Hey all!

I recently (i.e. yesterday) went to my local Galaxy Cinemax to watch Avatar, Aside from being a terrific movie, which I whole-heartedly endorse, it made me think. (SPOILERS!!!! OMFG!!) The Na,vi aliens in the movie worship a goddess (Ehwah if I remember correctly) that connects all life on the planet, Pandora, through a neural network between the life on the planet. It is for this reason that the Na'vi worship the planet and the life that blankets it, treating all living things with respect and dignity.

How this relates to GCII is very simple: you have races (like the Terran Alliance and Altarians) who rely on conventional Tech like Factory complexes or other races that torture slaves into work for production etc (Guess who that is). But always, dispite the diversity of the aformentioned races, Stardock hasn't yet created a cononical race that worships nature like the Na'vi do in Avatar, but focuses exclusively on races that relatively disregard it (with exceptions, like weather control stations) in favour of their own interests.

Most would agree that a race (lets call them The Smurf Empire) that gets tech that assists the well-being of their planets would be awsome, if not amazing. I wish to mention a few specifications that would seem to be appropiate:

1. Have an "Ecologists" political party that benfits the planet and morale (planets get a 1/10ths increase to their planet class, akin to the low-level "Planet quality" bonus in abilities and a 25% increase in morale due to happiness of public stemming from Ecology projects ) Maybe the party could increase the number of terraform tiles as well, after the tech is unlocked (1-2 tiles vs 3-4 terraform tiles) to offset the removal of this feature from the "Planet class"ability. However, that may over power races that go Federalists or War Party.

2. Introduce a new Canon race that is devoted to nature and planet quality, who have a backstory intertwined with the main races is unmentioned ways, that would be awsome. Also, make the new races less Humanoid that the others, give them a natural, organic look to them, instead of blowing Human proportions up out of proportion.

3.Give them a tech Tree that has extensive improvements to planets and non-violent ships, and give their more limited weapons a biological look, with biology related in-game description.

("These new "Lasers" we have just discovered are actually directed beams of Metal corroding Viruses  that, when they impact, cause both light Mass driver damage and infect the ship causing it to lose 3 HP next firing round by eating it's hull and killing it's crew. This is a culmative effect, so more ships firing at one target, or more weapons on one ship, makes the target go ka-boom quicker. Suffice to say, they're gonna have a rough night") 

You may also wish to give the Smurf Empire some heavier defenses to hold off attacks while their bio-weapons slowly kill them. Also, give them stronger morale structures and research buildings, as it fits with their ecological mind set, but give them weaker industry and poulation growth, as those also fit the bill of Ecologists as well. Another interesting late-game (literally the last tech along a long line) would be an improvement that increases planet quality by 1 every 25 weeks, with a cap of 26 (the best natural planet normaly shown).

So yeah, thats my idea, feel free to show me if this is unbalanced or unfair, and Any comment by devs would be cool as well. Good Day