I will propose the addition of a merchant fleet, automated vessels that can be used to transport food surplus across systems. As of right now, additional food does nothing, in late game there is the food-industry converter but until then the surplus does absolutely nothing once my system is fully populated.

The role of the merchant fleet would be to even out the foodsupply over the whole empire, transporting food from rich terran planets to those not so fortunate lava/barren/gasgiant systems.

Why not implement a generic "cargo" system? In several mods i used to play of older type games you could equip ships with a specific module that would automaticly act as either direct cargo haulers, or boost "trade" intersystem. (the idea being that you could haul larger amounts with a single large ship, but that could be targeted. Or that you could distribute this across a "transport network" for automatic smoothing. ) In terms of long term dev goals, the idea that they want to improve planetary combat could indeed be utilised in the cargo system (carry troops, munitions etc).

Even better maybe the adventurer hero could have a hand in this category, hijacking cargo ships or helping the transport process (im sure someone else has some even better ideas here). These would also have strategic value from a military point of view since the ships or at least the main supply route would have to be patrolled/protected adding another layer of depth to this great game.

In both Hearts of iron and MoO2 the cargo system is automated and TBH I think that is a pretty clever solution since it cuts down on micro manegment and speeds up multi player games. But I agree with the idea that transport networks could (and should) be targeted and defended as part of galactic warfare.



The merchant fleet should be vissually represented on the galactic map in a way that gives a clue about the ammount of trade going on betwen systems, the possitioning of a hostile fleet along these routes would inhibit trade up to the point where it is completely cut of and at the same time destroying merchant vessels.

For a more hands on inspiration, think of the German wolfpacks, submarines that terrorized trade across the atlantic ocean during WW2.

Kallin wrote:
Even better maybe the adventurer hero could have a hand in this category, hijacking cargo ships or helping the transport process (im sure someone else has some even better ideas here). These would also have strategic value from a military point of view since the ships or at least the main supply route would have to be patrolled/protected adding another layer of depth to this great game.

I would love to see the heroes with a bigger role! They currently are only an extra when they should be an important strategical point. Except stealing research and dust they should indeed be able to:

1.hijack fleets

2.a skill to capture ships during a battle(a battle card option maybe)

3.steal luxury/resources (for a certain amount of turns at least),

4.massacre population on enemy planets

5.assasinate other heroes

6.bribe other heroes,

7.bribe systems/planets (it would be fun to be able to bribe only 1 planet from the system and start an in-system civil war which would result in the economy and social security of the whole enemy empire)

8.serve as an undetectable spy with a small fast ship (the spy would only be detected and, for example, imprisoned/captured if there is another hero or a system improvement which can detect this sort of things)

9.disguise a fleet as if it belongs to another empire



I would enjoy to see heroes play a large role and a player to be able to capture/imprison and hold a hero as a hostage. If they are given a significant role, such an action would decide how the game goes.



PS - Sorry for side-tracking the topic