Faction Conflicts

[slayernz]

The more I keep playing this cazumptuiously addictive game, the more I ponder about the various galaxy conflicts. It seems like factions change their minds every couple of weeks or months, and some factions that were best buds, having a Trade Alliance one month, suddenly flip to having a Spy War the next. Maybe that's my own perception and there are more smarts to the game controlling how fast/slow relationships between factions change, but I thought of a couple of possible ideas that may/may not help a captain
1) Faction relationships should indeed step only one "shift" one way or another. You shouldn't get a faction that is in a Trade War one round, to alliance the next.

2) It would be good to have a date when the faction relationship status changed (sort of like:
Trade Embargo 105.3AE
[Flag1] v. [Flag2]
That way you can quickly identify which of the factions has suddenly started whacking on eachother for sport ... and perhaps which ones have been in embargo for so long that they might be craving some trade.

3) You as a captain have some small influence in inter-factional relationships. For example, if you are flying under the banner of Cadar, and continually cause Steel Song ships to mysteriously explode, then surely over the course of a couple of years, relationships between the two nations will become a little less friendly.

4) I can't think of a 4th.

5) In the Exchange screen, your political officer advises that there is an embargo in place. It would be awesome to know exactly what factions are embargoed (or have trade alliances) at this stage. That way if the embargo is against Steel Song, you just feel compelled to trade weapons and stuff.

That's about it from my musings.

Oh ... and don't get me wrong, I do like Steel Song ... so much so that I try and spread their ship pieces all across the quadrant. It's like seeding the galaxy in the hopes that little Steel Song seedlings will spring up (in the vacuum of space).

[oldalchemist]

How about a shortcut to the "conflict" screen at the top of the Exchange filtered just for embargoes and trade wars? It is annoying to back out all the way to Status, Galaxy, Conflicts, and then have to scroll around looking for trade embargoes.

I'm pretty sure the conflicts aren't just a continuum of embargo< trade war< spy war< assassin war< solar war. I think some should be more inclusive than others. Trade Wars ought to also include an embargo, but embargoes need not also be open season on faction merchants. Solar Wars should penalize you for trading with warring factions. War of Assasins is a stand-alone thing.

[slayernz]

Having a conflict screen at the top of the exchange would be awesome.
Come to think of it, having your political adviser also let you know what the ramifications of attacking a ship in space could be useful too. There's a number of times where I thought taking out a Thalun merchant smuggler was okay, only to find that they snuck in an alliance with one of my friendly factions.

[Kelvin Zero]

It would make sense if the captain of the ship you were considering attacking could say "Hi, our factions are allies now, right? How about we part ways like friendly folk? Yay alliances? Please don't shoot me?"

[slayernz]

Depends on how fast they say "Please don't shoot me". My poorly paid crew tend to have itchy trigger fingers and have a great passion for looting.

[Cory Trese]

LOL slayernz

Right now conflicts do event on a schedule -- so Trade Wars are more likely to end up as Solar Wars than a Trade Alliance. I could probably do a LOT more here to make it smarter and seem more fluid -- especially in terms of the story.

"The Cadar/Rychart Trade Alliance has grown into a true Solar Alliance and De Valtos fears the return of the UTF. They are more likely to seek an alliance with Thulun or Javat at this time."

[oldalchemist]

I think a lot of this should be available in the form of a report from your political officer. I don't mean a toast. I think you ought to be able to make your officers give you a report from the Officer Screen about the things they are in charge of.

Political officers should be able to give you insight behind your recent actions (Last ten faction affecting actions?) and current political situations.

First Mates should be able to tell you what's chapping the crew and select resources to consume (like vudka, plants, spice, or luxury rations.)

Mechanical Officers should be able to rate recent dock repairs, fuel usage, and consume metal or crystal to attempt repairs (She can fix sail and hull damage sometimes when underway, why not stop in space or orbit and let her try?)

Scouts should be able to convert chemicals and plant to food or fuel. On a planet, they should give you detailed survival rate estimates for harvesting and exploring.

I'm not sure what military officers should tell you, but I'd like them to pop up with a toast before combat suggesting your odds of surviving the encounter. Maybe suggest close or distance combat?

[spike]

The missing item #4:

Conflict change toasts could be a bit more informative than "Galactic Peace shattered". There is enough room on that toaster for a short form message like "Rychart and Thulun enter War of Assassins" or "De Valtos - Steel Song Trade Embargo Ends". For more info, you can still navigate your way to Status - Galaxy - Conflicts.

[exl]

First, this game is pretty awesome. Thanks!

It would be nice if the conflicts/alliances could be grouped. possibly by type of conflict so it's easier to determine if the action you are considering has repercussions. This is helpful since, depending on one's class or current objective(s), you care more about certain conflicts than others.


I also second the dating of the conflicts, but more useful would be a toast telling me a conflict has ended so I know when to stop helping/harassing a particular faction. Something like "Faction A and Faction B have ended their [Conflict]."

[ehkamp]

loving idea #4!

[Cory Trese]

spike ehkamp the newest version should be posting these messages in Toasts.

exl I will investigate tracking the end of conflicts as well.

[HateSolstice]

I would seriously consider placing in cooldown periods between war/alliance changes.

Another part of this would be a way to track current events that actually affect the sudden change of heart within the politics. I mean, I realize this is a game, but even so it makes very little sense that 2 factions would be at war one minute, then suddenly a peaceful solar alliance, then spy wars, then trade alliance, then assassinations. I would personally like to see how things are shifting before the sudden "So-and-so have formed an alliance!" toast pops up.

With that said, I would think that there'd be more stability within the factions governments. You have the Syndicates and the Houses. It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense that Rychart would ally with Thulun and Javat and go to war with Cadar.

[Cory Trese]

HateSolstice but the Faction governments are less than 50 years old (AE) at the start, existing in the post-Narvidian waste and manage a collation of micro-states, houses and waring sub-Factions.

Perhaps an series of adjustments are in order for the Android version, but from a storyline and game world standpoint ... Faction Alliances are so much dust in the wind.

[HateSolstice]

That's a fair answer. That is something I had forgotten about.
I
I still think it makes sense to have a method of watching the moods of the various factions. Or perhaps gain updates whenever you visit the palace/spice hall, or at least from the politics officer. The toasts only appear after the fact.

[Cory Trese]

The toasts occur on the first turn in which the Conflict or Alliance is in effect. Not sure I understand how that is "after the fact" but I'd be happy to hear any suggestions on improving it.