Very much a WIBN, and parts are not very nice anyway. Capital ship pirates would require massive fortification all over the place, and very much get in the way of doing "business" with your opponents. As things stand, planetary defenses + a light backup (with maybe a few dozen carriers sitting in the star itself to interdict enemy movement and protect friendly shipping) are enough to "secure" an area against pirates... your suggestion means that you CAN'T secure against pirates.

i agree with one thing u said 100% the game is lacking in personality. But thats to be expected in a beta. I've said it before but i'll say it again, i have no attachment to any of my ships. any of my planets none of them. but i guess when the story line starts to unfold and random things happen is when it gets good . i dont know how in detail u intend to let us get with our fleets. but im a bsg fan so i vote that we can name our CAG's as well as ships and commanders, and admirals.

the tech tree seems a bit confusing. pictures are nice, but maybe a little title for each picture or sumthin along those lines. and im not really getting how i move up the tech tree it seems random at best. i basically just build research stations and then click until everything is grey then build another and repeat. i dont find myself stressing over what to research next. i preferred the layout of the galciv tech tree personally.

the political interface seems a little lacking as well. In galciv you had a picture of an alien or a person of sum sort. you had tons of options from trading techs to ships to planets. you had a detailed breakdown screen for who was allies with who, how each faction felt about u at any given time. things like that. the one in the beta just feels like 4 buttons for each faction. I basically can click on 4 buttons for each faction, and thats all the communication i get with them. plain and not all that interesting.

battle statistics would be a sweet idea. after a massive battle it'd be sweet to get some sort of report on how each ship in your fleet performed. Accuracy, damage inflicted, damage taken, ships destroyed things like that. and this would go along with another post i saw on here the other day. veterancy, it'd be pretty cool if ur ships gained some veteran points for battle aka command and conquer or any other rts u'd like to compare that feature too. this would be especially applicable with fighter squadrons. If i keep my CAG alive all game long and i come across a newbie flak frigate my Veteran should be able to hold his own for alot longer than a nugget fresh off the line.

ahh so theres sum more of my random thoughts at 12:00 in the morning, enjoy

Well the main reason for capital ships in my opinion as pirates is to give flavor, give them names... like 'oh no the Mad Hatter is here' or whatever... so a compromise... Capital ships with one ability and half health.

the game needs personality, not neccessarily complexity, therefore I don't think it has much to do with 4X vs RTS... You know what the problem with most 4X games is?

They are just Turn Based versions of RTS... with some dress up. they very rarely focus on things like unique situations, or ships or planets, or characters... or quests... this game needs a splash of RPG more than 4X!

The booty system, and pirate systems, and perhaps even neutral civilian ships....

for example your reputation could go down and bounty go up automatically if you attack these poor innocent refugee ships and merchants... but they are worth juicy money... it will allow me to be evil or nice. Always a good feature. A couple of random ancient space constructs would be nice too.

Yet again an example- you find a system which is instead of an asteroid or planet is the Tower of Solace built by who knows who... but you can 'colonize' it... IE capture, it has no population but you can build defenses around it and more importantly its worth some abstract ability... perhaps giving you control of a new tech, or providing funds or culture, or hell its just full of fighters!

That wouldnt add any more depth, just personality.

Pirate are getting their own ships

But I want ...... more!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure if it was just an idiosyncrasy of the early 2nd beta, but in the first game I played with pirates it got to a stage where I needed my entire fleet to defend against repeated attacks of 40+ pirate ships appearing constantly from outer space. Each time one fleet was destroyed, another appeared; put me of so much I haven't played with pirates since.

In addition, I don't think there would be a problem with capital ship pirates if they acted like bases and avoided heavy combat. Give them the ability to build ships from their capitals and leave them roaming.

Well, one things is you have to properly PLACE the defenses. An inhibitor is necessary to keep the pirates from killing your trade centers then just moving on, and repair centers are needed to keep your hangers alive when the AI comes for them... while cannons should be up close to those because the AI just doesn't seem to bother engaging them before moving forward.

PS- cant wait to see what Stardock/ironclad Does do with pirat!s.