Expansion\DLC plans?

[Gaw]

Hello Devs

First things first - I want to say that i find your game truly interesting. I think that it really hits a sweet spot between accesibility and the depth of strategic possibilities; in my eyes that quality alone would be enough to outclass most space 4X's available on the market (and I played quite a few recently), so the fact that your game also oozes character through it's unique art style really elevates it to absolute top of the genre. I just love it.

Hence my question: Do you intend to expand the game even further by adding more major expansions in the future? I certainly hope so, because Legacies was great.I'm sure that a lot of your fans would be ecstatic to see more additional content (I, for one, would love to see introduction of more races, heroes/commanders and just a few additional bits of lore).

Thank you for fantastic game and all the work that went into it. Hope that 2019 will be a very creative and generally succesful year for you.

All the best,
Gaw

P.S. Sorry for bad syntax and gramatical erros - as you probably suspect by now, I am not a native speaker

[Arioch]

Thanks, Gaw. Actually, I wouldn't have guessed that you're not a native speaker.

Sven and I are currently working on a big patch that includes AI & diplomacy changes, and includes a victory screen (yes, finally). After that, our plans are not settled. We have some ideas for more DLC that I hope we can get to this year, but we'll have to see how things settle out.

[zolobolo]

includes a victory screen (yes, finally)

Yes, that would be great
Are you thinking race specific art a la Seven Kingdoms, statistics screen or something else?

Second the review but would advise caution for additional races: why I would love to see new races, please consider first that the current color palette does not seem to support many races on the same Galaxy: an alternate method of strategic map territory and fleet identification would need to be found as the colors quickly mass together. The marking of empire territory has helped a lot in this but its effects are limited and do not work if the colors are too similar

[Arioch]

Are you thinking race specific art a la Seven Kingdoms, statistics screen or something else?

The concept is to display a splash screen with a planet background and the existing emperor art, along with a graphs screen. Here is a mockup:

victory_screens2_graphs.jpg (422.17 KiB) Viewed 23361 times

[zolobolo]

Looks nice The statistics option is advantageous in that it can be applyed to any of the races and helps the player unwind after the game: checking the stats and quitting withouth the need to push on during a much less eventfull period of the game

It does need additional data collection - will this effect turn times?
I guess it is only a few metrics (7 * number of empires by the looks of it) that would need to be stored in a persistent storage during turn processing

Battle statistics could also be an option but would massively increase the amount of metrics to be stored and the freuency of it and would be difficult to present in an interesting manner - probably best to stick with empire wide metrics and only highlight mayor battles on the fleet graph (like in Age of Empires)

[Gaw]

Sven and I are currently working on a big patch that includes AI & diplomacy changes, and includes a victory screen (yes, finally). After that, our plans are not settled. We have some ideas for more DLC that I hope we can get to this year, but we'll have to see how things settle out.

Thanks for a quick response Arioch, really appreciate it!

Glad to hear that you'll be implementing victory screen soon - such little touches can go a long way when it comes to building a connection (so to speak) between a player and the game. And this one is indeed missed, since it's always good to have some kind of a closure at the end of a longer game session - so really happy about upcoming patch. After all, there can never be too much additions that add to game's personality or allow the player to feel invested in it.

Speaking of which: earlier I mentioned the idea of faction specific heroes: it was, of course, a wish made on a whim. I just feel that they could contribute a great deal to making the existing races even more unique and defined. I know, that it's one of those things that are "easier said than done", since it entails not only cosmetic additions to the game's esthetics and lore (which is no small task in itself, since it obviously requires producing a lot of new artwork and backstories), but also implementation of new mechanincs. I'm still relatively new to SiS, so it is perfectly possible that at some point, after geting a better grasp of all systems, I will understand that, form a mechanical standpoint, such a request is not entirely sensible
As of now, I think that appearence of hero characters could, perhaps, add another thick layer to games personality, and also a thinner, albeit interesting one, to it's strategic aspect. Don't get me wrong - i don't think, that such addition is strictly necessary or essential. I only think that it could be a nice extra, a bonus of sorts.

[Arioch]

"Officer" characters is a feature I'd really like to add, though it would be a fairly big chunk, because I'd like to have them be more integrated into gameplay than just generic stat buffs. Hopefully we'll get a chance to do that at some point.

[Gaw]

That would be really awesome! Fingers crossed for "officers project"!

