FreeOrion

It's possible... I haven't seen anything, perhaps we should sacrifice a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri to the Powers That Be to ask that they might bless us with confirmation of the status of migration. Currently this should be it. http://www.drektopia.com/popcaps.htm. Although I Can think...

That sounds good, by having technologies that primarily benefit small or large ships, (that are sufficiently expensive and not automatically gotten ala MOO3) a players favored long term strategy becomes viable [although I still think the general fighter beats battleship beats frigate beats fighter.....

I thought we wouldn't be having migration in FO? (which is somewhat better because it stops growthrate from being galactic, ie new colonies Always take X turns to grow up. Even if it is less relaistic/plausible [but then max pops aren't realistic/plausible either if food, etc. is traded]) I just fig...

That only works if 1. There is a means of controlling growth rates or 2. There is migration Since the second has been definitely nixed and the 1st is not likely, then I'd disagree with any sort of a crowding penalty unless it was on an empire wide basis (ie your total population is ~70,89,90% of you...

Since Colonies will only consist of 1 pop unit (for demographics balance reasons), I have an idea for the utility of multiple colony pods. Assuming the planet uses a MOO1 type principle of generic 'Factory' 'Farm' 'Mine' 'Lab' levels, then each colony pod that lands on a planet ( even an already col...

Perhaps a fleet bonus,... in any case there is a way to keep fleets small and personal and that is merely by making sure that there is always an expensive ship size such that an empire can only afford a few.

Actually, the MOO3 devplans were relatively good, and any good macromanagement tool would be something like them. Their problem was primarily not enough transparency in how they worked. Another thing is to keep the Economic model fairly simple, so that the player can see that the 'auto-build' is mak...

Each planet has a numerical setting for the four possible economic focuses. That Numerical setting is the sum of Imperial Dev plans in the following format Planet Type......Industry......Mining.....Food.......Research All.........<+1>..........<-1>.......<+2>.........<0> (This being a setting for so...

That's what I think buildings should be, Unique acheivement type things that you wouldn't have millions of. I think this also works with the 'Focus Idea' of having some buildings/capacity improvement techs that only work when a planet has certain focuses (actually each economic tech/building could b...

I'd say that is what makes WC3 good, it makes teching(with some early units built) v. early mass rushing a difficult choice, and ensures that just 'sitting there' won't work, you actually have to use your forces throughout most of the game.

Well I can think of some ways that they could be more balanced than they were in say Civ 1. Don't have them unlock just when you discover a technology, add some more conditions and or ways it can be built a) it is unlocked one turn if your neighbor has the tech, or if your neighbor starts building i...

Usually, campaigns like that are used as a fun tutorial, and that might be a way to do it... you play short mini scenario games starting with different races at different levels of development, and focus on different portions of empire building. Later, more difficult scenarios would focus on managin...

I'd say that the best way to have race-unique techs is not to have just to have techs that some races cannot research, but to have techs some races cannot USE, even if they steal them. Ie Non telepathic races can't use Telepathic Amplifiers, and telepathic races can't use Artificial Telepathy (altho...

No. Restricted Wonders are BAD,especially as ships.

If you can't restrict it based on cost, then it'll feel artificial.

I could see 'Small wonders ala CivIII' where building one before anyone else you know had one would cost more and have some minor additional benefits.

I personally feel rather strongly that no gameplay elements should be 'locked'. Maybe art (as in a new race becomes available.. but for gameplay purposes you could recreate that race using standard customization) or certain cut scenes, movies, etc. but never a gameplay element.