This is a list of suggestions mainly for space phase:

TRADE
Add auto player owned solar system spice collection from the sun/galaxy map not the planet map
Add spice total to star map (available as an option to have up all the time even when not moused over)
Add threshold auto selling set by player for each spice in a new auto trading menu EG player sets Green spice to sell at 20000 and whenever they visit a npc system that will by above that they sell all stock till it goes below that number.
Ability to open trade/communicate from starmap not planet map
Higher supplies of items on planet/in systems eg colony maker things
Maybe an auto collect of all spices in your homeworld empire (planets connected by lines or chains of lines to your homeworld) from homeworld planet/system. This means spices on far flung outposts wont be collected just core empire ones.

ALLIANCES/HOMEWORLDS
Add ability to see own star systems all the time - allys too even
Add a quick zoom in that goes right from galaxy to star sized to solar system to planet (if not already there) use "E" and "Q" for zooming would be good (dont think they are used atm).
Better AI for alliance system IE to help destroy the Grox
A pirate faction so you can get on good terms with pirates and stop their raids.

STARMAP
Add option to have star names up without mouse over
Add yellow 'radar' to sun map in addition to the planet map
Add [insert another colour besides blue/yellow] 'radar' to star systems with places of interest E.G. earth, any storybook planets etc.
Add another interstellar drive with increased range even inside core area (only available after entering the core)

BATTLE
Add drone ships to players empire which can defend systems carry out defending allies etc
Add a quicker way to defeat the Grox? Do computer players attack them? Terraforming from star map via drones? (It's annoying that you have to zoom in to 1000 worlds and terraform or defeat all of them esp when it is essentially the same task. Talk about RSI.)
Allies to help protect your systems when you are not there? Mercenaries? Or more player ships.

Planets
Increase amount of animals that can be housed on planets IE after T3 open 6 more herbivores spots and 3 more carnivore spots on the planet

I think that will do.

Updated - More sensical now.

signed!

- It would be great if the next patch would lesser the pirates and enemy group attackes... instead of every minute, make it 20 minutes...
- Planetary defences would be great too...

But the most thing I hate in the Phase is... and its really disgusting... Why am I limited to a ship? Why am I only able to fleet up with allies... But not my own? It should work like the pack in the creature phase... Where I can gather up to X (any number above 2) spacehips from my own or from my allies...

And it would be great if the SPORE creator himself comments this ... I mean... If he is considering a small gameplay change... and so on... Cause the Net is full of "The Space phase is demotivating" complains...

Essentially a bump.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks these things might make for a better feel to the space stage.

I agree with most of these!

updated more sensical

Suggestion of an auomated trade system for spice.
Everybody agrees that the actual buy/sell system for spice is not playable when you have a large empire .
So I suggest a way that seems easy to implement as well as not bad for the game.

A new Planet object ( like the tower for defense or the spice reserve) that sells spice that are porducted above the maximum stock of your planet.

says: you have a planet that produce 60 spice/hour with a max storage of 30. When you reach 30/30 , every minute, one spice is produced and sold.

To know how much it will be sold. I suggest to sell it to the planet of your empire (in a certain range, says 2 parsec at the beginning.) that offer the most. It would be good to consider that as a real sell to the planet, making market price variable on the whole empire.

Last, I see this with a new ability ( like health and energy : so buy it once , you have it and with levels), that would increase the range where the planet looks ( for example: level 0 looks at 2 parsec, level 1 at 5, 2 -> 10, 3 ->17 , 4->30) and maybe a second planet object that would sell also to foreign allyes within the range and, thus, increase relationship.


What does the community thinks of it?

The problem of the Space Phase is not the numbers of enemies attacking you... Its the frequency of the attacks... You can easily counter an attack of 10 UFOs with the starting ship... You just have to keep on moving... They will not hit you... But you them... with the homing missiles... So thats is not the point here... sometimes its too easy killing them... But... I want to do other stuffs... Not always hopping from planet to planet protecting them from attacks.. that sucks... It sucked too much that i used a trainer to get over 10 mil sporedollars in order to upgrade my ships with bombs and shields... and then kill all reds around my planets... I have never used a trainer before... That sucks...

