Tech Tree Suggestions

[Kuikka]

I would love to see more "perks" or "techs" that really gives you a change but also something to take into account. Like SoGe's Wookie slaves, improved production speed at the cost of ship's durability. Below's just some ideas I would like to throw, not finished by any means I'm afraid.

New Republic:
Kucsidave suggested New Republic's senate and it's development - I would like to see how improving it also causes the political structure to became heavier and more bureaucratic as NR increases in power and influence. This was something that was quite clearly visible in the books, old leaders of the Alliance cursing the new "Empire" like organization. But what this debuff could be, is still a small problem... Slow decision making process --> slower structure building time/research (to simulate red tape)?

Imperial Remnants:

Council of Moffs - United Warlord Fleet - Gas chamber (Daala, anyone?)

With this I means how divided the remnants were, using their ships to their own benefits and not trusting others. I would like to see these as three equally powerful options, and has effect to play style. For example:

Council of Moffs: An Empire formed from the unified holdings of various Imperial Warlords who had ruled their own territories... the council appoints the Supreme Commander - who is unable to execute any large scale decisions without the council's consensus
+ Strong military
+ defence orientated
- supercap limited (kept as reserves/protection against rivals)
- slow and clumsy (?)

United Warlord Fleet: one leader unites the remnants
- middle form of these two

Gas chamber: Daala attempted to unify the Imperial warlords, but found little success. She executed them, then took command of their forces... Daala has no political motives

[Kuikka]

New Republic: Kucsidave suggested New Republic's senate and its development - I would like to see how improving it also causes the political structure to became heavier and more bureaucratic as NR increases in power and influence.
Imperial Remnants: Three equally powerful "doctrines", playstyles
Council of Moffs:
+ Strong military, defence orientated
- supercap limited (kept as reserves/protection against rivals), slow and clumsy (?)
United Warlord Fleet: one leader unites the remnants
- middle form of these two
Gas chamber:
+ Best ships unlocked, Assault orientated, Rebuilding the Empire
- Unrest in system, rebels, Huge political minus

Posting is really bugged, this cuts my posts in half no matter how I try to summarize... and remove the post above (my guest post)

[Kalo]

Thank you !

how broad are we running with the upgrades, are we just talking fleet? Because I play sins a lot, and the culture aspect as well as trade is more empire based. If this game is going to be a limited fight between warlords then hey fine fleet upgrades are the way to go. If we are talking about an entire empire through multiple eras then I think empire based upgrades should be the way to go. to that end I'd probably just hang mutually exclusive negatives on my upgrades to make it simply not viable to go for both, and go from there.

Though i do like the guild system it might be a bit to much Civ policy like.

Meo

I don't think we can do Eras the same way we did them in ICW. If you have any ideas, please post them. Just remember that we like really creative ideas that are more than just "I win" upgrades. One of the abilities that we suggested internally that I really liked (Maybe cause I suggested it lol) was an ability for Interdictors that allows them to pull fighters and smaller ships into it at the cost of dealing damage to the Ship as it happened. This is obviously a tech upgrade as well. Things like this that are creative and require creative usage are super smiled upon.

[kucsidave]

New Republic:
Kucsidave suggested New Republic's senate and it's development - I would like to see how improving it also causes the political structure to became heavier and more bureaucratic as NR increases in power and influence. This was something that was quite clearly visible in the books, old leaders of the Alliance cursing the new "Empire" like organization. But what this debuff could be, is still a small problem... Slow decision making process --> slower structure building time/research (to simulate red tape)?

Well it is a good idea i think.
That negative effect will really balance things, and thx for the support. I tought of it cuz of the books, so i am glad you gave the same example.
You just earned my approval

[exwarrior 2015]

Steady Supply of Warheads NR starfighters get a 5% 10% 15% increase to damage to capital ships or maybe lowering of reload time between volleys of warheads.

