Very good ideas, I would add to your list that it would be helpful to be able to acheve pacts and relationships with the other races as well, perhaps on a percentage basis, say advent to advent i need 30% to offer missions, 40% standing for a ceasefire, 50% for a peace treaty, 60% for the various share resources and 70% for shared ship and planet vision.
For the other races, if this could be changed to 40% for missions, 50% for ceasefire, 60% for peace treaty, 70% for the share resources and 80% for shared ship and planet vision.
In addition, it would be nice NOT to be stabbed in the back by the AI when the other races are defeated. If the AI "saw" relationships as "teams", even if the other races were single opponents, then once they were defeated the win would go to the "team".
As it stands now, the peace treaties and manipulation are only good for the duration of the battle with the others, and then its back to "on our own".
If diplomacy were to mean something more than it meant before all these changes, then it would be nice to have "Allies" stand by each other and "Win" together.
Why spend time building up peace treaties and supporting other empires to win their alliegence, only to get stabbed in the back at the end of the game? I would rather not jump through the hoops for nothing if that is the case. And simply play the game as it stands without the expansion.
I know its not completed yet, but the launch date as i recall is set for February, which means its not very far away at all.
As it stands now, i think "Diplomacy" has to mean something other than just temporary manuevering.
At least give the AI a choice, say 50% of the time they turn on you, the other 50% of the time they remain staunch allies and give us a team win. Or if the devs wanted something a little more elaborate, they could go with some formula that has 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 different scenarios, say a timer when a standoff happens, like when all sides have exhausted their fleet and supply points that gives 15 or 30 minutes for a decisive change or the game goes "Draw".
in single player games where we have one on one at the end of the game, it could be like Chess, with a 60 move limit before declaring a "Draw" or in cases where one opponent vastly out numbers the other, a calculated "Win", I say calculated because it would be nice, even for players with low numbers to win against heavier powered opponents by strategically out-manuevering them for a certain number of moves, which could be calculated as planet jumps. And in this way isnt always biased against the lower numbers but has a chance of going either way. In addition to draws there might be sacrificial wins. Where a player has a choice late game of handing all planets and resources over to the ally, raising their numbers for a sudden death win for the ally against the opponent, this would happen of course in games where three or more players real or ai combined are still fighting.
There might also be a "Reset" win, where the one player has to be allied to more than 50% of the remaining races still at war, but not just given to the player, perhaps it could be like a "window"where the allied players are out-numbered and have exhausted fleet and supply points and given again, perhaps a 60 move limit, or a time limit, say 15 or 30 minutes where the attacking superior forces have to "force" one of the factions from the alliance, by killing or disabling them from the others alliance in order to stop the reset. If successful the superior opponent wins, if not, then the win goes to to the smaller allied forces that have over 50% alliance. This could be a clear "win" for them, or if the devs so choose, could be one of several outcomes, one being a "reset" to an earlier random time in the game, say early to even mid game. It would make for longer games, but make them much more interesting i would wager.
In addition to these, there could be a "Retreat" win, where in single star systems, the opponent is pushed back to their home planet and surrounded. Again forcing a time or move limit for a calculated win or lose or draw. Depending on how the "Judging AI" chooses. But the judging ai needs to be fair, and random in choosing, not simply always forcing the same outcome for or against certain player races. In this case not always defaulting to the ai, nor always defaulting to the human players.
In multi-star systems the "Retreat" win, could be achieved by forcing the attacking forces back into the second, or third, or more star system, say over 50% again, in order to achieve the Retreat win. And again, to press my opinion, a random win choice that doesnt always favor either the attacker or the defender. In this way, battles are won by more than numbers, by more than power, but also, with a certain amount of luck and chance.
Real battles are often won in this way, not by superior numbers, but by particular circumstance and chance. The Afgans do not always lose simplly because they are outnumbered or out-gunned, but by hiding in the hills and hiding, by out-lasting the supply lines and the determination of the invaders. By out-waiting the superior forces.
That might lead to a game where such a "time limit" is imposed, say you invade, or someone invades you, but they have to achieve a clear superior position within a certain time limit to continue to try to take over the planet, if they dont, then they receive a "pull back" order from their home planet and retreat, leaving the planet. This is a retreat as well, but not of the same kind as the retreat win i spoke of earlier.
Anyway, these are some suggestions and thoughts, i hope that they make sense and can hopefully add something to the game to consider.
Lately i've been rather turned off this whole change around, sorry to sound whiney, but i'm just not seeing a change from how things were done with the very simple diplomacy we had before this. Especially when the ai always stabs me in the back when the other players are defeated.
Sorry im in a mood,
-Teal
