on to manage morale levels, which as I said is a pretty big job.

We've got lots of ideas on what to do with the morale system, but then we've also got lots of ideas on other things that feel like a higher priority right now. While the morale system isn't everything I'd like it to be, I think it more or less works okay at the moment.

Arioch wrote:I'd really like to have more asymmetrical race relations, as well as more positive and negative effects on morale. But to do that, I think we have to give the player more levers to push on to manage morale levels, which as I said is a pretty big job.

Dont think the Moral system need much of an extension either. It serves its purpose well as is and does not distract. If new mechanics are included which the player needs to manage, that likely results in obligatory micro for the user (such as the beloved taxation levels of other games) and distract from the core game-loop.

I was only thinking on this penalty as I had an empire offering up to be annexed and inherited a bunch of rebelling planets (AI did not build markets everywhere) No issue in the end, but got me thinking if makes sense: When playing a faction we usually have a base loyalty for our race and this case the empire becomes kind a like a federation of various races I guess which might be reflected in moral (the penalty can even stay as is no need to remove it)

OR: What if this "Federal civic system" would be a research that only becomes available when another faction is annexed and provides a +5 or so moral for annexed races?

What if the colony ship would be presented in as many versions as valid pop is available for colonisation? Same for planet colonisation via production

This is to resolve the questions around auto-selection of colonising pop

The advantage is that it can always be selected which pop should colonise and if the pop becomes unavaialble, the production simply stops with the existing message of prerequirements not met

Downside are that it is a change to the existing system and bloats up the build menu from mid-game onward

I think we tried this at one point, and it really cluttered up the build menu.

Since there is no benefit to having "pure" populations (having 1 of the "wrong" population won't negatively impact your max pop), I'm not convinced that this is a problem that really needs a solution.

Arioch wrote:I think we tried this at one point, and it really cluttered up the build menu.

Yes that very much seems like a danger

Arioch wrote:Since there is no benefit to having "pure" populations (having 1 of the "wrong" population won't negatively impact your max pop), I'm not convinced that this is a problem that really needs a solution.

The typcial situations were when a rioting or enslaved pop setled a newly colonised planet via build action and rebelled right after that
But yeah not a major issue of course - I only had a couple of such cases

Another reason would be if a player if trying to send a more optimal pop off for colonisation (like with higher laber to get things started or food production to not starve right away) - admittedly these are even rarer and the fact what you mentioned that there is no "wrong" pop to speak of negates this - well also the fact that we can buy out the starting buildings most of the time

I think, your technicians shouldn't be able to repair those components on the captured ships that you lack technology for. Such approach was adopted, for example, by Space Empires V. I'm not sure this will make gameplay better, but it's certainly more logical. Should lower the (very high) attractiveness of boarding a bit, and occasionally make you rethink your research plan. Again, not sure if declawing that unstoppable (after repair) behemoth of Ephelos superdread is a good or bad thing to do.

PrivateHudson wrote:I think, your technicians shouldn't be able to repair those components on the captured ships that you lack technology for. Such approach was adopted, for example, by Space Empires V. I'm not sure this will make gameplay better, but it's certainly more logical. Should lower the (very high) attractiveness of boarding a bit, and occasionally make you rethink your research plan. Again, not sure if declawing that unstoppable (after repair) behemoth of Ephelos superdread is a good or bad thing to do.

While that would be more realistic, I don't think it would be a fun change.

If I understand correctly, in the current beta branch Yoral Escort Cruiser is identical to Destroyer. Why not add 2x-4x light mounts to justify research cost?