Get elected to the Senate and setups
Jun 28, 2014 15:40:35 GMT -5
ncaoa, lixxx235, and 3 more like this
Post by pendell on Jun 28, 2014 15:40:35 GMT -5
I have two ideas which I drop here for pondering:
1) Setups
So you're wandering the spice hall looking for a job, and a stranger wanders up and offers you $200K for a delivery mission. Easy money. Can't go wrong. Right?
WRONG. There is no money for this contract. The stranger was actually a steel song agent , and the waypoint is a trap. You arrive and, rather than a simple delivery, you find yourself confronting either a super-powerful enemy or wave after wave of other enemies. Perhaps you've even been lured into a nest of aliens!
Key thoughts:
A) This trap should be triggered if you achieve legendary crime lord status with a faction. The idea being is that you've been wanted for a long time and bounty hunters aren't getting the job done, so the faction will stoop to ANYTHING to see you eliminated.
B) The trap should be vicious, tougher than a space hive, but NOT unwinnable. Think of it as another achievement for the player who is already bored with hunting aliens.
C) The trap should have obvious markers to some extent, appear too good to be true. For instance, you're being offered $135K for a 10 AU delivery mission which usually fetches a tenth that amount.
This and A are to make it a challenge for the advanced player. If it happens to normal or starting players it just increases the chance of random death at scenario start, and that's not especially fun. But for the advanced player who is bored tooling around the quadrant .. this will give them a reason to continue the game.
2) Get elected to the Senate.
Suppose a character is a star hero or better with a faction. Is it not reasonable the faction might ask you to represent them in the Senate? Or you might try for the honor yourself?
First, you would have to qualify for consideration. This should be either very high reputation OR very high military rank OR both.
Second, it isn't cheap to become a senator. You would be required to pay an outlay of <an AWFUL LOT of money -- at least $1 mil>. And even then, there's a probability you won't be accepted in any case (prob of success < 1.0, in other words).
The Senatorial status lasts for some number of game turns , and terminates either upon expiration OR upon the achievement of a certain amount of negative rep with the faction , in which case you are expelled from office in disgrace. When your term is up, you have the option to spend the money for another re-election campaign but the amount of money needed increases geometrically every term. The idea being that Senatorial status is a phase of life, not a permanent job.
What impact would being a senator have on gameplay?
A) Diplomatic missions. Offered by your own faction, these pay considerably more than the standard missions and have a direct impact on faction conflicts. Normally, your character shuffles around unknown operatives to do unknown jobs, but now you know exactly what the job is, because you're shuffling yourself around to do your faction's diplomacy. These missions can start or end solar wars, trade embargoes, you name it, between different factions, allowing you to customize the conflicts to a certain extent.
For instance, let us say you represent De Valtos which is under trade embargoes from Javat and Rychert. You could take missions which will , if completed, lift those embargoes. You also take missions to get as many factions as possible to embargo Steel Song or declare war on them. Of course, there's no guarantee that five sided solar war against steel song will outlast the year, but that's what keeps a diplomat busy!
B) Diplomatic immunity but increased hunting by aliens and independents.
As a member of the senate, you are immune to stop, search, and seizure, or arrest by any faction regardless of your status. This means no faction warship, pirate, or bounty hunter may impede your business .. openly. Of course, you have many enemies not only in the other factions but even within your own (in fact, being hunted by your senatorial rival might make an interesting plotline for a series of missions). So the number of hostile independent encounters greatly increases, as does the level and quality of these ships, since they are in fact elite faction assassins nominally disguised as independents. Alien and Narvidian encounters also increase greatly in both quantity and quality. This is because, stealing a page from Dune's Bene Tleilexu, they wish to capture a sitting senator, clone him or her, and send the clone back to human space with a programmed set of instructions ...
C) Retirement
Upon departure from the Senate, provided you are not expelled in disgrace, there is a fixed chance that a planet of your faction or an independent world will offer you the post of Prince, perhaps under the pretext that one of the many assassination attempts was successful and a former senator and hero is a prime candidate for the post. Accepting this ends the game and unlocks an achievement. You also get a Vudka brand named after you.
