The Academy is supposed to be an important part of the game - quests are associated with it, including the massive late-game brawl that decides the fate of the galaxy; heroes are recruited through it, albeit slowly; and if an empire possesses the academy, they gain knowledge of heroes throughout the galaxy and additional experience for their own heroes. All of this seems right and good.


However, it still doesn't seem like enough. The Academy is found every game, and then ignored, because controlling it doesn't really matter and there is no way to interact with it anyways. The quests trigger on their own and I don't think that there is a way to influence how and when they trigger.


I propose that, at the very least, players gain the ability to interact diplomatically with the Academy in a manner similar to how they can interact with Pirates.


Specifically:

You can invest Dust and/or Influence in order to:

* speed up the rate at which the Academy gains experience (thus increasing the experience level of heroes recruited through the Academy). This improves your relations with the Academy.

* speed up the rate at which heroes are recruited (independent of the current events which increase hero acquisition). This improves your relations with the Academy.


You can also covertly sabotage the Academy, hindering both Academy experience gain and hero acquisition rates. This action costs Influence and does not impact your relations with the Academy.


Relations with the Academy would likely diminish slowly every turn, resting at a neutral point, and so to maintain positive relations an empire would have to invest occasionally to frequently.


At positive relations levels:

* Heroes are recruited somewhat faster and start with more experience.

* You can also complete quests for the Academy (similar to the "Assist" diplomatic option for minor factions) which provide useful and relevant rewards. This is a repeating feature but would likely have a turn-based cooldown so as to not be constantly active.

* You gain access to the "Smear Campaign" negative diplomatic option, which costs Dust & Influence and reduces your relation level with the Academy, targeting a rival empire and significantly harming their relations with the Academy.


At negative relations levels, hero recruitment would be slower than normal and heroes would start with less experience. An empire would have to invest in the Academy in order to raise their relations back to neutral or higher. At the lowest relations levels, hero recruitment through the Academy would be blocked.


If any readers have any suggestions they'd like to make, I'd love to hear them!