I'm starting to really like the game. Best 4x out in the past 5 years, and this is only pre-alpha? Seems good.



Something that I was thinking of:



I don't really like the races being all on even footing and a starting gun says GO and racing to dominate the galaxy one way or another, all using FIDS, all working to do something.



Theres a lot of races; they have different strategies, different ways of achieving goals, but at the end of the day, aren't most differences just cosmetic, or some minor change to the methods used when playing? This is the "problem" with all 4x games.



Notable exception here in ES, of course, is craver-- they have an overexploit phase where they get a whopping +25% everything, and after a century of possession that planet has -25% everything. This is so cool! Fundamentally different dynamic for the species. They can churn out ships-- but really only for that first 50 to 100 years-- come in, food up, convert to industry, pump ships, invade. If you draw a line in the sand and win, they will fizzle out. That is so awesome.



I think its not nearly enough. Craver should be a mobile species. You shouldn't be leaving more than a ghost population behind on the planets you've over exploited-- you should be carrying them forward and dumping them on new planets! A truly locustlike species grows the swarm and simply takes more planets, burning through civilization like an unstoppable forest fire. So cravers should get a tech that lets them put pop onto ships, and move them between systems. (if theres already a way to do this, oops, but I didn't think hiveships were able to do so.)



The other thing I think isn't enough, is that I feel that cravers should deterraform planets by their very presence. Jungle worlds would be the most valuable, which after some turns becomes terran, then arid, then desert, then barren. That would leave an obvious scar as their population departed from the rear and headed to the more lush terrain to the front. Edit: this would probably require a tech tree change just for craver-- instead of developing terraforming techs and opening new planet types, the cravers would develop techs that might let the planets last in each phase just a hair longer.



This strategy gives the cravers a fundamentally different economy than the other races-- once based on having the population moved to the lushest, most delicious planets; the cravers that hold on to their old territory are the cravers that are swept up by the other races.

Just some thoughts.

thiosk wrote:
I think its not nearly enough. Craver should be a mobile species. You shouldn't be leaving more than a ghost population behind on the planets you've over exploited-- you should be carrying them forward and dumping them on new planets! A truly locustlike species grows the swarm and simply takes more planets, burning through civilization like an unstoppable forest fire. So cravers should get a tech that lets them put pop onto ships, and move them between systems. (if theres already a way to do this, oops, but I didn't think hiveships were able to do so.)



The other thing I think isn't enough, is that I feel that cravers should deterraform planets by their very presence. Jungle worlds would be the most valuable, which after some turns becomes terran, then arid, then desert, then barren. That would leave an obvious scar as their population departed from the rear and headed to the more lush terrain to the front.

I think these are totally AWESOME ideas for the Cravers - I especially like the idea of devolving planets simply by their presence.

Amazing, but not exactly practical. Not yet at least. This would make the Cravers function completely differently from the other races, which, at their core, function in the same ways, and allow the player to derive playstyles from there.

Later on, if the other races begin to diverge and become even more unlike each other, then this would fit in well; but right now you're asking to make the Cravers be completely separate from the rest of the races.



I hope I explained myself well, or else this is probably just gibberish.

Nope! Thats exactly what I'm saying. And I agree it may be too soon.



I have more ideas for fundamentally different races as well. SPACE TREES