i understand that Diplomacy will be the last micro expansion. if that is the very last expansion  in sins to ever be released then  please vote to have a full blown expansion made. sins of a solar empire is THE best rts game I EVER played. Yet there is so much that can be added to make this game ever better!  i for one would gladly fork over 50 bucks to see a full expansion be made. the expansion would include the following:

1. a storyline: i know there are ALOT of people against this but i honestly don't see why. what harm could having a storyline possibly do to the game gameplay? even if the storyline flat out sucks (which in my opion could be preety hard since with the little lore they have out now makes for a solid foundtion for a story) there is still other content that will make getting the expansion worth it. not everyone is willing to go muiti player (or in my case i CAN'T) so having a single player story would make these people VERY happy.

2. as i stated in a diffrent post, tactics would be a great addion to gameplay. by tactics i mean battle formations (every RTS game even ones like this one have them even ones from lik 1995). the formations can grant a boost in defence or attack of certain ships  and can be countered by another formation. example, a wall formation would be great for long range ships, in this formation the ships can fire orr their wepons  doing considerable damage to an enemy fleet.

however, in this formation it makes turning around harder so it's weak against a flank formation.

the flank formation, which consists of  a fleet that is split into 2 groups one to the left and one to the right. this formation is best used on fast moving ships as it gives them a small boost in speed. 

the flank formation can in turn be beaten by a wedge formation. the wedge formation has the strgest ships in the front and flies between the 2 groups in the flank formation. from there it proceeds to split the two groups even more and the weage itself slpits into 2 groups which battles the 2 gruop that made up the flank formation. the wedge formation gives ships and increse in defence. and this formation  can be beaten by the wall formation since it has the extra attack power and range to weaken a fleet in a wegde formation before it actually gets to the "wall"

this is just a rough idea of  how formations can be used. you can even use them to make up for ships weaknesses. exaple the weak frigates  in wedge formation can take a bit more of a beating.and i'm sure there are even more ways to apply tactics to the game. at the very lesat fighters and bombers should have formations.

it goes without saying that it would be best for formations to be set BEFORE going into battle. and with this you actually have a use for the "create fleet" command.

3. New ships  adding new ships that can make  use of formations would be great. like frigates that have long range but weak attack, or ships that have high attack but weak defence.

4. new ship class juggernaut these are the big brothers of the dreadnought and are extremely powerful but also extrmely expensive (upward of about 500k creds 10k metal and 10k crstal) and VERY long to make. the expense and wait can be worth it however. these ships can house as many as 16 fighters and will take a considerable amount of effort to take one down, lucky only one can be built per player at a time. these ships have NO support powers. the firepower and hull they have alone is a support power in and of iteslf. each jugg is ofcourse diffrent from race to race. the advent's jugg has unmatched sheilds and laser based attacks. the TEC jugg have no sheild at all but high hp, and uses long range millses and guns. the vasari jugg has both sheild and hull but it's weaopns lack range. all juggs will also put a tax on your empire's income. it's upkeep can be rather high and you can find your self making as little as 10 creds a sec and even LOSE money

5. capture ship ability: by killing off the crew in a ship it will become inactive and won;t attack anymore. a salvage or bording ship can come along and capture the ship to add to your fleet. to do this a new branch of tech and skill will have to be made. skills, abilites and ships that can attack the crew dirctly and not damage the ship itself. the advent with their mind powers drive the crew mad making them kill eachother off, the varari and TEC can use gas to kill off the crew (missles penerate the hull and flood the ship with gas) of course  there will be techs to counter this from happening but the risk of losing your ships to the enemy will always be there all ships a fair game even juggs, there is a downside however, after you reach your ship cap, any addtional ships you get will add to your fleet upkeep so yea you CAN get countless capitaal ships and 8 juggs but the expense of having them can leave you pennyless in a few minutes if your not cafefull at what your doing.

6. last but not least. there has GOT to be one more race in this game. the ones who drove the vasari out their kingdom.

if you have questions about any of my ideas or if you have ideas yourslef post it here.

keep this thread going if you feel that these ideas are good. hopefully by showing that there is a demand for something like this the devs will consider making it.