I believe there is since there is no thread about it lets just disqus here.

So about unique features of spy faction, what do you guys want? this is the bucket list of mine.

Faction : 

just like hissho keii, umbral choir should have its unique currency. it is an ancient race that exist since the endless after all. if keii is got from war, this one should get it from exploration and obtaining information about other faction. the currency then used for stealing opponent FIDSI; hinder building of improvement ( making it longer than it should be) and research; sabotage (destroying random ship or improvement)

it should have a hive mind mentality, and do not have approval meter. 

new population need to be made, require strategic resource. the planet the would live is barren, ash. basically the planet no other faction would ever think of living, which then slowly terraformed into special planet ( like that unique planet that have ruin of endless underneath).

they only accept their own member, no other pop type but could specialize given that they have assimilate other race by kidnapping pop or replacing them. it would allow creation of pop with trait combination from other race which can be chosen manually by player.

special method of diplomacy by infiltration, sacrificing 1 pop to replace other faction pop. raising their favor toward us, minor or major faction.

Ship:

the ship would have not have much slot flexibility nor number making them rather weak overall but it would have special module only avaliable to their faction, cloaking and electronic warfare suite. 

cloaking allow ship to have always have the first strike in any battle. outside battle ship would need to activate it manually. at cost of movement speed but invinsible to other faction, unless we attack first cannot be seen.

electronic warfare suite disable or reduce certain type of weaponry accuracy depend on research and module type. higher research allow higher the chance of completely disabling, lower would just hinder accuracy

there will be also special infiltration module that to be put only on colonizer ship that allow replacing enemy population with ours, 1 ship 1 pop count. which then would allow special action like takeover of the planet if all the population is replaced or incite anarchy, lowering approval over time.

Keii ain't got s... on Essence :D
Still one of the hardest unique resources to play around early game :P
If only battle modules to extract Essence would have existed or It would be possible to extract Essence from pirates :O


About Choir. How about gaining UR - Unique Resource from exploration would be X amount and researching curiosities 2X or 1.5X.
But there also might be a problem. Endgame, where from you would gain UR if all map and curiosities are researched?
Maybe adding science research also adds that UR. My point is, it should be stable, do not wish to see another faction suffer like Vodyani do :P

I love how you think, but i dont think using resources would be right for them as far as lore. They are wraiths after all. I think they they should get population by killing things. Like trapping the dead spirits and making them part of their population. So very war like. So that can't be the case cause all the military factions are now made, so Idk. But I 100% believe they should have no approval just like the Harmony, always sitting at content. 

agree on that, my vision of the new spy faction is a a species so secretive, evolving past the need of physical body. they manage to survive the last great war by integrating everywhere, assimilating into whatever alien species they choose. since they have no physical body, they only get new pop by taking others. 

But here is the big question. I'm really excited to hear what you thunk because I like how you think. What is their faction story gonna be? Why are they now going to come out of hiding to play a role in the universe?

I do like the idea that their style of spying is they take over other people's bodies, being able to "meld" into them and such.

I feel another mechanic to them that would fit their playstyle is that you can't really see their systems or their influence border without having vision on that system or having ships adjecant/on the system. This wouldn't play much into very late game where influence borders touch, but can play a big part early and mid where nobody will know where you start or what systems you grab, giving you a surprise opportunity. It'd also make it so that vision and scouting plays a big role in combating Umbral Choir, cause without you may end up completely blind to their strategies, more so than other factions.

And to bud in on the story/lore, my thought is that they could play on the part of the Lost and Endless, that perhaps they allied with the Endless to get rid of the Lost, whether Endless knew it or not, that the Lost had the potential to wipe them out, after that they went into hiding, not seeing a reason to come forth since their civilization wasn't at risk. Then now, with the Lost potentially returning, they may be one of the factions who seeks to stop them.

To bring some choices into it, there could be sides of them that did regret siding with the Endless and might be questioning how big of a threat the Lost were and that them going into hiding was to hide away from the Endless infact if the Endless did find out about them, who'd started turning on them and they barely survived extinction, which can nicely play into why they start over. So you have a side where they might accept the Lost back, to atone for their sins of the past, or think the Lost are still a big threat that could wipe them out.

