More interesting relics

... and some other ideas

I had the event that spawns a lot of new relics recently and that brought me to the idea to make them more interesting:

1. Give the player the choice between two types of xeno archaeology modules: one line of standard modules that work like those we have at the moment and one line of modules that provide only half (or whatever percentage) of the bonuses but give every turn a small chance to unlock a tech of the area the relic improves. Even better would it be if those techs were special ones that are not otherwise researchable (and to preserve their speciality, are also not tradable), but when you have one that opens up a new branch in the research tree that you can then research normally.

2. If the player chooses so he or she can scrap a relic at once and has then a 80% chance to gain a special relic tech.

3. Insert some more techs in the xeno archaeology line that increase the chance to get a tech from a relic (that would refer to the method described under 1. and also to the chance when scraping a relic).

4. Give the player the option to exploit relics (best would be if one would be able to toggle that per relic type). That would double (or so) the bonuses provided by them, but would also carry every turn a small risk that a relic will be exhausted and disappear because of that.

And two other things that came to my mind:

5. If a planet is invaded give the invader a small chance to gather a tech of the enemy (this could also be a special relic provided tech like described above).

6. Why are there no health improving modules for starbases? In later stages of the game a starbase is barely able to defend against a single large ship. There could also be a number of scaling health modules: each module doubles the health but costs one more construction point than the previous one.

7. When at war with another race and that race asks for peace give the player some malevolent points if he or she declines and perhaps a diplomatic penalty also.

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Reply #1 Top

I really like all of these ideas; but I'm running late, so I only have time to comment on one of them for now.

7) I think you should gain benevolent points for accepting a peace treaty while you are winning a war instead. If malevolent points could be gained by declining a peace offer, then proposing a peace treaty while losing a war (which is when you should propose peace) could empower a faction you're at war with. This wouldn't be realistic at all; even as an abstraction. but accepting a peace offer while you're winning, especially one where the terms aren't as harsh as they could be, would be seen by both your own citizens and the rest of the galaxy, as being diplomatically mature and peaceful.

and for gameplay purposes, you'd be sacrificing the future rewards from the continuation of a war that you're winning, for ideology points. If you received malevolent points for declining to end a war that you're winning, then you're not sacrificing anything. So it wouldn't really be a decision.

Thanks in advance

Reply #2 Top

Quoting JetJaguar72, reply 1

7) I think you should gain benevolent points for accepting a peace treaty while you are winning a war instead. If malevolent points could be gained by declining a peace offer, then proposing a peace treaty while losing a war (which is when you should propose peace) could empower a faction you're at war with. This wouldn't be realistic at all; even as an abstraction. but accepting a peace offer while you're winning, especially one where the terms aren't as harsh as they could be, would be seen by both your own citizens and the rest of the galaxy, as being diplomatically mature and peaceful.

Agreed.

Quoting JetJaguar72, reply 1

and for gameplay purposes, you'd be sacrificing the future rewards from the continuation of a war that you're winning, for ideology points. If you received malevolent points for declining to end a war that you're winning, then you're not sacrificing anything. So it wouldn't really be a decision.

Since I often do not optimize my gameplay and play more "emotional" I tend to stick to benevolent/pratical behaviour and so malevolent points are rather a penalty for me ;)

But since the game gives bonuses for each kind of ideology you are quite right. Perhaps the diplomatic repercussions of ideology should be greater (like races with opposing ideology cancelling treaties and trade routes), because apart from gameplay mechanics I think stomping an already lying enemy into the ground can be definitely seen as malevolent act ;)