[zolobolo]

I would suggest priorizing the new race built around terraformation mentioned a while back as it would:
- Neatly tie into the environment degradation mechnic after obsessive bombing
- Fit well with a new concept of super base and this new unit could not only spice up the race, but also the generic defense game around planets possibly lending itself to a rework of starbases and planetary defenses. By itself though any love for the starbase mechnic is a welcome change as the same two models and loadout is used for all races + siege exploit
- If the new race is defensive in nature, it could naturall rely on the new diplomacy changes to complement its above edge in starbases and thus the Phidi would not be the only kinda pacifist race on the map anymore
- Improvements to the terraformation mechnics would spice up late-game for all races and lend itself for further improvements of other late-game techs that are becoming increasingly important now that the games are encrouching ever more into this territory (thanks to updates to AI and diplomacy)

[username]

Are you thinking race specific art a la Seven Kingdoms, statistics screen or something else?

On the subject of race specific art, why does Heiropolin's back look suspiciously like Praetor Yunki's back? I reported this months ago and it apparently went without comment...

[nathanebht]

I would suggest priorizing the new race built around terraformation mentioned a while back as it would:
- Neatly tie into the environment degradation mechnic after obsessive bombing
- Fit well with a new concept of super base and this new unit could not only spice up the race, but also the generic defense game around planets possibly lending itself to a rework of starbases and planetary defenses. By itself though any love for the starbase mechnic is a welcome change as the same two models and loadout is used for all races + siege exploit
- If the new race is defensive in nature, it could naturall rely on the new diplomacy changes to complement its above edge in starbases and thus the Phidi would not be the only kinda pacifist race on the map anymore
- Improvements to the terraformation mechnics would spice up late-game for all races and lend itself for further improvements of other late-game techs that are becoming increasingly important now that the games are encrouching ever more into this territory (thanks to updates to AI and diplomacy)

Like the idea of a defensive new race. Perhaps flimsy, cheap offensive ships and effective, strong defenses for the new race. They have to be able to expand too. At least they should be able to expand in the early game.

Think a new race is more exciting than adding officers. But then we haven't heard anything about what the devs are considering for officers.

[Arioch]

The theme for the next DLC is already pretty set: it's the Gardeners (and aquatic bio-engineering faction) and a terraforming revamp. We just need to formalize the plans for actually getting it done.

Are you thinking race specific art a la Seven Kingdoms, statistics screen or something else?

On the subject of race specific art, why does Heiropolin's back look suspiciously like Praetor Yunki's back? I reported this months ago and it apparently went without comment...

I know about it; there still isn't an art asset for Hieropolin's back. I'll get around to it one of these days...

[nathanebht]

A new aquatic bio-engineering faction? Do they have squishy ships that grow bigger as they age?

What details can you provide on the terraforming revamp Arioch? Very curious what it will become.

[Arioch]

A new aquatic bio-engineering faction? Do they have squishy ships that grow bigger as they age?

The ships are mechanical, but some of the systems are bioengineered, and the race itself is bioengineered. They are terraforming specialists, their ideal target being the Coral World.

What details can you provide on the terraforming revamp Arioch? Very curious what it will become.

The main difference (keeping in mind that these are concepts and not final designs) is that instead of just switching from one planet type to another, there are multiple incremental stages, each of which has incremental benefits and also distinct graphical states.

[McCloy]

A new aquatic bio-engineering faction? Do they have squishy ships that grow bigger as they age?

The ships are mechanical, but some of the systems are bioengineered, and the race itself is bioengineered. They are terraforming specialists, their ideal target being the Coral World.

Sounds great. I was hoping there'd be a new race along the same lines, focusing on bio-tech. As to how they look, I hope they are drawn very alien. Let your imagination go crazy and a bit darker. I was thinking 'big worm things' with triangular lamprey maws, with no eyes but with unknown sensory organs. They have tentacle-like appendages. No legs.

The current look of the races are fun and I enjoy the cuteness and humour in the game, although my personal taste, whether in movies or space strategy games, is for really alien-looking aliens. They can still be cute, but also malevolent weeeird cute.

What details can you provide on the terraforming revamp Arioch? Very curious what it will become.

The main difference (keeping in mind that these are concepts and not final designs) is that instead of just switching from one planet type to another, there are multiple incremental stages, each of which has incremental benefits and also distinct graphical states.

That's good news about terraforming. It should be a long process to go from barren rock to garden, with many stages along the way. There should also be a "wet" route. For instance, an Iceball --> Glaciated --> Ocean --> Island --> Garden. And a " dry" route that ends up with Arid, Steppe, Garden, etc.

What about a new planet type called PRIMORDIAL? Basically a primordial planet would be like the Earth after its planetary formation. Somewhere in its first 750 million years. Storms. Lots of rock. Volcanoes. Earthquakes. Debris field. Many shallow water lakes. Some lava rivers. It's warm but cooling. Too much CO2, particulate, and water vapour in the atmosphere for us to breathe.