This buy sell stuff gets to complicated with sell ibetween X parsecs or similar complicated (never to calculate and check) formulas! solutions should be simple. Patches mean simple the developers are not getting money. So all this will probably never be implemented.... Try to stay reasonable.

Though i agree with the idea of auto selling and hence I add following suggestion:

1) Enable / disable Switch in the planet orbit to enable / disable auto sell spice. If enabled each produced spice will be sold immediately to planets funds and the player gets the credits transferred. The price per spice have to be carfully balanced it should be MUCH worse than if you would sell it for good price. Maybe it should be 50 bucks per spice to get a feeling for it.

2) Easier colony building - Very annoying to place houses + cannons. Doublecklick should place the item on the nearest position in the colony screen. I dont know how much more can be done with the current system, but it would also be nice to be able to have a PREV + NEXT button withiout having to fly to each colony.

3) I support the function of a defence force. Maybe a button on the colony screen - for 100,000 - 1,000,000 credits you could buy a number of ships

4) If your ufo gets destroyed you should loose something - reputation with your own race, maybe an upgrade you have earned ... some equipment.... something so you have an incentive not to go on suicide runs.

5) Support the request with own Assault forces. Maybe at own planet you can direct attacks like you do for allies for a hefty price... then they help you attacking planet X.

What do you think

Totally agree, though I'd add this:

Make fewer planets/solar systems have spice, and make the planets/solar systems far FAR less densely populated. As it is, EVERY system has spice and EVERY system ends up populated eventually. It should be EXCITING to find new life, or a planet that can yield spice. As it is, I'm like, "Crap, another race/planet to deal with."

Also, planets that have the "ultra turbo cannon" or whatever it's called, should be able to defend themselves. Why do I have to personally tend to EVERY battle of EVERY planet even though I've set their defenses to the max?

Finally, I agree that there should definitely be an "auto-sell" feature, but I disagree that it should sell for "top price". If anything, you should take a significant hit for not manually selling the spice. Selling it manually allows the fastest top profit. However, if you created a "merchant" addon, it would only be usable in the later stages of the game. By this point, you would have a pretty good number of planets, so the money would pour in entirely too quickly to make the game any fun any more if it sold at top price. Instead, it should sell at closer to 25-50% of the PLANET's price (consider that now you're going to be paying for shipping/salaries since you're not doing the transporting manually, or searching for the best prices.)

Other than that, I'm with ya.

-Javin

Macmillant wrote:This is a list of suggestions mainly for space phase:

Regarding the suggestions made in the first post for trading:
These seem aimed mostly at making the game easier with less to do, which is opposite what most people seem to want. It seems like most want to have more to do instead of less. Anyhow, my thoughts on the items listed... spice collection from the starmap sounds good to me. Spice total sounds good as an optional display. Threshold automatic selling is okay, but I don't really care. Opening communications (not trade) from anywhere on the starmap would be good. Trade should only be done from the planet... you're not shooting traded goods in a rocket across the galaxy or even the solar system, you know. More items to buy in systems isn't a good thing, imo. Having to find what you're looking for and at a good price by checking around the systems is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Automatically collecting spice without even going to the system seems bad. Micromanaging isn't a bad thing in a game.

About the starmap... Seeing star names automatically would be a nice optional display. The "yellow" radar when not in the system makes it WAY too easy to find rares, so no. Other colored displays for special things also make it too easy to find them. Now, if you had it so that once you find them, it will show that display from the starmap, then I can live with that.

About battle... Drone ships or other defensive capabilites for planets/colonies would be nice to see. Things that cannot be taken into space, but can be there to defend the planets. You should still have to help out occasionally, though. It makes no sense if your planets are all self-sufficient. Quicker way to defeat Grox? Come on. Too many people think the game is too short already. It might be time consuming, but it's your choice to defeat them. It's the same if you wanted to defeat any other race... it's just bigger.

