Whenever I think about new things for empire, I evaluate them in this order: 1) Is it fun? This is subjective, of course. The real question should be "Will the majority of Empire players find this enjoyable?" 2) Is is complicated? What sorts of new commands are needed? How will the player use the new feature? Do new commands need to be added? How much will this change impact the user? 3) Is is code-able? How difficult is it to do? Does it involve minor changes, or a major re-write? Many ideas have merit, but are prohibitively difficult to implement. 4) Is it realistic? In general, realism is good, in that it makes the game more intuitive, and easier for new players to learn. 5) Is it play-balanced? It is important that the delicate balance between offense and defense not be tipped one way or the other. For example, a stacking limit for land units would tip the balance too far in favour of the defender. Or, allowing more than one ship to assault at a time would tip the balance in favour of the attacker. 6) Is it important? If the change involves adding detail to the game, is the detail important enough? Does the change go beyond the general level of Empire abstraction? For example, a change to allow you to name each of your mil would obviously be beyond Empire's general detail level. A command to name ships is stretching it.
See also : Introduction