Master Wishlist Thread

[Mad Igor]

Add fighter manager to ALL stations.
i have no pleasure in launching 50 fighters one by one.

[rxnnxs]

I wrote down some pages earlier a big list with what would be great.
But one "easy" thing would be really helpful for me:
A right click at a scrolling message or popup message just selects the ship/station.

Then i can stay in the big focus and send them there where i already am. Always zooming out again and looking for the target is hard work.

Could you please do that?

[SpeedyGonzales]

I have some wishes: 1. Ability to take control over the private sector (State freighters, mining stations, passenger ships etc.). 2. Unlimited resource deposits and resource deposits for EACH planet and moon. 3. Unique names for ships of each class (Not Valiant (escort) 004 or Vindicator (frigate) 065). 4. Request options in diplomacy (Request mining rights, refueling rights etc.). 5. More galaxy map filters (Planets without resources for example).

[lando005]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

To keep things a bit more organized for Elliot and me, can you all please post wish list items (i.e. any kind of improvement or new feature request, not bug reports) in this thread? Please be as specific as you can when posting a request. Ideally, post all your requests in one post when you've got them. Thanks in advance.

There are a few improvements I would like to see but I'm not sure if you could add such complex additions to the game and still keep it RTS.

1. Diplomacy system overhaul- it would help if we had greater ability to negotiate and more options to go along with it. for example the ability to sign non aggressions pacts with an empire and the ability to negotiate the terms of that treaty, like when it applies and when it does not. Alliances and so forth would also be appreicated (it would be pretty amazing to take control of a mixed fleet).

2. Hull sizes- While i appreciate the current system which allows you to build any role of any size, to me it makes the while point of the ship role irrelevent, there's no point in distingusing between an escort or a capital ship because they can both be the same size. Hull sizes and limitations give a sense of pupose to help stream line ship design.

3. Race specific tech- It would add an interesting dynamic to the game if each race had their own technology try for all 3 areas, unique weapons and modes of transport across the galaxy. Especially if these technologies could be acquiared by other races. Also space mines, nuff said

[Rabble]

Add information about max speed of fleet calculated on ships in fleet. (in fleet information window)

Example - you have fleet with 10 destoyers and they all have gerax warp drive. They can fly with speed more than 10000.
And one transport with old design - but you miss that and this ship can fly 2000 max.

Current mechanics not allow ships to fly it max speed - they fly not faster than slower ship in fleet and I REALLY want to know what speed it is.

[Keldun]

Being able to mark a component as obsolete so that the ai doesnt use it for auto design would be great.
We sometime manage to get race specific tech but if we manage to get later a worse tech to advance the tech tree from the same type, then the ai will automatically use that tech instead. Or simply if we start with a tech that we dont want to use.
Being able mark that worse tech as obsolete would prevent this from happening.

[FireStarterXoX69]

A slider at game creation to set the amount of resources in the galaxy map would be awesome. I would really like to play a game where resources are more rare.

[rxnnxs]

Please!
When pressing ESCAPE, close submenues instead of opening the Options..

Maybe open options, when being at the main menue. But if any subwindows are opened, let them be closed with escape!

[Keldun]

The recent change adding the option to block tech trading between empire is great.

But I would love to go one step further and add an additional option that disable all tech transfer between empires/pirates like tech stealing, I play games with very slow tech research and tech stealing just feels like a big cheat when an empire take years to research a tech and a single experienced spy can steal that tech in a month.

[Yarasala]

I have two wishes right now:

- Give us an option for every message type to auto pause the game. Right now I just sit there watching the messages and react if something important happens, but if there are a lot of messages or if I want to watch a fight I always miss something.

- For intelligence missions include the success percentage in the list of targets if Time to Complete and Target are already filled. Right now if I look for a Steal Reserach mission with acceptable success probability I have to click through all 35 or so pirates and empires (and have to select Mission Type, Target and Time to Complete again every time) to find an adequate mission.

[DeletedUser1699101088]

I will first state the problem / motivation, then my idea of improvement.

