I have no idea how feasible any of this is, but it was fun coming up with it all. Ideally, this would be an 8-player game with very committed players.
The idea is that each player has a system very near their starting system that holds secrets from an ancient galactic empire. Whoever controls each of these 8 systems throughout the game possesses 1 of 8 different special abilities (alternatively, each ability is tied to a player and may never be experienced by a conquering player). These cannot be researched further, and thematically it could mean that the players’ empires have very little understanding of what they are working with. They just know it works. The goal in coming up with each of these abilities was to provide each player with an “ace in the hole.”
-
Hand of Shadows - Hyperspace Cloaking. Player may outfit a carrier built in this system with the ability to be invisible while between 2 stars with hyper gates.
-
Hand of Secrecy - A wormhole in the system enables the player to jump immediately to an otherwise unreachable part of the galaxy with a few extra systems. Would be more useful in a dark galaxy.
-
Hand of Fire - When abandoning a controlled star, player has the option to permanently strip an amount of resources from it for temporary $ gains. Provides a strategy option on the other side of Terraforming.
-
Hand of Ice - Player has the ability to reduce production in a system temporarily (reduce natural resources to 1) by forcing an violent ice age. Useful for when one wishes to prevent giving up a good system to an enemy.
-
Hand of Knowledge - (Must be Dark Galaxy) This player has the ability to see the entire galaxy, including systems only reachable by the wormhole, as if it were not dark.
-
Hand of Deceit - Ghost Carrier. Player may build (conjure) a fake carrier that is a copy of another carrier in the system. It has no actual physical presence and will fade after a few days or disappear immediately when engaged in combat. Its ship count does not count towards the player’s total ships, and ship transfer is not an option (greyed out?).
-
The Ancient One - An entity of pure energy that exists inside an orb deep underground. It periodically provides random anecdotes, intercepts transmissions of other players, and demands to speak to Captain Kirk.
-
The Plague - Presumably what wiped out the ancient galactic empire, the Plague infects the player’s entire population. Growth becomes extremely difficult. Economy and Industry become very expensive. However, scientific efforts are enormous while searching for a cure. Scientific research is cheap.