Custom Faction Editor

Reposting this from the General Forums:

After leading the mob to inspire changes in the Contest system (through both positive and negative means), I'd like to move on to another big issue, the ES2 Custom Faction Editor.  Out of the many things we learned from the last Contest, one standout fact is that 100s of ES fans have very detailed ideas on what kind of faction they want to play as.  It was amazing to read through all the entries and see all the creativity going around.  Many people had put a lot of thought into their ideas.  Some have even been working for years to develop their preferred faction, like The Legion by Sovereign.  As customers and supporters of Amplitude and their games, we all deserve a try at incorporating our imagination into the Endless universe.  The editor in ES1 was ok, but ultimately was just slapping a few negatives and positives over the template of another faction.  With an improved Custom Faction Editor, we could all implement our cool designs.  It may seem like a lot of extra work for the devs, but it would certainly be an attractive feature that players would love, and give the game long term replay value.  

Here are some ideas I would like to see:

- Faction Affinity editor

- Faction-specific tech editor

- Tech Tree editor

- Hero editor

- Custom Picture editor to add your own drawings to the Faction/Heroes

- Ship editor that could use parts of ships from ES1/ES2 to make your own design (think the creature/ship editor from the game Spore)

- A way to save your custom faction and share it easily with friends on the G2G site here (yes this could be abused with customs pictures but perhaps screened by devs)

The ES2 Custom Faction Editor isn't finished yet, as far as we know, and the new features we want may already be planned.  Regardless, I encourage everyone to add their own suggestions or expand on mine.  Perhaps we can inspire the AmpliCrew to help give us all a chance to play our dream faction!

EDIT:  ValhallasAshes also posted in the Ideas forum here about similar requests for custom factions.  I'll also repost the replies from my first post here.  

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Previous Comment from lo_fabre:

I support your suggestion, and also to further motivate Amplitude and community:

• If they made a new DLC for it, I'll buy without hesitation.
• They can also make new contest to community:
  • One for affinities (probably most of us will recycle from faction contest, anyway there were lots of good stuff), and choose best 10 from that ones that are feasible.
  • One for traits, and choose 20 - 30 from that are feasible.

If thinking about SDK, please make it easy or with tutorials, most of us are not programmers..

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Previous comment from Hinin:

I totally agree with this idea : this would be a lot of work for Amplitude of course, but a more developed version of what was Forge of creation DLC for EL may be possible for ES2 if this game is successful enough (which I'm sure it will be).

Although, the main barrier will be the fact that factions in this game are unique in a lot of ways : they have unique pictures for different events, they have unique quests etc. As a consequence, a fully fleshed-out and bug-free faction created by the community would be the result of maybe dozens of hours of work (I think ways to permit cooperation between people in order to obtain more than three or four factions in the next years would be crucial).

Also, i have created a thread in order to continue the improvement of the different submissions of the major faction contest (part 1). If you're interested, please check it out : https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forum/76-creations/thread/20144-ideas-shouldn-t-be-forgotten-major-faction-contest-edition

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Previous Comment from Sovereign:

Some of the mentioned suggestion are of course a good bunch of work for the Devs but other wouldnt be that much in my opinion and could and should be implmented.

I think a faction affinity editor would be absolutly do able and would also add a enourmos amount of replayability especialy for those who do not want to bother to learn to create their own mod in order to play a faction with their own affinity. I moded Endless Space One to some extend too and I dare to claim

that creating an own fleshed out affinity is do able but not just with 2 clicks here and there. The more I am thinking about it the more I am convinced that the Devs would do themselfes the biggest favor by adding such a tool as it would something remarkable to the game.

I also think that an Hero editor would be completly do able.
And editing Techs and the Tech tree would be the cream on the cake.

A ship Editor would be the most awesome thing. But I could thing of also the greatest work and investment for the Devs though this could be sold as a DLC for itself.

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Previous Comment from carolean7:

Obviously, this is all a great idea. But I'm curious though how what you are describing is different from mods? I'm assuming modding is going to be implemented as it was in EL (correct me if I'm wrong).

As opposed to traits, which just tweak numbers, a faction affinity editor is something that would require modding, as it typically needs custom GUI elements and/or unique mechanics (which means special game code). If we take EL for instance, there is the Broken Lord's ability to buy population with dust, or the Roving Clan's ability to move cities.

Sure the devs could spend time coding up 10 or so additional custom affinities to be used by the custom faction editor, but this takes time, and I would rather they spend the time making completely fleshed-out faction with unique quests, lore, appearance, affinities, etc... And if we want our own ideas for faction affinities, well that is what modding is for, no?

The ability to customize appearance with custom ships and art and such would be baller for those interested.

That's just my 2 cents anyway.

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