0015213: New mechanic for "join existing Federation" - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0015213	The Last Federation	Suggestion		May 17, 2014 7:09 am	May 27, 2014 5:01 pm

Reporter	Ragwortshire	Assigned To	Chris_McElligottPark
Status	resolved	Resolution	fixed
Product Version	1.019 (Solar Wind)
Fixed in Version	1.023 (Uprisings)

Summary	0015213: New mechanic for "join existing Federation"
Description	This suggestion is intended to address the following issues: - The endgame grind for Influence and Credit if you want to invite races to the Federation instead of killing them. This is IMO a serious issue and can really ruin the late-game (see the related ticket 0015190). - The fact that currently, positive attitude is nearly always good and negative attitude is nearly always bad. This IMO makes the game too black-and-white and takes away from gameplay. It also makes the Boarine's damage relations ability, Denounce Other Race and basically all Burlust abilities near-useless. - Everything about the Federation seems to depend on the player - don't the current Federation races get a say? They are supposed to be the ones in charge... - Related to that, there are unrealistic situations (e.g., race joins Federation despite hating all the current members) which hurt immersion. First of all, this suggestion is not intended to apply to the Burlusts and Peltians. They already have their own cool, unique mechanics for joining the Federation. However, for them I suggest adding the following condition: - All existing Federation members must have at least 10 attitude towards the candidate race. If not, they will block them from joining. MODIFY "JOIN EXISTING FEDERATION" REQUIREMENTS: Current ones modified as follows: - Credit requirement drastically reduced - e.g., by 80%. Enough that you very rarely have to grind for it. - Influence requirement drastically reduced. In general, 0 influence should be enough for "easy" cases and 200 influence should be enough for all but the most ridiculous cases (like Thoraxians joining an Andor/Peltian Federation or something). - Just as now, the candidate race cannot be a member of another alliance. New requirements as follows: - All existing Federation members must have at least 10 attitude towards the candidate race. If not, they will block the candidate race from joining. - For the other requirements, the candidate race's "Reluctance" is calculated. This is equal to a base score for that race (high for Boarines, low for Skylaxians), minus the "extra" influence the player has over the requirement. Reluctance can never go below 0, and if the player is below the influence requirement then Reluctance is equal to Base Reluctance (this is important for the "Why you cannot do this" box). Thus, even though the influence requirement is lower than now, more influence is still helpful up to a certain point. For example, let's say we have: Evuck Base reluctance: 250, Evuck influence requirement to join: 50, Player influence with Evuck: 220. The player has 170 influence more than the requirement, so the Evucks' Reluctance score is 250 - 170 = 80. If the player had 300 or more Influence, the Evucks' reluctance would work out to be 0, making it much easier to get them to join. - The attitude of the candidate race towards each Federation race must be at least their average attitude towards non-Federation races, PLUS the candidate's Reluctance. Otherwise, the candidate race's vendetta against (or in a really peaceful solar system, lack of interest in) a Federation race blinds them to the benefits of joining. - The attitude of the candidate race towards each non-Federation race must be at most their average attitude towards Federation races, MINUS the candidate's Reluctance. Otherwise, the candidate race is too enamoured with a race outside the Federation to consider other possible allegiances. There is the question of what to put in the "Why you cannot do this right now" box for these conditions. I suggest: "The <Candidate Race> would much sooner associate with the races outside the Federation than with the <List of Federation races which fail the condition>. Either improve their Attitude towards the <List of Federation races which fail the condition>, damage their average Attitude to non-Federation races, or improve your influence with them by a total of <Difference> points. You may also use any combination of these approaches." The "improve your influence" part would be omitted if the Candidate Race's Recluctance is already 0. Similarly: "The <Candidate Race> would prefer to associate with the <List of non-Federation races which fail the condition>, rather than with you and the current Federation races. Either damage...", etc. MODIFY SKYLAXIANS "CONVINCE OTHER RACE TO JOIN" ABILITY: Basically, make it exactly the same as the new "Join Existing Federation" but with the following modifications: - In all of the calculations above, the candidate race's Attitude towards the Skylaxians is used in place of the Player's Influence with that race (so Influence has no impact). - The Skylaxians' Attitude towards the candidate race must be at least 90 (or they will not be willing to make the effort). I believe this system would feel a lot more natural while also requiring a bit more thought than "Okay, I'll grind Credit/Influence for an hour or so". It would make race Attitudes really matter for races other than the Skylaxians and whoever you choose to found the Federation. Andors Spread Love would still be helpful but no longer universally so, and Burlusts Spread Hate could actually help in certain circumstances. The Evuck, Peltian and Thoraxian spreading abilities would become more significant. Finally, while the system may seem complicated, the player can always improve his chances by one of three very simple options: get more influence with the candidate, make them like Federation races more, or make them like non-Federation races less. Since this mechanic symbolises a very complex process, I feel it should "seem" fairly complicated while still being accessible and understandable to the player.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	New

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
May 17, 2014 7:09 am	Ragwortshire	New Issue
May 17, 2014 7:09 am	Ragwortshire	Relationship added	related to 0015190
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Internal Weight	=> New
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Note Added: 0038353
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Status	new => resolved
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Fixed in Version	=> 1.023 (Uprisings)
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Resolution	open => fixed
May 27, 2014 5:01 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Assigned To	=> Chris_McElligottPark