Just won first game, my thoughts + suggestions

[Nessic]

    After being busy with life for a few weeks or so, I finily got around to finishing a full 80 planet game, on difficulty 7.6. And the first thing id like to say is- this is a great game  . It kept me thinking and planning for allot longer then any other recent game (except maybe dominions 3). The only boring bit was when i hit the endgame. Which was far sooner then i had anticipated actually.  Anyway- below are just some thoughts on some of the things I noticed while playing.

      Knowledge- I like the way this works, but knowledge raiding is maybe a bit to easy? If you do your scouting homework and stick to the systems without ion cannons. - Maybe make the AI gather ships to attack player fleets that are away from there homeworld?

     AI threat- I love this idea to. The way you can manipulate it to spread the AIs reinforcement over a huge area is damn neat... That being said, its a little to easy to leave a couple turrets and tier 1 ships under a forcefeild in easy AI systems as you pass though. - Another problem that might be solved if the AI gathers ships to attack player fleets deep in there territory.

     Need for expansion- To a point, you do need to expand.. but really, once you hit 5-7 systems in the current econ, I was never needing for resources again. It would be nice if there where more things to capture in the starmap, to make me want to take systems. And I know your planning to add them, but even just some minor ones would be nice. 

        A couple that came to mind-
Ship warehouses: Capture to gain a 1 time chunk of a ships (100 shields, or tanks, or a few missiles) a nice small bonus of ships that you might not otherwise use.
Knowledge boosters- A quick boost to knowledge at the cost of AI progress. say +500, and +5 ai progress.
abandoned forts- Ready made fortifications, just add command center. 
Resource Silos- A quick boost to your resources (would put these in otherwise resource barren systems)

       Interface- specifically on the star map, a quick summary to tell what you would gain bye capturing a system would be nice, even just as simple as: +x metal +y crystal, adv. factory.

      Starship's- Very handy, The damage boost on the spire is huge if your taking a small fleet into take out ion cannons on tech 4 systems, my only thought on them is that maybe they could be somehow more... impressive? Its hard to discribe, but they just don't feel like massive engines of death, even if they are (and they deffinitly currently are^^)

       Ships- all felt about right, though maybe some more visual between the ship tiers and the bullets they shoot- really minor though.

      And last but not least- I feel there should be super weapons ^^. This one is definitely expansion fodder though. Something like capturing 5 parts of from various systems, and then expending a massive amount of resources- while the ai progress skyrockets and they rain fiery death on the system its in.
   
     anyway, thats all I got... I think I wrote a little to much there^^. sorry for rambling on so long, but as i said, This is a great game and I'm already looking forward to seeing more and more improvements to it^^.

[Haagenti]

    After being busy with life for a few weeks or so, I finily got around to finishing a full 80 planet game, on difficulty 7.6.

Which opponents?

Knowledge- I like the way this works, but knowledge raiding is maybe a bit to easy? If you do your scouting homework and stick to the systems without ion cannons. - Maybe make the AI gather ships to attack player fleets that are away from there homeworld?

Agreed. And once you can build III Cruisers, Fighters and Bombers, even those IV Ion Cannons aren't safe.

Need for expansion- To a point, you do need to expand.. but really, once you hit 5-7 systems in the current econ, I was never needing for resources again. It would be nice if there where more things to capture in the starmap, to make me want to take systems. And I know your planning to add them, but even just some minor ones would be nice. 

I also agree here. 6 planets is plenty right now (it used to be 4). Maybe Energy needs a slight nerf to force you to grab more planets? Perhaps allow only one I, II and III Power plant per planet?

[Nessic]

    After being busy with life for a few weeks or so, I finily got around to finishing a full 80 planet game, on difficulty 7.6.

Which opponents?

         A mad bomber (Dreadnoughts where very very helpful), and a sledgehammer. Sence i kept the progress so low, neither of them really posed any threat past the early game. 

Knowledge- I like the way this works, but knowledge raiding is maybe a bit to easy? If you do your scouting homework and stick to the systems without ion cannons. - Maybe make the AI gather ships to attack player fleets that are away from there homeworld?

Agreed. And once you can build III Cruisers, Fighters and Bombers, even those IV Ion Cannons aren't safe.

      Yah, I had 10 or so research stations flying with my fleet, and 20 mobile builders as well, to replace loses and to build fortresses in there territory.

Need for expansion- To a point, you do need to expand.. but really, once you hit 5-7 systems in the current econ, I was never needing for resources again. It would be nice if there where more things to capture in the starmap, to make me want to take systems. And I know your planning to add them, but even just some minor ones would be nice. 

I also agree here. 6 planets is plenty right now (it used to be 4). Maybe Energy needs a slight nerf to force you to grab more planets? Perhaps allow only one I, II and III Power plant per planet?

      I'm not sure nerfing energy is really the key. (though perhaps making tech 3 plants capture from the AI only would be cool). The main thing I noticed is that when your not losing ships at any real rate, and your not building any starship's for whatever reason. Your buffer supply of materials grows so large, you can replace your whole fleet, spire ships included, in a matter of minutes with enough engineers (I used 15 when i lost my two spires because i got careless).
 
      maybe your storage itself should probably be much much lower- If you cant stockpile resources, you cant make out your build speeds on the few things you need to replace later in the game absurdly huge. You need the inflow to back it up. Could also probably make storage boosters capturable structures, so if you want the huge war chests, you can take them... at the cost of AI progress of course

       If you couple that, with AI attacking deep raiding fleets (and causing real damage) That could do it, maybe? heh, i think I type to much when talking about this game ^^.