i was watching star Trek DS9 tonight and they mentioned that one group wouldn’t want to take action if they wanted to continue trading with the federation…it got me thinking:
I LOVE the social aspect of the game, but it could be made stronger if stars could ONLY build economy, others ONLY industry, others ONLY science, so you would be inclined to trade with each other for infrastructure as the game starts, but as you expand you could become self sufficient by finding enough stars with the resources you need, but continuous trading,would only make you stronger. This way trading alliances would be much more of a necessity, and social cooperation and interaction increased. you could even implement trade routes and convoys…and add another dynamic to the game.
I realize this alters the entire game-play…but what do you think? is there a way to create more dependence on continuous trading and cooperation throughout the game?
It would certainly be interesting to play this variation but I don’t see it being an overall improvement. For me a lot of the fun is finding the best balance of what to build on each star. I have what I consider to be the “right” or best way to build up, but this sometimes changes depending what other players do (for example if you’re neighbouring someone who decides to go hell for leather on industry!). I think taking this tactical element away from the game would hinder the overall experience for me, although I do agree it would make for an interesting variant.
My biggest concern is that the person who is lucky enough to find the stars with the Industry can build up an force and just take the other good stuff from players who can’t defend themselves.
I have to agree with Myk. This feels like a different, more luck-based game. Being able to choose what you build where and when is part of the grand overall strategy, and restricting that really changes the game.
Maybe some of the stars can already have some randomly built in infrastructure,
Let’s say …
1 Econ or,
1 Ind or
1 Sci or
1 free Carrier.
It can be modeled it after the 0%, 10%, or 30% randomness that alreadyexists for warp gates.
Random discovery Economy ? 0% none, 10% low, or 30% high.
Random discovery Industry ? none, low, or high.
Random discovery Science ? none, low, or high.
Random discovery Carriers ? none, low, or high.
Maybe have buried Exp mini - bonus .
“Your explorers reaching [[star name]] have stumbled across an interesting scientific artifact. 24 points of research have been unlocked in the field of [[random technology]].”
Instead,
Maybe get a star where the 1st Science is on sale for $ 40 credits, regardless of resource/terraform level, instead of a full unit infrastructure to claim for free. The # 2 science to build on that star reverts to the regular price calculation.