1 Refuel before meeting with fleet
If you assign a ship that is being built to a fleet, that ship will move to the fleet as soon as it gets finished. However, if the ship does not have any fuel because the space port did not not provide any, the ship still straight up goes to meet with the fleet, even if a suitable gas mining station is nearby.
Instead, the ship should first go to refuel and then meet with the fleet. The corresponding fuel treshold value should be configurable via the empire policies.

2 Empire Defense
I normally use 1-3 quick destroyers as a first line of defense in every system I have. I put this destroyer into a fleet, set the home base and put the fleet to defend system mode. This way my fleet list really gets bloated up and it's difficult to find the actual fleets.
Defending my empire I further use real fleets. These consist of like 3-6 destroyers, 1-3 crusiers and 1 carrier (depends on the situation and power of my enemies). I place one of these fleets into each center point of 4 adjacent sectors.
Ideally, all of that should be manageable via separate screens. For example, change the Colonies Screen to a more general Galaxy Management Screen. Colony Management would be one big tab of that more general screen. Then, we could have another tab "Systems" that would allow to "Assign" or "Build and Assign" a number of space ships for defending a selected system. Yet another tab "Sectors" could allow for assigning fleets for sector defense. If a fleet is assigned to more than one sector, it would place itself in the center point of these sectors.

3 Search Criteria for Galaxy Map
There are many decisions to be made when expanding an empire or when building ships. For example, I might be interested in all the systems I know that provide a given resource.
Divide the Galaxy Map Screen into two tabs. One with the map as it is now, and the other tab for defining a search. You should be able to just add a number of criteria. The game will then display the results via the galaxy map.

4 Extend Build Order Screen
I don't use the Build Order Screen at the moment because I cannot choose where stuff will be built. The screen should show me which space ports have the necessary resources in order to fulfill my job (green). If the space port does not currently have the necessary resources, but is in a good position to get them relatively fast, then that should show up as well (yellow). Then, let the player select where the stuff will be built. If multiple space ports are chosen, the job should be distributed accordingly.

5 Hotkeys
In the late game I usually have more than 10 fleets but no more hotkeys.
Allow STRG+[1-9], ALT+[1-9] as well as SHIFT+[1-9] to be used as hotkeys.

6 Select multiple troops in Colony Management
In the Troop Management tab of the Colonies Screen it should be possible to select more than just one troop at a time, for example to disband or garrison multiple troops at once.

7 Larger Display of Fleet Names
Let the user configure the font size of fleet names via the options screen. Fleet movements are very important information for the player. Yet, they are currently displayed using a very small font size.

8 WASD Keys to Scroll Map
WASD keys are closer to the other hotkeys so it should be possible to use WASD for scrolling instead of the arrow keys.

9 Extra Button for Prevent Enemy Intelligence
It does not make sense that I have to choose a faction before I can choose to prevent enemy intelligence. Instead, it should be a separate button.

10 Leave Fleet button for Troop Transports
Troop transports currently don't have a "Leave Fleet" button in their selection panel.

11 Ships and Bases Screen should not show anything on Startup
Opening up the Ships and Bases Screen takes a long time. That's because it immediately lists ALL the ships and bases. I'm NEVER interetsed in everything. When I open this screen, I'm only interested in specific stuff. Therefore, just open the empty screen and let the player choose what he wants to see first.

12 Improved Event Notification System
Remove the scrolling list of events at the top of the screen. In the mid game or late game it's pretty useless anyways because just too much stuff happens all at once.
The scrolling list of events should replace the right-hand side big notification windows. It should be relatively small. If the player mouses over the notification window (or presses a hotkey), the window expands vertically to show a lot more events. If the player decides he could also pin the window so it would stay expanded.

[battleground]

Space based merchant nations. Not tied to a planet but to a heavy space station. They would have a lot of merchant type
vessels but these would be armed (sometimes heavily) plus several warships. These merchant spacers would buy and sell cargos
across the galaxy building waystations to repair/build more ships and store cargo.

