Please consider this as a source of inspiration.
1)
Limit in the creation of msp and fuel - first of all, this is needed for msp. The current implementation of control using the "start-stop" button is suitable only for manual control of the amount of msp. I constantly have situations of resource shortage due to the production of a large number of maintrance facilities for their subsequent transportation to the colony-bases of the fleet. And to be honest, I would like to set a production limit on the amount of msp, so as not to press the "start-stop" button again (I am comfortable seeing the figure of 1-2 million msp, this is enough for all needs). I see this as an input box next to the "start-stop" button where the limit for msp creation is entered. Once every 5 days, the condition is checked with the start or stop of production.
2)
Transportation of msp and fuel, minerals by civilian orders - a significant reduction in microcontrol in the field of logistics. My previous company ended under pressure from pirates. The empire has grown too big and a lot of logistics routes have been laid out (one ship - one point, for example, fuel delivery to one colony is one ship, and msp delivery there is another ship. It is quite convenient). Now let's imagine that these carriers are periodically pinched by pirates here and there. Restoring lost logistics requires manual control (if there is a template, then this is done a little faster), but in general it looks like this: "
Who died again? Where? What was this poor guy carrying and where? So, do you need a ship and set up a route again? But first, destroy the pirates! Destroyed the pirates. Forgot which route was lost." Considering the size of the empire and the frequency of attacks, it was necessary to devote a lot of time to this aspect of the game, making notes. In general, if you transfer this logistics to civilian companies, then the manual labor will be automated. Such transportation will have the conditions "the colony needs a resource - send from the nearest source", which corresponds to the current model of cargo transportation, and "if the value of the resource in the colony is greater than the established minimum by "1 standard cargo compartment, 1 msp warehouse, 1 standard fuel tank" (any other standard size, which depends on the carrying capacity of the civilian fleet) - the colony becomes a source of the resource." With such an implementation, I would send minerals to the capital (as soon as a surplus was formed in the colonies), and distribute finished structures, fuel, msp from the capital. There is only an obvious problem - this is that the colony can be both a source and a consumer of the resource. For example, fuel is produced in the colony and sent to the capital. In the Capital, they consume fuel and send it to other colonies. Here is a more complex condition for the operation of logistics, we need to think. The logistics problem is partially solved by simply disabling pirates, but I like to fight them, maintain garrisons and a planetary fleet not for roleplaying, but as protection from a real threat. The main reason for this proposal is to get rid of microcontrol. Destroyed a civilian ship, and screw it, only the cargo is a pity (it is possible to introduce monetary compensation to a civilian company for a destroyed ship on a flight with your cargo). For me personally, this would be a major improvement to the game, allowing me to focus on more interesting aspects of the game. And this will increase my own limit of empire manageability when I will be able to support a more colossal empire. Also, a positive side effect would be the revitalization of space with civilian ships with various cargoes (and an additional financial burden on the annual wealth for the provision of transportation services), and not just the delivery of structures, colonists and goods. Logistics is interesting, but only if you do not repeat the same thing over and over again.
3)
Updating the design of civilian ships, new types - in connection with the above, other types of ships are required: tanker, msp carrier and minerals. And in order not to greatly increase the number of ships of a civilian company, it is necessary to increase the carrying capacity of the current ones. Even in my previous companies, with the increase in the extent of the empire, delivery to remote planets by civilian companies became a bottleneck with an incomprehensible throughput, it became difficult to determine how much time it would take to deliver the entire order. And if you really dream, you can swing for civilian orbital mines that will move along the asteroid belt to dig ore and sell it to me, after all, this is the task of the civilian sector to extract minerals. A cruise liner that will cruise random objects (to revive space and earn money), a debris collector will collect ship debris and, possibly, process it into minerals, naturally in safe sectors, excluding the front line.
4)
Civilian fuel harvesters send fuel to the colony - in their current form they can be used as a gas station or "as a distillation of valuable fuel into useless papers", that is, selling to the private sector, and we get tax revenues. If we add the ability to send fuel (for example, resource packages for the driver to accept mass driver) or deliver them themselves to the nearest colony for a certain amount of money, this will definitely make them much more useful than they are now. In previous games, I did not include them precisely because of the unwillingness to spend a valuable resource and receive wealth in return, I think I am not alone in this.
