Greetings to all, I have just joined up to contribute to this great community. I'm in my 20's and love sci-fi especially star wars. I have always enjoyed playing SWR and was glad to see such great fans putting in the effort to make the coming great game. Here are a few ideas I have. I don't know if you guys will be able to use them but here you are anyway. Please let me know what you all think, or if any ideas have been covered already etc. I will keep it short for the moment and write more if anyone is interested ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Level of Fleet Alertness: A key part in my opinion. Fleets or bases can be put on one of three levels of alertness, which are: "Red Alert" - ships are fully powered, weapons are ready to fire and the crews are ready for combat. All fighters have been launched and are performing maneuvers or search operations. Costs lots of money and fuel, very expensive to maintain. Enemy spies/agents will have very little chance of success against the area which this fleet protects "Yellow alert" - ships are partially powered, systems such as weapons are not ready to fire, the crew are not all at their combat positions. A few fighters are already in space but most are on standby in their hangers. Cost some money and fuel. Spies have a good chance of getting through the patrols and defenses "Green Alert" - ships are totally powered down, a skeleton crew mans the ship for maintenance and all fighters are in hanger bays. Costs very little money and no fuel. Spies can almost do as they wish without being caught. The level of alertness will affect the battle to come. Imagine if an attacking Rebel fleet on Red Alert, engages an Imperial fleet which is set on Green Alert. The Rebel fleet will be combat ready with fighters already launched as it exits hyperspace and can begin an attack immediately, while the Imperial fleet will be defenseless while it tries to organise itself and launch fighters. This way, you could have a small fleet launch a surprise attack on a larger fleet and gain an unlikely victory. With these levels of alertness, a whole area of strategic thinking is now required. For example, if your empire shares a border with an ally, then all ships near your ally can be placed on Green Alert and costs can be reduced. If you share a border with an neutral empire which launches a surprise attack and your defenses are caught on Green alert, then your frontline could be destroyed easily (like Pearl harbour). Also, having too many borders with enemies will be something that the player will want to avoid because all your defenses along the borders of your empire set to Red Alert will be a massive drain on your resources. You could lay an ambush for an enemy fleet. Consider a situation where you have a spy on a rebel fleet. You know where that fleet is heading and what alertness level that fleet is on. If that fleet is on Green Alert, then you could put an Imperial fleet on Red Alert and position it at the final destination of the rebel fleet and hit it as it leaves hyperspace before it launches fighters or powers weapons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Supply Lanes and resource percentage allocation: Supply lanes should be visible on the galactic map. A sector which contains many planets with large populations and with shipyards or other heavy industries should develop many supply lines that run between planets and neighboring sectors. The supply lanes can be something that is controlled by the computer. It will be made up of civilian and military freighters that are not controlled by the player. These supply lanes can be direclty attacked by fleets or entirely blocked off resulting in the starvation of a planet or whole sector. Each planet and sector should have a stored supply of food and resources (dictated by the player) so that it can continue to function normally in the short term while blockaded, but not in the longterm. If you have a large number of shipyards in a sector, then you may alter the percentage of total empire wide resources that are allocated and that enter the sector via the supply lines. If you are building the ultimate fleet fleet in a sector, then you can may wish for 50% of all metal and fuel resources to be allocated to that sector to speed up the productions of the fleet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- more ideas tomorow if you are intrested. Whats the feedback?