[Geckomeister_MatrixForum]

I think it would be great if there where different ship hull types and you could build each ship design similar to stardrive.
Even make unique hull types discoverable.
I would be cool to have different weapon mount points (just an idea), but not in a way that restricts the number of weapons.

I wouldnt mind seeing a deeper tech system, or even have each race with its own tech tree's. (thinking of Sword of the stars 2)

[Geckomeister_MatrixForum]

More building types...they are almost non-existent.
Building up a cool homeworld or settlements is part of the fun!

[Hyena Grin]

I would love the option in the Fleet Menu to set fleets as 'invisible' to the quick-menu on the left side of the screen.

Basically, I want to be able to create dozens of small (three to five ship) fleets for defending planets or stations without them cluttering up the quick-menu and making it hard to find the fleets that I actually want to control.

[Omena]

This is such a huge thread that it is difficult to know what has already been suggested, but here are a few more anyway:

- The ability to "bust out" the private sector. Basically to donate large sums to private citizens so that they could build new freighter/mining bases.

- The ability to set up "stay away" systems/locations. The system with a silvermist is not a good place to patrol or those nice mining stations in foreign territory.

- The ability to keep a fleet from leaving a system for retrofitting/refuelling. It is frustrating when your defensive fleet decides to leave the half finished starbase and go for refitting in some other sector.

- The ability to ask other empires to break of pirate protection agreements. This is important if you want to starve out some particular pirate faction.

- There could be some time delay in cancelling/signing protection agreements. Currently it is just too easy to just pay of the pirates when they attack and the cancel the treaty a bit later. Maybe some initial payment (3 months?).

- Invading pirate planets requires you to fight them twice since the invasion doesn't destroy the pirate bases. This should be fixed.

- Ai tends to impose sanctions and the repel them repeatedly. It seems quite... well... insane.

- News for refitting and building a ship should be separated. Late game you don't really care about finished retrofittings, but you can still care about finished construction.

- Subjucation should be improved so that you would automatically receive "free trade agreement" and mining and refuelling rights to their territory. Also the subjugated nation should not be able to declare war on any other nation and be forced to help in your wars if you ask them to. Also there could be levels of subjugation (how much of their income you get, diplomatic restrictions.) Subjugation should give a rep hit (maybe one for each year of subjugation possibly depending on the reputation of the subjugated nation.)

[CyclopsSlayer]

- Fleet Tenders: When that ship or fleet is stranded with empty tanks half way across the map, send out a Tanker to top them off.

- Allow fleets to equalize fuel, such that ships with full tanks can share with depleted members of the fleet.

- Allow fleets to add a Rally point prior to attacking. All too often ships trickle in and can be destroyed piecemeal. Or alternatively set an option to travel at the slowest speed of fleet elements.

- When a Fleet has elements under construction or repair/refuel, do not allow that fleet to accept attack orders. The AI launched a Fleet to attack when only 2 of the 10 ships were built, and none were fueled.

- Allow setting Patrol zones. Say for instance 2-3 sectors radius of a specific Base/Port/Planet.

- Allow fleets to remember a 'Base' order. Say patrol Planet X, such that after defeating an attacker, refitting or refueling, the fleet returns to the Patrol and not decides to sit in open space on 'no mission'.

[Buio]

Make the "Fade Civilian Ships and Bases" button hide the abstract representation on the map (the filled circles).
I use hotkeys a lot, and the insert key to go to zoom to system. But mid to late game I get a map filled with circles representing the private sector all over the map making it slower to pan around and very cluttered. Now I have to manually use scroll wheel two "clicks" out so the civilian/private ships get hidden.

To clarify with two images;
With Delete hotkey (Zoom to Sector) I get this. But what I really wanted is this (have to zoom out "two clicks" every time).

Make the screenshots save to Distant Worlds\Screenshot folder instead of Distant Worlds\[version]\Screenshots
Simple thing, but after Shadows release I hade to move my screenshots every upgrade. Now that it's further between updates it doesn't matter that much.