I do like the idea that their style of spying is they take over other people's bodies, being able to "meld" into them and such.

I feel another mechanic to them that would fit their playstyle is that you can't really see their systems or their influence border without having vision on that system or having ships adjecant/on the system. This wouldn't play much into very late game where influence borders touch, but can play a big part early and mid where nobody will know where you start or what systems you grab, giving you a surprise opportunity. It'd also make it so that vision and scouting plays a big role in combating Umbral Choir, cause without you may end up completely blind to their strategies, more so than other factions.

And to bud in on the story/lore, my thought is that they could play on the part of the Lost and Endless, that perhaps they allied with the Endless to get rid of the Lost, whether Endless knew it or not, that the Lost had the potential to wipe them out, after that they went into hiding, not seeing a reason to come forth since their civilization wasn't at risk. Then now, with the Lost potentially returning, they may be one of the factions who seeks to stop them.

To bring some choices into it, there could be sides of them that did regret siding with the Endless and might be questioning how big of a threat the Lost were and that them going into hiding was to hide away from the Endless infact if the Endless did find out about them, who'd started turning on them and they barely survived extinction, which can nicely play into why they start over. So you have a side where they might accept the Lost back, to atone for their sins of the past, or think the Lost are still a big threat that could wipe them out.

AFMeyer93 wrote:

But here is the big question. I'm really excited to hear what you thunk because I like how you think. What is their faction story gonna be? Why are they now going to come out of hiding to play a role in the universe?

my thought about the story is that they are generally a coward, they are the first one that know about the big threat that is lost, while other up in arm to fight them, they are preparing to run, prioritizing their own survival. thus why the decision to evolve past the need of physical body, why have capability to assimilate other being. all since they do not believe they could fight against the lost and win. thus why all their technological development is geared toward survival and escape.

of course, a very long time have passed since then, they have successfully integrate temselves to many species, there is no way to differentiate them with the native since the difference is not physical, after all they have no concept of physical body.

all of them forming secret communities that while separate in location, all connected through ethereal subspace allowing everyone to share info, even emotion. something similar to protoss khala. every single individual is part of the collective conciousness, nearly one with the only thing that can differentiate them with one another is the individual will.

but, after such a long time, the threat that is lost or something similar to it, is here. while still undetectable by other species, they know its there, since become a being of ether they could feel it even more. its coming ever closer, this time even stronger.

they know now, they cannot run anymore, there is no avenue of escape anymore. so they must fight. all to survive.

I kinda hope that they are less affraid of the Lost and more angry at them. What if the Lost helped design these creatures, or help them find their full potential. Why? For espionage of course. Having a minor civilization that can meld minds with other to find out their secrects and infiltrate their ranks, that would be useful. But as we all know, slaves don't always like being slaves (looking at the Craver choice). So with the resurgence of the Lost and their technology, the Umbral Choir seeks it for themselves to be stronger and better. Make the slavers the slaves IF they return.

This idea still gives room to either side of the Academy quest. Cause either you don't want the Lost back because they may defeat you and reenslave you, or bring them back to enslave them.

All of this is based of the thought that the Lost were bad guys. Maybe they were the good guys who tried to save the galaxy from the Old Races. The Endless and maybe even the Umbral Choir. What if the Lost are truely the good guys?

well for all we know the lost could be just another race that just want to survive, remember riftborn? as far as i remember there is no reason yet why there is a sudden breach of dimensional wall causing  a disaster to their universe causing them to escape toward endless universe. this could be the reason, either the lost is a really a big bad guy or just like the halo forerunner, facing an even greater threat (basically WH40K Daemon) that have a capability to puncture a dimentional wall and polute an entire riftborn universe and on its own merry way to pollute ours too, giving them no choice but to push the big reset button that would sterillize some big part of the universe, otherwise the thing would pollute the entire universe and kill all life. 

The endless might be polluted or just dont like that there is no other way than  to push the big reset button that would undoubtly kill them as the result. while their intention is noble, there is no other way to interpret their action as evil.