Hey guys, at the moment, I already played with all the current factions and I was about to try some custom factions.



Well, lets say the things as they are : the custom factions screen looks empty.



You have a really few choice, else making your faction Over-Powered or something quite similar to the current faction. I know this will be improved with more traits in the future but its really disapointing.



I would like to be able to choose the units compounding my army, I'd like to choose the icon which will represent my faction, I'd like to choose my banner, I'd like to choose the form of government I have, I'd like to choose WHAT IS MY EMPIRE...



Isnt it ENDLESS Legend after all ?

So many things we could do if only the Custom faction screen was a little bit improved.

And if Amplitude dont consider the idea, atleast I hope it will be easily moddable...



Am I the only one to think so down here ?



Well, in order to do so, here are my suggestions for a future Free add-on :



-Unit selection screen between minor/major factions with separated category and tiers (Tier 1, 2 and 3 units, Cavalry, Infantry, Ranged, Support and Flying)



-A large choice of Icons as an avatar of the faction (upload from computer system ?/image folder for Custom faction)



-Some banners to choose from



-A lot of more traits



-less expensive traits for more choice and real diversity



-something making your faction really different from the others (like a unique Passive traits for all your units..)



-other features



I'd like to hear the community

Choosing individual units would break aesthetics, and probably balance.



I do agree that custom banners / symbols (uploadable even?) would be great.



We also need a few more traits, and the current traits need a balance pass. Someone pointed out the the +1 industry/forest/summer is as expensive or even more than the +1 industry/tile with industry trait.



For my dream, I would like the devs to add in some custom affinities in an xpac / free addon, or a system to allow us to create a limited system of our own. Combo this with the ability to import 3d unit models, and we could truly create unique custom factions, not reworks of existing ones.

EcthelionHelm wrote:
Choosing individual units would break aesthetics, and probably balance.



I do agree that custom banners / symbols (uploadable even?) would be great.



We also need a few more traits, and the current traits need a balance pass. Someone pointed out the the +1 industry/forest/summer is as expensive or even more than the +1 industry/tile with industry trait.



For my dream, I would like the devs to add in some custom affinities in an xpac / free addon, or a system to allow us to create a limited system of our own. Combo this with the ability to import 3d unit models, and we could truly create unique custom factions, not reworks of existing ones.

Dream.. Yea !



I think they planned a easier way than ES to import new models, but not sure about it. This would be great.

Being able to pick from aesthetic changes would be pretty cool, and it would give options even ES wouldn't have. The ability to change banners, cities, and maybe units would be pretty unique. But I'd prefer just balancing out and getting more traits on the list first, aesthetics are cool, but I'm sure we'd all agree that substance over flair would be good first.



That being said, I do agree that some of them need to be balanced, comparing positive traits to positive traits, negative to negative, and positive to negative. Some of the numbers just seem off for what they actually give compared to others. I gave an example in my own thread with Spendthrifts to Dust Inefficient. Some might not agree, but it was just my opinion. I also suggested the use of "challenge traits". Give this place is more organized and gear toward suggesting and talking about this I'll just post the basics of it again here.



Challenge Traits- They could of added a very interesting twist to faction creation for those who would use them. You could let a player take on any negative trait for no benefit, increase negative affect for the same cost, or all the player to set how much worse the affect is. Beneficial traits for increased cost, and less beneficial effects, set increased rates or let the player decide as long as it is more costly then base value.



Unit Selection- As cool as it is, I think it may upset balance alot on some level, and how would proliferates make units? Would they make just more foragers, or would they make the starting unit you selected? On one hand you could have four unit types basically, which would mean you'd more or less have an answer to everything with infantry, support, ranged, Calvary, and or flying depending on selection. And on the other hand you could just spam Wildwalker rangers. And if that was combined with Cultist conversion gg endless free army from every village and your own units.



Overall I'd have to agree with lionhelm and the ability to make TRULY custom factions of our own in the game, that may be a bit much, but it'd be amazing. How it'd work in multiplayer I don't know, but it'd be cool either way. Maybe some of the one's we create will be officially added for others to easily used by others. Better yet, how but an "upload" custom faction option or a hub of sorts that shows the custom factions made by others so that you can select them, at the least rotating ten custom factions every month or so among submitted options at random.

Kingsguard wrote:


-Unit selection screen between minor/major factions with separated category and tiers (Tier 1, 2 and 3 units, Cavalry, Infantry, Ranged, Support and Flying)



-A large choice of Icons as an avatar of the faction (upload from computer system ?/image folder for Custom faction)



-Some banners to choose from



-A lot of more traits



-less expensive traits for more choice and real diversity



-something making your faction really different from the others (like a unique Passive traits for all your units..)

Great ideas here!

Here are my replies to the points shown above (in order):



1- I think it would only be balanced to choose units from major factions. And just like you said, they would be divided into tiers (Tier 1 are units available by default affinity, Tier 2 are units researched from Era 1, Tier 3 researched from Era 2).

This way it is possible to have say the Dekari Rangers from Tier 1 (Walkers affinity) + the Ryder from Tier 2 (Broken Lords) + the Proliferator from Tier 3 (Necrophages). So you can choose to fill in the unit tiers of your custom army with the tier-appropriate units.



2- I find it strange that PC 4X games don't allow us to upload OUR OWN avatars and banners, even though it should be a simple feature to have (I think). Definitely +1 for this



3- Upload your own Banner images from hard drive OR choose from available. Same as above. +1



4- More traits. Yes, deserves to be discussed in its own thread. +1



5- YES! Make some small traits with small effects that have small cost. Small scale traits allows for more choices. +1



6- Cool idea... but a little difficult. Modders ftw though



7- etc... (I think we covered all the basics so far)

A final addition might be to choose the "appearance" of your cities. So for example, I could make a faction with Drakken affinity but it has the building style of Roving Clans



Oh, and more factions colors plz!

My nickpick ties into Vargus' last point - the fact selecting a base faction leaves you with a lot similar to the original. What I mean is imagine you want to make a faction with dust focused population like the Broken lords - you'll have to look like them and have their cities and their music then, or if you want to play a once city challenge faction they'll have to be the cultists and have the cultist perks and main quest of the cultists.



I can understand why this is though, for example other factions don't have the visual work to have the cultists +1 borough upgrade on their one city perk, and wanting the main quest line of another faction but a different visual appearance would be silly with the art! But just to give us more freedom in custom faction perks like in Endless space would be fun I'd love to be the Cultists with the broken lords gold dependancy, or to play with a factions perks without looking like them.



Also I know its a ambitious, but is there a chance of customising the main heroes perks?

I've been playing around with custom factions as well. I found I like the broken lords as a faction but hated there cities. So I found that by making a custom broken lord faction in game and then going to my documents folder where the file is kept I could edit the file(affinity mapping section at the top) I changed it to the cultists city type so now I can play the game with the broken lords and have the cultist city

Visuals are very important in multiplayer for allowing players to quickly assess the strengths and weaknesses of an empire. If you see a broken lord city you know they're going to be focused on Dust in order to maintain growth, or if you see a Cultist city/unit you know they're not going to have more than one city.



Sure they might have other traits you're not expecting, but they'll always have the core identity matching that visual. And that's pretty important for quickly assessing. say, and army before you decide to get into combat with it on short notice.