ALOT of suggestions
Especially with super weapons but first I think you should add bombers. These would add another dimension to the game and work like missiles except they do less damage. Maybe they have to be used twice to destroy a country that would be destroyed by one nuke. To balance this I think nukes, especially the short range ones should take longer to make and you can have two bomber squadrons in one slot to make them viable, especially in the early game. Fighter jets would be the equivalent of cruise missiles to these. They could even have their own skill tree to make them faster, have larger range, etc. this would make the first phase of the game a lot more strategic and entertaining
now with super weapons, I think they give to much of a jump in power to nations but also make the game more fun and show up to late in the game. Because of this I think they should take less time to research but also be upgradable and start out mediocre. Maybe even have two sub categories of super weapons or each one to choose from. Her are my ideas
Tsar: only destroys a couple countries at first, and can upgrade to either be slow, but take more cruise missiles and do a lot of damage, or be built really fast but only destroy two or three countries.
Cobalt: upgrade it for the effects to either last a really long time, or cover a very large area.
Bomber: this should start as a regular bomber thats a bit faster and still does as much damage as it does in the game now but doesnt cloak, and can be upgraded to either the "Flying Fortress" bomber where it is slow but can take a few cruise missiles and can bomb two adjacent countries in one run or use. Or it could be upgrade Into the stealth bomber which is cloaked and fast like it is now.
Dome: shouldnt last long at first. I dont know how it could go two different way other than it could cover a larger area or be more effective and last longer in a smallish area
Infiltrator: starts as a slow version of what it is know and can be upgraded to either be faster, it could become the "saboteur" where it takes one missile from each of the two or three surrounding countries its dropped around, allowing you to deplete your enemies Arsenal without doing that to your own ( or that could be a separate super weapon if you want and could you could upgrade that to destroy cruise missiles or nukes)
Laser: this is what made me think of mini skill trees for super weapons in the first place. At base form the laser should only cover a short distance, and can be upgraded to either cover a longer distance or once in a while you can redirect it to go exactly where you want instead of it just aimlessly orbiting
Also for you want to add a new super weapon. The nuclear submarine which just wanders around the ocean like the laser. An example of how this works is lets say that you want to destroy Europe and it just happens to be of the coast of Spain, you then select it and launch a short range missile from it at Germany just like you would from a country. Countries can launch cruise missiles at it for 5 or so seconds after launch until it goes back out to sea( kinda like the cloak on the stealth bomber) it can be upgraded to either have longer range to reach the center of Asia for example, or recharge faster so there is less time between launches.
Also you could add traits (abilities more like) that can either be assigned onto countries or can be chosen in order from hardest to play as to easiest. These would include things like the radar trait where you are notified if someone is developing a super weapon (which I think you shouldnt be able to do usually because it eliminates that element of surprise) or see where an AI is planning to expand next so you can foil their plans. Other ideas for these could use cool down like the border highlight thing and can only be used a few time. Blitzkrieg where you can expand into a country thats already owned, giving land locked countries like N Korea a chance to get going instead of just making a run for an empty space like Canada to get land. Or the colony trait where again on a cool down and set number of times where you can send a boat to expand to any country as long as it is empty and has a coast line, this could for example be used at the begging ing of the game by S Africa sending it to expand to Ethiopia to try and keep India from expanding into Africa .
Any way all of these things I think add depth, variety, and replay ability to the game and and the traits could be used as an equalizer of you ever add online multiplayer which you should.
Thanks for reading and I hope you take into consideration some of my ideas
HomeyHotDog about
First Strike: Classic, v1.3.1.0