And what would you wish in a Stellaris 2?
Off the top of my head, and in no particular order (so this is not a comprehensive list)...
- A complete rework to pops/population: For a whole variety of reasons (late-game performance not least among them).
- A new/updated engine: Because everyone always wants bigger maps, plus the existing game already creaks a bit on the current engine as it is (even setting aside the pops issue).
- A better (scalable?) UI: The current version isn't terrible, but there should be better sorting & search abilities. Also...
- The ability to (re)set our own hot-keys: After almost a year of not playing v2.1, I'm still reflexively hitting F4 to pull up the research/technology screen, and it drives me crazy that it no longer has that function. Also, I badly need a key so I can pull up the Leaders screen.
- Wars need to be re-worked. Just...gah.
- Diplomacy needs to be re-worked: Especially with regards to Federations and the Galactic Community.
- Towards that end,
the AI needs an overhaul, including where its "international" priorities lay.
- Fix the pacing so that the mid-game isn't so boring: - Towards that end, you could have multiple levels of "discovery" in your star systems, so that Science Ships could keep finding cool new things throughout the course of the game. This would have the bonus effect of extending the game's exploration phase, which is what players generally enjoy the most.
- Also,
have more than just the one type of mid-game crisis: And not every crisis need to be military in nature. There could be a deadly galaxy-wide plague, a mysterious force is destroying the starlane network, something is causing stars everywhere to suddenly become unstable and threaten to go nova, etc.
- Give us more ways to interact with Fallen Empires. Failing that, at least let us choose which ones to include in our game (no one likes the grumpy-ass Xenophobic Militant Isolationists)!