Hey everyone, I bought the game during the Alpha stages, but due to university assignments/exam prep, I never really got the chance to sit down and play. I've played for a couple hours now (only 6 so far, so keep that in mind when reading my suggestion, I'm just a rookie atm ), and I got an idea for a potential future fix.



I chose to play as the Sophons, and I had 3 other empires in my game: The Amoeba, Horatio and the Pilgrims. However, when I looked at my first pool of 3 heroes, among them I had a Sower, a Horatio and only one Sophon. This is before I had met any of the other Civilizations in my game as well, mind you.



So it seemed really odd from a lore perspective for me to be presented off the bat with only one hero of my own race, but one of a as-of-yet-undiscovered race, and another of a race that didn't even exist in my galaxy.



So my proposal for discussion/a possible future fix would be:



1) At the start of the game, your first 3 heroes should be from your own race. Give your people someone familiar to rally around, plus it makes sense, has you haven't established contact with anyone yet



2) As you discover new races, you unlock potential heroes from that race, and vice-versa



3) If you get into a war with another race, perhaps the game should prevent you hiring new heroes from that race, or maybe a minor penalty applies to any heroes you have already from them



4) Species that do not exist in your game cannot have heroes drawn into your pool



So what does everyone think? Would these be possible? DISCUSS!

I like all points except 3; a traitor as the leader of my fleet that crushes their home world feels very epic in my opinion.

Actually, that is a pretty awesome idea, didn't think of that! I read somewhere else that an Espionage system is in the pipeline, so this could certainly play into it well

first two suggestions



The war limitation might upset the balance of the game. Imagine if you had a Sophon pilot-commander and I have a Sophon pilot-commander of the same level, but I am Sophon and we are at war, OR we are both Sophon and both at war.



I haven't seen a Sophon pilot-commander, so limiting the hero pool to current ingame factions would limit the possibilities. Those aliens exist somewhere, just because they are not in one galaxy doesn't mean individuals couldn't have wondered in from another galaxy.

I like (for several reasons) the ability to have heroes of other races. Granted, that for some, it doesn't make sense fluff-wise.

Perhaps it should just be far more likely that each hero is from your own race... not a guarantee.

Moved to the design discussion as it is clearly marked as a discussion.

Restricting heroes to the player's race or other options have already been suggested.

I don't have a problem with heroes not being bound to factions.



Personally i imagine them to be more adventurers, rogues and soldiers of fortune, rather than super loyal ministers of their own race.

If they would be that nationalistic and racial-aware, they likely wouldn't have embarked on a long and ardous journey -to finally end up in your academy- anyway.



And for the other points:



Even when i'm playing a huge galaxy i don't imagine that i will have access to every single star system ever.

So if they are no Sowers (for example) as a major faction, i can still imagine their homeworld (or even a whole empire) being located somewhere between those billions of stars, but not in my reach.

Space is big, like really big, i think not even the Endless had constant knowledge of everything that happened on every single planet in existence.



The fact that some Xenos show up in your academy at turn one, yeah that's the toughest one to explain to myself.

But as i tend to see it, even if i haven't made contact with official representatives of a faction,some minor exchange may happen even before that.

Everyone got FTL drives from turn one (quite slow ones though), so a few individuals fond of travelling could certainly make it to my homeworld eventually, of course being viewed as an exotic foreigner, but one with quite a few interesting stories and abilities (which describes heroes quite well).





So in the end, i can see your points but lore can be bent, interpreted and explained in numerous ways, the only limit is our imagination, so it comes down to personal taste.

I'd have nothing against a "hero race bias" game option for RP reasons, but would be a tad sad if it was the only choice.

I agree with the above pole.The present hero system is not feesible for those who like some realism in game lore.

Please continue the discussion in the oldest thread: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11222-discussion-it-doesn-t-make-sense-that-you-can-hire-heroes-from-other-races