I'm not actually expecting this idea to be implemented into (the awesome) ES2 because it fundamentally changes everything about the game. Just giving this suggestion here because I don't know where else to put it, maybe an idea for a future game one day.


I've always been bothered by how static the 4x genre can get in the mid/lategame, everyone already knows what I'm talking about here. Real life history can have dramatic changes as societies are constantly shaken up or conquered, but after a 4x map has been filled with color, taking any huge part of that civilization away from the player can be frustrating and easily result in them quitting the game, while the player's color blob becomes ever larger, more cumbersome and unweildy, and each system becomes less and less important in the big picture.


Have you ever played the boardgame Smallworld? It's more of a king of the hill conquest game than a 4x game, but the concept is this:


-New civilizations are powerful, but your civilization gets weaker the longer it stays on the board

-You can choose at any point to abandon your original civilzation and take control of a new one (costs 1 turn). The old civilization becomes static and pretty much a pushover

-You still score for your abandoned civilization, on top of the one you're controlling


The player doesn't really suffer the pain of having their civilization wiped out as much, because they aren't controlling it anymore, but at the same time it gives room on the board for new civs to take over and get rid of old ones. The board is contstantly changing, players are constantly expanding, ending up on new places on the map and moving around, but they don't reach the point where they're bogged down going through a construction list for 15+ different settlements. So this is my suggestion for a future endless game:


-Slowly increasing empire decay percentage that weakens a player's civ in all aspects (representing corruption, complacency, a lack of innovation, etc), but a scoring bonus for "holding on" for a long time while still doing well. (Probably should scratch that last idea, since it would encourage players to just sit and wait to get attacked. Removing the bonus means players will be proactive and WANT to start a new civ once their old one becomes lethargic and slow to increase in power/score.)

-At any point when the player feels they are about to get run over they can score their civ and abandon it to an AI player, which cashes in their points based on how impressive their civilization was while they start anew with an offshoot civilization. The offshoot is smaller but has strong bonuses in all aspects that give them an ability to expand outward, even into already established factions. Examples:

---Colony - Start somewhere else on the map with a huge economic bonus

---Split off - Take a significant piece of your existing empire with you and refresh your decay, but you can't take over the other half you left behind

---Inspiration - Create a new civilization that takes cultural inspiration from your old one, plus a few of their own ideas (extra technology bonuses, which are larger if you are further behind on research)

---Independence - Become one of your minor factions and gain huge approval bonuses

---Revolution - Break off with one of your systems with large political differences from the ruling party and gain huge influence/political bonuses

---Migration - Start elsewhere with part of your old empire's dust and military

---etc

-Players still keep all their researched techs when restarting to keep that feeling of game progression. Techs don't contribute to your score but give more higher-scoring opportunities as the game goes on.

-Players should probably keep the bonuses of the major faction they started out with, or otherwise have some way to keep a strong gameplay identity throughout the course of the match.

-Abandoned civs should be passive. There should be accessible ways to take over any civilization's territory with diplomacy, culture, or economics rather than having to go to war with them. It should be significantly easier to take over another player's territory in general, no player should be able to go through an entire game with only 1 civ and never being forced to change at some point. Perhaps each player uses 2-4 different civs over the course of each match.

-A player's civilization line wins after reaching a certain score threshold with their old civs + current civ, or surpassing the 2nd place player's score by a certain percentage (to prevent dragging out decided games). Or maybe there's a way to create a more exciting victory condition? Not sure.