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thegreybetween -> Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire (10/14/2021 8:30:33 PM)
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One of the things I've always loved about DWU is the many ways we can play it - Standard empire management, AI-assisted management focusing on specific areas, play as a pirate faction, full AI control and just follow a single exploration ship around, etc. I know that DW2 will be light on some of these modes at release, but there has been mention of bringing back some of these features in later expansions (pirate factions, etc).
An idea that I had for another potential way to play (via later expansion) is: What if we could choose to control the private sector rather than the state sector? This would open the doors to some very interesting new game play, including things like:
- Exploiting trade and resource opportunities both domestically and abroad
- Adapting to the shifting landscape of diplomatic relationships between our home empire and foreign powers
- The ability to follow a single trade/mining ship to exploit local opportunities, and enabling role play options for smugglers and such a la Firefly
- As the state requires various strategic resources, better control over mobilizing the internal trade engine to fill any shortfalls without the state needing to rely on external smuggling operations
- (Ideally) Improved internal political options to influence things like Empire leader elections, trade policies, and other factors that directly impact the civilian populace
- And so on
While DWU does a better job than many conquest-oriented empire builders to give players options to play less war-driven games, there really aren't many robust options in DW to focus on a very interesting non-military campaign. While I am very much looking forward to the Dev Diary on our DW2 Diplomacy options, I'm honestly not expecting it to enable much in the way of viable non-military victory paths. Which is fine, but frankly one of the only things that a game like Stellaris definitely manages to do better. I really hope to see more options along these lines grow out of DW2's expansion development, and something like the ability to run the Civilian side of things might be a great way to include this type of content in a way that still feels true to the DW "It's your universe, play your way!" vibe.
Anyway, food for thought. Keep up the great work, and I'm excited for the now-less-nebulous Q1 2022 release!
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