I have a suggestion about game ending condition which are in current form a bit artifical. One can make great use of current conditions and plan to mine exactly 200 neptunium just before big wave of allied players subs reaches him. And that's just don't feel right.

Neptunium is a fissile material, therefore my proposition is: let build a player with 200 neptunium nuclear bomb and make winning conditions to eliminate all other players. To make this little more peacefully maybe add some surrender element that will guarantee higher rank for a surrended player than destroyed one.

Definitely an interesting idea. I don't think I'd want it to replace the current system, which works quite well. Perhaps as a game-setup option?

Sounds good. It doesn't really change the gameplay but makes the victory less artificial. Your goal isn't to horde loads of neptunium but actually do something with it. Instead of the nuclear bomb you could build a monument that gives you something like cultural victory if you want it more peaceful. Or a power plant that provides massive amounts of energy which lets all the other players automatically surrender and you get a technological victory.

Yeah, I like the idea of a "Neptunium Generator" that has to be done at an existing generator, using 200 Np and (say) 100 drillers over the course of 12 hours to complete. I'd suggest that when the "Upgrade Reactor" button is clicked, the drillers are used up, shields at that location are deactivated and the clock starts - anyone successfully overtaking this outpost during this 12 hours would interrupt the building and steal the usual 20% of Np from the victim?

if it aint broke...

Well didn't they mention something called "the apparatus"? I've always wondered what this was hahaha... I was thinking maybe you have to use the 200 Np and turn a mine into "the apparatus", which would take 12 hours to complete, and less time if you used more than 200 Np (based on some formula). The idea is that using more than 200 Np gives you a boost in the build speed, but it means that your enemies have a higher chance of attacking you (because of the time it takes to mine the extra Np). Also if your "apparatus"s shield reaches 0 (which could start at 30, be unaffected by any specialists, and act like a normal shield), or something else unfortunate happens then the outpost is permanently destroyed, like it would be if a Martyr blew it up (meaning that you lose a mine, which is the risk for building the apparatus in the first place). You also manage to save 80% of your Np (somehow).

But I still have no clue what the apparatus should actually do. Maybe it should launch all your specialists into the safety of outer space (told you I had no idea), leaving all your drillers behind and a chance for others to finish the game as well (which would be a very interesting concept). Maybe your outposts should look as if you were eliminated and behave in exactly the same way.

I love the Neptunium Generator idea.

@Tw2000 I don't think this "apparatus" must actually do anything. It's just a plot device that gives your neptunium a meaning and the game a backstory. As it is now, you are willing to fight for your life just to get neptunium, but no one knows what it actually does. Now as I write this, the apparatus could even be something like the spaceship in the movie contact. There are just some plans the humanity found in some ancient ruins or from a transmission from outer space and no one knows what the machine is actually doing. Hell, it could even blow up everything on the map and the true winner of the game is the game itself. It doesn't really matter what it is doing at all. It just should do anything to give all this fighting a meaning.