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Custom Faction Editor

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8 years ago
Nov 17, 2016, 3:42:48 PM

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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Updated 9 days ago.
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Out of Vision

The OUT OF VISION status is given by the dev team to ideas that are not compatible with their vision of the game or technically not feasible.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

DEV The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

status updated 5 years ago

While we have added a number of traits that are not just bonuses and penalties to existing values, many of the individual features mentioned in this idea are not suitable for easy customization.

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7 years ago
Aug 16, 2017, 7:46:10 PM

In terms of what we already have as of now, I would like to be able to pick:


  • The visual look for the leader and population to be interchangable as well as being able to choose out of minor faction visual looks (e.g Having the faction leader image be a minor faction Hissho image , Having the faction population image as the Mavros popualtion image)
  • The starting hero independant of faction visual affinity and being able to choose from all academy heroes (e.g Having Kinete as a starting hero)
  • The visual looks for ships independant of faction visual affinity and being able to choose the look of each class of ship as well as being able to choose from pirate ships (E.g Having a UE colony ship, having a Vodyani exploration ship And having a pirate attack ship)
  • Being able to choose story independant of faction visual affinity (e.g Lumeris story with UE visual affinity)
  • Starting homeworld out of those available and also having it independant of visual affinty (e.g having Tchinomy as home planet for a custom faction)


Summary: I would like to be able to have a more in detail visual affinity editor as well as the option to choose out of the pre-existing ones

Updated 7 years ago.
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5 years ago
Jul 18, 2019, 11:45:06 AM

A full story campaign is probably still out of vision. The community scenarios are an initiative I started to offer something interesting to engage with to our community between content drops, but they are honestly hacked together using the modding tools.

I would love the ability to do more and put together proper stories or even campaigns in the game, but it's not going to happen.

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5 years ago
Jul 18, 2019, 11:40:31 AM

Well that would have been nice to know 2 years ago when this was set as "Nice to have."  It gave me home this would be something that could be added.  Its kinda funny my other idea was given an "Out of Vision" yet you guys are making very similar "Community Scenarios" now

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5 years ago
Jul 18, 2019, 8:48:37 AM

Sorry to disappoint. Unfortunately a lot of what you would like to customize just is not something that the architecture of the game supports easily customizing. For examples, the affinities are tied to AI behaviors, while ship models are complete prefabs in order to store turret placement and ensure proper animation. At least some of the points you suggest are accessible to modders, at least.

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Out of Vision

The OUT OF VISION status is given by the dev team to ideas that are not compatible with their vision of the game or technically not feasible.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

DEV The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

status updated 5 years ago

While we have added a number of traits that are not just bonuses and penalties to existing values, many of the individual features mentioned in this idea are not suitable for easy customization.

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7 years ago
Nov 30, 2017, 1:24:53 PM

Thanks for the reply!  Its nice to see this idea still getting votes.  Now that I own the game, I can see how the Custom Faction editor kinda took a step back from the editor in ES1.  It limits me to only 8 traits???  In ES1, I could pile on all the negative traits I wanted to make a really bad faction, both to give myself a fun challenge and also fight against.  8 traits makes it really hard to flesh out a faction idea.  I certainly hope Amplitude takes every suggestion in my initial post and all the ideas in the comments here and makes an amazing Custom Faction Editor in a future DLC.  After playing all the factions, all the quests, all the maps, multiplayer, and winning game after game on high difficulties, ES2 can start to be a bore.  Adding a Faction Editor (and maybe a map/story editor as suggested in my other Idea post) would give players someone new to experiment with, something to share with others, and add much more replayability and longevity to the game.

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7 years ago
Nov 29, 2017, 10:59:22 AM

This is the thing I miss most. I just love to create own factions/characters etc in games. :) 

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8 years ago
Nov 18, 2016, 2:34:06 PM

I like your ideas of new custom factions editor.

As I see you quoted one of my posts, let me suggest read this thread I made some time ago, which I think fits better with your idea.

Good luck, imo your idea summarizes well most of community request about custom faction editor.

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7 years ago
Jul 19, 2017, 2:04:40 PM

How about a Behavior editor, that defines how a Custom Faction would act?   Some sort of an AI adjuster that dictates what win condition the faction will pursue, if they are more offensive or defensive, how far they like to explore and expand, what kind of diplomacy they prefer, etc.  For example, say for some crazy reason I wanted to create a faction that only wanted a Science victory, was extremely defensive, did not explore or expand at all, and never replied to any diplomacy.  Sure that wouldnt be very productive, but it would be nice to be able to have the options to create such a faction.

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7 years ago
Jul 17, 2017, 5:42:25 PM

Just some ideas for the Faction editor.  Beyond including the main faction affinities and ways to modify the effects, perhaps add some unique premade affinity ideas the player could build a custom faction around.  Perhaps get some ideas from the 200+ entries in the faction contest?  It would be a nice way to honor the top finalists in the contest.  For example the WeatherKin affinity that gradually changes all planets owned into Ocean planets.  Or Sovereign's Legion affinity where the facion gains many bonuses from living on Asteroids.  Also you could maybe add a way to combine two affinities, for example combine Craver with Harmony ( I know Harmony is only ES1) and have a custom faction that not only destroys all dust but also depletes the planet as well.  But have this double affinity cost the player a lot in trait points.  

Updated 7 years ago.
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Nice to have

The NICE TO HAVE status is given by the dev team to ideas they would like to have in the game.

Dagart

DEV Dagart

status updated 7 years ago

The status of this idea has been changed to NICE TO HAVE as it we hope to implement it in our game.


we see what you mean, it is a good point. we have to look into it with our writers.

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8 years ago
Feb 18, 2017, 2:17:10 PM

Excellent idea!  With so many great ideas ignored in the poorly planned Player Faction contest, it would be great to finally see some custom factions living on unique homeworlds only our creative Amplitude fans could design.  Luckily some of the minor factions being introduced seem to thrive in strange locations, so we have that to look forward to until a better Faction Editor is hopefully implemented.

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8 years ago
Feb 17, 2017, 6:33:37 AM

I like this idea, and would like to go one further. Homeworld editing. What if I don't want to start off on a fancy Terran planet? What if I want my carefully crafted custom creation to be spawned from some foul pit of miasma on a toxic planet, and for them to *like* living on those planets, and to furthermore, be harmed by 'clean' places (things like Terran giving them major penalties, while stuff like aforementioned Toxic being very beneficial since it's 'home turf').  I feel like this would add an even greater variety of options to our creations, and that while it's true more isn't always better, this is a more that would be better. 

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8 years ago
Nov 22, 2016, 5:27:26 PM

For what it's worth, I would like this. That being said, it isn't actually necessary. The previous Endless Space allowed you to implement new races without being too hard, so I'd assume this one is likely similar.

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8 years ago
Nov 18, 2016, 5:00:52 PM

Ah very cool suggestions lo_fabre.  I originally posted my Editor ideas a few months ago in General, just reposted here to get some attention.  Hopefully any Devs that are interested can combine my ideas with your's, Hinin's, Sovereign's, carolean7's, Kareal's and ValhallasAshes' ideas, and come up with something that will add lots of additions to the basic Editor in ES1.  I know not all of our suggestions could be fully implemented, but it is obviously with the Faction Contest entries that lots of people would love a more in depth way to build a Custom Faction without having to learn modding.

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