Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Coming Soon] >> Distant Worlds 2 >> Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire - 10/14/2021 8:30:33 PM

thegreybetween

Posts: 3
Joined: 8/2/2021
Status: offline

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!

Post #: 1

RE: Xpac Idea - Civilian Empire - 10/14/2021 9:51:04 PM

Galaxy227

Posts: 142
Joined: 12/1/2020
Status: offline

Very interesting idea. I've brought up the idea of controlling single ships in more detail to Elliot before, opening my thoughts asking about the new single-ship camera modes added in DW2. He replied:

quote:

Yes, some of the camera modes are from the view of a single ship or base. Those views can be very pretty and allow you to experience the game in a different way. We could certainly go further with this in the future - who knows... :)

I'm sure if Elliot had all the time in the world, eventually single-ship mechanics would come around. Realistically, I can't imagine it being very high-priority though (or if I'd even want it to be). At most, I could see the player controlling "state" ships, but private ships would take a great deal of work to implement. Nonetheless, for the sake of the argument, if Elliot ever were to let us control private ships, I'd want it to be done similarly to how you describe. Give the player more control over the private sector altogether, expand internal politics, etc.

< Message edited by Galaxy227 -- 10/14/2021 9:52:04 PM >

(in reply to thegreybetween)

Post #: 2