Ok so I've spent about 8 hours playing various races and trying to get a feel for the game, even in this alpha state it's a contender with many already released titles and has a lot of promise. I'm just going to go through with a few ideas, some of which may already be in development in which case that's awesome, and some hopefully others will agree would be a good addition/change overall.



Colony Construction/Management:



I actually really enjoy this aspect of the game, they strike a nice balance between the sit back and watch colony development of SoTS and the detailed development in something like MOOII. On top of that they've added a few twists of their own with regard to how buildings affect all the different planet types. Luxury and Strategic resources are a pretty cool addition as well.



What I'd like to see:



I may be missing it but from what I can tell the terraforming options, moon surveys, in system colonization, and anomaly improvements are only accessible by going to each planet individually and queuing them up. I'd like some kind of notification on the system screen that a planet has one of these things available for construction or have it simply show up in the system build list with everything else. Starbases would also be a welcome addition to planet defenses.



Diplomacy/Espionage:



Right now there seems to be a pretty barebones diplomacy system in place with your typical diplomacy options. Based on the hero skills it looks like espionage will be added at some point in addition to much deeper diplomacy options. For example tech theft, sabotage, opinion influence both for yourself and between the other races. The ability to play them against one another would be quite fun. Perhaps there could also be a way to use espionage to predict card use for fleets in battle or get a more detailed description of the weapons the enemy is using. Diplomacy and espionage are an often overlooked part of these kinds of games but they have the ability to really augment the experience in a positive way.



Hero System:



I really like the hero system but I'd also like to see more of them on the field. Perhaps scaling the limits with the size of the galaxy you're playing on. 3 heroes on a small map without tech investment might feel just right but on a large map with many many systems and planets under your control even maxing out the hero techs will leave your systems and fleets without leaders and at the cost of going deep into a tech tree and forsaking others. Right now the gain from focusing on increasing that cap instead of going down another tree isn't enough to justify it. That said I really like the heroes themselves as well as the leveling choices. I would like to see it turn into a tree of some kind so you can plan out the advancement of a hero from the get go without having to stumble on skills via luck or repetition.



Techs:



The tech tree is fairly expansive and quite a bit of it is at least moderately interesting. Where I feel it falls apart slightly is in the department of non system improvement techs, from what it is now you seem to just be going Laser I-X Missile I-X and Gun I-X. The same applies to pretty much every ship component. Really I'd just like to see a lot more interesting techs and unique components/structures. More classes of ships would also be pretty amazing, carriers, assault transports, titans, and space stations. The passive modifiers to the hull types is a nice idea and would be awesome for expanding the ship selection. This could likely be due to the fact that it's in alpha but I figured I'd point it out just the same.



Combat/ship design:



My main concerns with the game stem from this area, and it pretty much goes hand in hand with the tech tree concerns. Combat right now is fairly dull with your only interaction being in the form of the tactic cards. While I do actually like the tactic cards I'd like to see them supplement a more robust combat and ship design system. Special weapons and components that can also affect the battle would be ideal as well as the ability to have specific tactics set up for certain types of ships. I don't really want my LRM ships to close and engage but I'd also like to outfit faster ships to close the distance sooner and engage with close range weapons.



Think the planning and setup of gratuitous space battles combined with the weapon variety of MOOII and the real time cinematic aspect of GalCivII. Throw in the ability to possibly control the camera or at least a lot better cinematic camera and keep the tactic cards/hero abilities combined with new special weapon abilities and the pre-battle orders we can have a more complex battle experience. This would make the combat and ship design a more engaging experience which is really where this game is weakest IMHO.



Also a visualized combat even like MOOII would be awesome but not all that important. Just a nifty feature addition.



Again, I really like the game, even in alpha it's highly addictive and well worth the money. Hopefully some of this wall o text can help add to the game in some way.