Competitive research quest series.

This is the fifth, but distant relation, to a set of five related ideas.

The target locked quest string involving the Mavros Skunkworks got me interested in the idea of giving a third party entity in the galaxy the opportunity to hijack the scientific development of multiple empires.  There are two ways to implement this.  One is probably easier to do, but has limited counterplay options.  The second builds upon the notion of Unique system improvements that are visible on the galaxy map to give counterplay options.  I'll describe the unique version first.  Consider the following quest sequence.

1) Competitive Quest: A private research opportunity - part 1.  A well connected industrialist in your empire seeks an audience.  He has a project proposal that he claims will produce better research results than the current empire science effort.  He insists that some independence is necessary, however, to achieve optimal results.

1.1.0) Industry: Build a private research complex on one of your systems.  The system must not have any Unique improvements (Galaxy HQ, ERP, ITER, TCB, MoT).  The system must also not have a governor installed.  You do have some reservations about ceding control of your empire's research to a private enterprise.  Is this really a good idea?

1.1.1) System Improvement: Private Research Complex Construction (Can only be built once per empire.  Can not be built on the same system as the Galaxy HQ, ERP, ITER, TCB, or MoT.  System must not have a governor installed).  Note that while this item is in the production queue, 50% (can be tuned up or down for balance) of the system science production is converted to industry.  Note that the motivation for this is to allow the private research complex to be built on a science-heavy system instead of an industry-heavy system.

1.1.2) It's done.  The industrialist tells you that some unfortunate events are delaying the start of the project.  In the meantime, he offers the use of the facility to boost the science output of your system while the project spins up.

1.1.3) System Improvement: Private Reseach Complex Standby (Can only be built once per empire).  Effect: +50% science (can be tuned up or down or to a flat number for balance).

1.2.0) Science: Your empire scientists insist that empire research should firmly remain under empire control.  This will end your involvement on this part of the quest chain.

2) Competitive Quest: A private research opportunity - part 2.  Note that this part can be tuned to activate simultaneously once all the empires that chose to build the private research complex finish (equal starting time).  Is it possible for a competitive quest chain to be disjointed among participating empires?  If so, another option would be to have each individual empire proceed onto part 2 a fixed number of turns after they complete part 1.

2.1) Industry: The industrialist tells you that he's ready to begin.  The Private Research Complex will complete the first project once it has produced X units of private research.

2.1.1) System Improvement (Infinite): Private Research Complex Active (Can only be built once per empire).  Requires Private Research Complex to be built in the system.  Effect:  All the industry is consumed.  50% industry (can be tuned) converted into private research.  Science converted into private research (like Super Biofuel Factory does for food).

2.1.2) Reward Podium:

1st: Technology Y + 50% of X science (can be tuned) + Z dust/strategics/etc.

2nd: 75% of X science (can be tuned) + Z dust/strategics/etc.

3rd+: Science and/or dust refund based upon how many units of private research were accomplished.

2.2) In this manner, we are able to divert an individual system's worth of science and industry output to a quest objective.  I'm really excited about the kinds of quest strings people can come up with if this system is successful.

2.3) Note that the value of X can be set to match getting half of it back as science (to honor the industrialist's claim of being able to produce better results) and the research cost of Technology Y.  Technology Y can be just about anything.  It can be one of the existing ship modules or system/empire improvements that can be found in curiosities.  It would be nice to add new modules to the game this way.  My personal opinion is to pick from a list of available non-researched technologies that matches the current technology advancement of the galaxy.  Is the game engine able to use the omniscience levels of the various technologies to make a smart decision about what participating empires would consider an upgrade?  For example, if only one empire has researched tier 3 Basic Phased Beam and no one has researched tier 4 Advanced Positron Beam, can the game engine conclude that tier 3.5 Advanced Phase Beam is a good reward?  Should the reward be a vanilla (no strategics) module that is not researchable (like Basic MAGGIE Laser)?

3) Event: At least it wasn't a full leak.  After every participant is on part 2 of the quest, an event goes out to the entire galaxy (even for non-participants) that reveals the private research complexes are actually a front for the Mavros Skunkworks.  The locations of all the private research complexes are pings on the map that go away after the event clears (please fix the bug that makes quest pings stay forever ^_^).  The event should clear when the quest clears (is this possible?).

3.1) This now opens up counterplay options.  A player (or the AI) can mouse over the quest and see who is in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in private research progress.  With the pings available, they can try to attack that system and get their hands on an enemy's private research complex for themselves.  At the very least, they can blockade it to reduce the science output giving themselves an edge.

4) When an empire wins, you can hand out the rewards.  As noted in 2.1.2, the idea behind the reward balance is that an empire will gain back some fraction of the diverted science production back, but not 100%.  That way, empires that decided not to participate come out ahead.  However, for the 1st and 2nd place, the rewards should be tuned so that they come out ahead or break even.  Furthermore, to justify the inclusion of dust and strategics being in the mix, you can have the following.

4.1) Competitive Quest: A private research opportunity - epilogue.  The Mavros blow up the private research complexes and cover their tracks.  Your empire is able to recover some of the science and other resources from the ruins.

In any case, this has gotten pretty rambly.  I'll have to edit this some more, but I at least wanted to get it written down and in the idea system.

-HP