Have a popup dialog every time a faction is destroyed or their homeworld taken over.
It is kind of important news according to me, something that warrants a popup similar to wonders.

Split the "Under attack" popup message into three separate popups.
1) Under Fleet attack 2) Under Planet Invasion 3) Under other attack. The last one is all other attacks which aren't fleet and invasions. Each with its own graphic and possibility to turn on/off in settings.

Change the ctrl+left click ability. Currently zoom to 100%.
If you are not in fairly close zoom you will in almost all cases just get a screen full of empty space when you ctrl+left click (unless you are very lucky). It makes the hotkey fairly worthless according to me.

One idea is to change it to a "zoom rotator" between 100%/System/Sector/Galaxy levels, and have it zoom to the one lower. F.e. if you are between sector and System zoom, ctrl+click would zoom you to System, next ctrl+click zoom to 100% and third ctrl+click zoom back to Galaxy level and so on.

[SpeedyGonzales]

Economic: 1. Unlimited resources ON\OFF option (Please. Please! I BEG YOU!). 2. Economic facilities (Farms, mines, gas extractors, ship components factories etc.). 3. Nationalization\Privatization of ships, stations (even military), economic facilities and military ground units (PMC's).
Social: 1. Slave labor policy setting. 2. Extended race policy settings.
Diplomacy: 1. "Ask for mining\refuel rights" option. 2. Non-aggression pacts.
Military: 1. Chain of Command for fleets and armies. 2. Training facility (Gradually trains ground units to "Elite" level). 3. Army and fleet mobilization (During peacetime ground forces and ships keep their readiness at 50% and have lower maintenance cost).
Others: 1. Cybernetic\robotic\biomechanoid races and special policy options for them (Forced\voluntary cybernation for organic races.). 2. MORE MODDING OPTIONS!!!

[Omena]

I have been thinking about planet development and how to make it more interesting without compromising playability. Here is a few thoughts.

In DW, planet development is highly idealized. The planet uses it resources as efficiently as possible to improve itself and the player just decides how much of those resources get spent on empire-level operation (taxes). The planet improves through pop growth and, apparently, slowly by improving it's development level up to some maximum value. Taxes decrease pop growth ans so hinder planetary development.

The basic idea is good, but in practice it leads to some uninteresting game play. In effect the optimal strategy is to reach maximum pop as quickly as possible and the crank up to the taxes and just leave them there. Planets get "finished." Also, new planets produce so little tax in relation to your total tax income, that you just have them run at 0% tax until they are "finished".

I think there is a rather simple way to making this more interesting. The basic idea is to remove the min-maxing and import more strategic considerations. So I would propose the following:

- The rate at which a colony improves it's development level should depend on colony taxes. Taxes represent, after all, the resources taken from the planet to other endeavours.
- Technology level should affect the maximum possible development level. Pre-warp civilizations should be able to get a lot less from planets than super-advanced civs. Percentile increases from various techs?
- In modern societys, pop growth isn't really affected by taxes. The taxes-growth feedback is crucial, but that role can be taken over by the development level-modifier. So, instead we can have a steady pop growth in steady conditions (no resource shortages, no raids, space port protects, high quality etc.) regardless of taxes. This links growth with security, and thus, strategy.
- Special luxuries could provide big boost to the rate at which development level increases. This should help with jumping cash flows and be more realistic.
- It should not be easy to reach max development level and it should always be feasible to invest in development (no artificial "after this point you have to spend zillions the get 1% higher.")
- Investing in planets should also yield other benefits like increased science output, tourism bonuses etc. (better facilities, education systems, health whatnot.). So even if you have reached max development level, you can still get more out of the planet through investment.

Ok, some of these are already included and there is a feedback with planetary taxes and the private sector, but I think these changes could make the game more interesting. What planet to develop and how fast would be a strategic decisions since you would not have those "finished" planets that can take all the tax load.

Or, you could just have the pop caps harder to reach so get a similar effect (tech increases pop caps.)