About planets... having more spots for animals would be useful if you're trying to make "zoo" planets. I did notice an achievement for zoo planets... not sure what that is, though. If it just means filling all 3 levels with creatures or if you can actually add a lot more creatures.


Just as a note, my main complaint with auto-sell systems for spice is that it makes it WAY too easy to make money. Things cost a decent amount, but not outrageous amounts. Normal selling the way it is now brings in enough money and keeps the game slower because you still have to earn it. If it sells automatically, you're going to be making a lot of money quickly and it will make the game go that much faster toward the "end." If they added any kind of auto-sell feature, it should sell either to the planet it's on (you can do that, so it should be able to) or for the lowest price found at any of your own planets. Yes, the lowest price. This way you can't make a ton of extra money by selling automatically, but still gives you that little bit of an extra income. You still have to manually sell if you want the good profits.

up up and away!

The whole space economic stuffs should be more like Master of Orion III .. easy to manage and not confusing...

Riamus wrote:About battle... Drone ships or other defensive capabilites for planets/colonies would be nice to see. Things that cannot be taken into space, but can be there to defend the planets. You should still have to help out occasionally, though. It makes no sense if your planets are all self-sufficient. Quicker way to defeat Grox? Come on. Too many people think the game is too short already. It might be time consuming, but it's your choice to defeat them. It's the same if you wanted to defeat any other race... it's just bigger.

Well said. I would love to have some more options for defense besides just turrets so I can actually get something done even as my empire expands. As I add more planets, I'm spending all my time running around defending them. However, having to help out sometimes would be perfectly sensible. I think a reasonable combination of better planetary defenses and fewer attacks (especially by pirates) would be a nice change. More planetary defenses such as stronger turrets and drones could be unlocked as you expand the empire. Maybe planetary defenses would make a good theme for an expansion pack.

Riamus wrote:Just as a note, my main complaint with auto-sell systems for spice is that it makes it WAY too easy to make money. Things cost a decent amount, but not outrageous amounts. Normal selling the way it is now brings in enough money and keeps the game slower because you still have to earn it. If it sells automatically, you're going to be making a lot of money quickly and it will make the game go that much faster toward the "end." If they added any kind of auto-sell feature, it should sell either to the planet it's on (you can do that, so it should be able to) or for the lowest price found at any of your own planets. Yes, the lowest price. This way you can't make a ton of extra money by selling automatically, but still gives you that little bit of an extra income. You still have to manually sell if you want the good profits.

Again, I agree with the philosophy here. *thumbs up*

Suggestion: PLEASE allow us to buy a tool and have it permanantly. It is extremely tedious to only be able to use certain tools once and then have to buy them again. It isnt fun, it doesnt add any challenge to the game it just makes it annoying/tedious.

Another suggestion: Maybe a little less intelligent life in the galaxy would make the space phase more relaxed.

Yet another suggestion: Have the space phase be an actual sandbox not an infinitely looping string of meaningless, tedious events and actions.

Basically just improve the space phase. The other stages have their flaws but to overall theyre fine(imho). The space phase, however, is plagued with tedium and repitition.

@ Riamus

Yeah I agree my main aim with the trading is to get rid of the annoying scrolling RSI grind to make money selling at lowest price automatically once over what planet can hold would work though.

More items to buy in systems isn't a good thing

I mean of the items they already supply not more different items - again this is scrolling RSI to get amounts of stock you want cause you can just run around thier empire getting it.

The "yellow" radar when not in the system makes it WAY too easy to find rares, so no. Other colored displays for special things also make it too easy to find them. Now, if you had it so that once you find them, it will show that display from the starmap, then I can live with that.

Again scrolling RSI but I agree it may make things too easy


A better less repeatative build system would be nice like setting empires default buildings and rebuilding automatically the building side of things once a colony is T3 is pointless/annoying.

Quicker way to defeat Grox?

A thousand thousand stars to terraform (scrolling RSI and repetition) and no help form any allies as far as I can tell? Is just a tad disheartening. Getting help from allies to destroy them or npcs killing grox too would sort this problem out. +at same time you are running from world to world trying to fix everyones problems.