[Kuikka]

Imperial Remnants and/or the Empire of the Hand :

Anti-TRD (Trench Run Disease)
+ Lancers gain range/damage buff against starfighters

Explanation: It was not until the emergence of Grand Admiral Thrawn in 9 ABY that Lancer-class frigates were put to good use. Thrawn used the frigates in raiding missions against key New Republic worlds, slicing through starfighter-based defences

 Empire of the Hand :

Accepting xenos
+ more recruits --> fleet supply? More officers (capital slots)?
+ culture/happiness bonus
- negative sides? Slower recruitment/training (different races)?

Explanation: "As long as your world is a member of the Empire of the Hand, you're eligible to join into our ranks."

[kucsidave]

i think i just figured out how to make the era system!
well it's not perfect but tis is the only way...
trough research!
like with ir u research the "thrawn era" or a what it will be named at, and your fraction gots te bonuses the era brought to the fraction's life...
and by advancing to the next, makes loose the last era's bonuses but gives u new ones, witch makes you have to decide, that wich is better for you...
well the only problem is tat, they cannot be adjusted...
i mean the nr in Palleon era, the NR in Daala, and the ir is left behind in Thrawn...is not a good combo
but still better than nothin, i guess...
...or not?
treat it like just thinking aloud.

[kucsidave]

just thinking my prev. idea further: each "era tech" could have techs started from it, resembling the era, like for palpatine era (cuz he liked the "overpowered supertoys") a +10% build speed for SSDs and +5% shield strenght, but a -5% for normal frigates build speed and +5% cost increase for SSD.
for Daala since she "united" the Warlords(we all know how), maybe:
"Reunification"+5% build speed for VSDs and ISDs(kinda represent the captured warlord ships), but gives a 5% penalty for diplomacy.
And so...
What do ya think?

[Corey]

i think i just figured out how to make the era system!
well it's not perfect but tis is the only way...
trough research!

The thing is, we really don't want to do the era system, it doesn't work as well in a game like Sins, since it's above all a narrative tool; hell, if we remade ICW right now I'm not even sure that I'd use it there.. If we were gonna do it, we'd use the original way Ironclad was going to do the Rebel/loyalist system where research cuts off certain stuff. We can incorporate specific doctrines that are derived from different leaders, but we don't intend to recreate the era system as such.

[Kuikka]

I read the blog and some suggestions here, but could someone summarize what kind of tech tree suggestions you're expecting/hoping to see, and if there's an emphasis to certain sector (politics/military/economy etc)? Most of all, I would like to know what kind of suggestions are impossible to implement.

One impossible scenario (sigh!) for example would be having NPC faction for Imperial Remnants acting as "council" which gives missions to their appointed supreme commander, and by completing missions more powerful ships and resources gets unlocked.

[Corey]

Basically we're looking to get better ideas of what everyone thinks each faction is all about, and how that is best expressed through the tech tree. For example, the two techs in the news post about this emphasize that the Remnant is fine with a quantity over quality approach, and that they don't particularly value the individual lives of their personnel; mostly we're looking for techs where, to get somme bonus, you have to make a sacrifice somewhere else. These can be competing, too, to reflect different styles of leadership (Thrawn vs Daala for example), but that's less important. This can be political, military, economic, whatever; most likely the emphases will vary by faction

What we aren't really looking for is something generic like the basic Sins techs where it's just flat 15% increase to firing rate. We really only want to do that where it's necessary for the game to scale (which tends to be more on the economic side), or if it's something which ONLY that faction should be getting. When every faction gets a 15% boost to power, it's meaningless and just becomes an arms race that cancels itself out and takes away the need for players to make decisions. If you want to just say something like "I think factor x is important and should be reflected" that's helpful.

There's a lot of stuff that's possible, not missions though.

