NICE TO HAVE FEATURES or CHANGES

- Add mouse-over tooltips to each setting option in the gameplay settings menu

- Define the differences between each difficulty setting, i.e., what changes between easy and normal settings? Tooltip, click or mouseover for the information would be helpful

- Add additional NPC images, various personalities seem to have 6+ twin brothers/sisters. Re-using the same NPC for different leader images repeatedly, breaks immersion

- Fleet viewer (RIGHT-SIDE WINDOWPANE) - Allow sorting by upgrade status, I'd like to see which ships need to be upgraded

- Further limit the number of concessions given by the AI to the player when suing for peace. Currently the AI gives away everything but the kitchen sink which leads to game over

- NPCs do not use the Galactic Bazaar so the pricing doesn't change. If the player sells a commodity and drives the price down the change is permanent since the AI has no access to the market or just doesn't use it

- Gold/Yellow highlighted keywords within the in-game messages have no mouse-over tooltip. Why is it highlighted, rather than just italicized if no further information is available?

- Expand the in-game science library - Allow the player to review and learn about other aspects of the in-game universe

- Add the ability to Raze or destroy planets. If I don't want to keep a planet, the only other option is to allow another player to take it. A brilliant line by one of my favorite tv characters once stated "if your opponent goes to ground, leave no ground to go to" simple but powerful

- Siege carrier module doesn't state that only 1 can be placed. If you try to add it to an existing carrier it will fail to join. It should have the same wording/tooltip as the standard module, OR a tooltip popup should state why the module can't be placed. I initially thought it was a bug

- Provide more information to the player regarding their influence on the map screen other than the border being redrawn every once in a while. It plays a big role but mostly 'behind the scenes', I'd like to see it more front and center with dialog coming from the ministers, diplomats and/or factions

- Provide the AI/NPCs with the ability to change course if an opportunity arises. Currently if the AI sets a course for a ship, it will not deviate if the situation changes, or an opportunity arises along the route. Many times, I've had high value ships near death and the AI enemies could have easily done a coup de grace but instead just flew on past. Large NPC battlegroups will ignore enemy culture focused Starbases with little to no defenses. I'm not sure why
This leaves me wondering if the AI plays differently on Hard+ modes (not just a boost in stats)

- Add an artifact, leader ability or something to where, under certain circumstances re-enforcements can be called upon which may or may not appear. i.e you lose or almost lose a battle, another unit appears even if only temporarily 

- Ability to turn off certain 'monsters' such as 'revenge' specifically. One 'wrong' dialog choice and a rampaging Godzilla wipes out my entire civilization, I don't quite understand the importance of this event as a new player to this series. My guest guess is that it's lore-driven but there aren't any obvious references to said lore if that's the case.

- Provide an option to force opponents to declare war before hopping across your border. This has to be the single most annoying (er.. second, see immunity down below for first) thing ever. It would be nice if there were a mechanic where the player could choose which factions can border cross. Diplomacy is no substitute for Security

GAME PLAY OBSERVATIONS

- When reviewing battles (post battle) the camera doesn't work as expected, more often than not, the ships fly around a bit and the scene ends with no battle taking place, but the player is given the victory

- When reviewing battles, the background is randomized instead of showing where the battle actually took place

i.e., fighting next to a blackhole shows empty space in the battle replay, same goes for nebula, or anywhere else. Randomly I'll be shown a blackhole when the system doesn't have one

- Over time leaders assigned to a faction disappear never to be seen again. Is this by design?

- Maxed out game settings (large universe, max ai players, etc.) crashes the game after period of time on the 1.0.x version. Log information has been posted in the Stardock forums. No workarounds have been provided other than to lower the settings

- If a player sues for peace and is successful in negotiations, but then asks the NPC to remove their ships from your Zone of Control and the NPC refuses, there's no recourse as the NPC is immune from war for a full year.  This makes no sense. 2 NPCs are warring in my ZOC and both are immune from any actions I would take for a year.. Completely broken mechanic. It seems this was the fix for the NPCs giving away  everything after a peace deal, keeping the player from repeating this over and over. I can see an exploit but the whole mechanic making peace is completely broken to start with. Why not just merge 'rules' into the peace agreement to begin with that includes the dialog option of removing assets within your ZOC (this should be default). Who sues for peace and let the losing side leave fully functional and 'hot' manned miliary assets within their ZOC under the losing sides control and grant immunity  from any actions that losing side may take. it's like.. whaaaaat?