Just some thoughts. Whaddaya think?
Respectfully,
Brian P.
1) Setups
So you're wandering the spice hall looking for a job, and a stranger wanders up and offers you $200K for a delivery mission. Easy money. Can't go wrong. Right?
WRONG. There is no money for this contract. The stranger was actually a steel song agent , and the waypoint is a trap. You arrive and, rather than a simple delivery, you find yourself confronting either a super-powerful enemy or wave after wave of other enemies. Perhaps you've even been lured into a nest of aliens!
Key thoughts:
A) This trap should be triggered if you achieve legendary crime lord status with a faction. The idea being is that you've been wanted for a long time and bounty hunters aren't getting the job done, so the faction will stoop to ANYTHING to see you eliminated.
B) The trap should be vicious, tougher than a space hive, but NOT unwinnable. Think of it as another achievement for the player who is already bored with hunting aliens.
C) The trap should have obvious markers to some extent, appear too good to be true. For instance, you're being offered $135K for a 10 AU delivery mission which usually fetches a tenth that amount.
This and A are to make it a challenge for the advanced player. If it happens to normal or starting players it just increases the chance of random death at scenario start, and that's not especially fun. But for the advanced player who is bored tooling around the quadrant .. this will give them a reason to continue the game.
2) Get elected to the Senate.
Suppose a character is a star hero or better with a faction. Is it not reasonable the faction might ask you to represent them in the Senate? Or you might try for the honor yourself?
First, you would have to qualify for consideration. This should be either very high reputation OR very high military rank OR both.
Second, it isn't cheap to become a senator. You would be required to pay an outlay of <an AWFUL LOT of money -- at least $1 mil>. And even then, there's a probability you won't be accepted in any case (prob of success < 1.0, in other words).
The Senatorial status lasts for some number of game turns , and terminates either upon expiration OR upon the achievement of a certain amount of negative rep with the faction , in which case you are expelled from office in disgrace. When your term is up, you have the option to spend the money for another re-election campaign but the amount of money needed increases geometrically every term. The idea being that Senatorial status is a phase of life, not a permanent job.
What impact would being a senator have on gameplay?
A) Diplomatic missions. Offered by your own faction, these pay considerably more than the standard missions and have a direct impact on faction conflicts. Normally, your character shuffles around unknown operatives to do unknown jobs, but now you know exactly what the job is, because you're shuffling yourself around to do your faction's diplomacy. These missions can start or end solar wars, trade embargoes, you name it, between different factions, allowing you to customize the conflicts to a certain extent.
For instance, let us say you represent De Valtos which is under trade embargoes from Javat and Rychert. You could take missions which will , if completed, lift those embargoes. You also take missions to get as many factions as possible to embargo Steel Song or declare war on them. Of course, there's no guarantee that five sided solar war against steel song will outlast the year, but that's what keeps a diplomat busy!
B) Diplomatic immunity but increased hunting by aliens and independents.
As a member of the senate, you are immune to stop, search, and seizure, or arrest by any faction regardless of your status. This means no faction warship, pirate, or bounty hunter may impede your business .. openly. Of course, you have many enemies not only in the other factions but even within your own (in fact, being hunted by your senatorial rival might make an interesting plotline for a series of missions). So the number of hostile independent encounters greatly increases, as does the level and quality of these ships, since they are in fact elite faction assassins nominally disguised as independents. Alien and Narvidian encounters also increase greatly in both quantity and quality. This is because, stealing a page from Dune's Bene Tleilexu, they wish to capture a sitting senator, clone him or her, and send the clone back to human space with a programmed set of instructions ...
C) Retirement
Upon departure from the Senate, provided you are not expelled in disgrace, there is a fixed chance that a planet of your faction or an independent world will offer you the post of Prince, perhaps under the pretext that one of the many assassination attempts was successful and a former senator and hero is a prime candidate for the post. Accepting this ends the game and unlocks an achievement. You also get a Vudka brand named after you.
Just some thoughts. Whaddaya think?
Respectfully,
Brian P.