[kucsidave]

will the artifacts be presented in the game?
Cuz if yes it would be nice to see them represented as holocrons, cuz this is the basic "relics" of star wars.
Like a holocron that contains information from a better hiperdrive, or a better hull plating, or something like this.
Just got the idea, cuz i never really saw anithing talking about the artifacts.
And as an another question:
what will happen to materials, cuz star wars is mainly working with credits only.
the only game i know wich is not is the star wars battleground wich is pretty old...
and for the matters if you want to keep both resources i want to give as an idea to metal be replaced by durasteel.
as for the real tech tree, for defence the golans should get a "fighter bays" ability trough researc, wich would let em have 1-2 fighter squad in hangar, but would reduce the hull rating of the platform.

[Corey]

If you look at the UI screenshots, we've had metal as durasteel and crystal as tibanna gas for quite some time.

Also, I do like the idea of renaming artefacts to Holocrons, though we'd have to look more carefully at what we want to do with them (there are certain gameplay mechanics we can only do by co-opting the artefact system, so that would have to take priority if we went that route).

[Corey]

This thread now has all of the currently implemented Imperial techs, so that should also help with anyone who wants to comment on them or suggest new/different ones. We'll do the same with the Hand and New Republic when we're working on those, but at the moment we're just looking to finish the IR for the first alpha.

[Carnivore Jacques]

How about these:

Imperial Remnant:

Campaign Against the Warlords
Pillage the fiefdoms of the Deep Core! Lose X ships, get Y durasteel and a +Z% bonus to Allegiance on every Imperial world.
Spaarti Cylinders - Buy Ships
You've men to crew your ships, but not ships for your men to crew! Buy ships from thieves and privateers at a premium to correct the deficiency. Building any ship will cause a temporary price increase on subsequent ships, but it will finish building in half the time.
Spaarti Cylinders - Extort Ships
With stormtroopers on your side, nothing is out of reach. Intimidate or kill people who have ships. Building any ship will cause a -1% drop in Allegiance on every planet, but ships will build twice as fast.
Your Lack of Faith Disturbs Me
Enlist a Dark Jedi. Lose X ships to his search for powerful artefacts. If he survives, he returns to the known galaxy to wage war against the New Republic, destroying 2X in the process.

New Republic:

Diverse Crew
More and stranger beings join the Republic Navy every day, and said navy will accommodate them all. New Class ships are more expensive and their build time is increased to 110%/150%/200%. Culture spread is increased by 10% per level.
Divisive Policy
A controversial issue has left the Republic divided. 1/2/3 systems leave and become neutral, while the remaining systems get a 2%/5%/10% boost to Allegiance.
It's a trap!
Mon Calamari ships gain the Detect ability, which temporarily reveals all cloaked ships.
Lando Co.
Establish trade agreements with privately owned mines. Tibanna and Durasteel cost twice as many credits for you, but four times as much for all other players.

Empire of the Hand

Redundancy
Ship hulls do not regenerate, but ships remain fully operational until they're destroyed.
Unknown Threat
Something terrible lies beyond the galaxy. Rally the Unknown Regions against their common enemy. Gain population growth and allegiance, but lose ships and resource production.

[Rovert10]

A controversial issue has left the Republic divided. 1/2/3 systems leave and become neutral, while the remaining systems get a 2%/5%/10% boost to Allegiance.

Not possible

[Onikenshin]

Are you able to make a tech that if researched disabled other techs?

[Corey]

Unfortunately not.

[Onikenshin]

Oh darn. I was going to suggest a company of heroes kind of doctrine. Thrawn Pallaeon Daala. Each one giving you different benefits to fit their command style. Possible to create something such as a Thrawn line of techs giving you w/e. I believe you wanted suggestions that give you something but take something else away? Say you choose to upgrade the thrawn techs, the downside to taking it is it reduces the effects the others boost.
IE -
Pallaeon - More friendliness with your fellow empires but you are can't pacify regions as much with a significant reduction in that area whereas a Dalaa would great increase the rate you can pacifcy a planet while getting the friendliness towards other factions MEH!!

I really don't know any technical terms related to sins to help you decipher what in the world I am trying to say so hopefully you understand eh?

[Meo]

Sorry, I haven't been around in a while, but has conscription been mentioned ? a loss of XP for capital ships vs cheaper capital ships ?

Meo