I think you've got a good idea, iwulff. I think it's a definite possibility. The Intelligence screens will need to be reworked a bit compared to BOTF. Since you'll be able to mod the game pretty easily and add empires, it doesn't make sense to have a screen with 4 or 5 other empires amongst which to divide your resources. I was thinking maybe something like this:

You start with all of your intelligence allocated to internal security. You can then add "targets" to a list. When you add a target, you select an empire or minor race, a target type (espionage, sabotage, propaganda, etc) and, if necessary, an area of focus (military, economic, social, etc). Your new target then appears on the targets list, and you can then distribute your total intel points between internal security and whatever targets you have specified. I think that would be a pretty flexible implementation.

How does that sound to you?

and the number of targets can be specified by yourselve. Sounds good.

I know this is not a diplomacy question, but.. will systems with lesser intel buildings be less protected against infiltrations? I know that we need to be careful not to overdo things in a game, but to actually manage internal affairs over your systems sounds cool, but might mean to much micromanagement.

Mattress, I'll want to snag those from you when I get around to programming random events.

Valcoren, I've published an update that fixes that bug.

your welcome mstrobel. I'm glad I can provide you with some feed back.

as far as territory expansion. This would be along the lines of a bribe from the minors to a major race. A minor race that does not have warp drive but wants to expand passed its solar system.

i.e. the Bandi want to claim the a start near to their solar system and they offer their resources or large amount of credits to Romulans to help them expand to that star. Romulians accept the offer and send a colony ship to that star as they go to colonize the solar system a pop up asks do Romulans would you like to claim this system for the Bandi. If they accept the request a Bandi population will be deposited in that solar system.

I don’t know of the difficulty of the programming of that but again. these are only suggestions.

Perhaps as an alternative, the a minor race could just ask for a colony ship as part of a diplomatic exchange.

That would work also. I have a bad habit of over thinking things sometimes, but on a side note I tested your fix. I did not have a good result. I found that when conquering over a race the game does not end, but the other races still disappear from their solar systems in the game.

@MOE: Don't mean to nit-pick but black holes do not appear from nowhere. They're born from the death of stars. In fact, they're born for a very specific *type* of star: huge stars of more than 10 solar masses... Er... My memory says 10 but it needs to be checked to confirm... When such stars die they do so with supernovea.

The giant star at _____ has gone supernova. The nebula and black hole it has left behind are dangerous. Regular traffic should avoid the area.
However....
If you're a Romulan you might want to put a listening post there.
If you're Federation you might want to study it.
Klingons might use the powerfully charged ions to power a weapons manufacturing plant.
The Dominion.... Well, I'm not sure. A prison outpost?
Cardassians... Hrm....

Anyway, black holes, neutron stars, quark stars, magnetars and nebulea don't just come from nowhere.... Of course, it's only a game and being totally realistic might be a serious pain to program. That is up the programmer(s). But there are *real* astronomical hazards out there and I vote for this to be as real as possible.

(Sorry it's a bit off topic y'all but I'm not really sure where I should put this objection.)

End rant.

Regarding random events..

Anyone ever play Space Empires IV? Or III for that matter? Or Gal Civ?

Lots of random, sometimes hilarious, random events in those. Space Empires ones are more serious, but.. engaging none the less.

I don't know how many dreadnoughts I've had that get flung USS Voyager-style to a random system alllll the way across the map due to random wormholes flinging a ship around.

And diplomatic options, SEIV had some very practical treaties, like Protectorate, and progressively higher levels of subjugation, where the dominant empire protects the small one and gets a progressively larger chunk of their income; mineral, research, and intel. Players vs AI's likely wouldn't use that, but it's fun, and practical, at times during PvP.

Another diplomacy idea:

Through out playing the game Majors ask for (demand) money from you. In which I think that Botf1 has the game heavy weighted on your favor of major races approval for you, if you provide the demanding amount to that race. With the options of the trading of specific materials in Supremacy; credits should not hold as much weight as it does in Botf1. So on to my idea of counter offerings.

Got the idea with the silliness of what EU and the USA are going through right now with Iran. I hate to poke at a real life matters, but I thought it would be interesting to be part of the game to say the less.

So say if the Klingons are demanding 200,000 credits from you and you want to keep in good favor with them for what ever reason, but you don’t want to bankrupt your empire by giving up all your credits. So you make a counter offer. Instead of 200,000 credits; you offer 100,000 credits and the rest in materials expenses and data exchange. So depending on you current approval ratings with the Klingons say they are respectful. You could offer them by using drop down menu options and offer something like the following (100,000 credit, 1000 tons of deuterium, and 250 teraquads of data.) as a counter offer.

In saying that would this to be close to the equivalent of 200,000 credits. You then send this counter offer back the Klingons, and could have the options to accept of decline your offer, or request the original 200,000 credits again. You the can weight your options of rejecting the 200,000 credit proposal the Klingons are asking for. Negations would last no more then 3 turns of game play, but if you decline their second request you endure I large penalty and can fall out of favor with the Klingons depending on your current approval ratings with them.

Whilst it might be difficult to implement, I think that that's a great idea.

We'd have to set up a system so the AI knows that 1 Raw Material = 2 Credits and 1 Deuterium = 5 dredits and so on for this to work, but it would certainly be cool, and would enhance the Diplomacy in the game at the same time.

For Mike's game, then chances are he'll include it - and if not, he'll "remember" to, once he sees our posts.

And as for Jig's game, i'm pretty sure it's gonna be in anyway.

If you want to do something like this, it would be helpful to follow the Civilization III model. You have the option to do exactly this type of proposal/counter-proposal, but also there's a little guy up in the corner of the screen saying, "They would never accept such an arrangment," "They will probably be insulted by this offer," "This offer probably won't be accepted," "We're getting close to a deal," "This deal will probably be acceptable." That way you can check your offers before actually sending them on. You also have the option of saying essentially, "I want [x]. What do you want for [x]?" or, "I have [x]. Would you care to make an offer?" Those are very helpful options, but I don't know how complicated they are to program and might be simply too complex to include in a non-corporation made game. Still, it would be great to, for instance, go to the Dominion--who happens to be building up a massive fleet on your border while you're already at war with the Klingons on the other side of your empire--and say, "What would you need to agree to a mutual defense pact?"