Is there a rough date for us to expect the Espionage Faction ? The Ship-Design contest is ending in a week and I think I read somewhere that you guys are currently deciding on a name out of the current top 3 names from the community contest, so does that mean that the faction is beginning to be flushed out, is already flushed out with exceptions for the name and ships, or is somewhere in between with things such as the Lore and Quests (just examples) done but game mechanics and such aren't ?

Basically is the faction a few months away from being finished or will we see them, for example, in June ? 

Also, when will the next Update (roughly) be ?

quotes creds to Gandalf Veltaros the Grey Archivist 

Yeah man, I'm stoked for the new faction but I really wanna know when they're released 

It's a secret so don't tell anybody else, but... they're not the focus of our next expansion.

Frogsquadron wrote:

It's a secret so don't tell anybody else, but... they're not the focus of our next expansion.

Ohh, this changes my expectations somewhat!

I can't believe you snuck out an expansion announcement like this!  More details when?!

Frogsquadron wrote:

It's a secret so don't tell anybody else, but... they're not the focus of our next expansion.

Woah, well I look forward to the next expansion ! Mind dropping hints on what it might be ;)

I'm really curious to know what the next expansion brings then. If it's not espionage, then maybe System Defense Platforms? Grand menaces? Endgame crises? 

DON'T DO THIS TO ME FROGSQUADRON I CANNOT HANLDE MORE ANTICIPATION

**Performs 500 consecutive jumping jacks to blow off steam"

Don't forget, there's a lore-check coming as well, for the tech tree at some point.

twimpix wrote:

Don't forget, there's a lore-check coming as well, for the tech tree at some point.

Right, but that's unlikely to be the focus of an expansion.

The main focus could be the marketplace. Espionage has synergy with trading resources & prices. Maybe we get to trade ship parts blueprint now? 

Frogsquadron wrote:

It's a secret so don't tell anybody else, but... they're not the focus of our next expansion.

Hmm... not the focus... that doesn't mean the faction won't be in the expansion, just that the focus is elsewhere...

I take it that Froggie will release excruciatingly tiny bits of information until we're all tearing our hair out... as usual!  Then release it when we least expect it!

Imho, I want it when it's ready, not before.  Too many developers release stuff too early.

Would be great if the combat system would be the focus.

I think that is the component in most need for adjustments.

I'm more interested in the background story,

I hope we don't get a reused battleship galactica and terminator story. 

Lol, would be cool however if you'd take a bit from fallout 4 and the synths.

A parasit AI machine that was created for population control. Overtook the minds of minor races and so managed to get only lava guys on lava planets and ice wirms on arctic planets while extinquishing the other races on the planet. Then however a computer virus crippled their civilization and send the machine race to sleep. Their creators infrastructure then broke down however, because the virus killed every AI and their creators race faced a long gruesome death from starvation.

After millions of years, a pirate named Bruce found the ancient ruins of the civilization and reactivated the alpha series of the machine race who then took control of his body, stole his ship and drove to his home planet where cool steam punk pirates live and mentally enslaved the poplation and the game starts.

hmm, this could be a plausible explanation for the spy trait, population control robots, their primary funnction. It would also allow this cool kidnap and replace feature.

Although I think I reused a bit the battlestar gactica story. Now to think about it the synths from fallout 4 seemed to be stolen from galactica as well.