Bit late to this, but i`ll add my bit.

1. On diplomacy. The more Human it can be the better. One of the things I particularly like about GC3`s diplomacy is when a beleagured AI Faction calls me and asks for help saying that another Faction he`s at war with is destroying him. I have wanted this in so many games. In other games a friendly or even Ally AI Faction will just suddenly die and I had no idea and so could do nothing for him. Now in GC3, I actually try to help a friendly AI faction when he calls me! I think this is the only game that does it! Well done on that.

Also, I notice the AI will sometimes ask for money that I don`t have. Again another nice touch, this gives the impression that the AI doesn`t know how much money I have. In most games, they always seem to know exactly how much cash you have.

I also like how a friendly faction will surrender to the Player (or closest friendly) rather than let the enemy get it. Can`t think of another game that does this.

ok, what else I would like to see:

A, I would like to be able to ask the AI, `What do you want for that?` and for him to give me an answer to it. If there`s nothing he could say, `Nothing. Or I do not have enough for it.`

B, I`d like to see the AI sometimes ask to borrow a ship and if the ship is lost, they pay for it in extra cash. But perhaps this can only happen if Allied?

C, I`d like to be able to plan military targets with Allied AI and when to carry them out, with the AI making its own attacking suggestions as well.

D, A little more chit chat about other Leaders and his opinion on them would be good, depending on how close the two factions are.

E, Slightly more variety to some warnings and answers instead of just, `Always.`

F, more sounds of the Faction leader, even if just a `Hmm...` from the Terrans and a robotic `Bzzz` from the Yor.

G, To simply insult a Faction leader as one of my responses, even if that Faction has been nice.

2. I always forget to check my Turn number, but they usually go all the way until I am the winner or defeated, I dunno 100-200+ turns?

3. Ok, the best 4X strategy games for me are  those that are the most immersive and can put me there.  I want to feel that the Leaders of other factions are not just 2D cutouts but have a certain `humanity` or alien `life` to them. I want to hear the chatter of civilians as I visit the planetary surface and decide the next improvements.  It would be nice to hear people cheer if I do well and boo if not. I want to see the space battles as they take place and feel a little sorry for the people dying under my leadership; For example I want to hear the words of the commanders as they go to the attack, see the spaceships break apart as they explode with the screams of those poor souls within and watch as debris float by during the rest of the battle. Land invasions would also help greatly here as well.

I love the `Ideology` events.  For me, a real leader has to deal with the unexpected and often there`s no obvious indicator telling him what the outcome will directly be. I really like the 3 Ideologies in the game, but would love it if the consequences were not so obvious. I mean I don`t want to see exactly what the numbers are. I simply want to use my common sense on whether an Ideology is the right one for me at the time.  I would like the consequences `hidden`. The numbers should simply reveal themselves in the general game. Please add more Ideology varieties. Perhaps make the hidden variety optional as I know some people like knowing every single thing and hate `random` events.

Also the Ideologies are written in a very smart and witty way. I like the one about the fish that get smarter the bigger the group, and I always laugh at the `evil` third options!

1. Proxy wars and arms races. Almost no game does proxy wars well. But it should be possible to essentially turn another empire into your bitch and then make it fight wars for you. The AI should be aware of this and use it too, providing support for their own proxy-ally. I've seen it done successfully in a couple of the major Civ 4 mods, and a few small balance-of-power style games. Arms races are easier, but still important - and it is equally important for the AI to recognize when it has LOST an arms race, rather than bankrupting itself.

2. Around 500-1000. I'm kinda big on scale, and I like a campaign that takes a month or more of real life time to play through. 

3. Mechanics which are easy to learn but hard to master. Each individual mechanic should be simple, but should impact on the others so that the system as a whole has a glorious depth. Complex mechanics are bad, but complex interaction between simple machanics is good.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn`t even know there was an Endless Space 1! Checking them out!

1. I also prefer multiple diplomacy methods - from declare war, to threaten, to bribe, to demand, to gifts.  Civ4 pretty much had it right.

2. In Civ4, my average game (marathon mode) lasted for about 2000 turns, give or take a few hundred.  I find that games > 3000 turns just seem to be too long, while < 1500 seems to be too rushed.  I like to get involved in a game over a period of weeks, learning the lay of the land, seeing who is on the map, and deciding who to make friends/enemies with.  The better games were ones where I had a lead, but not a commanding lead, and something good/bad would happen to put my win in jeopardy.

3. I don't like artificial win conditions like turn-limits or reaching the end of the tech tree (unless it involves building a mega project).  So I always disable those in my marathon games.