5)
Civilian mines - now they just appear on the body "suddenly". Although it is possible to make it so that in the capital/colony with a shipyard a specialized cargo ship appears and slowly starts flying towards the future mine. In the body's orbit, unloading and deployment does not happen instantly, but with a delay of, say, five days. This is a cosmetic change aimed at enlivening space.
6) Fleet training, automatic maintenance and replenishment of supplies - to be honest, I am writing here from memory. I had a problem when setting a fleet for training, it trained to the state of "a rusty trough without spare parts" without even reaching 100% training. This is a serious microcontrol problem if the fleet consists of ships with crews of different training levels. Someone has exhausted their maintenance limit, someone has overtrained. The fleet does not exit training mode upon reaching 100% coherence and does not enter maintenance itself to reset service hours. It does not replenish MSP and fuel during and after the process. A lot of actions have to be performed to train crews. I see the process as follows - the Fleet is put on exercises - Trains - If any ship reaches a critical maintenance point, the ship is put on replenishment of supplies and zeroing of work hours (the fleet continues to train) - as soon as any ship reaches 100% training, it is put on replenishment of supplies and zeroing of work hours, and no longer returns to exercises. When other ships join the fleet (for example, a fresh ship from the slipway), it also goes through this circle, regardless of the state of other ships.7) Expanding shipyards how much it will cost in resources - in order to find out how many resources will be needed to expand the shipyard, you need to go to the forum or calculate the difference after you give the task to expand by mineral consumption. You can add a table with a note in the shipyard tab about the amount of resources required to increase the capacity by 1000 tons or add a slipway. Or modify the price table in the same tab to show minerals.
7)
Expanding shipyards how much it will cost in resources - in order to find out how many resources will be needed to expand the shipyard, you need to go to the forum or calculate the difference after you give the task to expand by mineral consumption. You can add a table with a note in the shipyard tab about the amount of resources required to increase the capacity by 1000 tons or add a slipway. Or modify the price table in the same tab to show minerals.
The research queue disappears with the death of a scientist - I really like the function of limiting the number of laboratories per scientist. It does not allow to make imbalances in research, to maximize any one direction. Usually I have 1-2 scientists for one area of research, in this regard, I set up a research queue for them from several technologies, and I try to approach this issue thoroughly. With a large number of laboratories, I did not notice that the total capacity of the labs of scientists increased, аt the same time, the total number of scientists engaged in research is growing due to the limitation on the number of laboratories. With the death of a scientist, the research queue disappears into oblivion. The current research that the scientist conducted is visible by the number of points, but the following positions are not - it is possible to restore only the current research in the queue. In this regard, I would like more automation of research on the principle of set up-forgot-research completed-set up. The closest analogue is the creation of research bureaus. There is a head of laboratories and a certain number of labs tied to him. You can set up the number of research facilities, auto-assignment and research queue. You can also set up automatic assignment of the head taking into account the parameters, as for fleet commanders. The number of such bureaus can be limited by research areas.
9)
Cost of mineral research - research costs money and minerals. It seems fair to me that practical research costs not only money, but also raw materials for prototypes, models, and equipment. This increases the need for space expansion.
10)
Decreased stability of colonies from fleet losses - the loss of ships of both the military and civilian fleets, in my opinion, should cause concern among the people. And increase the requirements for police strenght.
11)
Recycling of the orbital miner - the performance of the orbital miner leaves much to be desired. The module weighs 5000 tons and costs 120 corundum, and produces 10 tons of each mineral per year. Considering that comets and asteroids contain no more than three types of minerals (at least a brief review showed exactly that much), the payback period for the module alone is 4 years, not counting the rest of the ship and the availability of the vein. Add to this the threat of pirates, and the distraction of attention to setting up and monitoring production, and we get a less than favorable offer.
I hope Google translate translated everything correctly ru-eng.
For me personally, in this wall of text, the main wish is the second point, my empire control limit is quite low.
In this text, the phrase "space revival" is often found. By this I mean any activity outside the colonies and main trade routes, under the control of the AI. This is directly related to pirates. For them, there are no accessible targets except for the main transportation routes in the passage systems. Colonies and ships in the orbit of the colonies are often protected, and outside them there are only my fuel collectors and support stations. The very concept of piracy suffers from this.
Thanks for the great game, which is hard to master and even harder to play)
